Much doodling at Earlswood

[earlswood nob]

G’day all

Still no useful packet from the postman. I shall be losing interest in the O4/6 soon. I have been playing around with a loco I bought a while ago. The loco is made of white metal and was advertised as produced from a kit

I have never seen a white metal kit of the D23, but it came without a tender and was cheap.
Surprisingly the loco ran well, despite having sloppy fitting connecting rods.
Removal of the body showed a chassis made from a pair of nuclear proof sideframes, with a five pole motor (not sure of the make, but probably Anchoridge).

I bought a set of Gibson frames from an online auction site (who wanted a set of D23 frames). The chassis had hornblock gaps. I filled these with 6mm brass strip from Eileens Emporium, who supply lots of useful bits and pieces with a good service. These I soldered to the frames with Carrs 224 gap filling solder, as I don’t want the inserts to fall out when I fit the frame spacers.
I then soldered up Gibson F4 connecting rods and drilled the frames to match the con-rods.
The frames were constructed using Comet jigs. Then placed in a jar of soda solution to get rid of flux residue, and it was time for a coffee break.

Research has shown that in LNER days, the loco 678 was never painted green with the number on the loco. Also it never had a windjabber chimney. However, 678 was at Kirkby Stephen from 1930 until it was withdrawn, and I like the Darlington to Tebay line.

Earlswood nob

PS I am not connected with any supplier mentioned, merely satisfied with their service.

[auldreekie]

Nice one.

Please, can we see the finished article in due course?


auldreekie

[earlswood nob]

G'day all

I'll try and finish this one, Auld Reekie, and then post pics.
However, I do have a problem of changing direction when progress is slow. These days they call it ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder), I've been that way all my life.
Also, I am not the best at painting models. I have been practising by painting a few wagons etc.
This loco will be finished in lined black, and I feel confident to attempt single red lining with a bow-pen.
I have got a tender from Dave Alexander, and his tenders are good easy to build models. I do have to make additional coal rails as the D23's had four coal rails in grouping days.
Yesterday, I was sorting out my spare room (workshop), and found the attempt at a Q10. I was surprised as the cab was built, but it still needs a tender.
The guy who produces Millholme kits has a suitable tender. This leaves brakes and boiler mountings. There is so little room between wheels that fitting brakes will be difficult. I haven't seriously looked for a suitable chimney etc.

I will fit the motor/box assembly and then visit the rugby club, (ADD again).

Earlswood nob

[earlswood nob]

G’day all

I have been scratching around with a couple of projects as I’m still waiting for a packet from the postman.

The D23 has a new chassis fitted with a Mashima 1024 driving through a High Level Roadrunner plus 40:1 gearbox.
At the rear is a Dave Alexander 3038gal tender, which I’ve just started. I have a 52F tender chassis to construct for it, but the eyes have to be working well as it’s very fine work. The morning just after breakfast is the best time for me to do such detailed work.

The three ex-NER tenders for J39/3’s have been sprayed gloss black and are awaiting transfers.The first pic shows the ex-B13 tender which was fitted to 1469. The second pic shows the ex-C7 tender which was fitted to 1471, and the ex-A2 tender (actually a Nucast Q6 tender) which was fitted to 1479. I only have two Bachmann J39’s, so I can’t show all three together. Once the tenders have been lettered “LNER”, they will weathered.

Earlswood nob

As always, I have no connection with any supplier mentioned

[earlswood nob]

G’day all

I have been building the chassis for the Alexander tender that will be fitted to the D23.
The chassis is the NER tender chassis available from 52F models, as recommended by a member of this forum.
The first pic shows the basic chassis under the shell of the 3038gal tender. It vastly improves the running and the bare chassis copes with the dodgy rail join on my test track, where other chassis have problems.

The second pic shows the chassis with the brake gear partially assembled. I had to break from the construction as my eyes are complaining after working through a magnifier for a couple of hours.

I had to chock the wheels with a cocktail stick as it threatened to run away on a level ironing board.

The final pic shows the tender shell balanced on the chassis.

Earlswood nob

PS I have no connection with any supplier mentioned, merely a satisfied customer.

[earlswood nob]

G'day again

The only problem is that I can't find a pic of a D23 with outside brake gear on the tender. This was discussed a while ago, and it seems that outside brake rodding is a later addition. However, I have found pics of the later tenders with and without outside rigging and earlier tenders also with and without outside rigging.
I think the outside rigging looks good, so I shall leave it there until I find out for certain if that D23 carried it. It will be a simple job to remove the outside rigging and leave the inner rigging.

Earlswood nob

[earlswood nob]

G’day all

Progress is slow as I’ve been diverted by the Rugby World Cup.
I have decided that the D23 was converted from a J21 (probably Nucast).
The steps fitted look like those on a J21, and a lot of Nucast kits had a rectangular opening to fit the rear of chassis.

The motor is a Mashima 1024 fitted to a High Level Roadrunner Plus 40:1 gearbox.

The motor will fit below the firebox and rear of the boiler and be hidden by the splashers.

The loco balances on the driving wheels, so there should not be any problems with it nosediving onto the bogie.

Additional detailing is needed. The cab footsteps can be filed down to D23 pattern, but the mid-footplate steps will have to be scratchbuilt. I think a piece of brass sheet with treads from a Mainly Trains Etch will do the trick. All the D23’s were superheated, so I will need to lengthen the smokebox by 4mm. I think a plasticard circle 4mm thick can be glued to the front of the smokebox and the chimney resited 2mm forward.

Earlswood nob

PS I have no connection with any supplier mentioned, merely a satisfied customer.

[mick b]

52F Models do a step etch as a spare.

[Neville Hill]

Many may not know that the 52F proprietor, Peter Stanger, has recently suffered a stroke and may still be in hospital. As he runs his business from home, it may not be a good time to make contact for components, just now.
Peter also does top quality etches for complete NER & NBR locos, tenders and associated chassis, along with associated small components. His new A8 in nickel silver is a beauty!

[earlswood nob]

Good morning all

I have already made the steps, Mickb, but it's useful to know. I see he produces some very good NER lampirons as well.

Edited:

Thats sad news about Peter Stanger, I hope he recovers. He is making some very good products. I found the NER tender chassis are superb.

Earlswood nob

[ArthurK]

All the earlier 3038 Gallon tenders had inside brake rigging. The outside rigging appeared much later on the J27s. None of the photos of D22s or J23s in Yeadon's have the outside gear. There is a photo of 678 among them. It is unlikely that either of these classes received the outside style except, perhaps, in the unlikely event of a tender swap.
ArthurK

[earlswood nob]

G'day all

Thanks Arthur for confirming what I suspected.

Earlswood nob

[earlswood nob]

G’day all

Progress is slow as I’m still diverted by the Rugby World Cup, and taking my G/F to the ballet. The visits to the ballet, stop the complaints about the time I spend at the rugby club. It’s a great pleasure to get a day to myself, to spend improving my modelling technique.

I have removed most of the paint. I didn’t want to use my usual stripping bath (Sodium Hydroxide) in case the model was assembled using glue. I have now found out that it seems to have been soldered together

I made the smokebox extension (all the D23 were superheated in LNER days) from two small pieces of 2mm thick plasticard. The pic shows the loco body with the smokebox extension leaning against the original smokebox. I haven’t fixed the extension yet as I need to get the soldering iron inside the smokebox to try and remove the chimney.

The smokebox door came off using my temperature controlled iron, but I haven’t managed to get the chimney off yet. I may have to cut the chimney off and replace it with a new one 2mm further forward. I guess that Dave Alexander will supply a J21 chimney which will fit with the windjabber removed.

The vacuum pipe will need to moved slightly further forward. The new mid-footplate steps need to be fitted.


Earlswood nob

PS I have no connection with any supplier mentioned, merely a satisfied customer.

[auldreekie]

Good to see progress on this one. It's coming along -- too soon to say "nicely".


auldreekie

[earlswood nob]

G’day all

My knee is slowly improving allowing slight movement. I console my frustration by telling myself that professional footballers often take up to a year to recover from knee injuries. Also they don’t aggravate the problem by treading in pot holes on the way home from the pub.

The D23 is awaiting some small parts, which I will order from the supplier when I get enough needs to make a respectable order.

I have always like freight locos, as it’s how railways started by hauling coal etc. I also like the Woodhead route, so it leads onto the GCR 8K family. I raked out some O4 conversions that I attempted about three years ago, but placed in abeyance as I was not satisfied with how they were going.
I recently obtained some J39 boilers from South Eastern Finecast. I have sawed them into pieces and soldered them together to make white metal boilers for the locos.

I like the intrinsic weight that a white metal boiler/footplate give a loco. The haulage power is improved with the added adhesion. I know one can add lead, but I don’t have the ability to fill the fireman’s lunch box with lead as Atlantic 3279 did to improve his P1.

The top loco is an O4/6, a rebuild from the O5. A slight problem has arisen as the Kays model is too wide, and I’ve had to remodel the wide cab that these locos carried.
The second loco is an O5, one of the five fitted with a side window cab. I will also require “Battleaxe” balance weights.
The bottom loco is an O4/4, fitted with an O2 boiler. I did think of waiting for SEF to re-introduce the O2, but I seem to remember the Nucast O2’s boiler/ firebox assembly being in at least four parts.

This exercise will be continued with the construction of an O4/5, using similar methods. I already have an O4/7 built from a Little Engines kit about thirty years ago. The Kays O4(ROD), which was one of my first kit-builds over forty years ago, needs a vacuum pipe to make it an O4/1. It already has the correct boiler mountings and tender. This will give me most of the O4 variants except the Scottish O4/2, and the Thompson O4/8. I have no desire to build either.

Earlswood nob