1/32 TME King Arthur

taliesin

Western Thunderer
Some of you maybe familiar with the 16mm coal-fired live steam engines produced by Tolhurst Model Engineering. Although Chris Tolhurst has been building these engines for some years now his hobby is actually Gauge one and was finally persuaded a while back to produce a 1/32nd scale engine.
About a year a go He announced that He would do a batch of King Arthur's/S15's to order, 25 altogether which have all been picked up on.
Each engine will be detailed inline with the prototype ordered and painted to the era required, it's my understanding that no two engines will be a like.
Here is a video showing an early run of the prototype,


This prototype is un-detailed as it's only purpose is to prove the design however the Mark Wood wheels should give an idea of the quality aimed at, if Chris is true to form then this will raise the bar when it comes to 1/32nd live steam.
I know it's not really modelling but I will post from time to time as more becomes available as it will show what can be achieved in live steam,

cheers to all, Rob
 

Thirtysecond

Western Thunderer
I have made patterns for the King Arthur crews and these have been cast in Bronze. Peter Insole (see thread on Bagshot Station) has now started painting them. I hasten to add that these are the prototypes which I painted (not as good as Peter's I'm afraid).IMG_1489.jpg
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We have also made patterns for a set of cab tools including a teacan. It's very small!!

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The locos themselves are nearing completion but still in thousands of parts being painted prior to final assembly. Will post some pics as they start coming together.
 

Thirtysecond

Western Thunderer
The backhead shown in an earlier post was the prototype. Last month I finished the 25 backheads for the production King Arthurs and S15s. It was quite an undertaking and represented about 100 hours work. Not sure if I'd want to do it again though!! If anybody is interested I will post some details on how the gauges and water gauges were produced.



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Thirtysecond

Western Thunderer
The gauge dials are photos of the real things taken on 777 Sir Lamiel and the S15 at the Bluebell. These are reduced to the correct scale size using Photoshop and Word then printed onto high gloss photo paper. The problem is then how to cut out a perfect circle only a few mms in diameter. The answer is a specially turned punch which fits into a commercial optical punch. The perfectly cut dial can now be fixed into the turned gauges with a dab of Silicon.

I used the same technique to produce the gauges for my Fred Phipps Warship.

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Thirtysecond

Western Thunderer
The water gauges are made from 3mm square acrylic rod. Firstly, a length of rod is milled with a 1mm slot and then cut to lengths. The backplate is reduced to size , like the gauges, using Photoshop and Word. One of the slotted acrylic rods is now stuck to the backplate.

The gauge is now carefully cut out using a supersharp scalpel.

Using the same razor sharp device the 1mm centre of the backplate is removed, being careful not to remove any parts of the finger as well!

This can then be offered up to the water gauge casting. Accuracy in cutting means that they were always a nice push fit.IMG_1657.JPGIMG_1658.JPGIMG_1659.JPGIMG_1660.JPGIMG_1661.JPGIMG_1662.JPGIMG_1664.JPG
 
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Thirtysecond

Western Thunderer
I should say "much more difficult". The smallest square section acrylic rod I could locate was 2mm. This would make overscale safety glasses in 7mm scale so you would have to file/mill down 2mm rod to a suitable size then polish it. Then you would have to carry out the process that I undertook but with something 2/3 the size. It would be very fiddly, difficult to handle (and prone to breakage).

The reason we went to such trouble was that in 1/32 you can easily see the centre water tube (which is part of the casting) inside the safety box. I think you'd get away with less detail in 7mm.

Derek
 

Thirtysecond

Western Thunderer
For those of you patiently waiting for your King Arthurs from TME, here is a taster of the quality and detail to expect (much of which even I didn't expect)IMG_1910.JPG Here are the coupling and connecting rods together with the return crank. Note that oiling corks have been added in all the right places. How Chris gets a perfect right angled cut on piece of Brass with a diameter of 1mm is beyond me!

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Note also the fluted slidebars and exquisite lubricator pot castings (non-working!!!), correct for the first two batches of N15s.
 
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Thirtysecond

Western Thunderer
Here you can see one of the 25 chassis being run in on its testbed. Chris runs each chassis for about an hour on air with added water soluble oil. They all kick start at 50 lbs plus but after a very short time are running sweetly on a very low pressure. The running in gives Chris a chance to fine tune the valve setting on each chassis.

 
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Thirtysecond

Western Thunderer
Anybody know the collective noun for large number of locomotive chassis?!!

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Or for 75 assorted loco and tender bogies?

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All the above are part of the TME N15/S15 production line. Anyway here is a close up of two of the above bogies, now secured to an appropriate tender body. (All rivets embossed by the queen of rivet punching, Sandra Tolhurst.)

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