Yorkshire Square

Looks very nice Phil. You could have a bit of underground railway in there!

A little bit more progress. The buffer beams/vallance ends have been soldered on. These will need a bit more tidying up, but I'm generally pleased with the concept and execution. They have given the body a bit more hefty too which is always a good thing. Last night I made a start on the front splashers. This took a couple of goes; I initially thought I could cut the sides and the top out of one piece of 10 thou brass, bend the top over then tweak it round the curves. This proved impractical, so I made two sides only and these have been soldered into place. I will put a small cube of brass behind these, right at the front to give a solid base. I then intend to make the tops out of 5 thou brass. The brass cube will give a firm initial starting point for these. You will see that there is a slight discrepancy between the sides and the plate at the front. The sides are marginally high, so I will need to file these down a little.

It's always good to try something outside your comfort zone. I'd become aware in recent years that I wasn't really stretching myself and proprietary conversions and indeed a lot of kit building wasn't scratching a particular itch. The modelling I've done in the last three months has been substantially more satisfying than anything I've done in the previous three years. It won't be plain sailing, but the challenges are half of the fun. Sometimes easier isn't better.

The point rodding is very effective, Tim. Hope you all have a good show!

Well I had to finally admit defeat today and give in... ... I just had to tidy up the modelling desk! It was getting so that I couldn't find the tool I wanted, or when I put a piece of work down it was subsumed in a mound of dross. Anyway, with that bit of housekeeping out of the way, time to do a bit more on the F3. First up I cut and fitted some smokebox wrappers. These were fabricated from two pieces of 5 thou brass, one 0.5mm wider than the other to give the stepped effect onto the boiler. I then cut and fitted the boiler/splasher fronts. This is 15 thou N/S. Whilst it is soldered to the boiler. It is not affixed to the footplate so it and the boiler can still be removed as required: You might also like this rear view I took at the same time which illustrates the distinctive step between the cab side and the tank: I have also made a start on the buffer beams for which I first needed by Black and Decker Workmate. No, I've not gone Gauge 3 or anything silly. However I had been musing the buffer beam and the shaping of the vallance down to meet them. To this end I decided to make the whole lot out of a piece of 3x3mm brass bar. As I only had 3x10mm bar I had to improvise: This is actually the first attempt. I am now on the third, mainly due to botched filing and a failure to measure correctly on the second try. On the current go, I drilled holes for buffers first and also a vertical hole which I have tapped 14BA to affix the coupling. Eventually! Once filed to the correct size, I filed a small step on each end, the wider bit being the buffer beam, the narrower the vallance. The vallance bit was then filed at an angle to represent the shape of the same:

Thanks for the kind comments guys. Much as I enjoy putting a good etched kit together, I must say that I really am having a great time cutting, fretting and filing bits of metal. And of course I'll have something pretty unique at the end of it.

Work this morning, play time this afternoon!. Onwards with the loco, I decided to tackle the tanks. These are tight to the boiler with the end plates being profiled around the same. They also have a roll top and are slightly wider than the cab. Where to start? I made the decision to make the two tanks as a box which once soldered to the chassis could have "stretchers" fretted away to leave a tank on each side. This would give me a fighting chance of getting it somewhere near square. First up I cut the sides and bent the tops over. I made two "half-etch" scores 0.5mm apart where the top of the side was wanted and then, in the vice, just levered the top over with the edge of a rule. Ends were marked up; the front one would have a partial hole, the back one just literally two strips with a stretcher between them: Once fretted and filed out, the front end is a nice snug fit round the boiler: The four pieces were soldered together (not without some cussing) to form a nice box. The tops were filed back slightly at the inner edge and the boiler tube fitted neatly into the whole: Before I soldered the tanks to the chassis, I added the arc of tubing, as a locator for the back of the boiler, to the spectacle plate. This was probably the hardest bit today; I made three rings and the little blighters kept jumping into the Crack of Doom that is the study carpet. My preciousesss... Once fully soldered together, the boiler is a nice fit between the tanks and onto the spectacle plate. It isn't soldered yet, so i can remove it to access to the stretchers which still need to be cut:

Short layoff whilst I audited the annual accounts for the local churches. Back to the F3. Over the last week or so I manufactured a couple of spectacle plates for the cab front and back. These are 15 thou N/S. I attempted to drill some holes to accommodate the coal rails on the back plate; these are a bit rough, I snapped a drill bit drilling one of the lower holes and had to move its replacement slightly down. I'll have to disguise this with a bit of coal! The front spectacle has had its main section fretted away to give clearance for the rearmost driving wheels and the drive link from the motor to the worm. At this stage I have yet to cut a walloping big hole in the back plate to allow for the motor: The cab wrapper which I showed you in an earlier post was shaped as near as possible to the correct profile. Initial I clamped each side in the vice at 12mm from floor level and then formed the sharp curve by bending over a drill bit. The shallower curve was formed by carefully rolling a bit of dowelling on the inside of the roof resting on a cutting mat: Not surprisingly I failed to get the profile of the wrapper exactly the same as the spectacles, but when I was happy that they were near enough, I fired up the soldering iron. The spectacles, in turn, were tacked centre top and then I carefully worked out and down each side applying sufficient pressure to adjust the wrapper to the spectacle profile. I was pleased (and a little relieved!) that the wrapper turned out to be just the right length; I'd obviously done my sums and measuring right. However, as I'd further deformed the wrapper (albeit only by fractions of a mm) at its edges whilst soldering, the cab now had a slight pinch toward the base as the radius of the roof in the centre was different to the radius at the edges. Drawing on everything Pete Wright had taught me, I got out my biggest hammer... ... sorry, no, I tweaked it with a pair of flat nose pliers until there was some uniformity along the length of the cab roof. Finally the back of the bunker was solder into place: I have made a start on the boiler, cutting it to length and removing a section to accommodate the worm and other gubbins. I noticed on the Coal Tank thread where Nick Mitchell has soldered a locating arc onto the spectacle plate to locate the boiler. That looks like a cracking idea and I shall be pinching it for this build. The plate is already marked up with the centre and circumference of the boiler, so I shall just solder a slither of tube onto those markings.

Hi Valentin I'm using P/B frames for my H&BR F3 (LNER N13) although these are 0.5mm thick. Slightly thicker would be even better, I'd guess. I think, when you're scratchbuilding a chassis, it's easier to achieve in-line axleholes when you're not soldering bearings into frames. This is just my personal opinion. I'll be springing my chassis using the Simpson method too. Cheers Tony

Very nice! I think the building looks just right.

http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/65499-whats-on-your-2mm-work-bench/?p=2575684 Hi Ian, see the post above for the single shoe with support bracket. These are identical on the other side, but I believe some earlier wagons had one shoe on one side only. Precarious!

There you go! Southern cattle ready to roll. 2-370 now back in stock: Also available again, the means to move inanimate objects further north: Finally, some fiddly little bits back in stock: If you're awaiting any of these on back order, I've sent Paypal money requests out today. Keep an eye out!

Wow, that looks excellent! The brake extension is very effective and merges seamlessly with the actual truck. Very nice!

Tonight I have made a start on the footplate. A piece of 15thou nickel silver was marked out and cut. I did several double takes as the piece seemed way too long at 65mm, but no, the loco is 36' over buffers. So carry on! As with the cab, I drilled and fretted the holes in the footplate. Today I found some fret saw blades that I purchased from Eileens many years ago. Compared with the blades I've been using (Expo from one of the big tool stands at a show), they're a dream to work with. Once fretted, I soldered two lengths of square brass to the underside to represent the valance(?): This produced a nice stiff structure to enable me to butcher with abandon and square up the holes: The cross piece is where the cab doors are. I'll have to cut some of this back at some point, but I'd like to leave as much as possible.

Tonight I've been making the cab for the F3. As the cab has a roll top with no discernible lip to the roof, I decided to make both cab sides and the roof in one piece which I will then form to shape around the cab end profiles. Because this will involve a fair amount of bending/shaping on a small delicate item, I opted to make this from 10thou brass. I will use 15thou nickel silver for the cab ends and footplate. The tanks will probably be brass too as they have a roll top. So tonight we went from this: To this: I cut the piece to size using a stanley knife and then covered it with permanent marker. The various cut outs were scribed in using an industrial sewing needle. I have a drawing which equates to approx 6mm/ft (kindly supplied by Mick Nicholson) and this has been most useful in working out dimensions. I punched and drilled holes for the handrails and also, at a larger diameter, holes for the radii of the cab door/window and also where the bunker meets the back of the cab. Roughly cutting between these and the edges of the metal, I was then able to file to the scribe lines to achieve the end result. Having looked at the photo on screen, I think I need to square up the left hand window aperture slightly.

Wheels, wheels, wheels! 2-007 (shaken not stirred): and 2-022 (awaiting photo!) are now back in stock.

Thanks for that Mick. As well as the distinctive interlaced sleepers, I note that the point seems to have very long closure rails relative to the angle of the crossover. Oh and thank you for the F3 photos and diagrams which will be absolutely priceless for my scratch building of said loco. Cheers!

And you Davey. Are you posting your progress here about?

Yes, bad timing ot what? Although we are 25% of the way through already. I'm sure I'll find plenty to amuse me in the meantime!

With a few spare hours yesterday I made a start on the frames for the F3. I glued two strips of phosphor-bronze together with superglue and mounted these onto a piece of wood bolted to the drilling table. A couple of issues arose: While I was drilling holes for the brake gear the frames parted from each other. Obviously I'd not used enough superglue. Luckily with the axle holes drilled I could use the chassis assembly jig to realign the frames and reglue. Some of the smaller holes are now filled with glue, but should ream out fairly easily. Yellow arrow. I have drilled marker holes for the screws to fix the worm mount. Unfortunately the drill snapped, so I had to drill another hole slightly above it. Green arrow. The middle brake hanger is also quite near the shaft for the lay gears, so I'll need to be careful when soldering that up. As I have no wheels as yet (the set I thought I'd use were actually 8mm) nor any gears, I need to get an order into shop 3. Meantime, I'll fret out the shape and solder some PCB spacers in.

Yes I've used it a couple of times now and it really is nice. I think I need to attach it direct to the bench though as the base, which also includes the drill stand, occasionally slips under heavy horizontal pressure.

It is testament to the sterling work done by the various Association officers over the years that much of the Handbook is out of date or redundant. Other scale organisations may have great data sheets or publications, but our range of products and components takes some beating for quality and constructability. If the Association has produced one "bible" in recent years it must surely be the Track book, a publication embraced by many members and modellers in other scales alike.

The lights would be on and the curtains open on a dark autumn/winter/spring day...

That's the level of organised clutter I aspire to! Not sure about the tea though; looks a mite insipid...

I think my modelling is wonky enough with mixing alcohol and machine tools.