Loco about Locos

 I'v decided to resurrect my blog !! The Hall is long completed, named "User Hall", as there wasn't one!! Here it is in action : - I'm about to start on a new loco, a 5 inch gauge Jubilee, Galatea and thought I'd record the build.

The original drawings showed what I think is the Hawksworth tender - I've previously made one in 5 in gauge, and thought the Collett tender would make an interesting change. It has a couple of major challenges - the top of the sides are flared, and also the rear corners of the tand are very rounded, so a tricky compound curve is created where they meet. I took the basic dimentions from the drawings, and scaled the Collet specifics from a couple of photographs. The fact that the major lines of the tender matched up with the profile of the cab gave me some useful reference points. Then there's a raised extension which fits on top. I left a tab which I curved to match the lower part of the tender, and riveted and soldered the two together. The other tricky bit was the rivets -there are several hunders of them, and they're very prominent. My solution was to make the tender tank out of thinner brass than usual -about 22 gauge. (Another reason for this was that I had a couple

The frames were already cut out, saving a bit of sawing. I checked that all dimensions were correct, and cut out the buffer beam and drag beam, from angle section. It never seems to be truely square, which shows up on the insides, when the angle fixings are mounted. So I lightly milled them all over, which got rid of the mill scale at the same time. Also the angle sections to lock it all together. I clamped the angle iron in place, and drilled through from the fames. Only then, I marked of the length of these pieces, taking the dimension from the frames rather than from the drawings - at least this way, they all fit accurately. I worked on a surface table, checking that all was square as I went along. For the horn blocks, I milled the mounting surfaces to size, and riveted them to the frames, slightly overlapping the horn openings. then milled the horn gaps to size. This made sure that the horn slots were accurate and truly square. If I'd milled them completely to size before fitti

I recently read the book 'How (not) to paint a locomotive' by Christopher Vine (ISBN: 9780955335907). It's full of useful information, and a council of perfection. I read a lot of the things I'd tried when painting the A3, and although I stopped short of what he'd done, I came to many of the same conclusions. I sprayed using a Pasche internal mixing air brush, using automotive type paints (NOT two-pack cyano acrylics, which absolutely need an external air fed mask. I used water based paints (sounds odd, but I'm told are the replacement for cellulose paints) , thinned with cellulose thinners. I started a very light coat of etch primer, just a token rub down, then grey primer. Finally, a few light coats of gloss. Once its cured - at least a week - I flatted down the surface with 1200 grit wet and dry paper. I then used cutting paste in two grades, and was amazed at the quality of finish I achieved. I've heard aerosol spray paints being recommended. I have tri

Work has progressed - the boiler is now complete. The assembly sequence I used was as described in Alex Farmers book on boiler making - and, as it happens, his was also a GWR boiler, although bigger. As the assembly gets bigger, it always surprises me just how much heat it needs. I work outside, so can only work on wind-free ( and preferably dry) days. Also, I find it essential to use refractory bricks- without them, I'd never get up to temperature. Even so, it needed two good sized gas torches, and occasional oxy-propane, to complete the assembly. I couldn't do this alone, and gratefully thank George and Russell for their help. Where ever possible (and that's most of the time), we worked with pre-placed solder - its much easier than applying a stick, as it tends to melt - or at least sag - if you're not quick. We put rings of silver solder under the heads of all the rivet - stays in the firebox. As the solder flowed, each was grasped on the outside with pliers, rotated

Some of my boiler making tools. I formed the taper barrel using a set of bending rolls. I decieded that the chances of cutting the sheet to exactly the right dimensions was pretty small - the copper stretches when rolled - so I left the sheet oversize, and planned to cut it after forming. I know this makes for less convenient cutting, but at least it wont be short. Just as well; after annealing and rolling, the taper ended up at the opposite end to what I'd planned - it didn't matter one little bit. So once it was almost to shape, I could work out exactly where to cut it. I rechecked the dimensions once I'd got rid of the overlap, and found there was still a little to file off. I drilled the strap and riveted it to one side, pulled the barrel up tight with a strap, and drilled and riveted the other side. Before doing so, all the surfaces were finally cleaned and covered with flux. I laid two strips of (high temperature) silver solder at the centre joint, and added some more