G3 Westinghouse brake pipes (loco)

Jon Nazareth

Western Thunderer
I've just sent off the artwork for a GER Westinghouse brake pipe, to be 3D printed, in gauge 3. If the result looks okay, I'm going to try and have a batch cast in brass.
My artwork is based on John Gardner's drawings published by the GERS. I don't know if it would also be applicable to other railways.
Is there anyone out there who would be interested in buying a few? More importantly, is there anyone knowledgeable in such things, prepared to vet my patterns for accuracy, if I send you one, before committing to brass?
Geoff
I would like to buy a few and even a couple of Westinghouse pumps if they are going to be available.

Jon
 

Mike W

Western Thunderer
I suggest meeting up at Mike Williams stand, if you want to see them in the flesh.
Just back home from setting up the stand. It looked like this tonight but may look different tomorrow!

One trouble with large scales is that you need a lot of stand space to show them, and stand space is expensive. Even with this space we had to leave 1/3 of the range at home.

Mike
 

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geoff_nicholls

Western Thunderer
attached is a screenshot of the westinghouse brake pump itself. It's supposed to represent one made at Stratford. I was intending to include (what I think is) the lubricator, but I don't know if the bulbous one attached to 87 is correct for pre 1914. And I'm beginning to get a bit fed up with it. It's taken the equivalent of two full days work(plus thinking time) to get this far. I still need to convert all the components into turbocad solid objects, then use boolean add to turn them into one part for printing.
A corrected version of the train pipe is with the printer. As soon as it comes back it will be sent off to Abbey Castings for casting in brass.
 

geoff_nicholls

Western Thunderer
after a bit of fiddling, i've managed to create orthographic projections and save them as a PDF (with a scale as PDF's don't come out 1:1)
As with the brake pipes, could anyone who might be interested in buying some, cast in brass, have a look, see what they think, and feed back any queries or possible errors, and how many you might want. There were minor detail differences between the Stratford ones and those manufactured by Westinghouse themselves, but I think they are difficult to spot without direct comparison.
 

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unklian

Western Thunderer
Geoff, I am interested in the pumps as well as some pipes/hoses. Just one thing regarding the pump, how tall is it ? Scaling off your PDF and assuming the scale on there is millimetres it looks to be about 40mm tall. Is that right ? When you said it was a 6/6.5" pump is that the bores of the steam and air cylinders of the prototype ?
 

demu1037

Western Thunderer
note both are on preserved locos, but possibly Fenchurch, at least is the one it came with from BR, 662 (pump) history unknown
 

geoff_nicholls

Western Thunderer
Unklian:
I think it is the bore. I'll need to reread the GERS Journal featuring these pumps. The scale is millimetres. According to the drawing by John Gardner, the lower cylinder is 11 5/8" tall and the upper 12" tall. The bolts in the brackets are 11 1/2" apart (13mm) One 1' 0 5/8" (14mm) above the other. it should be pretty much exactly what Steve Wheeler posted on No 87.
Demu1037:
the horizontal cylindrical shape on the top of the ones in the LBSC photos is the same as what's on the top of the 8"/8 1/2" pumps according to my drawings. They're a bit bigger, the two brackets being 21" apart instead of 12 5/8". You can see the westinghouse manufacturers plate on the upper picture.
 

oldravendale

Western Thunderer
I don't know if it's any help but Yorkshire Dave provided some drawings of the pump and it's assembly on Page 2 of my Building an Ace Kits "K" thread. Overseer provided a drawing of the vertical Westinghouse cylinder. One of our Flying Squad might be able to find a way of copying in to this thread, or find them on about page 3 of the Recent Posts in the thread.

Brian
 

unklian

Western Thunderer
Thank you for confirming the dimensions Geoff, and thank you everyone else for the various pictures. I will be very interested in a couple of pumps and a few pairs of pipes for my projects. As you can see I need a nice pump as it is in a rather exposed position on my loco of choice .120 Bicyclette001.jpg
You can also see that the lever on the pipe for the isolation valve is on the right here as well, and bent outwards slightly for extra knuckle clearance too.
 

Jon Nazareth

Western Thunderer
Gladstone+Westinghouse+020213.jpg Gladstone+Westinghouse+020213.jpg Terrier+Eng071081+RE.jpg

Are these any good, Geoff? Not sure how I managed to duplicate the coloured picture but, apparently, it's a picture of the one on Gladstone.

Jon
 

geoff_nicholls

Western Thunderer
thank you Ian and Jon. Both the French loco and Gladstone appear to have pumps the same size and shape as that which I've drawn. the top of the latter is identical, though the brass object on the side of the lower cylinder is extra.
My brake pipe could be altered to look like that on the L'état loco. Interesting the handles are all on that side of every photo I've seen, I guess it must be something to do with assumptions about right-handedness.
 

unklian

Western Thunderer
Geoff that's all very encouraging. I thought as a few of you liked my picture of the Etat French 2-4-0T you might like an even more 'interesting' French Westinghouse installation. Of course when you are faced with fitting air brakes to a small single driver loco built in the 1840's and converted from a tender to a well tank, there will be compromise. The pump is hung off the smokebox which is not that unusual, but the actual brake cylinders are mounted vertically on all that bracketry just in front of the splashers. A vertical pull rod then actuates a linkage that presses two brake blocks against the driving wheels on each side. As far as I can tell the carrying wheels are not braked. But who cares when you have continuous brakes ? And by the way both engines were built for the Western Railway of France or Chemin de fer de l'Ouest, Western definitely, thunderers possibly not.Buddicom tank 1.jpg
 

unklian

Western Thunderer
Well spotted Geoff. 0132 did indeed look like St Pierre originally. St Pierre also became 0133 and was turned into a tank engine as well in the 1860's. And that is what ensured her survival as she worked until just before WWI. Some far sighted staff of the Etat rly ( later SNCF ) then tucked her away for some years before retro restoring her with a new tender. She was exhibited at the Festival of Britain in 1951 before being stored for the National Museum at Mulhouse . Not bad for a loco built in 1844.
 
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