Ruston

Bodywork. I have probably shown similar pictures before that show how I do this bit. I don't venture out of the industrial section of this forum very often so I don't know if anyone else uses a pantograph to cut parts. If they do then I expect there are proper ways of doing it that I don't follow because I'm lazy and a bodger. I did once buy a proper draughtsman's drawing table, with guides on wires and all that, so that I could learn to do proper drawings for all this stuff but it weighed a ton and only just fit in my van. I got it home and realised that I had nowhere to set it up, so it never made it out of the van. I made a profit on it though. ☺️ These rough drawings are made on a cheap, plastic A3-sized board with a detachable square. They are glued to Plastikard and then cut out and marked using the tools shown. The red paint is to highlight the holes so that I don't miss any when the patterns are on the machine. Drilling them in by hand, afterwards, would be a real PITA and some need to be precise, such as those that will be used with wire pegs to locate the tank end to the cab front. The crosshatched area on the cab pattern will need to be cut out of the finished part by hand. It has been kept in so that the same pattern can be used for the cab rear. Centres only for the rear windows will be put in later as these are lower and further inboard than the front windows. The open area on the front one is to clear the gearbox.

And another one.

I'm inclined to agree. I was trying to be a bit too clever and it didn't work. I won't be trying it again. With the 20 thou. overlays being all that would be supporting the weight of the loco (no bearings) I was worried that they could wear quickly so have reinforced the insides of the frames with extra layers of 1mm brass that now give more surface area for the axles to bear on. Probably not the best solution but it has added extra weight. I have made the two layers of running plate in the same way as I did for the previous Manning Wardle. You may now recognise it as being similar to the previous build. This is because it is another Manning Wardle 16-inch outside-cylindered special. W/n 1814, built 1913 for Walter Scott Ltd. who had a steel works in Hunslet and operated ironstone quarries in Lincolnshire.

A bit of shim didn't sort it. Two thin layers with simple axle holes, instead of slots for all that rocking beam nonsense, soldered to the outsides of the frames sorted it. That and a pair of home-made rigid rods. It now rolls very freely in both directions, so I may be able to get on with the rest of it. I'm glad that I didn't start faffing with complex suspension of split frames on the Hunslet. At least if things go wrong with one of my own frames I can make new parts but if I screw it up with a kit then it stays screwed up because they don't come with spare parts.

I'm not saying what it is yet but It rolls and the rocking beam suspension seems to work. One of the bearings isn't a perfect fit in its horns, so sometimes shifts rearward and causes everything to lock up in one direction. Hopefully a bit of shim will sort it. There's still plenty of scope for it to all go wrong yet.

Oops! I got side-tracked just a bit.

I think I can take those waste bits out of the footplate now. The frame has been soldered up using the supplied spacers, so there won't be any split chassis now. Or any compensation. Stick enough lead inside and it'll be reyt.

Things have slowed down with Blacker Lane as there isn't much left to do but I had a couple of friends over, last weekend, for a session. I have also added a Manning Wardle to the locomotive fleet and now some more internal users for the landsales train.

A quick weathering, just to take the plasticky finish off and they're starting to look good.

Cheers, Mike. That's decided it then. I'll build it all rigid and keep it simple. I made a start. I usually grease the screws for fear that they will get soldered up but I decided to live life on the edge and fit them dry. They've all unscrewed and none of the nuts have fallen off. Yet.

I think that's what I may do. It wouldn't be possible if I was to spring that axle but as the rods are designed to be built as one piece items I'm not going to bother with springing the centre axle. I'll just build the chassis as intended, cram the body full of weight and see how it goes. Or... Would compensation still work with the solid rods and could both outer axles rest on knife edges, or would that be too unstable?

The motor won't go under the cab. The cab floor will have to be altered so that the motor can go there but it won't be seen from normal viewing angles. To be honest, it's only because I've got that gearbox made up as it is. I'll have a root around and see what else I've got that could fit without faffing with the floor. I'm thinking that the speaker can go between the frame plates at one end and the decoder and SA at the other. The large areas under the bonnets can be kept free to stuff full of lead sheet.

I said something about building something easy. 50-ton Hunslet diesel-hydraulic. Judith Edge kit. Already I've got an idea to put the motor somewhere other than intended but the three axles there were made for me by @5050 for a project that never really got going and are begging to be put to use, so I may as well use them here. They are made from something like 7 Gibson axles and are for use with a split chassis. That means I've already given myself one headache. I'd also like to spring the centre axle to compensate for my poor trackwork. Paxolin frame spacers, tape under the footplate and a layer of Plastikard on the insides of the buffer beams ought to insulate the frame sides from the body. I've only ever made one other split chassis loco before, so it'll all be a bit experimental. I've a feeling that it isn't going to be that easy. 🤔 The prototype that I want to build is HE 7410 that worked at British Oak and it is slightly different, cosmetically, to what the ordinarily builds into, so that's another bit of trouble that I've given myself. It has more handrails and a massive thick slab of a footplate, which the kit doesn't cater for. Brass strip soldered to the outside could be the answer.

I decided not to bother with any custom transfers and finished it using what I made to use on the Peckett. It certainly pulls well enough. I hooked on 18 21-tonners and it managed them up the 1 in 50, around the curve. It will never need to do that in any proper running situation as the FY can't take trains longer than 11 plus loco.

The Beast Of Blacker Lane emerges from its lair.