IC126

Hi Bruce - pics are always welcome. The control panel is built entirely according to a couple of your shots (The one in the kit was obviously left over from something else). I've moved on to the chassis now so if you've got any close ups of the undercart they'd be very useful.

Hi Jeff - it's a Right Price Railway Company kit.

I was initially planning on building the chassis rigid, but pickup from a short wheelbase 0-4-0 chassis will never be the best so I decided to fit Slaters sprung hornblocks. I was just about to solder these to the frames when I saw the Chassis Alignment tool produced by Metalsmith on Christian's A3 thread. "Just the very thing!" I thought and the alignment axles arrived shortly afterwards.

A superb shot of the 126 at Falkland Yard - thanks Bruce. Interesting to see the yard as it should be - full of 16 tonners - the last time I went there for a "proper" photographic excursion, it was full of Class 107s waiting for axle checks.

I was just getting ready to point out the difference between the 120s and 126s when I noticed that you were absolutely and completely correct - well spotted sir! The 126 units were largely confined to Ayr/Girvan/Stranraer runs but perversely, in their final months they strayed quite regularly from their traditional haunts. We believe that this is probably because they were no longer supposed to be in existence.... The edict had been sent out that they were to be withdrawn as non standard but thanks to the good work of various Ayr and Corkerhill fitters a few remained in service long past their expiry date (including of course our preserved example, 126 413). The survivors then tended to cover for random "Blue Square" workings. This set has probably worked through from Glasgow Central via Shotts. An excellent shot of a 126 in Princes Street Gardens which might well be this very working was sent to us a few years ago - "Sc59401" may be able to provide further info.

Now that the control panel is completed, it's back to the assembly of the bodywork I've screwed the footplate to a lump of 4 x 1 in the bench vice to hold it steady and located the cab end in place. A square was used to judge that this was roughly vertical, but at this stage I was most concerned with getting the bottom edge aligned with the edge of the buffer beam. A few tacks of solder hold the plate in place. I had previously scribed a couple of lines in place to make sure I located this centrally (just about visible in the photo). Here I've tacked the bonnet and cab front in place.... ....and then given it a good blast from the mini-blowtorch to get the solder to flow nicely into the joints. The first of the side sheets in position - I initially just tacked this in place half way up the vertical joints to allow the sheets to be adjusted (bent) for the final fit. A bit more brutal heating from the blowtorch and the solder flows along the joints with minimal cleaning up of solder to do (which is nice). Current state of play. It's really starting to look like a Barclay now.

Hi Rob - thanks, I'm quite pleased with the way the panel turned out, but it's taking a lot of extra time. Next step is to get the rest of the bodywork soldered together - then it will really start to look like an engine.

Entry updated 28.12.09 with photos and descriptions of the completed panel I was hoping that this build would turn out to be quite a simple one. The kit as supplied was quite basic and my intention was just to solder it together more or less as the designer intended as a relaxing "quickie". My first mistake was to try to identify a suitable candidate for the finished loco... For reasons I shall probably explain later, I wanted an ex Corkerhill based loco. The DVD "Railways of Scotland: Glasgow vol 2" has a great shot of two Class 06s shunting Swindon DMU cars at Corkerhill, but I was unable to identify either one positively (the detail from the 8mm cine film is not best). I may end up chosing D2437 due to this quite wonderful shot of the loco at Barassie: http://www.railbrit....e2.php?id=21477 As I trawled t'internet for further information, the third incarnation of RMweb provided a link to Brian Daniels' Class 06 pages http://briandaniels....t/c1462771.html which had some good information, but nothing from my chosen period. I also found a couple of excellent shots of the cab by jbg06003 on this RMweb thread: http://www.rmweb.co....ass+06+#p794772 Thanks very much to Bruce for posting these invaluable cab detail shots. Unfortunately this new information meant that I had no excuse not to throw away the supplied etch and build a replacement panel. I determined the two vanishing points of one of the cab shots and used draughting technique of "construction lines" to project the major dimensions of the control panel onto a surface I had known dimensions for (from e.g. the window sizes). Probably "GIMP" can do this much faster using reverse perspective or some such function, but I couldn't work out how to use it well enough and settled for the old fashioned way and a lot of little proportional calculations to produce the rough dimensional sketch shown. Here I've roughly cut out a fold up panel and half drilled holes to batter out some rivets. The next stage had to wait until another day to avoid waking the bairn. Here I've punched out the bolt heads with a sharp pointy scriber and a hammer. I used a centre punch for the first attempt, but this mangled the metal more than creating distinct points. I battered it flat and tried again, leading to a better effect. Most of the holes were pushed through, but I flooded these with solder from the back when I formed and soldered up the box shape. This part will form the gauge panel. A simple piece of fold-uppery. I half drilled dimples to represent the gauge faces. The two bottom left have a raised bezel, so I'll add them later. Having enthusiastically studied Ian Rathbone's excellent painting and lining book, I was keen to be able to paint the panel seperately. After much headscratching, I decided to achieve this by soldering the panel onto a backplate which I shall subsequently screw to the cab face from inside the bonnet. Here is the basic shape of the panel. The scrap etch above the panel shall be shaped to form the panel lights at a future stage. Here I have started work on the cab front - I've drilled a couple of holes to allow the panel to be screwed to the cab front and added a strip to positively locate the back of the panel. I'll also use this strip and the two shorter strips at the bottom as stand-offs to locate piping. I've used a brass washer to represent the fuel tank gauge and added some conduit up to the cab roof. I've added some representative piping - including some larger sections for conduit and the vacuum lines to the train brake valve. Panel test-fitted in place. The strip and piping holds it in place for now, but I've drilled and tapped a 2mm screw thread on the back of the panel for when it goes together properly.. I've added some small etch cuttings and wire to represent the valves and operating mechanisms shown on the prototype photo - I'm not sure, but I think these are either for the horns or the sanders? There are two sets on the photo of 06008. This may be a modification or a variation between batches.... I've also seen an older photo of one of the earlier 3 window batch with only one set, but possibly has an extra lever on the panel. As I want one of the later batch, I've used 06008 as the guide. Here I've finished the panel sub assembly - I've made the control and brake levers from scraps of bent wire, shaped the lamp brackets and added the shades from tube. Lastly, a couple of shots of the completed panel in position Due to a lapse in memory, I've completely forgotten where I bought these drills. I also can't actually recall asking for unhardened steel - but it seems I must have......

Since you've had to re-post your blog, I suppose I'd better repost my comment that this is excellent work. Groundbreaking stuff. Well done!

I'm a big fan of urban modelling - keep it up Grahame!

Excellent work, Dan, and very motivational. I think your prolific and detailed work benefits from the blog format.

Hi Jamie - the best way to develop your skills is definitely to "give it a go". Try it - it's fun! The drill works fine for going round corners, but I'm having difficulty finding a supplier of screws that fit

On the Intercity Workbench tonight: some fairly recent progress on assembling the footplate of the kit. This probably isn't the thread for you if you want to know how to do things properly.... but maybe my bunglings will encourage a few others to have a go at etched kit construction. At least you can't do worse than me.... I'm currently working away from home (and at home I've got a beautiful 4 month old baby girl....), so progress has been slowed of late, but here are some photos of recent work. The Buffer Beams in the kit were a bit weedy to my eyes, so I sandwiched some strips of copper between the inner and outer faces to thicken these up. I'll still need to tidy the edges of these up at a later stage. Looking at the photos, I'm also thinking that the rivets on the bufferbeam are not beefy enough - I should probably have used a bigger hammer. I'll need to think about this problem. A couple of views of the footplate as originally assembled. I wasn't totally happy with how square I had managed to solder these so I screwed together a crude jig to hold these better in place whilst I attacked the joints with a small gas torch These are the sandboxes - they didn't fold up as nicely as I'd hoped (probably due to the thickness of the material) and I had to solder in a little bit of filler (in this case some brass pins seemed to be quite appropriate. After some rough filing down, nobody will be any the wiser... The chassis soldered up quite nicely, but I'm thinking of fitting Slaters sprung axleboxes to aid trackholding and pickup. I received a set of these in the post recently (and very nice they look), so more on this later. This is the underneath of the chassis. I like to solder with a lot of heat (I generally blow over the job with a small gas torch). This makes the solder flow very nicely, but occasionally things fall off.... In this case I lost one of the buffers (again). I cunningly wafted the blowtorch over the affected area to firmly solder it back in place (until the next time, that is). Here I've done a trial fitting of the body, footplate and chassis. The instructions indicate to build the footplate and body as one unit, but I've decided to join the chassis and footplate, leaving the body free for ease of painting. I've realised that if I add the (prototypical) angle brackets to hold the bottom of the doors in place, I can use these to locate the body sub-assembly. These brackets are (just) visible in prototype shots - eg this one on Brian Daniels' Class 06 Gallery: http://briandaniels..../p25831659.html

On the Intercity Workbench: 7mm Barclay Class 06 by IC126 original page on Old RMweb __________________________________________ ??? posted on Tue Sep 29, 2009 10:24 pm I have finally got round to transferring the original posts about my current project - a Right Price Railway Company kit of an Andrew Barclay Class 06. The main carcass is etched in quite thick nickel silver with some nice lost wax castings. It's quite a basic kit (in my limited experience - this is my second etched kit), but the main parts seem to be forming up quite nicely so far. Cab side and front sheets. I've punched out the rivet detail and soldered in the window rubbers Here I've formed the basic shape of the bonnet. This was the most difficult part for me so far as I don't have any rolling bars and the material was quite thick. A hammer and a large bench vice did eventually feature in my armoury of weapons used. Here I've soldered on the fuel tank assembly. This is where I first started to backtrack. The solid back of the tank projected out too far, preventing this from sitting properly against the cab. To solve the problem I removed the back wall of the box which formed the tank. I then re-soldered this to the cab front, together with a piece of scrap etch to locate the back of the bonnet assembly. ...finally allowing me to assemble everything nice and square. __________________________________________ Comment posted by lancer1027 on Wed Sep 30, 2009 5:57 am Hi, interesting project there. I will be watching this build with interest. Rob __________________________________________ Comment posted by OgaugeJB on Wed Sep 30, 2009 11:47 am I've heard some not so great stories about 'Right price company' kits, mainly the kettles, B1 etc.. but this is looking very nice indeed... The chamfer on the front of the bonnet looks great. Did you fill the area inside and then file it down ? JB. __________________________________________ ??? posted on Tue Oct 06, 2009 11:49 pm Thanks for the comments guys. The radius on the front to the bonnet was achieved by soldering some thick copper wire inside the joint to bulk up the corner and filing down. It is quite a basic kit and doesn't contain a lot of fine detail (missing things like chassis pipework/valves, brake rigging, etc). Presumably to keep costs low, the main kit is etched from a single piece of quite thick ( 0.030" = 0.70mm) nickel silver. This is fine for some parts, but less suitable for others. For example some parts (such as the steps) are etched to half thickness and the crispness of the edges of these parts seem to suffer a bit as a result. Overall I'm quite pleased with the basic shape of the loco so far, and if the basic shape is convincing, I can always add additional details. I originally planned to build the kit more or less as supplied, but already a bit of research on t'internet is drawing me into adding quite a bit more detail. More on research and the chosen loco later...