W1 as rebuilt

Hi Mick,
It needed doing and the slight alteration to the back head is neither here nor there. How will the roof be secured? On the A4 I've added some strips of brass to the top edges of the cab sides above the windows, to increase the surface area for epoxying after painting. Will you do something similar or do you have a cunning plan?

Looking at the fit of your raised cab floors pedestals shows how bad mine are on the A4. I had to do a fair bit of filing to get them into the recess in the floor and took metal of the top edges in the process. I will have to fill mine as yours look so much better.
Cheers,
Peter

Cab roofs are a personal thing, some secure during the build, some make them removable, some fix at the end. I've tried not to limit either option in the design.

In hindsight I would of designed it a little differently so that the cab roof could be fixed permanently and the cab floor, well certainly the front section including the blackhead and extension plate could all be fitted from below, much like the Bulleid light Pacific.

If you look at the upturned roof you will see that the main riveted overlay has some fold up tabs down each side, these fit fore and aft of the window frames and wedge between the cab sides. These tabs are half etched but do have a strengthening rib at the fold and are a little tricky to fold up, but once done do give nice locating effect. You could glue the inside of these to the side walls and I suspect the roof will not come off.

For mine I'm going to add a small nut to the underside of the blackhead extension plate between the two safety valves. Then I'm going to add a small transverse strap across the main roof between the safety valves. Through that I'll be able to screw the roof down. Once secured I'll just add the safety valve overlay on too with an adhesive or thin double sided tape.

I did something similar on the alpha build but had a long piece of tube added to the bottom of the roof but to the rear of the extension plate. This was secured from below which was awkward due to the double floor, I.E the floor and footplate. What ever you add will be hidden by the steam manifold anyway. On that roof I also added two stubs of wire in each front corner of the roof which were sprung out a bit and gripped the cab sides when fitted. Hopefully I'll have the roof fixing done tonight and some photos.

The cab dias and foot rest was one area I wanted to get away from castings, it's a little more work but they seem to work ok. The A4 foot rests are too big, that's because they don't have to fight for space with the sanding and steam cock levers and bases and the firebox foot step in the middle is a separate item and can be positioned to suit your whim, slightly offset to the left is the norm.

I don't really have time before Bristol but will probably add the wooden floor, I will because I can and it'll look nice for show really.

At a bare minimum I need at least one side of the engine substantially complete for the show model and will leave the roof off so people can see into the cab. I'll bring the alpha model along so people can handle that and turn it upside down to see all the stay details, the production one will be hands off.

Theres a fair way to go yet with valances and cylinder wrappers and steam cocks with linkages, the injectors I'll have to do after the show, there's just no time left.

Right, to bring some clarity to all the waffle above, pictures to show how the cab roof is retained.

First, drill the backhead extension cover and solder a 12BA nut to the underside, you can just see the hole between the two safety valves.



Add a strip to the underside of the roof, it is important to secure it to the main roof and not the humped section which is only half etch thick, making it curved adds a little more strength when it's tightened down. I am contemplating adding this strap as part of the main roof etch, builders can always cut it out if they don't want to use it, I'll sleep on that for a few days.



Place on top of cab and secure with 12BA screw, make sure your curved plate has enough clearance for the screw head when tightened down, so that the safety valve cover can be fitted.



It is important to get the roof curvature just right so that when tightened down it follows the cab front profile and also prevents the tail end from kicking up, overall that was the hardest task. It won't be level or square when unscrewed, but when pulled down and under tension it should all flatten out and fit snugly.

Add the safety valve cover, can be soldered if you never want to take it off again, or an adhesive/double sided tape will hold it temporarily.



Check the profile to make sure the cab roof is square and settled down correctly.



In my case, not quite, the tail end is kicking up a fraction, I can tweak the roof to get this sorted, or simply add a small dab of epoxy once painted to hold the tail end down.

I did have a bit of a panic when viewing the side profile, in as much that the hump is hardly noticeable, to be fair there's a couple of issues, the tail end of the whole roof is kicking up a fraction and the humped section, whilst perfect at the front has become fractionally flattened behind the ventilators.

My fault totally as I failed to bend it enough and to get it to fit in the roof slot trimmed it a little, mind were talking about 0.2/3 mm height deficit. Either way it did send me scurrying to pull out the W1 cab GA and in reality the cab hump is only 1.4 mm above the roof crown, very shallow and I think less than the A4 hump. I'll tweak the hump to bring it back up to the right height and adjust the roof curvature to level the cant rail later in the week.

Onward.

mickoo said:

In my case, not quite, the tail end is kicking up a fraction, I can tweak the roof to get this sorted, or simply add a small dab of epoxy once painted to hold the tail end down.

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Hi Mick,
I would have thought securing the rear end is essential. With the screw fitting being right at the front, if you snag the rear it may lift and cause serious damage.
Cheers,
Peter

I tend to agree.

If it were possible to hook the rear end onto the sides, and then screw the front down, it would be much stronger.
Would protect the sides too.

Best
Simon

I respect that, but it'll be up to respective builders to decide what's best.

Personally if I was worried I'd solder it and be done. However, the Alpha model has been to shows for two years now and it fundamentally had the same fixing, just to the floor and not the back head extension; I'm pleased to say it suffered no ill effects throughout all that handling, either by myself or customers.

The presentation model will not be handled by anyone but myself at shows and I may leave the roof off or just placed on so prospective customers can see the back head detail if they wish.

mickoo said:

I respect that, but it'll be up to respective builders to decide what's best.

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Absolutely Mick.

I mention it mainly from my own perspective, being the clumsy git that I am. I've lost track of the number of times I've snagged the pipes on the A4 cylinder drain cocks since I put them on, but that's another story.
Cheers,
Peter

Ditto...!

Almost ready for the show, just the LH cylinder cover and valve gear to refit, rather than invite Mr CCU this late tonight, I'll do them first thing in the morning before packing it away for the trip.









Having lost a week with an eye infection I'm a little over the planned end date, still pushing for the end of the month though, next weekend at the latest.

Lovely modelling Mick. Good luck with the show. I wont be at the show as it's to far for me to come. Give my regards to the rest of the Finney crew.

Len

Last one for the show, would liked to of added a few more parts but way out of time now.

Hi Mick,
Superb!

I see you have used copper wire for the whistle valve pipe. I used brass as I thought it would be less prone to getting bent, but I suppose on the W1 it won't look out of place, as most photos in later condition show it sagging quite a bit.

Those cylinder drain pipes a begging to be snagged. Shouldn't there be a third pipe each side running from the middle cylinder? Did you run out of time or were they routed forwards underneath on the W1?

Cheers,
Peter

On the w1 they appear to be routed down the centre line. Theres two clips to put on the steam cock pipes and the extra length means they wont short out as when bogie slides across the hub touches the pipes first.

This really is very nice Mick

Sorry if I'm ignoring anyone, it's not intentional it's just build, photo, publish, build, photo..... y'all know the drill.

Ok small update, now we're into the nitty gritty details, some of which need a slight revision to make them more......robust

Essentially four days on the steam cock drains, pipework and levers and just about 2/3rds complete, mind I did one day on the rest of the casing, number plate, AWS bang plate etc to finish the upper works off.







Like a numpty I forgot to add the pipe clips in the artwork, so these have gone in and I'll scratch some for the model and instructions.

Plan A didn't survive first contact, that being fit the front bogie splashers earlier on, the theory was sound but in practice it's a bit of a pain getting the little outside transfer levers in place, so plan B was/is to fit the splashers once all this work is done.

It's also due a jolly good clean up but I'll take the wheels out for that as they'll just rust like crazy no matter how quick you dry them.

Ok, front end done, as far as the instructions go, just need to put the bogie splashers back and add the drain pipes and clips for the demo model to complete.

One of the most frequent comments at shows is, thanks to your on line build...or...your on line build helped me...So, in that context here's some helpful images for those that may need them in future.

Basically the front end as it's quite a tangle. first the steam drain cocks and levers.







And sanding fixtures.



With brake beams removed for clarity.



Fill pipes...copper.





Ash pan next.

Stunning work

john lewsey said:

Stunning work

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Cheers

Ash pan all done and fitted, poor old girl had a bit of an accident earlier, but I think I've got away with it, luckily one of the previous test etches had some spare parts on that I managed to fit back on.

Still, nearly there now, backhead and injectors plus pipes and we're home dry, oh and I keep forgetting the expansion link bearing covers

Superb Mick,
Wish I'd had those castings for the ash pan operating lever when I was doing the A4. Do you know what radius of curve it will negotiate?
Cheers,
Peter

P A D said:

Do you know what radius of curve it will negotiate?

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Roman, possibly?