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Rambler

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  1. Rambler
    By last October I had built up the front splashers, apart from the riveted flange that sits on the footplate. I temporarily attached a bit of rail across the footplate to stop it bending down in the middle - I have a suitably shaped bit of chipboard to bolt under the footplate to stop this happening but mislaid it!
     

     
    After a brief diversion rewheeling a Tower Jinty to ScaleSeven over the holiday period I got back to the G5 in January. I couldn't put off attaching the cab and tanks any longer...
     

    one side, then the other and finally the bunker rear
     

     
    Hopefully this photo shows the bit of brass bar that is soldered across the floor of the bunker - this will be tapped for the rear chassis fixing bolts. With the cut-outs for the splasher flange I thought that this area might be a bit too weak to take the fixing bolts, although it would probably have become more rigid anyway when the bunker bottom and cab rear were fitted
  2. Rambler
    On the old RMweb I was plugging away at a Fourtrack G5. The story continues here, but before I bring it up to date here is a recap of the old material:
     
    Posted 23/11/08:
    I've been plodding along with this Fourtrack G5 for some time now. Some of the bodywork is done, mainly the tanks and the sandwich buffer-beams, and it's now time to make a start on the chassis. I've filed the cusp off each frame separate;y and now I'm about to bolt the two frames together, using the holes for the plunger pick-ups, to do some final trimming to ensure that they're both the same. In the photo I've opened up the holes in one of the frames.
     

     
    and here are the tanks, buffer beams and bogie referred to previously. The tanks aren't yet fixed to the footplate.
     

     
    Posted 24/11/08:
    The kit was designed by George Norton in 1991, at least that's what is inscribed on the fret. It subsequently passed via Londoin Road Models to Fourtrack Models (from whom I bought my kit) and has now just been aquired by Gladiator.
     
    I'm sure that George's kits were hand drawn, and by and large they are OK, but you don't always get exactly matching parts as you can with CAD artwork. I noticed that the curve of the frame over one of the hornblocks was slightly different between the two frames which is why I am bolting them together for final shaping. This is often done when fretting out scratchbuilt frames except that the frames are usually soldered together rather than bolted. In any case, I intend to use the same holes (and bolts) to fit temporary spacers to hold the frames in the right place while I solder in the permanent spacers.
     
    Posted 22/02/09:
    I've now lashed up the frames with some of Eileen's O-gauge spacers, Slater's wheels (7861I, McDonnell 5' 1") and Premier Components coupling rods. The spacers use the same holes as previously used for clamping the frames together; these holes will end up being used for plunger pick-ups (if all goes to plan). Happily it seems to run OK with just a little binding which should disappear (all fingers crossed) as the bearings wear in.
     

     
    Here is a top view to show how it looks at the moment. It will eventfully be Scaleseven, so the frames will be farther apart (and I will be using flat spacers, soldered in place), the clearance between the wheels and frames will be smaller and the tyre width will be less. If I was building this in Finescale, I would probably use wider spacers anyway so this shouldn't be taken as a comparison between the two systems. It's just a "this is where I've got to" photo.
     

     
    If you look closely you can see that the leading wheels have the crankpin head in a recess while, for the trailing wheels, it is proud on the back. This is how the wheels came from Slater's; what the final arrangement will be I'm not sure but replacement countersink bolts for the trailing wheels seems a good idea.
     
    Posted 23/02/09:
    Essentially the reason for assembling this is in 32mm was that I wanted to check whether it was going to run (at all). The wheels, coupling rods and frames will be the same when I fit the S7 spacers, so this allowed me to check the running at an early stage. The next stage is to replace the axles with S7 ones and add 5.8mm packing pieces to the spacers, to see what the clearances are like. If this is OK I can use 27.8mm spacer material from S7 Stores; if not I will need to use the next size down or perhaps file down the 27.8 spacers.
     
    My calculations were based on the following:
    Back-to-Back: 31.3mm
    Frame thickness: two at 0.9mm
    Required Clearance: 1mm for each wheel.
    This gave 27.5mm, so the 27.8mm spacer would be a possibility (with the clearance now at 0.85mm). This is still larger than the prototype but by the time I've taken account of the flange of the plunger pick-ups there probably won't be a vast amount of leeway. This is my first O-gauge loco and so a lot of this is, for me, trial-and-error.
     
    Posted 19/04/09:
    The frames had permanent spacer fitted a week or two back, and looked like this:
     

     
    You may notice that there isn't much width reduction over the bogie, but then the North Eastern didn't have much either. The spacers are 27.8mm for the forward section, reducing to 27.1 behind the ash pan. This gives 29.7 over the frames at the front (prototype 51.5", 30mm to 7mm scale) and 28.9 at the rear (prototype 50", 29.2mm to 7mm scale).
     
    The bogie is to use split frames and for this I created an inner box onto which the side-frames are bolted. Plastic packing pieces, and sleeves for the holes are used to provide the insulation. The following photo shows some of the bits (the box end pieces are not shown, nor the plates holding the nuts captive):
     

     
    Throughout the construction the pivot holes in the side-frames and in the inner box have been kept in line (and the same size) so that they can be used to align the parts. The completed bogie is seen here (just in front of my drilling machine):
     

     
    Posted 1/05/09:
    The drawing in the background to the "G5 on my workbench" came with North Eastern Express issue 119. There is also a drawing of the "LNER and BR" condition, that came with issue 121, showing the modified bunker rails/hopper, push-pull gear, etc.
     
    This might be a good point to list the source information that I am using:
    1) The best drawing is the one in Ken Hoole's "An Illustrated History of NER Locomotives".
    2) Yeadon's Register No. 38 has a lot of useful photos.
    3) Ken Hoole's "The 4-4-0 Classes of the NER", page 78 has a good photo of the standard bogie.
    4) North Eastern Record (HMRS/NERA) Volume 3 has a drawing of the standard bogie (page 98) and a cab view (page 113).
    5) North Eastern Express (NERA) issues 119-121 has articles, some cab views, and the aforementioned drawings.
    6) The RCTS "Locomotives of the LNER" part 7 is useful, but a lot of it's content is covered elsewhere.
     
    If I come across anything more I'll update this list.
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