Elmham Market in EM

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James Spooner

James Spooner

Western Thunderer
I have just wired up the chassis and fitted the body, with cab interior and tested to make sure everything works OK. It seems to, although rather noisy in the forwards direction. I’ll let it run in for a bit and see if it all settles down. It seems quite free running so nothing appears to be binding. A couple of short videos attached.

Nigel


 
James Spooner

James Spooner

Western Thunderer
Confession time. I have spent the last couple of evenings painstakingly filing the boiler barrel down to the right dimensions to a much greater degree than planned. The barrel comes in the kit as just a plain piece of brass tubing. It needs cutting back so the top part of the barrel sits snugly on the tank tops. I carefully measured the amount by which the boiler sits proud of the tanks from a scale drawing kindly supplied by Mr H Garden of this parish. I then marked it all up and made my cuts with a piercing saw (allowing for a bit of drift so I knew I had some filing to do but hoped it was minimal).

Best laid plans of mice and men, combined with the old adage of measure twice and cut once… To cut a long story short, I had measured against the drawing for the similar (but different!) F4/5, not the F6. One of the differences was the tank height so my carefully cut boiler sat about 2mm too high and was blocking a part of the cab front windows. It took a while for the penny to drop but once the lightbulb was turned on I realised I had quite a bit of brass to file off (I suppose I could have cut again but was concerned about the blade drifting where it shouldn’t). One sore wrist and hand later and I think I am about there with it…

Nigel

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James Spooner

James Spooner

Western Thunderer
With retirement looming at the end of this week life seems to have become a bit of an alcoholic haze of varying retirement functions (definitely not conducive to modelling!). However, a break today saw me grappling with the bit I had been deferring: the smokebox wrappers and assembly.

This has been some time in the gestation as the cradle for the smokebox was too short and didn’t support the boiler end. I therefore used a part of the cut away piece of the boiler to form a fillet and filed it down to size. The inner wrapper (essentially a slice of boiler tube) was soldered on with my flame into get the solder to flow the whole way through. The supporting fillet was treated in the same way. The outer smokebox wrapper was then bent using my GW roller and soldered in using solder paint. Some cleaning up followed then the assembly was soldered on to the footplate/cab/tanks assembly.

A couple of photos are attached. At the moment the smokebox door is just loosely in place as I need to solder the side frame extensions in first (which is also why I’m relatively relaxed about the gaps at the bottom - they will be covered by the side frames and also the piano box at the front).

Nigel


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Lyndhurstman

Lyndhurstman

Western Thunderer
Hello Nigel
Firstly, congratulations on your impending retirement. A hard-won victory, if my experience (less than a year to do…) is anything to go by.

And secondly, further congratulations on the wrapper wrangling. Pesky things, they can be. Not having rollers, I used some thin garden wire and the gas cooker flame (clasped at a safe remove via a suitably lengthy pair of snipe-nosed pliers) for the Y4. But that had rivet detail, which precluded rolling it with any significant pressure…

Cheers

Jan
 
David Waite

David Waite

Western Thunderer
Make sure you get all those jobs you want done before you retire because once retired what isn’t told to you is the days become shorter and you will be turning the pages of the calendar quicker than you have ever done even though the clock still ticks at its normal speed, I’m still trying to work that one out.
Enjoy your retirement.
David.
 
James Spooner

James Spooner

Western Thunderer
David Waite said:
Make sure you get all those jobs you want done before you retire because once retired what isn’t told to you is the days become shorter and you will be turning the pages of the calendar quicker than you have ever done even though the clock still ticks at its normal speed, I’m still trying to work that one out.
Enjoy your retirement.
David.
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Thanks David, and you are not alone in passing on that wise advice!

Nigel
 
LarryG

LarryG

Western Thunderer
Look back, I never really worked and so 'retirement' was hard to define! Life for me was, and continues to be, a series of chapters and so no doubt many more adventures await you in "retirement".... Good luck. :thumbs:
 
James Spooner

James Spooner

Western Thunderer
Lyndhurstman said:
Hello Nigel
Firstly, congratulations on your impending retirement. A hard-won victory, if my experience (less than a year to do…) is anything to go by.

And secondly, further congratulations on the wrapper wrangling. Pesky things, they can be. Not having rollers, I used some thin garden wire and the gas cooker flame (clasped at a safe remove via a suitably lengthy pair of snipe-nosed pliers) for the Y4. But that had rivet detail, which precluded rolling it with any significant pressure…

Cheers

Jan
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Thanks Jan and the outer wrapper always catches me out because I am useless at differential soldering temperatures with something of that size. Must admit to looking forward to retirement as I am feeling out of sympathy with the increasing compliance requirements in my line of business.

Nigel
 
James Spooner

James Spooner

Western Thunderer
A bit more progress this evening. The frames in front of the tanks have been soldered in and the piano front cut to shape but not fixed in yet. The chimney has also had its hole drilled in the smokebox and sits in place. The roof has been formed although I am not entirely happy with the size. It seems to have over large overhangs at front and back and might need a bit of filing to shape. The coal rails have been formed and soldered in place. A photo attached.

Nigel

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Herb Garden

Herb Garden

Western Thunderer
James Spooner said:
A bit more progress this evening. The frames in front of the tanks have been soldered in and the piano front cut to shape but not fixed in yet. The chimney has also had its hole drilled in the smokebox and sits in place. The roof has been formed although I am not entirely happy with the size. It seems to have over large overhangs at front and back and might need a bit of filing to shape. The coal rails have been formed and soldered in place. A photo attached.

Nigel

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Looking rather excellent matey, a good job done under difficult circumstances. These AG kits are not for the faint hearted....
 
robertm

robertm

Western Thunderer
I agree, the F6 is looking very good. I had a bit of an auction room spasm recently, and among my purchases was this little thing. As I’m overseas, it’s always a risk buying things unseen, but I have no other options, fingers crossed it’s not a dud. The buffers are wrong and the front coupling looks crude. It will be refinished in BR livery so I’ll lose the heavy paint job. I also won a very nice F3, again I would like to repaint in BR colours but I’ve never seen one in this finish. I would appreciate it if any reader can steer me to a photo.
Loving Elmham Market, inspirational stuff.
BobIMG_0669.jpeg
 
James Spooner

James Spooner

Western Thunderer
robertm said:
I agree, the F6 is looking very good. I had a bit of an auction room spasm recently, and among my purchases was this little thing. As I’m overseas, it’s always a risk buying things unseen, but I have no other options, fingers crossed it’s not a dud. The buffers are wrong and the front coupling looks crude. It will be refinished in BR livery so I’ll lose the heavy paint job. I also won a very nice F3, again I would like to repaint in BR colours but I’ve never seen one in this finish. I would appreciate it if any reader can steer me to a photo.
Loving Elmham Market, inspirational stuff.
BobView attachment 218949
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Hi Bob

Thanks for your kind comments and I like your purchase! On your F3 question, the RCTS green book says only three of the class received their BR numbers as withdrawals took place very swiftly around 1948 (possibly due to displacement of F4/5s after the Central line extension and Shenfield electrification!). Those three were 67127/8 and 67149. It also records they didn’t receive lined out livery. Not sure how far Stratford took them; unlined black with BR numbers and an early crest possibly?

Nigel
 
James Spooner

James Spooner

Western Thunderer
With the wet weather in these parts today I managed to get some detailing done on the F6 body. I have a photo in Yeadon’s of 67227 in BR days and, as it was based at Cambridge through most of the 1950s and was one of the last of the class to be withdrawn, I felt that was a suitable prototype. I’ve been working on the driver’s side (RHS) and have made up and soldered in the vacuum ejector pipe, also the front spring hangar, the Westinghouse pump (and its support forms and associated pipework), tank filler, steps and tank vent. I have also soldered the chimney in place. That will be all for a week as Mrs B is taking me to Oporto for a week to celebrate retirement. Normal service will resume on our return!

Nigel

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James Spooner

James Spooner

Western Thunderer
robertm said:
I agree, the F6 is looking very good. I had a bit of an auction room spasm recently, and among my purchases was this little thing. As I’m overseas, it’s always a risk buying things unseen, but I have no other options, fingers crossed it’s not a dud. The buffers are wrong and the front coupling looks crude. It will be refinished in BR livery so I’ll lose the heavy paint job. I also won a very nice F3, again I would like to repaint in BR colours but I’ve never seen one in this finish. I would appreciate it if any reader can steer me to a photo.
Loving Elmham Market, inspirational stuff.
BobView attachment 218949
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Bob

Here’s a photo of 67127 in BR livery…

Nigel

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