Atlantic's works: Portable layout - Scenic details next

[Saint Johnstoun]

Of course there was a version of the P2 drawn at the development stage with the parabolic footplate and side skirts. The final version had straight footplate and no skirts.

[2512silverfox]

The labels were from the early thirties on the introduction of Gill Sans and there is a whole range of them but I think that this is the only 2-8-2.

[52D]

Thanks Mr Fox i will try to find some of the others to look at.

[Saint Johnstoun]

This may tempt some more 'might have been' conversions.

LNER Proposed Designs P2.doc

(228.5 KiB) Downloaded 142 times

[Atlantic 3279]

The protrusion of the rear coupled wheel through the top of the aerofoil section, requiring provision of a splasher, is an interesting feature - not one that I had to adopt when creating the 4-8-2. I wonder how many shapes that look like aerofoil sections really are aerofoils?

[Saint Johnstoun]

Anybody with RCTS vol. 6B will find a progression of outlines for the P2. I've only worked up two into more detailed drawings but it would seem that the original proposal was to streamline the later four akin to the A4s but commonsense prevaled and they had almost conventional footplates with the bugatti nose added at the front which of course made rebuilding 2001 and 2002 easier. The fact that the first set of coupled wheels are so far forward has obviously resulted in the aerofoil section having to have its highest point nearer the front of the loco and to maintain the curve would have required two splashers above the footplate over the rear two sets of driving wheels.
There was much deliberation over the streamlining of the Peppercorn A1s until BR put a stop to the proposal and they came out unstreamlined. I attach for interest these proposals which range from a virtual A4 outline to the more bizarre.

LNER Proposed Designs Peppercorn A1.doc

A1 proposals

(445 KiB) Downloaded 89 times

[2002EarlMarischal]

With the de-valenced streamlined A4s being so effective, maybe it was sour grapes from the BR "powers that be", that prevented the use of streamlining on the A1s. "Too Gresley"!

With what is known about "drag" now, it was clearly a retrograde step, particularly for express locomotives.

Thanks for posting the drawings Allan - as always, very interesting!

[Saint Johnstoun]

There were more A1 variations until the final version appeared. Personally I like the unstreamlined one before application of the Kylchap and modified cab to the new composite loading gauge. I do wonder if it would have had smoke deflectors though?

[Atlantic 3279]

More tinkering with the Baldwin

I wasn't convinced that either my J39 chimney or my kit-surplus GC chimney looked "right" enough on the model. I'd had a brief look at other commercially available chimneys and was still not happy. I even considered a "cut and shut" to splice in a piece of tube so as to produce a tall version of a BR 9F chimney, as that has something approaching the girth that I wanted. As I stated earlier, as I lack luxuries such as a proper lathe with fly-cutter and the knowledge of how to use it, I really didn't want to get involved in making a special chimney from scratch. And so, to paraphrase the words of Spike Milligan, here it is!

Phase one, a piece of brass tube with a concave curve filed into one end, soldered onto a baseplate of curved sheet brass, using normal high temperature electrical solder. Also a length of small section square brass bar rolled to fit around the chimney tube and soldered to it using 140C solder.

Phase two, not shown, the tube-to-base joint and the angle under the basic chimney rim were loaded up with generous fillets of 70C solder.

Phase three, initially clamping the tall top of the chimney in the chuck of a clamped electric drill, and spinning the chimney fairly slowly, I shaped the fillets of solder using files. The full shape of the flare into the base had to be finished laboriously by normal hand-filing, rolling the file in the aprropriate ways to produce a smooth even curve. That done, I reduced the square base to the proper round shape and rounded the top edge of the chimney lip in GC style, again spinning the work in the drill, and finally parted off the excess height of the main tube. Sounds simple enough, took ages, and I'm annoyed to find that the final result is about 0.5 to 1mm taller than I was ideally trying to achieve. It may have to stay that way.......

As you may notice I've also gone a bit further with the building up and shaping of the frames and the plating both below the smokebox front and behind the pony wheels. In order to make the appearance work satisfactorily, I've also added to the sides of the detachable saddle-cum-cylinder stretcher (in white so not yet terribly visible) a representation of the the upper edges of the bar frames of the loco.

[Robpulham]

That Chimney looks superb Graeme.

[S.A.C. Martin]

What Rob said. Though I rather liked the previous GCR one myself, this one does change the look of the front end for the better.

[Atlantic 3279]

Thanks Gents. After a meal, a shower, and a chat on the phone with a valued friend who is not currently at his best, I'd thought over the error in the chimney height and I couldn't leave it alone. I marked a vertical line down one side of the chimney for reference, cut through its waist with a junior hacksaw, cleaned up the cut edges with a few file strokes, inserted a stub of smaller tube within the chimney to align and positively locate the two halves, made sure that my vertical markings lined up, and epoxied the pieces together. A quick clean up of the cured joint and "voila!", I had one chimney about 0.75mm shorter without having to re-do any of the patiently shaped curves and soldered joints.

[Blink Bonny]

Ay up!

A practical solution. I like it!

[WOOTANG]

atlantic i cant wait until it is complete as i think it will be something special
its also something a little different as most of the stuff ive seen on this thread is UK based
but the continental stuff is starting to make me think about maybe switching to an american scene aswell

[Atlantic 3279]

Much as I subscribe to the maxim that "British is best" (or at least it was, until we dumbed everything down, stifled industry and professions with masses of regulations and responsibilities, introduced de-luxe "rights" for scroungers, criminals, economic migrants and badly behaved brats, plus gave away all means of maintaining the nation's power and influence) I've had something of a fascination with large US locos of the early 20th century. The Baldwin provides the ideal excuse to have one "authentically" running on my layout.

Incidentally, to my eye the subtle reduction in chimney height does wonders for the appearance - I'll try to add a picture later, maybe with further progress shown too.