The Heybridge Railway, 1889 to 1913

[Rob Pulham]

I would reverse the top hat bush and use that as the retainer - I see that Tony has beaten me to it. This is the front axle on the Princess.


Edited to add that I turned these as they needed to be threaded 8BA but the Slaters ones could be used in your case unless you want them to look like steel in which case turning some is an option

 

[simond]

If you’re really stuck, you can go one stage further, and counterbore the coupling rod to make space for the flange of the bush within the thickness of the rod itself.

I did this on my CRT 1366.



Bonne chance!
Simon

(yes, I know, there’s a space where the vacuum pump should be, but I have two to do…)

 

[Richard Gawler]

I have up-cycled my scruffiest Meccano axle. The flange is 0.4 mm thick, I'm not sure how thin it can go but I need a bit of substance to apply a spanner to the flats.


This is the second fitting. I can file a bit more from the back of the bush, it would be good if it tightened with the flats horizontal but this is a bit ambitious for a first attempt.

I do like the boss recessed into the face of the rod as shown by @simond. This would have been easy to arrange before laminating the parts of the rods together, rather more difficult now. And filing the two flats is easier than doing holes for a pin spanner I haven't got.

So, some progress but I am still wanting a tiny bit more space.

 

[Ian@StEnochs]

View attachment 196462
I have up-cycled my scruffiest Meccano axle. The flange is 0.4 mm thick, I'm not sure how thin it can go but I need a bit of substance to apply a spanner to the flats.

View attachment 196463
This is the second fitting. I can file a bit more from the back of the bush, it would be good if it tightened with the flats horizontal but this is a bit ambitious for a first attempt.

I do like the boss recessed into the face of the rod as shown by @simond. This would have been easy to arrange before laminating the parts of the rods together, rather more difficult now. And filing the two flats is easier than doing holes for a pin spanner I haven't got.

So, some progress but I am still wanting a tiny bit more space.

There is another way, easy when you can remove the wheels, and you get plain crankpins with no screwdriver slot or flats visible. The wheel is tapped 10BA and counter bored on the rear to take a Romford wheel nut. The pins are screwed in from the front trapping the rod before the wheels are fitted. A screwdriver slot on the end of the screw makes fitting easier and the Romford nut secures the lot.



This is my effort on an Agenoria Markham. I turned the pins from solid but they can be fabricated from a screw and a threaded crankpin bush. The head can be wafer thin, not much load on it to wear much, or counterbored and fully flush.



Ian

 

[Rob R]

Richard,
I can't remember how I did the front crankpin on my F, too far from hone at the moment but I will look at it when I get home.
Rob
Edit. Just looked at the fuzzy photo I posed a while back. I may have tapped a 14BA washer to 12BA and used that, possibly thinned it a bit as well.
2nd edit. You can gain a few thou by thinning the back of the crosshead. You only need about 3 thou clearance - any less then you will have to oil it.....

 

[Richard Gawler]

I have found over 0.2 mm so no need for oil on the front of the pin


I filed down the front of the connecting rod, the back of the bush, the back of the crosshead and even the face of the bush.

My first outside cylinder, not counting the Kitmaster/Airfix ones. But this one works, and very sweetly too.

Thank you everyone for the ideas for this loco and for future models. I am especially glad I followed Alan's suggestion to fix the cylinder with a stud and a nut. This lets the cylinder find its own angle on the frames and the cylinder and slide bars can remain as a bolted subassembly to make painting easier.

 

[AJC]

Clearance is clearance! Good work - I shouldn't worry about the gearing in a 7mm application: High Level gearboxes do perfectly well in large 4mm locos with big loads which are substantially in excess of what a 7mm saddletank will be called upon to do (at rather lower speed).

Adam

 

[Richard Gawler]

When I made the second crankpin bush I took some photos. These may be of interest to those who don't yet own a lathe, to show how easy it is to make this sort of thing. Buying something ready-made can be almost impossible.


Old Meccano axle turned down to set the maximum size of the face of the bush, and again to make a smaller diameter to fit the hole in the side rod. Centre-drilled 1.2 mm to begin and followed through at 1 mm diameter (close to tapping size for 12BA) to a depth of about 5 mm.


Parted off and reversed in the chuck. Faced off to make the front of the bush and then tapped 12BA. The tailstock is siding along the bed as the chuck is turned by hand, drawing the tap into the work.


Bush placed into side rod and filed down to give a small clearance.


Two flats filed onto face to allow tightening with a spanner.

At the moment I am a beginner with the lathe in terms of model making, I am building on what I learnt during O level metalwork finished 45 years ago. I do find the tailstock and its chuck extremely useful, I think these are just about essential for using the lathe to make parts for model trains.

 

[spikey faz]

Very neat work Richard.
Almost tempted to investigate a lathe for myself, but I suspect I have no room for one. Never mind, I've survived all this time without one.

Mike

 

[Richard Gawler]

Very neat work Richard.
Almost tempted to investigate a lathe for myself, but I suspect I have no room for one. Never mind, I've survived all this time without one.

Mike

My lathe is the size of a sewing machine and as heavy as those old-fashioned cast iron ones. It lives on one end of the bench and I lift it out when I need it. I have to clear the bench to use it and sometimes this takes a lot of time. I have used the machine to dress castings, make small detail parts and now some bushes, but I only bought it earlier this year. If I could only have the TV or the lathe I would keep the lathe

 

[simond]

I don't disagree with that sentiment - but MrsD has yet to say, "ooh, what's on the lathe tonight, dear?"

 

[Richard Gawler]

A much harder decision is whether the lathe should really be stored where I have to clear the bench and lift it out for use, while I also have my five model railway layouts. I let a sixth one go a few years ago and still regret losing it, yes it was an elephant in the room but there was history and learning in there although, like three of the present five, it hadn't run a train for some years.

 

[Rob Pulham]

When I mentioned Richard's sentiment to Chris she didn't disagree at all, so I take it that if ever I have to make that choice the lathe stays

Although like Richard I used to have to lift my Unimat SL out of the cupboard along with the much harder task of lifting the Guillotine/rollers off the floor onto the bench to use it. I now have room for the lathe and guillotine to be permanent fixtures on the workbench.

 

[Richard Gawler]

8. Cylinders

I think the cylinders have been designed well. Just two white metal castings for the fronts and backs, and separate castings for the ends.


For this cylinder I drilled and tapped a hole in the back of the rear casting and put in a 10BA stud, I think this is neater than drilling right through and sinking in the head of a screw as I did for the first cylinder.

I found the metal used for the slide bars rather difficult to solder. The printed material supplied with the kit says this is (cast) nickel silver but the colour looks wrong to me. This is why I suggested it is pewter in an earlier post, but I am still not sure.


Whatever the metal is, it certainly holds some detail - so full marks for Slater's for such neatly-made parts. The slide bars are sturdy enough to not need fixing onto the motion plate, so the cylinders can stay as removable subassemblies.


I now have a completed rolling chassis.

The chassis has run beautifully from the outset without any adjustments to the holes in the side rods. I suppose, the tiny amounts of play where the wheel bearings sit in the frames are hiding whatever errors I have put into the alignment of the crankpins. Either this or I have stepped in something.

 

[Richard Gawler]

9. Front Splashers

Photographs of prototypes show distinctive splashers outside the front wheels, but these are not included in the kit.


My eyes settled on a part of Fret 1. The radius of the curve around this smokebox door is perfect.


So I cut out this piece of fret leaving the parts nearby undisturbed and sweated it onto two more offcuts of fret.


The two splasher sides trimmed to an initial size, separated and cleaned up.


The bottom of the left hand splasher ended up slightly crooked, not by much but I thought it would show up next to the bright slide bar. So this is my second attempt, it is all angles.


I am happy to give the template to anyone it can help!


Fortunately, the assembly of the front wheels will drop out and the cylinders come off too when the time comes for painting.

 

[Richard Gawler]

I think the chassis is now complete until I either add the brakes or paint it, whichever comes first. This is how it looks as I put it to one side.

 

[Richard Gawler]

I have started the build by soldering parts together rather than deciding precisely which prototype I want to build. This probably sounds a bit reckless but I will at least try to drill the holes needed for extra fittings while the parts are still flat on their frets.
. . .

10. Design Features for Superstructure
The chassis is built and I cannot put off the decisions for construction of the superstructure any longer.

I want to build a model of a class F as it might have run from around 1894 to 1913. To do this, I am taking the features of works number 1056 ‘Frederica’ but giving my loco works number 1050 with a fictitious name ‘Heybridge A’ and a new cab. My main reference is an essay on the class by Don Townsley, which appeared in issue number 6 of the Model Railway Journal.

I want to give my loco the following features:

• Two sand boxes, one each side between the wheels
• Buffer beams of timber
• Two sets of buffers: sprung outer buffers and dumb inner buffers
• A flat, half-round smokebox door
• Riveted smoke box
• Welded saddle tank (no visible rivet heads)
• Rack for fire irons on top of saddle tank (*)
• Handrails on saddle tank with two stanchions not three
• Handrail around chimney fitted to front of saddle tank
• No cab stays
• Cab made from a simple spectacle plate with an additional overall roof (*)
• Cab back to be curved (the straight pattern was (generally!) used later, with factory-fitted enclosed cabs)
• Five-link couplings (*)

When I return to the chassis, the brakes will be of the cast iron type, as supplied with the kit.

I will have to find or make the parts for the three items (*). The other features will be from the kit. Hopefully, there won’t be anything I find too difficult. My only modification to the chassis to accommodate these has been to cut off the mounting points for the front sand pipes.

The real 1050 was a class F named ‘Drabble’. I don’t have any photographs of this loco and hopefully there won’t be too many out there because it worked for only one owner in Britain before it was exported to South America.

 

[Richard Gawler]

11. Cab Sides and Coal Bunkers

The loco will have two coal bunkers, one inside each side of the cab. The bunkers and cab sides fold up, with a separate part for the bunker door.


I am using an automatic centre punch to make the rivet impressions, with the work placed on a piece of roofing lead. The tip of the punch fits snugly into the half-etched holes, so the rivets come out in straight lines. I read about using roofing lead somewhere. It makes a good surface for cutting parts out of frets too.


After the bunkers are folded up into shape, the backs of the vertical rivets are very visible.


I added a strip of 0.1 mm brass to hide the backs of the rivets and maybe pass off as some kind of flange.


The cab sides do not reach the running plate at the back so I added a strip of scrap fret. This all but disappears from view after trimming flush, hence this photo before finishing it.


The cab sides do not reach the running plate at the front either, so I filled the gaps with solder filed to shape. This one is nearly right.


When I formed this cab side I put the bend half a millimetre too far back. This made a perfectly satisfactory shape but I thought it would look odd opposite the other side. I flattened out the curve and made it again and this left a high spot on the side, which I filed flat to hide the worst. The result is still going to show under a high gloss but not a satin finish. A deliberate dent here might help.


The two cab sides have 12BA nuts fixed inside and are temporarily secured with screws.

I built the left bunker with its door open to try to add interest. I am guessing a right-handed fireman would use up the left bunker first. The door guides are more scrap fret.

The handrails would be shiny from use by the crew so I used nickel silver wire (Nairnshire Modelling Supplies) to represent bare steel.

In retrospect, it might be better to cut the cab sides away from the bunker floors before starting. This would allow the sides to sit flat on the running plate straight away. The trouble is, after I soldered up the first side and found the shortfalls in the design, it was easier to make the second side the same way than to unpick the first one. I don't want to see any daylight between cab sides and footplate and I might end up soldering everything together.

 

[Richard Gawler]

When I formed this cab side I put the bend half a millimetre too far back. This made a perfectly satisfactory shape but I thought it would look odd opposite the other side. I flattened out the curve and made it again and this left a high spot on the side, which I filed flat to hide the worst. The result is still going to show under a high gloss but not a satin finish. A deliberate dent here might help.

Well, this is supposed to be a foundry locomotive.


My practice piece and the instruments of distress.


I am imagining, a forging hanging from a crane came too close.


The view from above is pretty credible, and the error between flat and curved surfaces has vanished

I could not do this to an artisan-built model.

 

[simond]

you could argue that you just have..