7mm On Heather's Workbench - Aintree Iron: an Austerity adventure

[Heather Kay]

The thread title will make sense when I explain this build is an Austerity 2-8-0, and the client's chosen loco ended its days at Aintree 27B.

This commission build is of the JLTRT WD kit. It's a mixed media kit, with the usual mix of resin, etched and cast metal. Forgive me for not photographing the unbuilt parts - the bench is in a bit of a mess, and I was not in the mood to clear it.

The loco to be built is 90643, and the client wants to weather it. The build, therefore, will be to ex-works standards. Happily, the client found photos of the loco from both sides, so I can get most of the specific details right.

The box that arrived contained several spare sets of frame etches. I have a feeling a previous owner began the build, then found it beyond their skills. I know the client felt he couldn't do the build justice, which is where I stepped in. A nice weighty resin boiler assembly, with a resin smokebox saddle, sits on nickel silver frames and brass running plate and cab. Large whitemetal castings for the backhead and boiler fittings, with some frankly beautiful lost wax brass detail castings. I seem to have the super detail kit, which is nice. The tender has a nickel silver inside frames and a compensation system, brass running plate, front and fenders, with the main body cast in resin. Lots of nice brass castings replicate the brakes, suspension and axle boxes.

I have decanted the castings into a couple of plastic boxes, engine and tender. Standard Slater's wheels and a GB30R-3M gearbox with Mashima 1833 completes the mechanicals. Happily, no DCC or sound is required. I'm going to have to cross that bridge one day.



Needing a break from the MMP RMB build, I picked this box off the shelf. I made a start on the tender, and this is the result after about half a day at the bench. As ever, the instructions don't quite match the box contents, so I'm have to dig into my resources a bit. One thing exercising me right now is how to fit the bunker internal bracing. It's in the etch, but not mentioned in the instructions. I really need some clear photos of an empty bunker from above, so I feel a spot of armchair modelling coming on.

 

[Heather Kay]

I just remembered I have a Bachmann 4mm scale WD. Ironic that I have to use a mass-produced model to give me some clue as to how a kit goes together!

 

[Heather Kay]

Steady progress on the tender today. I'm not rushing things, it is a weekend after all!

The instructions, as already noted, don't mention the bunker reinforcing brackets. They are there on the etch, well, the side brackets are at least, and there are long half-etch strips that grow from the main fender etch. Under a magnifier, you can make out tiny nicks in these strips which represent the part where you bend them to match the main brackets.

That's complicated. Sorry. Some piccies to explain.



Before I started, I set about the Bachmann tender to work out the positions of the brackets. I used the back board inside face as my datum, remembering the 4mm model sheet work is a little on the thick side.

Converting to real world dimensions, I made the positions as 5ft, 7ft 6in, 10ft, 12ft 6in. After fitting the fender etch to the resin block, I ran a pencil around the inside to locate the bunker floor against the back and sides.

Then I spent a few minutes working out which brackets went where. This is where I discovered the more obvious - in full bunker - brackets inside the rear panel are not provided.

Having marked out the side bracket spacing, the first job was to fit the half-etch strips. If you go by the fold nicks, the strips go to the top edge of the fender side. If you mark using the etched bracket the strips should just be about a millimetre shy of the top edge. This fits with what Bachmann moulded, too. The strips are located on the rear of the brackets, if viewed from the cab.



So, strips on first, then solder the brackets butting up to the edges.



Carefully bend the half-etch strips to match the bracket angles, and run some solder in. Repeat for the other side. The half-etch strip can be trimmed back to the end of the bracket, and tidied up with a fine file.



A spot of fettling and trimming was needed to the short brackets to let the fender slot back in place. Now to find some brass angle to fabricate the missing rear panel brackets. What a good job I decided to model the Bachmann tender without a completely full bunker…

 

[Heather Kay]

I think I'm having a better day than England's cricket team at Lord's today.

I rummaged in my metal section shelf, and came up with some 2mm brass angle to make up the bunker rear plate brackets.

A little more measuring on the Bachmann model gave me some dimensions that didn't really match with the few photos I could muster that show the brackets in question. The 4mm tender seems to have the brackets a little further out from the centreline than they appear in photos. I made it a scale 1ft 3in. Using a little artistic licence (an older document than the modeller's licence I hope we all have) in lieu of actual dimensions (naughty, naughty) I guesstimated the brackets are probably 1ft 6in either side of the centreline. It looked about right.



The brackets sort of scaled out to 1ft 3in on a side, so measured things out on the brass section, filed a vee on one side and carefully folded until it fitted the bunker fender and back slope. Having worked on the full length of section for ease of handling, I trimmed the folded bracket off a little long, and filed back to the correct length. Some adjustment to the angle was required to get it to sit neatly. A second bracket followed quite quickly.



Interpreting the photos, and assuming Bachmann didn't get it all wrong, I fixed the brackets to the fender plate with the ribs towards the sides.

Not a bad day's work. I think the floor and frames are on the menu for Monday.

 

[oldravendale]

I really need some clear photos of an empty bunker from above, so I feel a spot of armchair modelling coming on.

Hello Heather.

I have a lorra lorra pictures of WDs and have just gone through every one of them. All those which could show the internals of the tender are absolutely brimming with coal so no interior detail is visible. However, I've found this one which suggests that the brackets you've installed in the bacxk of the tender are about right.



Hope it helps.

Brian

 

[micknich2003]

/ATTACH]

 

[micknich2003]

Heather, there is more to come. I have the full engine and tender, but if I put it on here, I can only do it in bits. I can send direct.

 

[Heather Kay]

Heather, there is more to come. I have the full engine and tender, but if I put it on here, I can only do it in bits. I can send direct.

If you don't mind sending it direct, that would be brilliant. I'll DM you my email address.

We used to have a copy of the GA, but it went with an ancient kit we sold on some years back.

 

[oldravendale]

Which book is that from?

I missed an Ebay bid on the OPC Power of the WD's recently but aim to get the Irwell Press one when funds are released imminently as well as a whole load of others book marked for purchase

Hi Mick.

It's from "The WD Austerity 2-8-0. The BR Record" by J Hooper and published by Booklaw Publications. Photos and reproduction are first class.

Brian

 

[Steph Dale]

Nice work Heather,
I'm watching with interest as I've got a two of these JLTRT tenders to build for a couple of LMS locos...
Steph

 

[oldravendale]

Brian, cheers I've seen a couple of copies of that book pass through Ebay recently but found the cover uninspiring and steered clear, clearly the insides are much better!

Yes Mick, there are some cracking images of locos in detail and tenders. However, the book is really a chronology with pages and pages of lists. These include such useful stuff as allocations by Shed, Detail - Differences and changes and details of boilers among any amount of other detail. But, it's hardly a reading book (for the most part). However, it's a really useful reference if you are building a model of one of them.

Published price is £34.99 but I got hold of mine as a remaindered copy at about £20.

Brian.

 

[Heather Kay]

Whilst browsing Flickr for tender images....someone always has the image you need, it's finding it that's the hard part!....I came across this nice shot of the smoke box and boiler front details

https://www.flickr.com/photos/photos1940s/14230657721

May be of some use at some point.

You have me now. I'm going to have to check a ton of other photos to see if that tender front water gauge was a regular fitting!

 

[oldravendale]

You have me now. I'm going to have to check a ton of other photos to see if that tender front water gauge was a regular fitting!

I'll check some more tender photos tomorrow, Heather. I think there are enough to show whether the fitting was standard or not!

Brian

 

[micknich2003]

Anyone who wants the GA drawing please contact me direct, micknich2003@yahoo. The GA was published in the "Railway Gazette", I think it was my copy that John used in the book. Best Wishes, Mick.

 

[dibateg]

Here are a couple for you from the SVR Heather





Regards

Tony

 

[OzzyO]

You have me now. I'm going to have to check a ton of other photos to see if that tender front water gauge was a regular fitting!

Hello Heather,

it's on the G/A drawing, so I'd say that it's going to be a regular fitting, after all you do want to know how much water you have in the tank. It could have been a glass tube, that could be a bit of fun on a steam loco. Or it could have been a steel tube with a number of holes drilled in it (think of the film The Elizabethan when the A4 picks up water) but how do you stop water running out all of the time? Yes an on off tap would work, but where would it be fitted?

OzzyO.

 

[Heather Kay]

This is why I love Western Thunder and why I spend more time here than over at RMW.

Thanks ever so much for giving me reason to appease my detail demon. While there's a ton of detail in the kit, it seems we've uncovered some more!

 

[Dan Randall]

My understanding is that it is just a steel rod, about ¾"dia, you withdraw it from the current location at the tender front and drop it into a corresponding hole / tube in the tank top, probably in board somewhere, then pull out and place back in the holder, then simply measure off the wet bit on the rod against the scale

Simple is as simple does.

A giant dipstick - brilliant!


Regards

Dan

 

[Heather Kay]

A giant dipstick - brilliant!

An elegant solution, designed so your average Transport Corp squaddie could clamber up and drive off.

 

[Steph Dale]

I suspect that water gauge is much like those in use on the Southern. Put simply it's a length of tube with a well-fitting rod or tube down the centre of it. The two items are cross-drilled in stepped intervals and then welded in to the side of the tank. Turning the inner rod/tube through 90degrees turns the water on/off. The height at which water sprays/dribbles out of the holes tells you how full the tank is.
Steph