The Heybridge Railway, 1889 to 1913

[Richard Gawler]

it was supposed to make my fortune and let me live in the style to which I’d very much like to become accustomed, but alas, it was not to be. I hope it helps,

I have sadly come to realise it doesn't work this way. Years ago I suggested a really short live section of crossing vee for pointwork, this was duly dismissed out of hand on the forum and now we have Unifrog. Then again, I should probably accept Peco did actually invent it themselves and weren't reading my posts on a daily basis at the time.


The cab soldering was actually "done" when I posted the last photos but I have made a miniature version of the corner clamp. This let me scrape off some of the surplus solder and then re-flow it knowing the joint would stay in alignment. The clamp is a neat idea. Mine has one slot widened out because the tops of the cab sides are double thickness.

Looking at this photo I suspect I have overdone the solder scraping. I will be happier with the strength of the cab after the roof is soldered on, I will have to cut this out myself because I am deviating from the version of the loco the kit is designed to build.

 

[Richard Gawler]

I spent most of Boxing Day building the smokebox. Somehow this was the most daunting part of the kit, there are two reverse curves and the final shape has got to be as near to perfect as I can get it otherwise the model will end up looking awful.


Smokebox wrapper annealed to "dark straw" before starting.
Line scribed below chimney hole as a precaution in case I hide the tiny guide mark with solder.
Instructions suggest drawing pins to hold the front panel, I think a woodscrew is easier.
Tacking intended to come apart easily if everything goes wrong, but this turned out ok at the first attempt.


A lot more solder, heated using the micro flame torch on the outside.
Edit: The way the solder has flowed here, it looks like I put too much of the heat onto the wrapper and not enough onto the front. I reflowed this solder but didn't take a photo at the time.
Plywood base nearly turned to charcoal in the process and didn't make for a pretty picture.


Longer woodscrew to hold the back.
The wrapper actually ended up a whisker too far forward onto the front, so this reduced the depth of the rebate available to hold the back.
I have got away with this because the external corners have to be rounded off.


Cleaned up pretty well, almost too well really because I then had to add the detail wrapper.


The outer wrapper is all half thickness except for the rivet detail. I tried to anneal this to dark straw as well but some patches ended up turning blue.
I am not sure of the proper way to attach such a wrapper. What I did was to tin both long edges on the back, and then slowly work my way down from the top. At each iteration I put a scrap of solder into place with the bit (photo) and then used the torch to complete the joint whilst shoving the wrapper into place with the end of a file.
I think the red patches are zinc working its way to the surface in the face of too much heat. I regard this as a an occupational hazard whilst soldering a thin wrapper onto a chunky assembly; others will have learnt how to do it a better way.


Another clean up and a test placement onto the footplate, everything seems to fit.

I realise this sort of sequence may be way too much granularity for many but having taken photos along the way it seems nice to share them and one day I might even look back at them to remind myself what I did. I am using my workbench topic as a filter for my photographic excesses, the ones I think aren't good enough to put here get deleted.

 

[simond]

I think it is fundamental for anyone purporting to make etched brass loco kits to have several charred bits of wood…

end result looks pretty tidy.

atb
Simon

 

[Richard Gawler]

. . .

View attachment 176904
A lot more solder, heated using the micro flame torch on the outside.
Edit: The way the solder has flowed here, it looks like I put too much of the heat onto the wrapper and not enough onto the front. I reflowed this solder but didn't take a photo at the time.
. . .

I am most grateful for a kindly soul who sent me a PM expressing their concerns about the robustness and indeed likely early failure of this solder joint (attachment above) as I portrayed it in my post earlier today.


Here is an extra photo to show how the solder on the wrapper/front joint did flow properly after I reworked it. Hopefully this will last.

 

[Herb Garden]

I have sadly come to realise it doesn't work this way. Years ago I suggested a really short live section of crossing vee for pointwork, this was duly dismissed out of hand on the forum and now we have Unifrog. Then again, I should probably accept Peco did actually invent it themselves and weren't reading my posts on a daily basis at the time.

View attachment 176843
The cab soldering was actually "done" when I posted the last photos but I have made a miniature version of the corner clamp. This let me scrape off some of the surplus solder and then re-flow it knowing the joint would stay in alignment. The clamp is a neat idea. Mine has one slot widened out because the tops of the cab sides are double thickness.

Looking at this photo I suspect I have overdone the solder scraping. I will be happier with the strength of the cab after the roof is soldered on, I will have to cut this out myself because I am deviating from the version of the loco the kit is designed to build.

I'm loving the genius of the corner clamp.... Why I persevere with trying to hold things together with my fingers and wonder why the joints end up wonky and my finger burnt I will never know

You mentioned solder scraping. May I ask what you use for this? I've tried a few things over the years all rather unsatisfactory.

Keep on inspiring us !

Herbie

 

[Richard Gawler]

You mentioned solder scraping. May I ask what you use for this? I've tried a few things over the years all rather unsatisfactory.

Herbie, I learnt about scrapers from @Ian@StEnochs , see his post here:
The Heybridge Railway, 1889 to 1913

My scraper is from an old needle file and it looks much like the one far left in Ian's photo. I use it mostly where I want a sharp internal angle and where a blob of stray solder has to be removed.

I used 1200 and 2000 grit wet and dry paper from Halfords for the smokebox, used with plenty of water. This is my favourite method for external surfaces where I can get at them.

I have a set of "miniature abrasive brush wheels" bought through eBay, this sort of thing:
16PCS Abrasive Brush Wheel Radial Bristle Disc Mixed Buffing Wheel Brushes A1Y8 | eBay
They go in the Minicraft drill. You get different grades in a pack, the most coarse will cut into brass, the gentlest just puts a shine on things, and the middle grades will remove solder but leave the brass largely untouched. These are incredibly useful and will always be grateful to @Rob Pulham for pointing me towards them.

I also have a glass fibre pencil. This thing is the spawn of Satan and it is only really good at putting agonising scraps of fibre into human flesh. I hardly use it at all now, only if nothing else will reach.

 

[simond]

Additionally, dentists’ scraping tools are useful and will hold a decent enough edge to cut solder, (and brass, beware!)

 

[Herb Garden]

Thanks both that's sage advice.... Will try some of the things you sugest

 

[Richard Gawler]

I am pondering the location of the front of the firebox.




Looking at the drawings, the locating groove for the boiler band near the front of the firebox is in the right place but the sides of the firebox have been extended forwards to provide more space for the motor.

Now, what I want to do is to trim back the sides of the firebox and build a new curved section of boiler to fill the gap. I reckon, there will still be enough space to put a firebox front across in front of the Canon motor; but if there isn't then I would rather have a curved firebox front or no front at all rather than a firebox going too far forwards. Then the boiler band will be able to go around the boiler and not down the side of the firebox.

I wonder, has anyone else tried to improve this detail of the kit?

 

[Herb Garden]

Hi Richard,

Although I can't offer an advice on the kit itself.... I can offer you reassurance that you are not the only one to face this problem on this class..

my old conversion from the Hornby RTR model suffers the same flaw..... What's worse is that I now notice it every time I look at it....

 

[Richard Gawler]

Front splashers.


The front splashers started happily enough. The scrap of solder on the top of the finished one here is hiding a tiny dent I managed to put into the metal - it's better to use fingers not pliers to manipulate this sport of thing.

Then the trouble started, all of my own making. The splasher tops are overlength and I proceeded to trim one of them to make it level with the base of the splasher. This was a mistake - they are supposed to go through the footplate and be trimmed flush underneath.


So I ended up with a scrap of brass underneath and a fillet of solder on the top to complete the joint. Fortunately I left the other splasher overlength and could install that one as intended.


The front edges of the sand boxes have to be filed to shape to match the curve of the front of the smokebox. One came out pretty well, the other one got overdone. Somehow, although some black paint everywhere would hide the worst of this, it seemed just a bit too wrong to overlook.


So what I did, was to file the edge of the sand box a bit closer to the desired shape, add a strip of brass, and then file this down closer to the profile of the smokebox. I find this sort of correction to be far more difficult to do than any of the assembly of the kit, I must be more careful.


The result is still a little bit adrift, but better. I have filled the gap at the bottom of the fillet and will call this "good enough" and let the months or years to come tell me whether I should really have had a third go.

 

[Rob Pulham]

Hi Richard,

On the positive side, think how much you have learned from the experience.

In my view we rarely learn much when everything goes to plan/following the instructions. The learning starts when mistakes are made or parts don't fit as they should/are missing and you have to come up with a workable solution yourself.

 

[Richard Gawler]

Yes Rob, absolutely. I suppose, the only really unrecoverable mistake we can make is to build the wrong model, and this would reasonably explain why I am still pondering some very different layout schemes trying to decide which one to build.

I have left the Y14 alone today. After the boiler/firebox/smokebox are fixed for good the activity will reduce to adding details. Which I will probably find a little fiddly from time to time, but mostly enjoyable.

 

[Richard Gawler]

I have finished the year with the middle splashers and the sanding gear on my Y14.


I found the tops of the middle splashers rather fiddly. I rolled them with a length of 15mm water pipe pressing onto on a soft book and this gave them I suppose half of the curvature they needed. After this, I sprung the first one into place and it promptly sprung out again and I repeated this a few times until I remembered Simon's method of holding the corners of a cab together and I cut a slot in a bit of dowel. Yes wood insulates but this is still on the limit of what I can comfortably press down on while soldering up a joint so close. I chamfered the ends of the slots in the footplate and this helped to persuade the splasher tops to stay put until the soldering was done.


Then I added the flanges around the splashers, most of the sanding gear and the reverser.


A view of the underneath to show I am trying to do this tidily.

This is as far as I want to take the superstructure before working up the boiler and firebox and adding these. So a Happy New Year to everyone at WT, and see you next year

 

[Richard Gawler]

Firebox.


I have trimmed back the front of the firebox to let the boiler band here pass around the front of the firebox instead of down the sides, and soldered up the boiler/firebox wrapper to suit. Thank you to Col. ( @Eastsidepilot ) for pointing this detail out to me when we met at the show in Bury St Edmunds.


I soldered the seam under the boiler first, and then added the front, rear and middle formers. This sequence is completely at odds with the sequence in the instructions but it seemed to work for me. I cut the two "side lugs" off the middle former, I think the model will look better without them. Finally the two curved pieces went in to fill the gaps in front of the firebox, these are scraps of spare fret.


The alterations should end up hidden under the boiler band.

The main thing is, the assembly is still going to fit over the motor, so I think these alterations will be worthwhile.

 

[Richard Gawler]

Things have gone wrong but I have a chance of putting them right thanks to Jim McGeown.

To be brief, I tacked my completed smokebox onto the front of the boiler, soldered everything solid, and then realised the smokebox was offset about 0.2 mm to one side. Just enough to notice. I stuffed the smokebox full of soggy paper towel, applied the cook's torch to remove it and the whole assembly sprang apart. Difficult to reassemble because the outer corners are filed down to give a radius.


Well, I put the smokebox back together but the outer wrapper revealed I had put a slight twist onto the assembly.

At this point I tried cutting through the wrapper and fixing the two parts flush onto the inner wrapper. This did not work, not in any form, so the wrapper was spoilt.


A second rebuild of the smokebox followed, minus the outer wrapper. The result (see below) stands up to casual inspection but it is still skewed; the wrapper is not orthogonal to the front and back. So it looks awful on the loco.


And now the good bit.

I phoned Jim McGeown, the proprietor of Connoisseur Models. He has two gash frets from this kit. One was already robbed for its smokebox parts, and now the second one is robbed too. Jim has posted the parts to me and they arrived today. No pressure then

 

[oldravendale]

Jim is most definitely one of the good guys. One of the best.

Brian

 

[chigley]

at least you didn't roll the boiler inside out

Ken

 

[Richard Gawler]

at least you didn't roll the boiler inside out

Ken

The funny thing is, the boiler comes pre-rolled yet two people have told me I should re-roll it inside-out. They gave their reasons why this would be a good idea and one offered to lend me his rolling bars to do it. Well, this is only my second loco from a brass kit . . . I decided to accept the boiler as received. There are plenty of things for me to get wrong without creating new ones, at least before experience grows a bit.

 

[Peter Insole]

Another positive note Richard, at least you can now make up a nice new, smooth, GER style, Y14 smokebox - without all those ghastly, lumpy, proud, round headed, LNER/BR rivet things all around it!

Exits hastily to avoid incoming missiles!

Pete.