doilum

Personal choice, I have always used Xacto#2.I have multiple handles nd try to keep the freshest blade for best work, then as it blunts it gets relegated to other tasks.

Didnt see the tiny box labelled edit. Old eyes? Faint font? Or using a tablet? Never mind progress made. I suppose I should introduce this thread properly. Christmas 1962. My uncle shows up with a Triang trainset. Not quite brand new, but in excellent condition complete with bottles of oil and instructions. The box lid showed that father and son overseeing a layout containing most of the catalogue. The contents rather more modest with an oval of grey "standard" track, two suburban coaches and a black standard class 3 tank engine; 82004. Fast forward 55years and I still have a soft spot for this long lost toy. Having sold off my 0 gauge layout following a downsize, I have concentrated on coal board tank engines and bucket list projects. Then I see an advert for the Scorpio kit............

Silly question Can I edit from my tablet or do I need a proper PC and keyboard

Am I correct in continuing the thread by writing in the reply box?

Ok first error, that should be 82004. Many thanks for your patience Jeff.

Hopefully here we go!!

Thanks jeff, but I am still lost as how to start a new thread in my own name. I have found lots of help information but cannot find where to start. Just looking for an empty box to write in.

As promised I am going to start my own thread. Do I simply follow the " start a blog" instructions? Any other advice?

Will have a go on monday. Busy weekend. Pontefract show.

Me culpa. I am new to this method of storytelling. Perhaps when I get my head round the technology needed to upload photographs I can start a new thread.

Another good hour this morning. I have been looking at the smokebox front. I had already soldered up the wrapper and added handrail knobs. The instruction to "add smokebox door" and the parts provided, a white metal disc and a rather chunky door casting leave a bit of room for " metalworking skills and knowledge of the prototype" I have a large colour photo as inspiration on the bench and this reveals the challenge. The door is set almost, but not quite flush into a front plate, which in turn is almost flush into the smokebox wrapper. A close look a a good photo shows this clearly. Having considered severeral options I settled for fettelling the whitemetal disc until it was a perfect tight fit and tapping it down to create a recess deep enough to take the depth of the smoke box door. A ring of brass was cut from brass sheet. Lacking any clever equipment, the job was marked out with dividers, the centre drilled 1 mm and then taken to the pillar drill and opened out with a 25mm wood bit. This old bit didnt cut cleanly creating a rough dome shape. The dome was removed with the dremel cutting disc and amazingly left a concentric hole that could be gently opened up to take the smokebox door. The outer material was removed with scissors and then trimmed with the dremel until a perfect fit in the wrapper. This was then soldered in leaving the edge of the wrapper showing. The door was then slimmed down slightly on 40 grade emery cloth. Must confess I am "well pleased", just hope I havent exhausted this months allocation of luck!

Just a bit on the firebox. I am pleased with the way this has gone together. The white metal washout plugs went in the bin and I scratch built replacements before finding a set of turned brass ones that had been hiding in a drawer for twenty years. The kit doesnt give a lot of help in fixing the firebox. Photos clearly show the line of washout plugs just above the level of the tank. The "boiler" bands were trimmed back to set the level of the fire box and the boiler and smoke box sections trial fitted. Happy days? I think I will delay final assembly until the chassis is up and running. I have also part cut incisions in the back of the firebox and cab front in case that extra couple of millimetres are needed for the intended ABC gearbox.

A good couple of hours in the workshop. Front footplate section now soldered to the main superstructure. I took a few minutes to knock up a plywood platform to keep everything straight and level. Time now to trial fit the firebox. I had followed the scorpio instruction to remove a millimetre from each of the tank tops, another had to be removed in situ. I am more than happy with the result and inner tank sides will not be needed. If you dont have a dremel, time now to try and borrow one. This is not the kit for off grid modellers!

Agreed better than nothing. Both have all the critical dimensions in writing to check the model as it is assembled. For anyone who hasnt seen it, the RTCS book has a lot of the individual loco history and modification. Not quite as good as a volume of Yeadons register but still useful.

Picked up both books on amazon for less than 15 quid.

There are GA diagrams and critical dimensions in both Brian Haresnaps "Ivatt and Riddles locomotives" and the RTCS vol3 which covers the standard tank engine classes. Both will need rescaling. The Haresnap drawing is slightly larger and clearer, but the RTCS one has more detail and has a head on view. Both books have excellent photos of everything bar the cab interior!

Love the clamp idea. Help please. Can anyone point me at a photo of the cab interior, especially the firebox back plate. I have the RCTS vol3, which has a schematic layout of standard control layout, but would prefer a photo of the real thing.

I may have the answer to my own question. On google images there is a good rear view of 82005. The lamp brackets are all curved to the left, even those centrally mounted.

Another good morning. Having braced the gap between the tanks with a temporary strip of brass, I folded up the body sides. Top marks to the original draughtsman, it was like those models on the back of a cornflakes packet. Only a tiny adjustment to the floor section and everything is sat strong and square. I have decided to add all the steps,handrails and lampirons to the rear whilst it is still flat on the bench. The instruction drawings are not entirely clear, so can anyone advise me about which direction the lamp irons curve, and is the middle one curved also? I have found an excellent picture of 82041s82041in the september 2017 issue of steam railway magazine. Lots of clear detail of all the motion and plumbing on the nearside, but no rear view.

A successful hour. Trimmed back the tank tops having realised that they are not straight, but taper in two sections to match the profile of the firebox and boiler. Next step was to fold the tops back and solder up the tank fronts. The fronts bend easily giving the rounded edge of the prototype. I decided that this was a good time to fold up the cab doorways and add the handrails whilst everything is flat and accessible. Time now to quit whilst I am winning.

Having an hour or so with the scorpio bodywork. If our kits have a common parentage, this might be a heads up. Instruction 8) take body/cab (68) and trim one millimetre off the inner face of the tank to clear the firebox /boiler. Much easier to do neatly whilst still a flat sheet. There is no provision for inner sides to the tanks, so now might be a good time to make a pair in case the are needed later.

The "surplus" nickel silver cylinder ends on the main frame etch are 58mm overall and 46mm between centres.

Just had a chance to get back to the workshop. The scorpio brass etching gives an overall width of 60mm or about 8'7'' in old money. The cylinder centres are 49mm or 6'11''. Mocking up the motion brackets, they seem as if they will match the cylinder assemblies. This is all a bit hypothetical as I havent soldered up the frames as I await a birthday to cash in the IOU for wheels and pickups at Slaters. Meantime I shall look for some 25mm brass frame spacers to provide a temporary fixing via the plunger pickup holes before soldering up the chassis . Yesterday, I managed to punch the rivets on the cab sides and chopped out the bunker floor to clear a switch that will allow me to fit my first ever dcc chip for running on the club layout.

Looks like I will be binning the cylinder assembly I built at the weekend. The scorpio instructions lack a scale drawing and hint at a "make it fit" approach. What is the overall distance between the cylinder centres? Are the wrappers the correct width? I may be lucky. The scorpio kit uses parts from a brass etching leaving the ones on the nickel silver frame etch unused. Is this a correction?

Two sets of coupling rods? Thats the first step to scratch building a clone!