7mm Gladiator Horwich Mogul

[P A D]

I have the Gladiator Fowler 2-6-4t and the Horwich Mogul to do next and after tossing a coin, the 'Crab' won.

Here's what comes in the box. Tons of lovely brass castings, plus a few in white metal along with several in cast resin, notably the firebox which will be a big time saver. There's also a selection of brass rod and copper wire to complete the parts, with the various nuts and bolts sealed in the poly bags.


Tender etchings - brass. This has a flush sided tender so will be easier to add the lining than the riveted Stanier mogul.


Loco etchings - brass


Loco etchings - nickel silver. One of the main frames was already cut out when the nickel sheet was cut down to fit in the Gladiator box.


The tender is of original Gladiator design dating back decades, whereas the loco (as is the Fowler 4P tank) is a new design by John Firminger. As I'm familiar with the Fowler tender having recently built the Stanier Mogul, I decided to crack on with the loco first.

Here are the frames after fitting the axle bushes along with some of the spacers. As usual, I've elongated the middle bush holes to allow them to 'float'. The narrow spacer on the left is an error and not used. There is a correction in the instructions and supplementary parts to replace it.


There isn't a spacer for the frames at the front which I thought left them a little vulnerable during handling.


So I added one madefrom waste fret.


And an underside view showing the corrected spacer at the rear (the one with the vacuum cylinder).


Next the brake gear is loosely added with only the brake hanger brackets actually soldered. I held it all together with short lengths of silicone tube on the ends of the various pivots. In doing it this way, I was following the instructions and was a little sceptical of the wisdom of the method.




Then the wheels are fitted and the brake gear can hang loosely.


Then the hangers are lined up with the wheels and soldered at the brackets, followed by the soldering the crossbeam pivots one pair at a time. I started at the front and worked backwards. The front brakes have their own vacuum cylinder so the front pull rod is fixed independently front middle and rear ones.


Despite my initial scepticism, it was quite straightforward if a little fiddly putting loosely together before soldering.


The middle and rear brakes are operated by the cylinder at the rear.


The was no pivots detail on the brake blocks, so I drilled them out 1mm and added lengths 1mm brass rod.


So far I'm very impressed with the design and fit of the parts and will definitely have more fun building this than the Oakville Ivatt.

Cheers,
Peter

 

[Genghis]

I will, of course, follow this build with interest!
There is a story behind the mainframes. After we had sold the first batch of kits, we had a comment made by a customer that the frames under the cab were wrong with the brake cross shaft being too long and supported by the frames, this arrangement giving no room for the exhaust injector that is angled behind the steps. A quick chat with John Firminger and a check of the drawings showed that the customer was right and that the drag beam was also mis-shaped. John quickly drew up a replacement set of frames, drag beam and a new rear spacer and support arms for the brake shaft. These were duly etched and distributed with new kits. It didn't take long - but unfortunately not long enough for me - to realise that John had drawn up identical left and right frames, so a new set was duly drawn up and etched. This was fine until we realised that the spring detail was now etched on the wrong side of the springs. So we are now on the fourth set of tools for the frame etch. To keep printing costs under control the frames are printed on a supplementary sheet that is too big to fit in our standard box. Hence we supply frets where I have removed the original frames and cut out the replacement so it fits in the box. All of this is in no way a criticism of John, who battled his illness with a cocktail of medication and gave his all to the projects he was helping us with. I relate this anecdote in the hope that those not involved in the production of kits might be interested.
David

 

[P A D]

Thanks David for the insight into the trials and tribulations of kit design and production.
Cheers,
Peter

 

[P A D]

The cylinders are designed to be individually bolted to the main frames. Note the rebates in the front and rear cylinder plates which are a great aid to fitting the wrapper. The piston gland/slide bar bracket castings are fitted from the inside.


Wrappers are provided for the original set up with two relief valves or the later modification. The 8BA screws are soldered in place and cut short on the outside to act as alignment studs. A screw is then inserted from inside the mainframe to fasten the cylinders in place.


Although thin, the wrappers are quite robust and were easy to shape without annealing. A small rebate has to be cut in the rear plates to clear the front brake hanger, but this is mentioned in the instructions.


The motion braket after laminating.


Cylinders and motion bracket in place.


On the left the front of the RH cylinder after fitting the front valve cover. I noted from prototype images that there are a couple of screws or rivets on the lower face and I've added these using small brass rivets. On the right the rear valve cover on the left hand cylinder. The brass castings are excellent with no flash and only the remains of the stub after cutting from the sprue to clean up.


The rear sandboxes (resin) and running plate support brackets have been fixed, but the middle/front sandboxes (resin) and valve guide support bracket (brass) are only loosely fitted for the photos.


At this stage I'm not sure how or if the cylinders and motion will be removable for painting, but I'll cross that bridge when I get to it.


There's an awful lot of clutter under the running plate on these locos and it's all represented and mostly in cast brass.




Cheers,
Peter

 

[AdeMoore]

That’s some beautiful work Peter.