Mucky Duck

I listened to Kratwerk's Trans Europe Express album as a bit of background music and the first track is Europe Endless. The word 'Endless'

is repeated time and time agin during the track, which brought home just how long I've been spending on this project. I keep telling myself

that I'm nearly there but I always find something else… am I ready for the nuthouse?

Fuse wire was used for gravity feed pipes at the front of the smokebox and finer telephone wire made a crude finechain connecting the steam

heat pipe to the buffer beam.

What looks like inspection panels atop the cylinders on the prototype were modelled from the increasingly handy takeaway container and

'riveted' before glueing into place.

The atomiser for the superheater had to be moved and its pipe replaced. When trying to scalpel-off the 'teardrop' I broke it and it left a

massive scar too. Once again, there's some 'cleaning-up' to do here but I'm banking on the remains of the carnage being disguised

by weathering.

Whilst I was on a roll I decided that Hornby's original pipe leading from the boiler through the footplate on this side just looks too 'neat'

and the prototype has a flanged joint in any case.

Having no hooter included in my Brassmasters kit I tried a poor mans version of Tim Shackleton's lathe-turned solution from MRJ No.138.

I used a short handrail knob – as he did – glued a short piece of wire through it but kept the plastic covering for most of its length, thus

forming the body of the whistle, then cut a little opening into the top of it. Where there's a will, there's a way… it'll do for a temporary bodge.

As with most modellers without train set curves, I wanted to close the unsightly grand canyon between loco and tender. I just put a 'V' kink

into the drawbar – which should require just a light 'dink' with a hammer to lengthen it slightly if it's too close. This may well be another

temporary solution.

There are now a couple of lamp irons to replace, front and rear lamps to add along with the Hornby brake rigging and sandpipes…

and that really will be IT!!!

Let the weathering commence…

…I loathe Leeds, Liverpool and to a lesser degree (but coming up fast) citeh…

Meaning that finally, you must be considering them as a serious threat!

…the prospect of moving to City (even with their untold wealth) may well be tempered by the concerns of living close to Manchester and a lot of disgruntled fans…

I think the 30-plus so-called fans who gathered outside Rooney's house, wearing balaclavas and brandishing a 'Move to City and You're Dead!' banner were a tad more than disgruntled.

Stalker – Robert Rich & B. Lustmord… very dark and beautiful cinematic ambient

Hi,

The tear shaped object on the drivers side of the smokebox is the atomiser for the lubricators, you cannot see the superheaters on the outside of the loco…

 

As for a good book on the basics i would suggest either "How steam locomotives really work" by Semmens and Goldfinch or "Raising Steam, the design operation and driving of steam locomotives" by D Griffiths.

 

Hope this helps

 

Kind regards

 

Duncan

Duncan, I just re-read the Brassmasters instructions and the tear-shaped object is indeed described as the cover for the superheaters, so my speed-reading failed me there. Thank you so much for the book suggestions; I think either of the first two titles sounds good… the last one maybe a bit too technical for me right now.

Ah yes, the bit that Hornby dropped a bit of a b*ll*ck with. AFAIK, all locos built after the war have it in a lower position on the smokebox. It is moveable though and just needs a scalpel blade inserted under it to prise it off.

 

Best advice I can give is to check the instructions with the Brassmasters kit as I have a feeling it's mentioned where the change happens. Alternatively, the book on them by the same chaps (John Jennison etc) should have the requisite info.

 

Cheers,

Tim

I did it already, yesterday Tim, thanks – you make it sound… simples! After seeing the new prototype pic I referred immediately to Brassmasters' instructions where, of course, it is mentioned. I tried to remove it exactly as you did, with a scalpel but it was a right little tuff-nut so I had to drill it from the inside before the blessed thing would budge… and I still broke it! I'll post some more pics soon. Funnily enough, I ordered that John Jennison book – Locomotives in Detail Vol.2 – the other day!

I think I'm now seeing light at the end of the tunnel (and, hopefully it's not the headlights of an on-coming express). How straightforward my other conversions should be compared with this! As much as I've enjoyed doing this (mostly), it's been very time-consuming and I've seriously neglected my layout!

I think that's actually the steam heat pipe so if it does continue to get in the way it could be amputated at the valve and the loco could be represented quite accurately in Summer condition!

 

Very nice work by the way.

Thanks lonesome. Steam heat pipes, vacuum pipes, gravity lubricators, steam injectors… I really need a basic 'how a steam locomotive works'-type of book/document rather than simply copying and guessing what these things do!

Only yesterday I found a new pic of prototype 44890 and discovered that the teardrop-shaped 'blob' on the side of the smokebox is a 28-element superheater… and it's in the wrong place on the model.

Just when you thought a thread had gone deep enough...

You keep upping the stakes oh dirty feathered person - love it.

I'm going to have to devise a protocol for my "5's" after all this, its fascinating and enchanting to see an already decent model get so souped up. B)

Thank you, kind sir! This upgrade wouldn't have been nearly as thorough without the eagle eyes, shared knowledge and encouragement from fellow modellers… that's one of the main reasons for RMweb being head and shoulders above most others. Other fora/ums

Rooney to City

Is the world going mad? Wayne Rooney to Man City?!? I really hope not. Indisputably a great player – but he's in the worst form of his career, making ridiculous wage demands and he's in the media spotlight for the wrong reasons. A quote from related article, "Statistics demonstrate that neither Manchester United nor England would be much worse off had Wayne Rooney stayed at home. A player who used to excoriate team-mates for lack of industry (shades of Roy Keane) is now a passenger himself. By any objective definition Rooney has detached himself from the great collective effort that distinguishes Ferguson's teams."

Does the blue half of Manchester really need this? As things stand, the only plus would be winding-up the red half!

I hadn't heard about Malcolm Allison until I read this thread this morning. As someone who grew up through the Nicholson, Busby, Shankly, Clough, Allison and Robson era's, it was sad reading indeed.

 

I can still recall his swagger, cigar and Fedora. He always enjoyed the stick from the home fans when City were in town against Spurs. Another of football's characters gone.

 

RIP big Mal.

Yes, I'm with you there Gordon. Despite being born quite close to Main Road, I only became aware of, and interested in, football when I moved to north Manchester just about when Man City got promoted and with Joe Mercer and 'Big Mal' starting the 'golden era' with the likes of Colin Bell, Mike Summerbee and Franny Lee. Naturally, that was my most enjoyable footie-following period. Allison's passing is a sad loss but he had a good innings and certainly lived life to the max.

Naturally, despite today's lack of big characters, I'd love a repeat of my team's modest '60s success and amidst acrimony and controversy about the way it's now being achieved – and at the risk of getting ahead of myself – I'm daring to think that something could finally happen this season. Touching on earlier posts about some fans hating rival teams more than supporting their own, it's not in my nature, however my wish for Man City to win a trophy is almost matched by the desire to see that banner taken down at that football club's stadium in Salford. It says something about a club's menatlity to shout louder about the lack of success of it's neighbour than it's own very impressive achievements and it wouldn't surprise me that when Man City wins a trophy, another banner with a different but equally derogatory slant will replace it.

…which brings me on to Man Utd's biggest rival, Liverpool. Can this really be happening? I'm not a fan but Liverpool is part of top flight furniture and I can't imagine the Premiership without the club. Something has to happen very quickly before the downward spiral of players' confidence becomes permanent. Torres looks a shadow of his former-self… when he was firing on all cylinders, I thought he was the best striker in this country.

Makes a whopping great difference doesn't it

 

What gets me is that Hornby could have done it anyway and it wouldn't have caused much of an issue! I'll blame the CAD designer for this faux pas I think!

 

Giving me itchy feet now to finish off the two of mine part-way through this operation........

 

Cheers,

The more I delve, the more I think that Hornby should re-tool the Black 5. It's now seriously showing its age compared with recent Hornby products and with Bachmann's Jubilee, for instance!

Well, it just had to be done! I was reluctant to tackle this originally – I thought I'd gone too far with sticking on new bits – but after Tim's post

I reckoned that if someone else has taken the trouble to show that it can be done without major problems, then why not? I chain-drilled the

bulkhead panel as suggested, cut out fiddly corner bits with a scalpel and finished-off with files – and it's worked out OK even if I have taken

some chunks out of the frames and lost a lamp iron in the process!

Replacement bulkhead was shaped to the smokebox profile and slotted in. Underside view reveals exactly what Tim was referring to about

paring back the front of the securing nut retainer to allow correct seating of the new part.

Before painting, the white plasticard bulkhead really stands out like a sore thumb – but it also shows-off the steam pipe. The original Hornby

vacuum pipe was redundant and its right-angle kink was perfect for this job. With a coat of matt black and the sun high in the sky, a nice dark

shadow under the smokebox emphasises the new mod. The pipe is a bit too prominent and could have been moved back closer to the bulkhead

but it was worth doing this work. This will be one of the first tasks on the next one!

Sugar palm, thanks, your warning has been heeded… I've already bent the lower vacuum pipe several times! Can't say that I'm overly fond of

white metal bits.

Cheers Tim, always good to see how other modellers have tackled a similar project.

If it's that quick a job it may be worth me risking it… I can always glue back the accidentally pinged-off bits!

Hi MD,

 

Only just discovered this thread and it's got me hooked already. Looks like you've just persuaded me to do this to about 30 tenders........

 

Looking at one of the earlier posts I notice you've highlighted the lack of inset below the smokebox. If it's worth mentioning, I've done this to a few of mine (with the rest of the fleet to go) and it makes a huge difference. I'll add a photo of one of mine if you think it's worth showing.

 

Looking forward to more updates!

 

Cheers,

Tim

Thank you Tim. If you have any pics and info on how you did it, feel absolutely free to post it all here… or post a link to your thread if you have one. I've already received and appreciated valuable information from Larry (coachmann), Michael (cactustrain) and BR(W) amongst others and any more tips would be most welcome. At this stage I probably won't be attempting that particualr mod on this loco as I've already attached too many fragile bits. I'm not sure what else to modify – but I'm open to suggestions – and I'm also eager to get weathering to avoid boring the pants off anyone watching!

Relief! Not nearly as much work involved here as I had dreaded. The cylinders with the attached Brassmasters frame extensions simply

unscrewed in one unit from the chassis whilst the slidebars and rods slid out of the cylinder slots without fuss.

The rear of the frames and motion brackets had to be prized from the chassis and fared less well – one of them snapping, as shown – but not

a disaster by any means.

The cylinder/frame unit just slotted and screwed into the 'correct' replacement chassis, which has no vacuum pump operating arm but does

have riveted driving-wheel balance weights. Motion bracket still needs re-fitting in this photo.

It's only on close-up shots like this that I realise how crude and over-scale some of the Hornby motion is and how much better it could be.

I will not be going there though… apart from a couple of plates atop each cylinder that I've only recently noticed on the prototype, that's the

lot as far as detailing is concerned.

Hello, MD.

 

I've been following this excellent piece of work since the beginning, and I must thank you for sharing it with us. You will. though, remember to remove the vacuum pump operating arm from the left-hand crosshead, won't you? The pump and its paraphernalia were, of course, omitted from 1938 onwards, with previous batches being modified when shopped (although the pump will probably long since have given up the ghost).

 

Thanks again for sharing your experiences, your impressive skills and, not least, your dauntless perseverance!

 

Kind regards,

 

BR(W).

Useful information is just as highly appreciated as the kind comments that I've been receiving – and I've certainly learned much on this

project as a result – so, thank you for pointing that out to me, BR(W). Obviously, I still have much to learn about the Black 5 and when I

worked out, eventually, the culprit to which you referred (arrowed below), I realised that I had previously ignored it, assuming that the

chassis was correct for my prototype 44890. Not having a decent nearside image of this loco didn't help.

The trouble is that the vacuum pump operating arm isn't removable – it looks like it's part of the casting – so I think my best option is to

swap the chassis with one of my others and add the Brassmasters dummy frames, motion bracket and draincocks to the correct one!

It's a blessing in disguise, there are rivets on the driving wheel balance weights just about detectable on another photo of said prototype,

which I found recently and Brassmasters confirm that long-firebox engines ought to have these rivetted balance weights, which my

model's current chassis clearly does not… another oversight on my part!

Not exactly back to the drawing board but I certainly shan't be weathering the beast this weekend, as eagerly anticipated.

Quickie update…

Looking more like a 'proper engine' now, prior to being re-numbered – though you can't really see the mods too well I thought I'd stick these

pics in anyway. I wasn't exactly careful coating the new parts with matt black and the bufferbeam with gloss red (even got some on the wheel

treads, which I'll clean off) but it doesn't matter as this baby's in for some serious weathering… which will be another virgin experience!

Click to enlarge

Going Loco!

I don't know why but I find it difficult to hop from work mode to modelling. I tend to need that initial rocket up the nether regions and it

doesn't help that I'm not exactly 'an hour here and an hour there' kind of modeller. I tend to like to get my teeth into a project over an

intense few days. Thus it was no surprise that after a very busy work period during which I had to put aside this project completely, that

I'd been struggling for motivation to get back into it… until I browsed through some recent RMweb topics which spurred me into action.

Yes, the tender work definitely had the Pringles effect, Horsetan but I think that I've now gone as far with it as I can cope with – I was

begining to feel dizzy and didn't know whether to 'stop startin' or start stoppin' as Vic Reeves and Bob Mortimer would say!

Preparing for with the final stages of the loco I thought it would be a simple case of adding extra wires and pipework but there's more than

meets the eye and it's surprising the level of essential* detail one misses until examining prototype pics much more deeply.

*Essential – Depending on how much of a rivet-counter one is.

There's a massive amount of missing detail beneath the Hornby cab that even Brassmasters doesn't cater for, not least, the inner panels

which appear to vaguely echo the cab's exterior leading edge profile.

Pondering how and with what to fabricate these, I went on a household search and found an old aluminium takeaway container with 'Slice

me up and use me for your loco' written all over it! It was easy to cut with a pair of scissors and to form into curves with the back edge of a

scalpel blade – yet not in the least bit flimsy, for this purpose at least. I cut out the two panels and roughened them up with fine wet and

dry to assist with glueing and painting. Making them was a bit of guesswork but as they're half hidden it's not such a big deal… as long as

they didn't fowl the chassis.

Earlier on in the thread it was pointed out to me that the shape towards the front end of the footplate on the Hornby model is wrong.

I changed my mind about making this section from plasticard and chose my new-found aluminium friend to rectify this. As there is a

natural join on the protoype in this area, I cut out a pair of overlays. As usual, they looked OK until viewed through the macro lens which

exposed them as being a bit too thick! Another 'fault' to be disguised by weathering.

More missing Hornby detail; the brackets attached to the chassis either side of the sandboxes are not picked up well in prototype pics.

Having nothing else suitable to use which didn't require a lot of fettling, once again I fabricated them from the now trusty aluminium.

Alas, it proved to be a bit too fragile for this purpose and the brackets tended to get knocked about and even broken (just visible in the pic)

with constant removal of the loco body. I took them off but I may add them again as a final touch when the body is back on permanently.

On to the pipework now. Brassmasters does a nice fret – separate from the Black 5 upgrade – but I found use for just one, which came in

handy for this pipe disappearing through the footplate behind the lubricators.

The larger bore pipework is plastic-covered and bare single-core copper wire, depending on the gauge required – 0.3 brass is used for the

tubing and fine copper wire for the finest diameter tubing. Near-side work shown here.

Offside footplate detail. The feeble moulding of what looked like a small lubricator (lower arrow) was scraped off and replaced with plastic

and copper wires. I've no idea what the 'tap' (upper arrow) is on the prototype, but I cut something resembling it from the Brassmasters

spare draincocks and fed a wire to it. That 'block' beside it came from a spare gravity feed.

Offside. The area below the cab had to be pure guesswork based on unsatisfactory pics! Believe it or not, I've been unable to find a single

close-up image from the web, books or otherwise, that shows this area in great detail. The best I could find was from Brassmasters' gallery

of close-up shots of a finished model which, unfortunately, looked to differ substantially from the prototype that I'm modelling. The arrow

points to the most difficult part(s) to work out and I think that I made the lever-type thing massively over-scale but I'll have to live with it…

or go completely doolally!!!

A couple of pipes added to the bufferbeam and behind the bang plate (for all I know, it may be a single pipe on the prototype). Finally the

front steps are glued in place but I think I should have given them the same treatment that I did with the tender steps – they look a bit too

beefy – I will add the their braces when everything is screwed back together.

The coupling looks over-sized to me but is still more life-like than ginormous Markits version! A lick of matt black and we'll soon be ready

for weathering! Much less work on the loco than that dreaded tender!

So, we have the TARDIS... has anyone come across 'OO' scale (or close to it) Daleks?

 

I saw a while ago, someone had made a small Stargate model and hidden it away in a forested corner. Looked good, and adds a neat touch to the layout.

 

Hoping to accomplish something similar.

 

Anyone have any thoughts or suggestions?

I don't have a clue about any model daleks but I just love your avatar…spot on!

Needless to say, there are many lessons being learnt on this project; one is complacency. When I first hacked off Hornby's 'generous' tender

valance I thought, hmm, not too bad – a tolerable amount of work involved doing this. Mistake!

Following Michael cactustrain's lead with his impressive tender work, despite being in two minds about it, I did indeed open up the the space

between the drag box and the fall plate (herein lies another lesson: look before you leap!) …and unwittingly opening up another can of worms,

which, once again, brought into sharp focus the shortcomings of this Hornby tender.

Whilst Michael's mods work very well in his photo, I'm assuming that it's because he hadn't removed the dreaded valance. My decision to

remove it has created a horrible gap between the narrow tender frame and body, which now needs covering with a thin plastic plate. My

enthusiasm for the tender half of this project is starting to wane as each mod throws up another challenge and already I've put in far more

work on this than on the loco itself. I shall forget about detailing within that space, hopefully very little of it, if anything, will be seen.

Fire irons were fashioned from 0.3 brass and glued into mock tunnel. Fire iron 'tunnel' will be covered with coal. I don't know what this

rail is (arrowed) but it's on the prototype Stanier tender, although the bracket above it on the real one sits slightly higher, so horizontal

part of the rail shouldn't be bent. Somewhere along the line, I knocked off one of the handles!

Water tank neck with lid glued in open position, shown here against an unmodified tender… it was one of my first ideas when I was

thinking about the tender mods but cactstrain beat me to it! .

To finish, I will be adding the drawbar, filling some battle scars, brimming with coal and adding a lamp – and that's as far as I'm prepared

to go with this tender. A coat of matt black tones down all new parts – and offers a better a comparison with the standard tender – before

weathering. Now that valance on the standard item really does stick out like a sore thumb!

Brassmasters axle boxes are much more prominent, emphasised in this view.

Despite the damage, which will be rectified, I'm particularly pleased with the thinning of the tender sides – an aspect of Hornby's tender that

bugged me even more than the valance! The modified rear platform will be flooded with rusty 'water' to disguise the mutilation.

Sunlight catches the edges, pinpointing the difference. Open coal space will be filled and fall plate will have plenty of coal dust, when finished.

Unfortunately, there's still evidence of Hornby's coupling which will be only partially hidden by screw-link coupling.

I have another half-dozen of these tenders to do at some point in the future. I know that I will be far more efficient, make fewer mistakes and

avoid the pitfalls I've experiencing with this but now I'm seriously wondering whether next time I should bite the bullet, discover whether I

have any metal kit-building skills and go for a Comet brass tender kit.

The final stages of the loco will be next…

But you have now! And I bet you're going to do the same thing too!

I certainly was intending to but thinking about it… I would imagine that the coal space doors would never be opened until there was very little coal in the tender? I'll be modelling the tender fully-coaled.

Thanks all yet again for the continuing encouragement, it's certainly spurring me on!

Here was me thinking that the Brassmaster kit alone produced a show-stopper. Mr M. Duck has clearly shown on this thread that this is merely the start...!

That said, there is absolutely nothing here that cannot be achieved without a little care and patience. You truly are maximising the potential of this model, with half a dozen waiting in the wings, you cab bet your boots I am watching this wonderful thread very closely. Wonderful work!

 

Dave.

Well, it certainly started off as a simple and straightforward upgrade with the most 'fettling' intended for the bulky tender sides but it seems that the more I did, the more I found out… and being shown what other people have done that I hadn't even noticed (Larry's tender valance)… just all adds up! Now I'm wondering where to draw the line before it becomes silly! As Horsetan suggests, the cross-bracing strips under the tender are possibly unnecessary. Anyway thanks Dave, I've seen (and been inspired by) your weathered locos too!

I agree with the other comments, Ryan, this is a very interesting thread.

 

I've done two of these Hornby tenders with the Brassmasters kit and you've certainly found some improvements that I never thought of. I don't think I'll be making any retrospective changes though as there's too much detail in place now.

 

A couple of things you may like to add - you can saw through the top of the tender tank lid and glue it back to show it open. The tank hole can be drilled out to make it look a bit more realistic:

 

 

 

Also, removing the pastic between the drag box and the fall plate improves the look, as does opening up the tool box door and coal space doors:

 

 

 

Looking forward to seeing more of your work.

 

Best wishes,

 

Michael

Thanks Michael. I did saw through the tender tank neck but I made a right mess of it, hence the bright blue replacement taken from the end of a propelling pencil. I salvaged the lid to glue back exactly as you have done. Now, removing the pastic between the drag box and the fall plate and opening up the tool box door and coal space doors… blimey, that's something I never thought about!

The Tender looks much better after removal of the valance. It's time someone of substance at Hornby realized the 1970s LMS Stanier tender is a cop-out

and is not worthy of hanging behind its latest locos like the Royal Scot and Rebuilt Patriot, not to mention the trusty 8F and Black Five.

Bachmann is certainly giving Hornby a right drubbing in the Stanier tender department! Originally, this thread was to primarily to illustrate

Brassmasters 'easy' conversion and whilst this extra tender work has been interesting and educational I'm not sure I'm looking forward to

the prospect of converting another five of them! Also, you could have warned me sooner Larry… since doing this additional stuff I've been

unwittingly knocking lovingly-placed Brassmaster bits off left, right and centre!

Back to the job in hand, progress has slowed somewhat, thanks to a fast-approaching day job deadline, so just a little bit of modelling over the

last couple of evenings. 'Filler panels' were cut from plasticard to fill the gaps beneath the tender body.

The panels sit flush with the edges of tender body and nicely butt up to rear steps.

Looking at prototype pics there appear to be narrow bracing strips beneath the tender body. The aforementioned Jubilee book has very useful

drawings which show that these braces are in fact triangular. They were simply cut from plasticard using the drawing as a guide, then glued to

the underside of the filler panels, overlapping slightly to line up with the outer edge of the tender body.

I'm still undecided about whether to make the frame's cross braces shown in the drawing… not sure how visible they are.

Apologies for yet another very similar view of the tender. Those 'tabs' are looking a little bulky at the moment but will appear more subtle with

a coat of matt black. I'm starting to get itchy… would really like to crack on with weathering this beast!

Open water filler neck was stolen from my better half's old propelling pencil… she simply smiled and shook her head in despair! At the tender

front, the fire iron tunnel and the coaling opening have come at a cost – damage to the front of the tender frame!

More soon…

This Hornby Stanier tender is actually an old moulding left over from toy days, and it features a footplate 'angle' that was never there on real Stanier tenders. Quite why Hornby has never updated this tender is a mystery, although cynics have their point of view!

 

It is difficult to remove this unwanted moulding without damaging the axlebox springs, but while it's there, any drastic re-detailing as you have carried out seems a bit of a waste.......I once referred to it as like gold-plating a plastic spoon.

This tender problem has been bugging me since Larry posted it and I finally got around to seeing how I could rectify it.

After removing the tender body from the frame moulding I just had an exploratory 'hack' with a Stanley knife with the intention of just raiding

another of my stock should I mess up. To my pleasant surprise, the plastic is very soft and the stanley knife glides through it with ease…

utterly butterly!

After first thinking that the tender's front steps would be impossible to sort, I thought I'd have a go at extending them, thanks to the plastic's

pliancy, by carving them from the actual 'angle'. The first step towards this was to score deep 'continuation' lines, marked by the arrows in

the pic. I'm sure it's easier just to get carve off the steps completely and buy new Comet ones but that means spending!

Obviously removing the excess plastic is more difficult with the springs in place but still easier and quicker than I had imagined. Rear step

'extension' here is underway.

Front step pre-hacking on the left and post-hacking on the right, ready for finishing with emery board. I wasn't careful enough to avoid

pinging both spring and axle box off the frame, luckily without damage! There's now a void between the tender top and frames, to be

bridged with very thin plasticard sheet.

Not a very clear pic but just bit of filling and smoothing-off required, then re-attach the springs and axlebox – after doing the other side.

Considering the lack of time and effort, I'm reasonably pleased… Next time it will be far quicker doing it before attaching the springs!

Again, thanks for the uplifting words of enthusiasm! I've had a go at that wretched tender angle, valance thingy, with reasonable success and will post some pics later.

The little boxes that you added the oil feed pipes to are the lubricators.

 

The brass part is, I think, the ejector.

Thanks for that Horsetan. I have a lovely book, Historical Locomotive Monographs – LMS Jubilees which I thought, having numerous detail images, would have helped but they aren't even captioned!

Where did the angle iron strip come from - is it brassmasters? I can see that being very useful if available sperately

The angle iron strip is on the Brassmasters fret. There are two, rivetted and plain, so I guess you'd always have a spare. It's the same with the 8F fret.

One thing that might be worth watching for is the length of the sand pipe to the centre (I think) drivers.

 

I got one of the recent models (the one with the blue smokebox numberplate) a wee while ago and gave it a test run at the club, as you do. Started of fine, but after only a few metres something went horribly wrong. On inspection the connecting rod had bent badly.

 

Loco went off to Hornby and was repaired pretty quickly at no cost (except for the postage to get it to them). No mention of the cause, but as you can imagine the next test run was with a bit of concern. Went okay, but the same thing just about happened! The cause seemed to be the aforementioned sandpipe hanging so low that it caught in a rail joint. I think this is what happened originally, as it would seem to almost stall the engine. Seemed to be treatable by tweaking the pipe, but I think it maybe isn't shoved far enough into the sandbox before glue applied.

 

Anyway, hopefully might be something for others to watch for.

 

Cheers,

 

26power

Some of my 5s have them already fitted by previous owners and have test run well. The loco in this thread has yet to receive them so I'll certainly look out for that. Thanks!

Thank you so much for the encouragement but I would really thank Brassmasters and Comet for producing such user-friendly upgrades that

allow a novice to produce something that looks half decent.

I viewed Coachmann's excellent loco detailing blog with more than a hint of trepidation, due to the mention of the Hornby's front bufferbeam

being set too high and the trouble Larry had to go to modify it. No such problem with mine when offered against the tender, another standard

Hornby 5 and a Bachmann Jubilee (shown) and I wonder if it's something that Hornby has rectified in the last two or three years – I've yet to

check all my other (possibly older) Hornby Staniers but I know at least these two appear to be fine.

Not sure about that daylight above the cylinders though… hopefully it will all screw down!

I must admit to being really chuffed with Comet's bogie, especially as it's so easy to build despite trying to make it as difficult as possible for

myself by virtue of being a virgin in every aspect of this process. I'll certainly be getting one for the Jub.

Now the bogie has been sorted it's the body's turn for attention. Hornby's bulky hand rail knobs on the smokebox, boiler and cab were

replaced with the Alan Gibson short type. I think that longer ones for the boiler would have been better, looking at the prototype.

Appropriate gauge guitar string was used for the rails. The lovely smoke box door handle is of 3-piece turned brass, from Markits.

Another detail I missed which Coachmann illustrates is Hornby's footplate lacking the subtle curve of the prototype. I guess I'll have to

fashion this from plasticard – thankfully I don't need to bother about the lining – it will be disguised by very heavy weathering.

The Brassmaster body parts are generally easy-peasy with little more than drilling, bending and glueing required but some tiny parts are

extremely fiddly and without a real quality pair of pointy tweezers, it was a struggle getting some of them in the exact position. Not only

that, I found it easier to get rid of the 'tabs' from parts with a new scalpel as trying to file them off was just too fiddly for me! Mercifully,

there are spares of some parts on the fret and the sprues.

Here, steam lance (which appears to be disconnected on my prototype, 44890), gravity lubricators, vacuum gear and buffer steps shown.

The latter were 'dinked' on the back side with a blunt tool to give them the slightest of curves, otherwise the edges tend to stand too proud

– and that was further helped by taking a slither out of the top of the shanks. The grab handles on the front part of the footplate were

removed and thinner guitar string was used… next time I'll use something easier to bend. Replacement etched works plates are by Fox…

…I scraped away some paint on one of the Fox plates to try to reveal more detail… don't think it did much but I'll see how it looks when

weathered. The shed plate is from 247 Developments… she's now half way to becoming a Newton Heath loco.

Visible from from this angle is Brassmasters vacuum gear… I cheated and attached the lower pipe to the buffer beam – strictly speaking it

should sort of hang from a bracket. Also the bang plate, lifting rings and fiddly lamp irons – although the offset 'middle' one is a Hornby

original – inadvertently, I 'pinged' too many Brassmasters spares into oblivion!

The great thing about this upgrading lark is that you can take it just as far as you feel comfortable. Now this is the point that some may think

that I've 'lost it' and perhaps gone beyond the call of duty – I certainly wondered 'was it all worth it' when I'd finished! I don't know what these

boxes are called but they remind me of big fuse boxes with the wires coming out of them on the prototype. Hornby's effort looks pretty basic.

After thinking long and hard about how to improve this I decided that trying to drill six miniscule holes on each side of each box, then four

more lots of six holes, very accurately into the very hard footplate – then to thread wire through each hole individually – would have driven

me absolutely bananas! So I decided to make wire looms and pass then through slots in the boxes and footplate as one.

First I removed the boxes (with difficulty and not a little blood) and cut slots into the footplate with a sharp scalpel. The pipe in the left-hand

pic should continue and run through down the footplate behind the rear box, hence the big hole there. I then slotted each box on both sides

and prepared my loom from 0.3mm brass rod into a concertina.

The concertinas were squeezed tight to make threading them through the boxes easier… as if! Then the looms were bent more to shape,

the excess removed and were then 'teased' through the footplate and glued – much, much easier said than done!

Nearly there! Holes and gaps will be filled and the excess removed from beneath the footplate. Until the model is finished I remain unsure

about whether to go through this again, although using finer copper wire would help enormously – I think these wires are the same gauge

as the fire irons I made!!!

I don't know the name of this brass part is either, but it's nicely cast. To replace the Hornby one and get this in the correct position I found

that I had to make a very deep flange (for want of a better word). The pipe still has to be connected and finer wires attached to it, leading to

the cab. AWS cylinder is white metal, as are safety valves but I can't for the life of me find the whistle on any of the sprues even though it's

listed… shame then, that I removed the Hornby one first!

The Brassmasters steam injectors, unlike Comet's, do not have the pipes attached or included in the kit, so I'll have to make those at the next

stage, along with more under-cab detailing for which I'm still researching… I've heard that The Power of the Black 5s is an excellent book that

I ought to have!