A West Midlands Works

Taking my cue from an old advert, "it's good to talk" that is exactly what I did regarding my injector problems. Although they had been built up according to the instructions I had to find a way to achieve a 5mm saving. The solution provided by Dikitriki was to remove the 90⁰ nickel silver mounting between injectors and solder them to each other. To gain a further mil or two the overflow valves were also slimmed down. I then began pipework construction.

inside above, outside below

Eventually after four hours work the whole assembly was ready for installation. Mounting everything on the locomotive proved tricky as the pipework needed to be persuaded to go into position. As first installed the frames would not go into place and this proved to be interaction with the water feed pipes and the delivery pipes alongside the lower firebox. Judicious alterations were made and the frames now fall into place. So after a heck of a lot of work over two days the injectors are finally in place.


There is slight interference between the rear of the pony and one pipe and this will be dealt with tomorrow. I plan to put a slight chamfer on the rear plank and slim down the pipe to give sufficient side to side clearance.

Brake gear installation next!

Glad it worked Roger. Not much room to spare though! Looks really good and very busy.

Richard

To quote the oracle - that's the DBs, Roger.

Brian

Thanks Richard and Brian for your posts. On any Bulleid this is a challenging part of the build, quart and pint pot comes to mind. Of course proving trials may yet burst my bubble of happiness!!!!! I have just looked at the instructions for building the brakes - might go and lie down in a darkened room.

Roger

But brakes are so much fun on a Bulleid, Roger. Just think knitting with brass string.......

B

The pony truck now rides side to side without interference so work turns to the brake gear. The MOK instructions are brief and rely on photographs. Personally I think this is much too brief as these engines are quite complicated, to quote Brian, knitting with brass string. Fortunately as mentioned before I have been following a thread on RMWeb and in this particular instance it has proved invaluable. Also no mention is made that the major brake hanger castings are handed and cast such that they are not located central on the lower spacers fitted between the pull rods, instead they are positioned at ⅓ and ⅔ on these spacers as I hope this photo shows

I had already constructed the leading brake hangers and stretcher and the rear brake hangers. The leading hangers as originally installed were too low and have been adjusted, also the leading pull rods should be horizontal to the rail so further adjustment is still required. The rear hangers are part of major castings and I'm hoping they will not require moving. The pair of scissors hangers between the driving wheels were relatively simple to set up and I have used Slaters plastic brake shoes to avoid shorting out.

With the brake hangers in place the pull rods were tried in place. Again the instructions make no mention of the middle set of pull rods which have a casting (the adjuster) which hangs off the rear intermediate hanger and onto which the nickel silver pull rod is inserted. The aforesaid RMweb article soon put me right. Unfortunately the casting is much too big for the location and it interferes with the middle driving wheel as can be seen in these photos

As can be seen the middle pull rod is under some strain

I plan to strengthen the soldered joint on the pull rod, then using a slitting disc cut through the casting to create the necessary room for the wheel and flange to pass. The cast adjusting screw will also have to be shortened.

Who said life would be simple?

Hang on in there (pun intended) Roger, nearly at the finish post. Out of interest, is the brake gear that different from the re-built West Country/Battle of Britain?

regards

Mike

Mike,
To all intents and purposes the brake gear is identical remembering there is a 3" difference in the coupled wheelbase. Having worked under both rebuilt West Country/Battle of Britain (5 of) and Merchant Navy (1 of) pacifics I do not see any differences apart from the length of trailing pull rods.
Roger

Completion of the brake hangers and pull rods has taken more time that I had first thought. My plan for modifying the adjusters worked and now only tidying up and fitting the brake blocks remain to do. The latter will only be fitted once the frames have been sprayed although all have been tried in place.

Attention has now turned to the last major hurdle, building and installing the valve gear. Dave Sharp was able to provide a replacement set of castings for the slidebars and crossheads and these built up perfectly first time with a minimum of cleaning up. The slidebar assembly is pinned together with 0.5mm wire. Piston rods from 2mm diameter steel rod were fitted to the crossheads and the connecting rods built up. At last the frames could be tried out, so I thought. Trials quickly identified a problem with very poor running, a distinct knock and stiffness. The right hand connecting rod was removed and the running became smooth so by good fortune the problem area had been quickly isolated. Solving the problem took some time and eventually I discovered the piston rod was a fraction too short and was coming out of the gland. With a new rod cut and fitted everything was reassembled and smooth running achieved with both sets of crossheads and connecting rods in place.

Construction of the motion brackets will be interesting. My kit is one of the very early ones and has huge castings for these brackets. The final edition of build instructions show a much modified set of castings and etches but unfortunately I cannot obtain a set. Considerable carving is going to be necessary to get the castings to fit as currently there is a 100% interference it with the centre driving wheels! This is work for later in the week.

From the previous photos the eagle eyed reader will have noticed the wheel centres have turned nickel silver. I am in the process of fitting Finney7 wheel overlays and have become a complete convert. The overlays are very thin etches which can be very easily distorted but the wheels look like a million dollars. The fit is perfect each time.

The Merchant Navy has had to take a temporary back seat until I understand exactly how the motion brackets are assembled and accommodate the middle driving wheels. The latter being crucial!

To avoid idle hands I decided to start building my David Andrews Schools 4-4-0. The model will be of 30915 Brighton with the large Lemaȋtre chimney in 1961 condition. Previously I had built 30196 Whitgift with the Maunsell chimney. Building commenced with my usual method of building up the side rods which in turn dictate the axle centres. Construction of the frames was straightforward with no hidden nasties. All the stretchers were tacked in position and then the frames and bearing were assembled on the chassis jig. Everything was then soldered in position to ensure all was square. Two days work resulted in a fine rolling chassis.

Provision for plunger pick-ups has been made.

Since then detailing of the frames has continued. Being a second series Schools there are various detail differences especially the bogie which has a straight frame. The cylinders, slidebars and motion bracket are all separate constructions.

Eventually the cylinders and slidebars will be permanently connected via a hidden frame. The cast nickel silver slidebars and crossheads are beautiful to work with.

Minimal cleaning up was required to create a free flowing assembly. As initially built the lower slidebars were tight on the crosshead but a little tweak with a wide bladed screwdriver overcame all resistance. The inside cylinder and motion is faithfully recreated although there is no connecting rod or eccentric. Personally I am not concerned by this "omission".

So after a week's work I have got this far, now to build three sets of valve gear.

OK, no one is perfect, least of all me! Having built three sets of valve gear all slightly different I put aside the two outside sets for later and fitted the middle engine. That is when I realised I'd built the slidebar bracket back to front and a fair degree of basic Anglo-Saxon followed. The middle engine radius rod passes through an offset square aperture and nowhere else. A full strip down of the slidebars etc followed and eventually with everything reassembled they looked like this

Before putting them back into the frames I added the exhaust injector main steam pipe and grease separator. With the "hidden" frame in place the cylinders and slidebar arrangement has become very solid. I should point out the valve rod and piston rod for the middle engine have to be shortened otherwise they will interfere with fitting the cylinders in place. To ensure nothing will move a quick dab with the soldering iron has secured the piston rod. The valve rod can only be secured in its final position once the expansion link has been secured in place. This will only happen when all the valve gear is finally assembled.

A start has been made on the bodywork and the running plate has seen some progress

Inevitably the front and rear curves on the drop sections of the running plate are slightly different radii, careful rolling achieved suitable curves which could be easily adapted to conform to shape. It is a very tight fit fore and aft and a little filing will be required to achieve an easy fit but that is for tomorrow. The kit allows for a number of variants of the class so photos of your chosen loco are essential. In my case 30915 has a different rivet pattern on the front bufferbeam and fortunately the etch has the correct layout. Some engines had flush headed rivets and others had a further 10 rivets visible. More tomorrow?

great to see that you have used the Finney7 'no solder' solder - I must try to invest in some myself!

Great stuff Roger, I look forward to the next exciting instalment.

regards

Mike

I have to confess...and I know (hope) Roger won't take offence....that his models are getting better and better with each new build

Gentlemen,
You embarrass me, your models and those from others inspire me to try and get better.
Thanks
Roger

A couple of days work has seen the basic cab, splashers and boiler added to the running plate, but first the frames were made a drop in fit between bufferbeam and the drag beam.

Forming the cab roof has to be done with care and at first I intended to use rolling bars. Both types of cab are provided in the kit and the original one was used as the test bed. Unfortunately this was not a success as the etch for the rain strip became deformed so I resorted to fingers and thumbs to create the basic crescent shape. Forming the curve was tested against the cab front at frequent intervals and soldering only started when 90% of the roof matched the profile. Initially it was just tacked in place and then the two strengthening ribs were added to give stability. It is fair to say this exercise took a good 90 minutes but it was time well spent. An added complication is the very sharp curve just above the cab side windows which I formed by using a piece of wood and finished off with round nose pliers to tweak the final form into shape.

The cab was then tested against the running plate and was a near perfect fit first time. Interestingly there was a slight gap of about 2mm between the rear splashers and the cab front. This is not an issue on the drivers side as there is a large "box" for the reverser to mask the gap but the firemans side required a sliver of etch as a filler.

Construction of the boiler was complex and has taken quite some time to get right. The basic boiler is supplied rolled and needed opening out for the rivets on the front of the smokebox to be formed. Three formers are used to create the firebox and lower smokebox areas. I created the lower curves on the firebox by using a rounded bar and pliers to "pull" the metal out. A number of goes were required before a satisfactory look was achieved and I will use emery paper to polish out the minor scratches caused by the pliers.

A small former is fitted at the front of the firebox and this took a lot of work to solder in place ensuring it was level with the rear former. Trial fitting in the frames revealed it was not and consequently the boiler would not sit correctly. Eventually I soldered two pieces of etch to both the firebox formers to achieve the correct alignment. Having got everything in place all was soldered up and then a lot of cleaning followed. The smokebox also required the lower sections to be pulled out but this was not such a great problem.



As these photos show the boiler is now in place on the frames. Considerable detailing has yet to be undertaken but before anyone comments on the gaps alongside the firebox and smokebox sides, these will be covered by castings and various etches. Also the smokebox end is currently "floating" free, only being soldered in place after detailing.

Lastly here is a photo of the grease separator in place adjacent to the middle engine.

Have you found that the boiler assembly is slightly too short at the front end ? The cylinder wrappers look too wide though.

Also, watch out for the detailing etch that is used to go along the base of the splashers ! It has to be folded up, with no half etch line. I'm going to resort to making them as three separate pieces on the three Schools' I'm building.

Ian

Hi Ian,
According to my instructions there are two parts to each detailing etch that is used to go along the base of the splashers, numbers 34B & 35B are on the running plate, 34C & 35C are on the splasher fronts. Agreed the tiny etch to go up onto the splasher top does need forming. I have checked my etches and all part are supplied.

As for the boiler assembly, I have tried it correctly in position i.e. fixed at the cab end, tacked at the smokebox on one edge only and all is well. I have tried the front etch (15) in place and there is no issue - so far. Watch this space.

Roger

The last few days have been spent detailing the running plate and boiler. There is a lot of very small detail to be fitted to the front of the cab and I chose to get them in place now rather than when a bulky boiler was in place.

On the boiler all holes have been drilled out to their respective sizes for the various fittings and the washout plugs have been fitted. In addition the boiler bands have been put in place, how you do this with the boiler in the running plate is beyond me!

To get the boiler bands in the correct position I used the diagram on page 25 of The Book of the Schools 4-4-0s as my guide. I scaled the position of the leading 4 bands, the last one is adjacent to the cab and yet to be fitted. With the 3 on the boiler in place I discovered I'd overlooked to take out half the width of the band from my calculations so this had to be moved forward by 0.75mm. Once correctly fitted everything was cleaned up and the firebox/boiler/smokebox assembly fitted to the running plate.

It fitted first time although the etch on the front of the smokebox did not meet the front platework. However with the half etch plate for the steam chest in position everything came good. I should point out this plate is "handed" and if fitted incorrectly a gap will remain.

Still lots to do but this is turning out to be a lovely build.

The last week has been spent detailing the engine body and hopefully these photos show the progress made to date.

My usual method is to work from the cab forward and this build is no different. Probably the single most difficult detailing has been the pipe runs to the cylinders. The pipes are 0.4mm brass rod and proved very difficult to solder but eventually I succeeded. Currently one pipe on each side is still loose and will eventually go into the outside steampipe castings.

The next major job is to fit the chimney, install the outside steampipes and deflectors followed by all the reverser detail.

Coming on very nicely Roger!