nickd

I had a little detour last week finishing this Broad Gauge loco. This week I'm back on the Stirling Single, and will be now until it's completed. I began by fitting up a Slater's SG29 motor, and testing the chassis under it's own power. Happily it went round a 6' radius curve with a little to spare. With the motor in place it seemed like a good time to install the eccentrics for the valve gear. There's just enough room to squeeze a pair of eccentrics and a locating pin between the sides of the SG29 gearbox and the horn blocks. I had some steel eccentrics machined a year or two ago and cleaned 4 of them up. Soldering them directly to the axle, obviously, wasn't an option. I opened up the axle holes in the eccentrics and soldered them onto a short length of brass tube with the same ID as a Slater's axle. I drilled a 0.6 mm hole through the brass tube, up against the outer eccentric, to accept a 0.6 mm driving pin. The assemblies were held in the correct position and the axle drilled, through the holes in the brass tube, to also accept the driving pin. The Stephenson Link motion was assembled from Laurie Griffin castings, and will be fitted up once some cast valve rod supports arrive. The next job was the brake gear. I had already made lots of the components, but could not assemble them until I had made the footplate, but specifically the cab steps. I had already made the footplate, see above. It appears that the Stirling Single brake shaft trunnions are part of the cab step backing plate. Who'd have thought! I made the cab steps and then an inner assembly, attached to the chassis, to support the brake parts. This is how it is arranged More brakes and a footplate to come soon.

I have to say these have come out well after paint by Paul Moore and weathering by Neil Podbery. I want one for myself now.........

Oh, I overlooked that. Although I did build a couple of GWR Queen class locos a while ago using this principle and they seemed to work OK. I'll test it out. Although as a loco builder, perhaps it isn't my problem if my customer has less than stellar track?

Oh, and this is roughly how I made the smokebox thingy.

I have been working on a couple of broad gauge locos, and today the owner turned up in Sheffield to collect them. He travelled all the way from Melbourne........bearing gifts! I put the coffee on and made some severe inroads into the Lamingtons, then got back to the Stirling Single. I began the work this week by making a selection of loco brake hardware. I pondered the drawing, and the parts, to decide how to attach them. The brake cross beam is between the cab steps. The cross beam bracket drops down from the chassis, and looks to be intigrated into the step backing plates. I thought it might be a better strategy to make the footplate and steps first. The etches contain basic parts to make the footplate in two halves. There is also a rather useful form jig for the footplate. Each half of the footplate was carefully bent round bars of varying diameters to form the correct profile and then the valence was soldered to it. These were connected together using the rear drag beam and fitted up to the chassis. Then I realised that the front of the footplate is attached to the smokebox/cylinder block. I made that too! It took a while to form the wrapper but was very satisfying to make! A well deserved break next week in the windy North Isles, but back on with it the week after. If you would like to see a live presentation of me installing axleboxes, and wheels, into a chassis and making it run (hopefully) why not tune into the GOG Virtual Show 2023 tomorrow. See you there.

thanks. I do my best....

It was chassis week. I decided that I would make the loco suspension work with rocking beams in the 4 mm/Martin Finney way. As you can see I marked out an approximate idea on the chassis with a Sharpie. My plan was to move the pivot point of the rocking beam much closer to the driving wheel. In this way more of the mass of the loco would be transferred to the driving wheel, and the loco will hopefully pull a train (unlike the real thing!) A fellow modeller had sent me an article from a Model Engineering magazine explaining how a 7'' gauge SS had been made to perform better by mucking about with the axle loadings. I don't have that much adjustment, but moving the pivot point of the rocking beam is in effect the same thing. I then thought it would be a better idea to let the thought develope while I made a front bogie. Adrian Rowland, who did the artwork for my etchings, didn't really know where I would put the frame stays for the loco chassis and front bogie. In truth neither did I! He thought that an etched strip that was the width of the stays would be a good aid. He was right, and the strip had half etched lines allowing me to snap lengths off as required. These could then be modified as needed. The front bogie stays were placed as in the GA of the real thing, and the unit has some simple compensation. The wiggly splashers were fitted to the bogie built from the thinner pair of splasher tops. In this way there is less of the splashers to clatter into the cylinders, slidebars and chassis. It is all a bit tight though. I moved back to the chassis and cut out the axle area for hornguides. I cut out stays for the rear of the chassis to represent the drag box, and stays at the front to represent the valve chest rear. All the stays in the chassis are 1 mm narrower than those in the bogie. This allows the rear of the bogie to move from side to side by +/- 0.5 mm. The front section of the chassis (from the rear of the valve chest forward) is tapered by 1 mm on each side, and a long stay was shaped to locate everything. This stay will have the bogie pivot in it. In this way the front of the bogie will move +/- 1.0 mm from side to side. You'll have to wait until next week to find if it is enough to go round a 6' rad curve. Here's some pics of what I did. I spent today fabricating the bottom of the firebox and ashpan, all from scratch. The stay that is in front of the firebox can't be included as it comes into conflict with the gearbox. Therefore the ashpan becomes the stay. I hope to get a rolling chassis tomorrow....

This week began by adding the beading that goes up the front of the tender, along the top of the flare all the way round, and down the front at the other side. Luckily the rear corners are slash cut, and not rounded, which makes the job a lot easier. The etch had some coal rails thereon that were added next. They were fixed in place using 1.4 mm rod, laid on the top of the flare, as a spacer. Half round brass was planted on the coal rail etch to match the bead round the flare. I modified a pair of Slater's buffers to be self contained, and added bolt details. They were attached to the rear buffer beam with some guard irons cut from scrap nickel silver sheet. A great big bag of castings and 3D prints turned up JIT. I revisited the tender chassis to finish the brake rigging and add some vac and water pipework details. The hand brake and water valve handles were added to the tender front and the buffers on the front drag beam. Some of the lamp irons were fitted. These were the ones with lining over the cloverleaf base. The outer and upper lamp irons lie over the lining on the rear of the tender and were left off. I had a discussion with the painter first to find the best way forward to paint the rear of the tender and therefore what to make detachable to facilitate this. You can see in this picture where I have lightly scored the position of the lining and drilled holes to locate the lamp iron castings. I fixed the tender top and division plate in place. The brief is to fill the tender with coal after paint, so I didn't bother making the coal space and then plating it over! Mick Davies 3D printed me a nice water filler to finish the tender top. He'll be making a tool box soon too! The last job was to assemble and fit the axleboxes and springs. I had alternative brass or 3D printed parts and elected to use the cast brass springs and hangers as they were much more sturdy than the 3D printed ones. I used 3D printed axleboxes though as they needed a slight modification to the rear. It's much easier to file away resin. Apart from the aforementioned water fillers and brake blocks all the castings came from Mike Hopkins at Scale-Factors. They are of the highest quality in brass and resin form. Mike has been developing a range of GNR parts for a while, and I lucked-out finding him at a show before I began the project. He had castings ready to go. So here's the finished tender waiting for me to build the loco. The vacuum pipe staunchion finishes short to avoid conflict with a Kadee coupler pocket to be added post paint.

Well spotted. You are right!

It's sometimes easy to look upon a tender as being an afterthought, and I seem to have only built one other loco with a tender recently. I think I fell down that rabbit hole. The tender is going to take a bit more time than I would have liked, but at least the etches are very good for this build, no mistakes so far except for ones of my own making. This brings me on to the castings for this project, most of which have been produced by Mike Hopkins at Scale-Factor and look very good. I noticed that the real tenders have an inner chassis rail running from end to end just behind the wheels, with the well of the water tank sitting just inside. Adrian Rowland at Northstar design, who produced the CAD for the etches, extended the inner chassis etch down a little to incorporate the sides of the water tank that are visible through the lightening holes in the tender chassis frames. I thought building a little extra detail between the frames, such as the water tank, would be a good way of disguising the 'O gauge' tender inner chassis and showcasing Mike's castings at the same time. First Mike pointed out that the drag beam I had made was wrong, and should be much shorter with a wooden plank between two plates. I built this, using a plastikard beam (at the request of the painter,) and shortened the inner chassis to suit. I also made a more detailled drag box using a left over 3D printed tender spring from a previous job that just happened to fit. I closed the water tank and made the vacuum reservoir/tank that is attached to the bottom of the water tank well. There were no etchings for the brake hangers, but there are parts for the pull rods. I made the hangers and got Mick Davies to print brake blocks. I'll complete the chassis and tender underframe when Mike's castings arrive. I moved on to build the tender body and the tender front. Not all of the tenders have the tool cabinet on the tender front so there are no etches for it. It is, however, quite an easy thing to scratchbuild. The flares are always quite tricky to form. There were thin, half etched, strips for the flares provided in the panel of etches. They were curved by laying them on a strip of old conveyor belting, placing a rod of the appropriate diameter on top and jumping on it. Attaching them to the tender in the correct orientation and height is tricky. I made a little jig so I could position the strips accurately on the tender sides. The last job was to make a tender top. I didn't bother making the coal space the correct shape, as the brief is to fill the tender with coal. More next week when the castings arrive from Mike. I seem to have Paul O'Grady and Lucy Mangan watching my every move.

Hi Chris, I always seem to default to 0.45 mm (18thou?) as it is thick enough for most parts of 7 mm models. I always cut things that require lots of shaping from 0.3 mm NS though as they are much easier to form accurately. Perhaps my rolling bars are too feeble!

Hi Chris, I only build in 7 mm. Nick

Hi John. I hadn't really thought about that, the etches were only done to save me lots of cutting out and therefore save my customer loads of money. They're not really designed to be a kit, there's no tabs or slots etc, but if anyone wants a set I can't see that being a problem. Let me build it first so we can see if the etches require any revisions. Nick

New project week, and this time it's a GNR Stirling single. I have commissioned some etchings to save time/money on the cutting out, and have made a start on the tender chassis. All well so far....... It'll make the above.

I'm going to call them done....for now. This week the locos gained (detachable for paint) handrails, holes for lubricators, cab floor and crew. There were a lot of behind the scenes stuff as well, like the addition of pick-ups. A week with lots of bit-sy jobs. I hope Mick D will be back from his trainspotting trip in the USA next week and can sort me out with some 3D printed chimneys, domes, smokebox doors and toolboxes. I also need some etched brass window frames. Fraser B is on holiday in Europe at the moment, so I'll have to wait until he gets home to the Southern Hemisphere to make me some brass safety valve plinths. I also discovered (thanks to Paul W) that YouChoos have some rather good upgraded speakers in their Lurve range that are very reasonably priced and much better than the Sugarcube speakers that come standard on ESU Loksound V5s. There are more pics here https://www.flickr.com/photos/144381574@N05/with/53206066479/

A lot of time was spent fixing the 3 elements of each boiler assembly together accurately and forming the brass finishing strips between each. To align the three components accurately I lay the firebox, on it's rear, on a flat bed. In my case its a block of aluminium, and the boiler is positioned on top of the firebox . A weight is put on top of the boiler, as it stands vertically on the firebox, to minimise movement. A square is placed close to the firebox sides and top to make sure the boiler sits squarely and centrally on the front of the firebox. If any adjustments need to be made, the faintest blob of solder can be diplomatically placed on one of the mating surfaces to make the boiler tilt. When satisfied with the position I tack the two elements together and move on to stacking the smokebox on top and repeating the process. This way the boiler doesn't wander off to one side of the loco when positioned on the footplate. The join between the smokebox and boiler has a brass ring round it. The ring is formed from a 1 x 1 mm length of square rod bent to form a circle (round a large diameter bit of steel bar) that fits nicely round the end of the boiler. This is radiused and slid up to the join with the smokebox. All is soldered up with low melt lead solder. The brass finishing piece between the firebox and boiler is similarly made out of 2 x 2 mm brass bar. It only really needs to be a horseshoe shape, as the bottom bit disappears behind the water tanks. It's roughed out with a saw and radiused, then soldered up against the front of the smokebox. It can be finished in position very carefully with a sanding disc, taking care not to scar the firebox wrapper. Boiler bands were added. It does take some time and care to get everything neat. The next job was the stay that sits on the tank tops and round the top of the boiler. The etches supplied were oh so close, but...... The model now has an inspection hatch in front of the smokebox and some finishing strips down the side of it. The 3D printed suspension springs for the front wheels were added. Lots of holes have been drilled to accept things that will be added post-paint, such as lubricators, and some balance pipes between the front bottom corners of the water tanks were made. The last job of the week was the ejector pipes running down the RHS of each boiler. They were a pig to get right! The pipe runs between the boiler and tank side then up to the cab front and is not a job to do on a friday afternoon. Should finish next week.

I found some C section brass that was exactly the right dimensions to attach to the etched cab steps and then solder to the underside of the footplate to give the effect in the photographs. Also I spent quite a while making the vacuum pipe that runs from end to end of the loco, with a connection on each buffer beam. I assume the loco has a steam brake and the vacuum brake is for the train. The swan neck parts are modified Laurie Griffin Castings, and the pipe is bent from 1.6 mm brass rod. All the elbows are made by slash cutting 1.8 mm OD (1.6 mm ID) thin walled tube at one end and cutting to length at the other with a scalpel. I push a 1.6 mm drill into the end of the tube and roll a scalpel over the tube to cut it. The drill prevents the tube from collapsing but it does blunt the scalpel blades quite quickly, which require re-sharpening with a slitting disc in a mini drill (or similar.) Each elbow has two lengths of slash cut tube. The swan-necks push onto the end of the end to end pipe and are detachable for paint. Also if you don't solder or glue them firmly on final assembly they simply rotate or drop off if bashed, preventing further damage. The P-clips are made from left-over bits of boiler bands, bent round a suitably sized drill. I scratchbuilt water filler lids and sandbox lids. The last week has been spent cutting out formers and wrappers for the firebox, smokebox and boiler. I had some hopes that the etchings provided would yeild some useful parts, but they are all in my scrap bin. Next job will be to connect them up and add the brass covers between boiler and somkebox and boiler and firebox.

Bang We could end the post there, but I actually did a lot of fabricating this week. I discovered that the etches I an using have their origins in 4 mm and as a tender version of the loco. The etches were blown-up to 7 mm, with a few modifications, and then this artwork was adapted to become the tank version. The 4 mm origin is evident in the design of the water tanks. There were no inner sections or splashers to the water tanks, and some assumptions had been made about the shape of the firebox which I thought weren't quite correct. I have to confess that I based my assumptions about the firebox on my previous Cambrian Rly Wrexham tank builds (https://www.gaugeoguild.com/xenforo/index.php?threads/nick-dunhills-workbench-cr-0-4-4t-wrexham-tanks.5456/) assuming that the boilers would be similar given they were built by the same builders, Sharp Stewart, at about the same time. The fireboxes are egg shaped, and not circular in profile (all will become apparent when I build them in a week or so.) This gave me a measurement that I could use for the overall width of the fireboxes and therefore the width of the water tanks. I mocked this up and it looked very similar to a photo I have, the gap between the inner front edge of the water tank and boiler looked about the same on model and photo. Of course the real loco would have had splashers built into the water tanks to clear the wheels, and there were no etches in the 'kit' for these. I set about fabrication them on a rainy saturday afternoon, hoping to get half a day off in lieu to ride my moto on the next sunny weekday. I didn't take many photos, but you can see the splashers and tank top and front in this photo. The void was filled with lead sheet and the inner panel cut to close the tanks. You don't see much of the splashers from the top, but if you turn the loco upside down the inner sections of the splashers are there. That was what I was hoping to achieve. In the next photo you can see the parts cut out for the portion of the tank inside the cab as mentioned in the previous post. And here they are assembled. And here's all that modified pipework and backhead fittings. The above photo shows the layout of all the backhead components. I thought I'd make the steps to end the week, they are a nice easy task to let myself gently into the weekend. However the etches had a multitude of inacuracies, and the half etched rebates on the underside of the footplate to locate the front steps was too far back. Lots of modifications were done..... In the foreground you can see the cab steps. Their backing plates turn in at the top and are mounted on a structure yet to be determined. The following pictures show how I engrave a fold line in a sheet of metal to get a crisp fold, in the way that etched kits work. This picture isn't very clear, but essentially I've scribed a line where the fold should be and soldered a straight bit of waste etch just below the line as a guide for the slitting disc. Then I run a slitting disc a few times along the guide until I have a groove deep enough to form a fold line. [/url] Then I folded up the step backing plate and attached the treads. Next time I'll have figured out why the step treads turn in and made something to achieve this.

Another week of joy and hard work in the Dunhill workshop has passed, and many podcasts listened to. As I alluded to in the last post, first call was to make new cab roofs. There were enough bits and pieces in the etches to add the strips that fit round the tops of the cab sides, front and rear, but the cab roof etch was now too narrow. I cut new ones from 0.3 mm nickel-silver and curved them to the correct profile. The undersides of the panels were heavily scored on the edges to allow the flip-up gutter to be formed. The folding puts a lot of rigidity into the roof panel, and the ribbing provides the rest. As you can see there's bits of extra ribbing at either end to locate the roof accurately, and so that it can be removed for paint, and later, admiration of the interior. There was an etching for a roof vent but I couldn't see one in any of my pics. Presumably not fitted to keeps the Welsh aqueous sunshine out! I let some bits of tube into the roof to locate the whistle, and added a whistle pull. Next was the backhead. I scratchbuilt backheads as I couldn't find any close in LGM and other ranges. It's a front with an overlay for the polished surround, and sides made from strip bent round the perimeter. The coyl oyls were scratchbuilt too. I then started adding all the castings to the backheads. The steam turret was scratchbuilt but most of the rest is from LGM, or left-overs from other builds. All the backhead fittings are made to be removable for painting. It was at this stage that the nice Mr Rhodes of this parish sent me a photo of no 44 that I hadn't seen. It showed that the water tanks extend up to the cab door and not the cab front as my info had suggested. Imagine the lip-biting and expletive swallowing that went on knowing that next week I'll have to modify the lot. Oh, and the firebox formers supplied are the very wrong shape, luckily I guessed that and didn't make the backhead the same pattern. Ying and yang, the universe will balance itself in the end, and nice Messrs Campbell and Stewart will still drone on in the background. Happy days!

Back on with the show this week. The first job was to attach all the beading to the cab sides. It goes round the top of the bunker, along the top of the water tanks and round the cab opening. The latter is very tricky as the handrail holes at the ends of the beading have to be centred on either side of the cab door. This will ensure that the cab handrails are evenly spaced. Luckily the beading strip for the cab opening was exactly the right length. I cut out new cab fronts, bunker rear and 3 parts to make each cab rear. The cab rear has a separate upper section, with the window holes, a bottom section, with the shovel plate and hatch, and a section in the middle to join the two. The middle section has a fold in it to match the shape in the picture I have of no 44. I soldered the cab front and lower rear to one of the cab sides, and attached the other side by standing the whole assembly on a flat surface to ensure everything was square. I then tacked this sub assembly to the footplate, and when happy it was centred and close enough to the rear of the footplate, soldered in place. The footplate was screwed to the chassis first to keep it flat. The bunker rear was cut from 0.25 mm thick sheet and was higher than needed to aid forming the curve. This was done round a suitable diamerer screwdriver and then it was offered up to the sides and cut to the required height. I layed beading across the back of the bunkers to meet the side pieces already attached to the cab/bunker sides. The coal rail stanchions were etched items provided, but had to be modified slightly to fit the corners, and were attached to the bunker tops. The coal rails were recovered from the tender coal rail etch from my ACE Kits NBR Atlantic build (https://www.gaugeoguild.com/xenforo/index.php?threads/nick-dunhills-workbench-scratchbuilding-a-nbr-reid-atlantic-from-an-ace-kit.9457/page-2) so at least another small part of the ghastly ACE kit has been useful. They were attached to the stanchions thus, using a strip of waste etch as a jig. Bunker finished, I moved on to the cab. Of course because I had widened the whole body the etched cab floor and splashers were the wrong size. I fabricated a new floor and splashers with the interior strengthening angle. The handrails for the cab were fitted up. I made tapered cab handrails from 0.9 mm nickel silver rod by spinning it in a mini drill and laying the spinning rod on a bit of wood. The rod quickly makes a groove in the wood that can be used to file a taper in the rod. I attached the wood to my bench with double sided tape to stop it wandering away when I was filing the rod. Ferrules were made, from thin walled tube, for the top and bottom of the handrails and the footplate drilled to accept the bottom of the handrails. In this way the handrails are detachable for paint. The grab rails for the cab sides also need to be removable for painting. To facilitate this I opened out the etched holes in the cabside to 1.0 mm and let into them some thin walled tube as detailed here; The hex end was on the inside, and 0.8 mm diameter nickel silver handrails were located through the bits of tube. In this way the handrails were a push fit in the cab sides and the inside looks like small nuts screwed over the ends of the handrail to locate them. See picture above. You can see in these photos how I installed the floors for the cab and all the internal splashers. There's also a representation of the tops of the chassis frames at the side of the splashers, and a well was made at the front of the cab floor to accept the backhead and pipework. Of course now I've widened the whole bodies the cab roof etches will be too narrow and I'll have to make new ones, and that will be my next task.

It looks on the surface as if I was a lazy arse last week, but I did a fair bit! I completed the sanding gear. I had no castings for the shoes in the sanding pipes, but I did cut up some sand pipe castings in the LGM range for the U-bends. I scratchbuilt the shoes out of thin walled tube. Each shoe was in 5 pieces plus the pipes themselves. You can see in the pictures that the front sand pipes have slightly different arrangements on each loco. The copper steam pipes extend from the shoe and disappear between the ashpan and frame on their journey to the control valve on the backhead. Very small p-clips were made from rivetted strip to locate the pipes on the sides of the frame. You can see part of my shopping list for Hobby Holidays in the foreground! The picture shows the way I have mounted the springs and hangers on rods attached to the keeper plates, or soldered directly to the bearings. The springs and hangers are very nice 3D prints from Mick Davies but are not very structural without support. Having (almost, pickups and motor to go) finished the chassis I turned to the bodies. I cut the etches for the cabs and bunkers and soldered the beading round the cab openings. The positions of the windows in the cab front and rear didn't look quite right. When compared with the drawings I have it it became clear that the cab front, and rear and bunker rear etchings were too narrow by 2.3 mm. So the only solution was to cut some more. I also added more cab side beading round the front and rear of the cab and the coal hole (coyl oyl as us northerners would say) on the cab rear/bunker front. They have all been cut out but I forgot to take pics and now I'm on 'holiday' in the North isles! Sorry

This week I have soldiered on with the chassis. They now have cylinder drain cocks and all the reach rodding and the brake trunnions and cylinders have been made and fitted. Some 3D printed sandboxes have been fitted and all the parts for the sand pipes cut out ready for monday. I made a start cutting out all the body panels and fitting some of the beading from round the cab openings. The etchings for the bodywork look good so hopefully I'll burn through the rest of the build quite quickly. Everything has been test fitted here, and happy to say that I have 2 very free running chassis and inside motion

So this week I made some crank axles and fitted up the inside motion. All worked well first time so I'm pleased with that. Next job was scratchbuilding fireboxes bottom and ashpans. These were installed in the chassis. New guard irons were cut out and installed, the front wheel splashers formed and fitted and some of the brake gear went on. Next week I should be able to finish the chassis and crack on with the bodies.

Recent events took priority over work for a couple of weeks but I'm back at the workbench, and my 6'' rule reappeared! I have been making the inside motion, primarily from a LGM kit, but a lot has had to be made by hand, I will explain. These locos have a very old style of Stephenson link motion with the expansion links between the slide bars and the lifting links attached to the bottom pivots if each expansion link. It is a similar layout as GWR broad gauge stuff. The LGM kits are designed for a more 'modern' layout of the system. Because of the constraints of Fine Scale the cylinder centres have to be closer together than would be prototypical. This is because the chassis is much narrower than the real thing. Therefore there isn't a lot of room for the expansion links, eccentric rods and lifting links. I used the eccentric rods and straps in the kits and made the rest. You can see in the last photo that I closed up the cylinders (the hole is to drop a chassis fixing screw into. There's a tube that makes the screw land in the hole.) Next week I will complete the lifting links and hopefully make crank axles. I should have working motion then I can refine the chassis a bit more.

Done. More pics when I get some decent ones taken. This loco is built from a Agenoria Kit with some upgrades and 3D prints to replace the rather tired castings in the kit.