Martin Shaw
Western Thunderer
made glorious summer by the son of Mann.
I am very sorry about this blatant plagiarisation of the English bard and I am pretty sure Richard III wasn't moaning about the state of british railways, however. The discontent arose after having purchased the model of Mannin last summer when it ran exactly twice, on the second occasion careering down the rear straight and failing to turn left when it should, the regulator being opened somewhat more than necessary and the slight down grade. Having rescued it and examined the damage some gloom and despondency descended and I realised two things, I am far too old for manually controlled steam locos at ground level and the ability to shut off steam remotely wasn't a luxury. It went to the workshop for dismantling in which state it sat for the last six months while I occasionally looked at it and passed swiftly on to easier things.
Two weeks ago I had had enough so the bits were laid out on the bench. The servo for the regulator was assessed for correct operation, the servo for the reverser was removed, it really only goes around the oval in one direction, and also the movement of the reversing piston valve is very small and quite difficult to accurately set up between for, mid, and rev. I couldn't get it where I felt was optimum. By comparison the models with simplified Walschearts valve gear seem much more amenable. Having got it all working on compressed air it was given a static steam test which went well so further reassembly carried on until the dummy vacuum exhaust pipe saga. At the smokebox end there is a brass casting with a spigot on the rear which is threaded M2, so badly that it was impossible to tighten the securing nut. Spares for theses are not kept by Accucraft so I made a brass confection on the lathe with an 8BA screw silver soldered in to secure it to the smokebox, and whilst it's not exactly as per the prototype, it's just about visible in the pic and when painted black will be largely lost to sight. Today was the loaded test run which it passed with flying colours, hence the spring (summer) sun. It's not perfect, the large diameter driving wheels and particularly easy steam passages give it a turn of speed, a straighter line and a decent load would be interesting but it does convey a sense of the IoM and if the governemnt there decide to spend the necessary money we might well see it running again next year. The model has to return to the workshop for final titivation and despite my gloom last summer the paintwork damage has been quite successfully camouflaged, you can't really see it at a distant glance. A bit of nonsense really which I guess just about falls into the modelling rather than RTR section, please forgive me.
Martin
I am very sorry about this blatant plagiarisation of the English bard and I am pretty sure Richard III wasn't moaning about the state of british railways, however. The discontent arose after having purchased the model of Mannin last summer when it ran exactly twice, on the second occasion careering down the rear straight and failing to turn left when it should, the regulator being opened somewhat more than necessary and the slight down grade. Having rescued it and examined the damage some gloom and despondency descended and I realised two things, I am far too old for manually controlled steam locos at ground level and the ability to shut off steam remotely wasn't a luxury. It went to the workshop for dismantling in which state it sat for the last six months while I occasionally looked at it and passed swiftly on to easier things.
Two weeks ago I had had enough so the bits were laid out on the bench. The servo for the regulator was assessed for correct operation, the servo for the reverser was removed, it really only goes around the oval in one direction, and also the movement of the reversing piston valve is very small and quite difficult to accurately set up between for, mid, and rev. I couldn't get it where I felt was optimum. By comparison the models with simplified Walschearts valve gear seem much more amenable. Having got it all working on compressed air it was given a static steam test which went well so further reassembly carried on until the dummy vacuum exhaust pipe saga. At the smokebox end there is a brass casting with a spigot on the rear which is threaded M2, so badly that it was impossible to tighten the securing nut. Spares for theses are not kept by Accucraft so I made a brass confection on the lathe with an 8BA screw silver soldered in to secure it to the smokebox, and whilst it's not exactly as per the prototype, it's just about visible in the pic and when painted black will be largely lost to sight. Today was the loaded test run which it passed with flying colours, hence the spring (summer) sun. It's not perfect, the large diameter driving wheels and particularly easy steam passages give it a turn of speed, a straighter line and a decent load would be interesting but it does convey a sense of the IoM and if the governemnt there decide to spend the necessary money we might well see it running again next year. The model has to return to the workshop for final titivation and despite my gloom last summer the paintwork damage has been quite successfully camouflaged, you can't really see it at a distant glance. A bit of nonsense really which I guess just about falls into the modelling rather than RTR section, please forgive me.
Martin
