7mm Mickoo's Commercial Workbench

[mickoo]

The fat lady is warming up back stage (Tosca I believe).

Just a few small items to fit now, some will be post paint. Those that can be fitted are the three remaining linkages under the cab, two to the steam cock, sanding gear and the third to the rear damper.

Smoke box mid height lamp irons are in the post from LG so hopefully here soon, they'll probably be the last pieces fitted before I strip down and send to paint. The boiler feed pipework is just held with stiction and all will be removed for polishing and refitting post paint.

The valve gear is all fitted and run in. It was the LH side, the rear driver connecting rod bearing needed easing a little, all good now and runs nice and smoothly.

That only leaves the cab internals and backhead, the floor is still loose and removable, I'll keep it that way to aid interior painting and refit at the end. With a good tail wind and focused day at the bench tomorrow it should all get done, I'm planning on 10 or 12 hours but it'll more as likely be 15

 

[mickoo]

Good call re: condition and livery. I much prefer them without smoke plates and certainly without the Urie stovepipe. This engine out as a film:
The Green Knight (film) - Wikipedia

I am sorely tempted by the 3.5” version, which would make into a Scotch Arthur. That being the case it would be 772, Sir Percivale, again in original condition.

With all the gubbinery in the boiler, if traction were a problem, then you could weight the tender onto the back of the engine, allowing the front tender bogie a bit more vertical movement. That is what I did on the Baldwin 2-6-0 many moons ago.

Tim

I'm up over 900g at the moment and still have space for more, my target weight is around 1.5Kg which should be enough to give it the required traction.

I must confess, I am liking the Faulhaber mated to the ABC, I can't hear it at all, my hearing isn't great but I can easily hear other motor/gearbox assemblies, some of them ABC which probably makes them really bad

I've got another big LNER heavy weight later in the year/start of next year, that'll have the big 10W Maxon and ABC set up so it'll be interesting to see how smooth or quiet that is.

 

[mickoo]

Once again the fat lady has sung her song and the MOK King Arthur is done. Pulled an all nighter, you can get a lot done at the bench in 23hrs, nice to see the sun come up at silly 'o' clock

There's one or two pieces of pipework to fit after paint and several bits are just placed on the model for the photos. The next step is a full strip down and into the US cleaner. There's a couple of blow holes in the dome, safety valve cover and tool boxes that will need some milliput; that'll be after US cleaning as they'll probably blow out again if done before.

Then it'll be off to the painter, back for reassembly, DCC set up and finally the customer

The weekend is my time (US modelling/research) and then next week full bore on the Garratt to push that over the finish line hopefully by months end.

 

[Pencarrow]

Looks superb Mick. I much prefer the look of the King Arthur's to the Lord Nelsons, particularly with the big bogie tender. Unlike many I also like them with the smoke deflectors fitted, IMO they just finish off the front end. Going to look stunning when painted and finishing touches added.

 

[GrahameH]

Totally agree with Mr. Pencarrot, and being a GWR modeller it's one "foreign" locomotive I would be happy to run.

 

[mickoo]

Looks superb Mick. I much prefer the look of the King Arthur's to the Lord Nelsons, particularly with the big bogie tender. Unlike many I also like them with the smoke deflectors fitted, IMO they just finish off the front end. Going to look stunning when painted and finishing touches added.

Cheers,

I don't mind them either way and to be fair wasn't overly familiar with the early Uries until I built this. I'm not a big King Arthur fan but do admit from some angles they look respectable. Deflectors give them a more solid look but without they're more stretched out and racy to my eye. I think the distinct Urie cab gives it an elegant charm from a bygone era and suits the clean front end better.

 

[simond]

I always feel those cabs have a bit of a “sad dog” look about them.

 

[mickoo]

Last week was spent brushing up loose ends here and there and clearing the decks for new works, one of which was this Masterpiece Princess Coronation.

Those with nervous dispositions should look away now, this is what your Masterpiece model looks like when Mr Pat and his *^$%& black and white cat play rugger with your toy.







The remit was simple, can you fix it the answer was of course yes, now I'll find out if that statement is true. The first quick test was to see if by luck it'd straighten out, it did sort of and the RH side was passable but despite the LH side looking reasonably straight, up close it was anything but.







An added problem is the solder used by the builders is very high temp and it had been ripped and cracked in places, to get it to melt would of required a lot of heat and damaged the paint, a quick test at the cab front/roof proved that.

The decision was made to basically cut all the scrap off and start again, ample wet cloths and a micro torch easily removed the offend pieces, as though the solder took a lot of heat to melt and took an age to clean back. Amazingly the paint barely flinched, the roof came off perfectly and the paint remained intact save for a few high spots on the rivets showing the brass through.









Having cleaned all the crap off and cleaned up all the old solder we now have a good basis to rebuild, essentially it'll need a new cab front and sides, window frames and sliding windows and a new rear bulkhead. The turn ins with doors attached survived so they'll go back on the new rear bulkhead.

The design is different from most O gauge models that split the inner and outer firebox pieces, that allows you to use a full depth cab front, the Masterpiece model has a one piece firebox so the cab front need to be shaped to fit exactly up to the clothing band. I'll use the old one as a template and I'm in two minds as to hand cut one or etch one and make it part of the sides, I'll sleep on that for a few days and let the CAD pixies get to work on the sides and other pieces in the meantime.

Fret not over the pipework, it's just eased out of the way to clear the work area, it'll all go back straight in the end.

 

[mickoo]

Having set the CAD pixies off to work on the Masterpiece Princess Coronation it was time to clear up some old projects this week.

I spent a few hours yesterday getting up to speed on where I was at with the JM Garratt and essentially decided it was time to get on with the engines. There are a few more bits to do on the boiler bed plate but most needed the joining of the three pieces to work out clearances.

The frames make up nice and easy and the remit was to use the kit equalising beams for suspension, that does limit the amount of stay detail we can add, as does the bleedin great motors each end. There are one or two I will add but I'm going to keep what we have, changing anything major would basically mean all new frames which fall outside of the remit for the build.

It doesn't take long to get two rolling chassis and now that I have the joints set in place I can work everything around them. I've already had to modify some pipework, which, whilst built to the drawings only works in the model follows suit.....it didn't and it's easier to make the 3D match the brass in this instance.

It does go around a 6' curve but I need to trim back the new smokebox saddle base I put in, basically cut some clearance arches to prevent the trailing driver rims shorting. There are no clearance issues on the rear engine.





This is the last back logged model from before I started this malarky full time so it'll be good to finally get up to date and look/book new stuff.

 

[dibateg]

The King Arthur looks stunning Mick, what a cracking model!

Tony

 

[mickoo]

The King Arthur looks stunning Mick, what a cracking model!

Tony

Cheers,

It's been a bit of a haul but it got there in the end. We both (client and I) were unhappy with the tender tool boxes, they're not the right size and due to the casting process, a little rounded, so I whipped up some 3D ones and I've also gone back and added some pipe work and fittings to the tender front under frame to match the engine detail wise.

 

[mickoo]

End of week Garratt update, not as far as I'd like but reasonable progress, couple of issues and stumbles along the way. The pony truck wheel is just in place to balance the visuals, looks odd without it.

The joys of hand drawn etch kits, buffer beams were a bit of a mare, got tired of fighting them so made new ones, water tank skin was 0.45, bending that was probably going to rip the vice off the bench so simply drew around it on some 0.3 mm and formed easy as pie.
The water scoop dome is not playing ball, the white metal has some impurities which is causing the tool to chatter on the flange and dome base, I'll probably swap it out for a 3D print. Same for the filler hatch, straight in the bin as it was oval and pock marked to blazes, that's in the printer right now. Handrails need trimming and stop ends fitting where applicable.

There's two big inspection hatches on the rear, again hand drawn with rivets to press out, not circular or even the right size...in the bin, I'll run up a couple of 3D plates with bolt head and stud detail as I'm sure those plates were removable. Quite a few more small details to add as yet to finish it off before going below decks back to the frames.

The narrow frame width is playing havoc with the pipework, several bits have had to be redone to squeeze them in, one, the water feed pipe may have to be (partly) sacrificed, there simply isn't room for it and allow the engine frames clearance on curves.

I managed to catch the elephant in the room before he sat on me, I'm sure there are more further ahead The reversing lever weight shaft runs right across the engine above the frames, there's a small up stand to fix it in place, the drop links then pass through a small hole in the frames (see rear engine image for original footplate).

Problem is, once you add that shaft and drop links it traps the footplate in place, ergo no motor access. I'm fairly sure the real engine isn't like this and the drawings show lots of bearings and pedestals up in here so there must have been access other than the side hinged doors. The drawings also show a tunnel right across the tank to enclose the shaft.

The front engine has been modified so that the whole tank and footplate can come off and the shaft and drop links remain a part of the frames, much as I suspect the real engine does. The vertical plate up front is simply there to stop the footplate deforming when the fixing screw is tightened, the rear end is held by two lugs on the frames.

I'm not sure what the two larger frame up stands are for, possibly something to help fix the motor in place? The lubricator is still going to be fixed to the footplate at the rear end; the drop link does pass through the small hole left in the footplate. I'll need to work out a way to split that linkage when the tank or rear rotary bunker section is removed. I also need to box in that cavity as well

 

[Simon]

That's a lorra lorra loco!

Cilla

 

[mickoo]

Reasonable few days progress, the front tank is all but done. Still required are lamp irons (in the post) lubricators (I'll tend to them when I get to the motion) and stop ends on the two top hand/foot rails. There's also a two port oil pot to fix to the tank side above the RH (direction of travel as it's on the rear engine as well) lifting link inspection door. The tank top is not yet fitted to the footplate, it will be once the lead has been put in and the glue set.

Essentially it'll all go at the rear end and over the reversing lever weigh shaft tunnel, so just ahead of the intermediate driver and hopefully balance with the boiler bed plate section.

The tank has been washed with Limelite which is very good at turning all solder dark grey, handy for spotting errors and gaps, not so good on the lifting lug half etch bends (too big so leave a gap which needs a solder fillet) as it looks like there's a big slot there. In hind sight they could possible have been turned over with the bend underneath, but that would of left and ugly gap between the angled bit and the tank top.

There's a couple of things to be wary of and they appear period dependent, tank filler, earlier ones are smaller diameter with a more rounded lid, later ones are larger diameter with flat lids. Chimney, earlier engines are more squat, later they were extended 5-6". Cylinders, early engines had a distinctive flat side to the clothing and the flat extended to the covers each end, later engines are more rounded, possibly due to gauge clearance enhancements over the years.

I've added the kit cylinders basically for visuals, they are of the earlier flat sided ones but sadly the flat is much too pronounced and the flat on the covers much to big, they're also too wide. Fortunately the clients date is mid 50's so they can't be used and will need replacing.

Next up the rear tank and footplate, not the rotary bunker yet, that'll need a lot of work as i want to add the details underneath which are visible from the outside.

 

[mickoo]

Slow grind on the Garratt.

There's a few detail differences in these bunkers/drums, the first engine #86 was the trial rotary drum engine with a shorty drum with triple door support lugs and triple piano hinges on the doors, it also had a extra wide vent tank at the rear. The kit supplies all those but only a long bunker and no standard narrow vent tank.

When the production run was begun the shorty drum went to #97 as did the wide vent tank, but it lost the triple support lugs per door and retained the three piano hinges per door.

At the same time #86 was modified to take the long drum/narrow vent tank and matched all the others. It did however retain it's different tank sides; oddly #97 did not copy those tank sides, instead it took the same format as the production run tanks. The kit supplies both types of tank side but sadly neither are that accurate, not by that much but enough to throw all the visuals of the completed engine off.

The kit drum is a long drum but with short drum doors and the diameter is off by quite a lot at the hind end, much too big sadly, which may be why the tanks are too low to compensate and give clearance under structures.

Having spent days going over drawings and photos and trying to salvage something I ended up just keeping the lifting lug fixings and footplate.
The tank is not yet fitted to the footplate, it's easier to fix the final parts as a sub assembly so it's all just posed for the photos.

The flat sloped section is actually a hopper on the real engines to drop coal waste down to the track. The sloped platform just covers the gearbox up really.

The 3D reversing lever weight shaft tunnel has a recess in the front for the small platform that the drum 2 cyl steam engine sits on, ahead of that is the massive tri part drum pedestal casting that supports the drum and worm drive, yet to be modelled.

The drum front section will go through the machine tonight hopefully, I may have to artificially taper the section into the cab to clear 6' radius curves, we'll see. Once I have that in place I can work on the support pedestal to hold it all in place.

Plate work wise there's some fillet ribs under the overhung walkways to fit, half round beading around the top edge (joy ) and the covers over the drum engine. On the RH side near the front cantilever steps will be the water gauge mechanism, drive shaft and periscope style display gauge.

The 3D vent tank is the production run narrow style and the filler the later larger diameter dustbin type, though these all seem to have been this style, only the front one appears to vary with any consistency.

 

[mickoo]

Just a quick A&E repair job here.

Golden Age Peppercorn A2 speedo crank ripped off and sensor head jamming so didn't rotate freely. Stripped it all down and found some swarf in the head bearing so cleaned all that out and reassembled.

The spigot for the hose on the sensor head is too small to get a decent grip on the hose so it was drilled out and a longer 0.5 mm wire fitted.

Interesting little fill in job and a welcome break from the Garratt

 

[Dave Holt]

Nice looking model, but interesting return crank angles.
Dave.

 

[Scale7JB]

Nice looking model, but interesting return crank angles.
Dave.

Well spotted, hadn’t noticed that.

JB.

 

[warren haywood]

Not to mention the green valence and red buffer housings

 

[mickoo]

Slowly getting there, the fit on some parts is just painful, beware the pony truck pivot point, the arms are too long and the pivot point to far to the rear, it pushes the wheel out front and smacks the frames, you'll need to shorten and rebuild.

The brakes are a work of fiction with no brake beams included, wire is your choice and the pull rods are incorrect, it all goes in the scrap bin sadly.

The motion bracket is also the wrong profile and the centres for the motion are all out of place, so new ones required there. I've not checked the rest of the valve gear in detail but it actually looks pretty slick, slide bars aside which are not going to cut it so all new there as well; we'll have to see in due course about accuracy.

The white metal sand boxes didn't cut it, wrong size and shapes and the cylinders likewise, they're so big that they're out of gauge by 2.5 mm each side.

I still need to add the conical extension to the drum into the cab as well as draw up and print the drum bearing pedestal, rollers, guides and engine + gear box; that'll fill most of that hole underneath nicely.

The engine springs are already done and just need metal brackets fitting to the frames to fit them and there's a few more nick nacks to sort out underneath and inside the frames.

Very few major parts are fixed down yet, much easier to work on sub assemblies than big blocks of engine.