Jennifer Who?

Jon Nazareth

Western Thunderer
The idea of building a Jenny Lind was put into my head by Williams the Steam well, that and the fact that the original was first built for the LBSCR. I think that I may have made a rod for my own back though as the driving wheel is fitted to an inside frame arrangement that is fixed to the smokebox at one end and the firebox at the other. Mixing sheet metal work and engineering to me seems an odd thing and if I went down that route, I think that the driving wheel arrangement wouldn't work that well if at all. I've been trying to think of another way of mounting them but haven't come up with anything as yet. The title of 'Jennifer Who ?' is because, like Enigma, I shall only be basing this model on the prototype. My capabilities won't run to producing a true model. Just look at that pump which is bolted to the firebox. That in itself would be a very tricky thing to make and very time consuming as well.

The photos show the wheels machined up and the axlebox guides formed. I'm not happy with the way that the driving wheels came out and so, I'll be machining a new set, when they arrive. One other thing that looks very odd is having a 5/32" hole for the driving axle. One reason for this is because the gearbox has a 1/4" hole for the axle to pass through. So that there is a decent shoulder for the wheel to bear against, the axle is turned down to 5/32". I did look at the gearbox to see if this could be opened out to take a larger diameter axle but it looked a bit too tricky for me. The bulk of the gearbox is brass but it has some tiny bearings for the axle to run in and some larger ones would need to be sourced and somehow fitted.

Jon

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Mike W

Western Thunderer
Hats off you you Jon for tackling it and I look forward to seeing that dome and safety valve in all their glory! I am almost sorry I suggested the engine now - only almost! The wheels look lovely.

If you don't want the name Jenny Lind, what about P.T.Barnum?

Mike
 
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Jon Nazareth

Western Thunderer
Mike
I'll be attempting the dome and safety valve but they won't be fluted. The base of the dome scales at 1 5/8" but I only have 1 1/2" square brass so that will have to do. I'm thinking of making it in two parts so that I can fly cut the base, that's the theory at least :). I've contacted Mark Wood and he will be producing some new drivers for me but delivery won't be until late Spring.

For her name, I was thinking of looking up to see if there was another female opera singer of the period whose name I could use. Was Jenny Lind also known as the Linnet? I'll have to look that one up as well.

Jon
 

Jon Nazareth

Western Thunderer
It was a bird but a different species, she was known as the Swedish Nightingale so, maybe Nightingale would be an apt name, conected at least.

Jon
 

lankytank

Western Thunderer
Jon,

John Taylor (Midnight Miller, of this parish) has the dome machining down to a fine art. Might be worth a word with him?
 

Ian_T

Western Thunderer
Yes - there's a photo of a G1 'Jenny Lind' (by Cromford Designs) in the Winter 2020 G1MRA Journal - and John did the fluted dome on that engine.
 

midnightmiller

Active Member
Yes - there's a photo of a G1 'Jenny Lind' (by Cromford Designs) in the Winter 2020 G1MRA Journal - and John did the fluted dome on that engine.
Any one with the mad urge to do the dome can read it up in the last A.L.S.R.M. magazine , would just like to add that I did scrap a barrel before it came out right .
 
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midnightmiller

Active Member
The idea of building a Jenny Lind was put into my head by Williams the Steam well, that and the fact that the original was first built for the LBSCR. I think that I may have made a rod for my own back though as the driving wheel is fitted to an inside frame arrangement that is fixed to the smokebox at one end and the firebox at the other. Mixing sheet metal work and engineering to me seems an odd thing and if I went down that route, I think that the driving wheel arrangement wouldn't work that well if at all. I've been trying to think of another way of mounting them but haven't come up with anything as yet. The title of 'Jennifer Who ?' is because, like Enigma, I shall only be basing this model on the prototype. My capabilities won't run to producing a true model. Just look at that pump which is bolted to the firebox. That in itself would be a very tricky thing to make and very time consuming as well.

The photos show the wheels machined up and the axlebox guides formed. I'm not happy with the way that the driving wheels came out and so, I'll be machining a new set, when they arrive. One other thing that looks very odd is having a 5/32" hole for the driving axle. One reason for this is because the gearbox has a 1/4" hole for the axle to pass through. So that there is a decent shoulder for the wheel to bear against, the axle is turned down to 5/32". I did look at the gearbox to see if this could be opened out to take a larger diameter axle but it looked a bit too tricky for me. The bulk of the gearbox is brass but it has some tiny bearings for the axle to run in and some larger ones would need to be sourced and somehow fitted.

Jon

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Evening Jon , the feed pump on the fire box is the easy bit , give it a go .
 

Jon Nazareth

Western Thunderer
My thoughts have turned back to this loco.

The original centre wheels were hung on a separate frame that was bolted to the smokebox at the rear and to spacers set out from the frame at the front. I'm thinking of running the centre axle in solid axle boxes i.e., there won't be any up or down movement, and fit coil springs to the leading and trailing wheels. My question is, would this sort of set up work or would it react like a see-saw?

Jon
 

Northroader

Western Thunderer
The single drivers I have done have the driving axle in bushes which don’t deflect in the frame, and one or the other of the carrying axles also solid.(usually the lead one) The other carrying axle is allowed to deflect, with light springing to keep the wheels in contact with the rail. Then lead ballast is added to get the centre of gravity close to the driving axle on the “solid” carrying axle side.
 

Jon Nazareth

Western Thunderer
Here are the frames complete with new side rails. The width of the frames was taken from an original drawing that I had but looking at them with this wagon axle just for comparison, they look pretty wide to me. I don't particularly want to re-make any more pieces and so, I'll soldier on with what I have. It's pouring with rain outside today, just the sort of day to disappear into the shed to make axles and axle boxes. I've already machined up the carrying wheels so, that's one less job.

Jon

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Jon Nazareth

Western Thunderer
Back to this one but going in a sightly different direction. As I'm building an early LSWR 'train', I thought that it would be nice to have something to pull it along. I'm going to change my thinking about building something that looks like Jenny Lind and try a freelance locomotive and tender painted in the Indian Red of the early LSWR locomotives.
I would rather not scrap the axlebox guides that I have already made but, I may have to and make 12 new ones, a bit of a daunting task. The real Jenny had her driving wheels carried on a sort of sub frame that was fitted to the smokebox at one end and the firebox at the other. I don't think that I am capable of building such a thing and so I'm thinking about other solutions. Making new guides is one idea and making some sort of axlebox carrier that is fixed to the inside of the frames is another. The side frames are already drilled and if I make new guides, I feel that I could match up the holes with the proposed new guides, I'd hate to have to make new side frames as well. So, lots to think about.
I spent a very pleasant day in the shed machining up new drivers and tender wheels. The drivers arrived Wednesday and were a replacement for some that I managed to mess up. I nearly did the same to these but I'm letting this one go as I don't want to fork out for another set. The leading and trailing wheels were green but I stripped off that paint re-doing them in wine red.

If anyone has any ideas re the problem of mounting the drivers, I'd like to hear.

Jon

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Re-painted wheels.

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A tender similar to this one.

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A loco along these lines. It can be seen that new guides would make this work.
 

NickB

Western Thunderer
Jon,

That construction of carrying wheels supported on the outer frame and driving wheels supported by inside and outside frames was quite common at the time. Sharp Brothers made hundreds of very similar locos that were found on many early British and European railways. Some years ago I was asked to build a 7mm model of the replica of Odin, the first loco to run in Denmark (a model of a full-size model, if you like!). If you can find a copy of The Odin Project by Michael Bailey and John Glithero, it contains a complete set of drawings of the replica.

I didn't take many photos of the model, but here is a rather poor one of the bits and pieces. I probably made it more complicated than necessary by reproducing the prototype construction. The advantage is that the driving wheelset and inside works can all be made separately from the rest of the loco and then dropped into place. I should add that it was tender driven, there being no space available on the driving axle. If I were to do it again and reproduce all the rods and valve gear (and the trouble is, they can be seen under the boiler), I think I would retain that form of construction. But if the insides were non-working, simplified, or omitted altogether, I woiuld make the inside frames dummies and support all three axles on the outside frames.

Good luck with the project.

Nick

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