jim.snowdon

Tony,

I admire your persistence - ten of anything is trial enough, thirty must feel a bit like purgatory sometimes.

Happy Christmas,

Jim

It looks really good. I can't wait to see it's twin when Andrew brings it up to our next open Day (fingers crossed).

Jim

I shall be at Telford both days this year - helping out with transfers, photos and books on the HMRS stand, as usual - and I'd also like to meet up to put a few faces to names.  Maybe see you there.    David

I shall try and call by on the Saturday.

Jim

That rod and lever down the right hand side of the firebox operates a blowdown valve and was a BR addition.

Apart from that, it is nice to see someone else building the kit I designed, without any significant problems. I'll look forward to seeing Andrew's one running on our test track in due course, when we can put it next to the production prototype (the one that appeared in the MRJ article many issues ago).

Jim

Hello Jim,

 

as you like saying about instructions or what is not said in the instructions, are we to think that these parts were left off the instructions and the air pump was left out of the (new) kit?

 

OzzyO.

 

PS. rocks and greenhouses.

I only designed the kit; the soul who built the production prototype got to write the instructions on the principle that the designer is the one person who shouldn't write instructions - he knows how it goes together. That said, there are bits that got forgotten out of the instructions (although not vital bits). There was something of an update when the kits went ot Roxey, but I haven't seen the current version of the instructions.

Jim (donning hard hat)

I have all 3 WD's, my first was the Oakville a good few years ago. That kit has been through several owners and is buildable with a bit of work ( as Jim said in the instructions, 'it's not a kit where you rattle the box and produce and instant scale model'). I've not started the JLTRT one yet. It has some lost wax castings for the loco that are better than Snowhill, but the white metal castings are not as good as the Snowhill - and the resin boiler of course - if you don't want to roll a boiler. Swings and roundabouts.

 

A question for Jim -

 

parts 243, 244, 245 on the cab roof etch - I'm not sure what they are, maybe I missed them in the instructions somewhere. Could you advise?

 

Thanks

 

Tony

Tony,

They are the parts for the air pump bracket. Looking at the original GA drawing for the kit, 245 is the backplate that fits against the smokebox barrel, with the half etched side inwards. 243 is the mounting plate for the air pump - the top flange folds over and fits into the upper groove on the backplate, whilst the legs fold up and fit into the rebates on either side of the backplate. 244 is the lower stiffener - the flange folds over at 90 degrees and fits into the wide half-etch recess in the back of the pump mounting plate, whilst the other end fits the lower groove in the backplate.

Jim

Which particular MMP steam locomotive did you have in mind?

 

Let's have a look at some other 2-8-0s -

MOK Stanier 2-8-0 for £485,

Slaters GWR/BR 28xx 2-8-0 for £473

David Andrews GWR/BR 47xx 2-8-0 for £359

Martin Finney GWR/BR 47xx 2-8-0 for £422

DJH LMS/BR Jubilee 4-6-0 (no 2-8-0s listed!) for £540

 

£450 seems to be in the ball park.

 

BTW, the link above for the ex-Snowhill, now Roxey, Austerity 2-8-0 should be http://www.roxeymouldings.co.uk/product/686/7l18-wd-austerity-2-8-0/

The link in post #395 is for the 2-10-0.

 

Dave

And for accuracy, the Roxey/Snowhill 2-8-0 is listed at £415 - it is the 2-10-0 that is £450, and Dave will do the Slaters wheels for the former at a tad under £150.

Jim

David,

Of the three, the NMRS one is, I believe, the original Wagon & Carriage Works kit, having passed through several owners in the mean time. It was the many shortcomings of this kit that caused me to design the Snowhill one. I can't comment on the JLTRT one, having not built it (nor would I want to), but it did miss some opportunities with its resin boiler to do some things that I couldn't do, like properly recessing the safety valves and feed valve into the cladding. It doesn't have the offset in the front section of the coupling rods, which must make the clearances behind the crosshead questionable. It does have the correct wheelbase, but then getting the brake gear in between the oversize finescale wheels is much trickier (which is why the Snowhill (now Roxey) one is slightly longer, although only a purist with calibrated eyeballs would actually notice).

Regards,

Jim

Seeing the chassis units reminds me of the etching fault where the steam pipe castings fit. Somewhere along the way between the first and second sets of artwork, the half-etched recesses for the bottom ends of the steam pipes ended up being etched right through, thus removing any support for the castings. You will need to put a piece of scrap etch under the running boards before you finish off the smoke box saddle assembly. (For anyone building a 2-10-0, this problem was corrected.)

Regards,

Jim

Andreas,

From memory, I think it was just a case of centring the hornguides in the slots and checking that the axles were square to the frames when tacking the second hornguide in place. The fold-out tabs on the hornguide take care of getting the height right, so it is only a matter of judging when the guide is in the middle of the slot. Precise placement in the fore and aft direction is not too critical as there aren't any coupling rods to worry about, only the brake blocks, and I deliberately designed in a sensible clearance between these and the wheels so that absolute precisin is not a requirement.

Regards,

Jim

Hi Jeff,

 

that was what I was thinking of, these changes at the wheelbase. I wrote an e-mail to premier and I am waiting for an answer.

 

Sorry Tony for sidetracking your topic...

 

Cheers

Andreas

Andreas,

If the Premier rods are milled to the scale axle centre distances, they will not fit. In any case, the front section of the rods on both the 2-8-0 and the 2-10-0 is of a reduced section on the prototype in order to win clearance behind the crosshead. That is reproduced on the etched rods in the kit for exactly the same reasons, but not, as far as I am aware, on the milled rods produced by Premier.

Regards,

Jim

Hello Jim -

 

I'm still thinking about that one, I like to make the cylinders removable on my models and seem to have achieved it so far. I'll let you know what I come up with!

 

Regards

Tony

Tony,

I am trying to work out what you have done, which is, I think, to have left out part 162. As designed, the cylinders would have been removable, although I didn't intend it that way. The tab and screw method was simply a way of attaching them without the need for a non-prototypical frame stretcher right where the smokebox saddle would have been. I'll wait to see what you do some up with.

Jim

I spent yesterday fitting the brakes and making up the cylinders. The wrappers in the kit are 20thou brass and as I had to consign my exploding gas torch to the bin, I only had my plumbing torch to anneal them. So instead I made my own wrappers from 12thou brass, which is easy to form cold. I've been reading Geoff Holts book!

Tony,

How do you propose to secure the cylinders to the frames? I remember designing the assembly with a tab on the back face so that once they were hooked into position, they could be secured with a 10BA screw down through the folded in tab on the frames.

Jim

Jim, are you saying that you folded the horn guides up with the folds to the outside?

Ozzy -

No - the folds are with the half-etch to the inside as usual. What I meant was that I just folded them as far as they would go by hand, which was about 150 degrees, and then used a pair of pliers to finish the fold off to the full 180 degrees. Not terribly elegant, but it worked. It looks like Tony may have found a better way of doing it which I shall have to explore further when I start the next kit in my build queue.

Jim

Thanks Jim -

 

The frames are progressing well. I had a little difficulty with the hornguides, until I worked out I force the fold further out by using the edge of a ruler to control the bend. The majority of the bearings then just dropped in without  any fettling. The half etch tab is on the outside of the fold.

 

 

The frames - with one inverted. Brake fitting next.

Interesting - I never thought of bending them that way. I just folded them over and then squeezed the fold up with a pair of pliers.

Jim

Thanks Ozzy - I have the MRJ articles with all the back ground, I'll be using the rods in the kit..

The front section of the rods on the real thing was offset inwards to provide clearance behind the crosshead (it's not just modellers who have that problem). That feature is replicated in the rods in the kit, but not in any milled rods that I know of. The slight stretch in the coupled wheelbase (and the loco as a whole, so as to keep all the parts in the same relative position) is a consequence of the compromises brought about by overscale flanges and limits on the minimum dimensions for various etched parts.

Regards,

Jim