I fitted the injectors this afternoon and thankfully as I’d hoped they don’t impede the coupling rods.

Sadly, the same cannot be said for the balance pipe on one side, so a little final adjustment will be needed before fitting the pickups.

I say getting ahead of myself because I have or thought I had actually finished construction on the N10 albeit I haven’t shared photos yet.

It was only after taking what I thought would be the final construction photos that I realised that I hadn’t added any injectors. To be fair they are easy to miss because they sit behind the cab steps and are very hard to see on photos. not having any real idea what they actually look like I decided to make up something that looks the part while not strictly speaking being accurate.

I did a test piece yesterday.

Then I ran it through the Ai function of Adobe Express photos again and this is what it produced – very smart but it’s rounded the hex nuts off.

Having done the test piece I realised that everything about it was just a little too big so today I made a pair of smaller ones.

This was the individual parts for them.

This is those parts assembled and again below after the AI treatment – It’s actually made them look quite pretty.

Finally for today I piped them up. It’s a shame that they will be almost completely hidden behind the steps

One of the last details on the chassis is the sand pipes. These were made and fitted. Still to do on the chassis is to bend out the Guard Irons.

Just as an aside I was playing about with Adobe Photo Express and one of the AI functions (create product) created this from the photo above.

At our arts and crafts group last week I took along a length of rod to shape into the vacuum pipe that runs the length of the valance on the right hand side of the loco (a similar air pipe runs along the left hand valance). I only took the one length expecting it to take some time. As it happens I had it bent into shape in about five minutes so sepen the rest of the session talking to a friend.

Next on my list was balance pipes which fit behind the rear steps.

These were made to the dimensions of the GA and finished with some turned disks to represent the flanges.

Next up was drilling out and fitting simulated bolt head to the buffer stocks. Due to the taper of the buffer stocks I figured it would be difficult to hold them securely without marking them and after some though I came up with an idea for a jig. The jig is made from 4mm steel bar recovered from a scrap printer, turned down to be a close fit in the major hole in the buffer stock and then threaded 10ba at the end.

This allowed the buffer stocks to be held upside down in my Proxxon dividing head to allow the drilling of holes for the simulated bolts.

There isn’t a lot of room for the bolt heads on the flanges of the buffer stocks so I needed something quite small. O opted to file som hex heads on some brass dressmakers pins but found that the smallest collet for my hex pin vice wouldn’t tighten down small enough to grip the pin shanks.

I’m not sure where it came from but in my tools I have a very small pin chuck which I believe is designed to hold very small drills in a bigger chuck on the lathe

After digging it out and pondering how I might index it I wondered if the thread was metric and by good fortune the very first nut that I tried fit perfectly (M5) this meant that I was able to tighten the pin chuck to grip the shank and then tighten the nut against the back of the collar to allow each facet to be indexed

After soldering the simulated nuts in place. I was able to use the little jig again to hold the buffer stock while I cleaned up the back of the protruding pins up in the lathe.

The last couple of workbench sessions have been preparing items for fitting.

I had done the rear steps some time ago but I hadn’t curved the treads. I did the front ones and curves all the treads at the same time.

Then I dug out the buffers. I’m not sure where they came from but I had secreted a set of NER buffers in the box some years ago. They came as a Buffer stock with a separate washer to create the rims that is bolted to the buffer plank. So they need to be soldered together. I also need to drill them and fit the prominent fixings that are visible in most photos

I also made a start on making the cab window frames so that they would open. I was fortunate that I had a spare set of etches for the wind frames so I soldered two together and then soldered a short length of microbore tube to the top so that I can hinge them

Lastly I machined a replacement upper rear lamp iron from the end of an earth pin out of the 13 amp plug

There is still quite a bit of the plug pin left for making other parts with at some point.

Still enthused, I have been beavering away adding all the details that bring the loco to life.

Further progress on the N10 this week.

Westinghouse Pump and Governor fitted along with associated pipework. I’ve also fitted the vacuum ejector pipe and the Blower valve along with all the handrails at the front.

I also managed to progress the N10 a little further this week.

The first job was to drill out the Westinghouse casting. I have a couple of really nice brass castings in the stash which I believe are Alan Gibson but I’m not 100% sure.
On the back of the mounting brackets there were a couple of spigots so I drilled a couple of corresponding holes in one side of a clothes peg and pressed the spigots into it giving me a secure grip when gripped in the drill press vice using another piece of clothes peg on the other side with a small parallel laid on it’s side to support them.

I drilled through the cast nuts on the right hand side then drilled a hole for the pipe that leads from the governor in the left hand side. While I ad the drill press out I also drilled the governor that I made for the last pipe and fitting.

lastly for now I assembled as much of it as I could prior ro fitting. In order to fit it to the etched mounting plate I cut and filed of the spigots on the mounting brackets and secured the casting to the bracket with 298 degree solder. Next I fitted the governor and the pipe that leads into the smokebox which is a little long at the minute and isn’t soldered in until I have it all mounted on the footplate.

Just to finish off the Westinghouse Governor discussion (for my part), on Tuesday our electricity was off most of the day (due to some planned work in the village).

Hence, after doing a few jobs outside, I was at a bit of a loss as to what to do next because I can’t see in the workshop without lights, so that was off limits. But it came to me that I could use Fusion 360 offline and I could also run my laptop on battery.

So I spent a couple of hours making my initial working sketches into a full 3d model of the Westinghouse Governor. Interestingly, I only used about 25% of the laptop’s battery charge in doing so.

I finished it off this morning but that consisted mainly of rounding off the edges of all the hex nuts.

The differences between this and my efforts with lathe and mill are clear, but given how small these things are in 7mm I’m still happy to use my analogue effort on the N10.

I need to remove my Spin Indexer from the mill to refit the vice to mill off the shoes from the brake hangers for the 8F. I plan to refit 3D printed brake shoes to the cast brass hangers.

So before spending time re-tramming the vice, I wanted to make sure that I didn’t need the spin indexer for anything else. Spoiler alert!, I did.

One thing that I have noticed in almost every photo of a loco fitted with a Westinghouse Pump, is that alongside the pump there is a Governor. You rarely see them modelled so I wanted to have a go. I did make one in the past for the Gladiator G5 but it only vaguely resembled the real thing.

As you can see from the 5p piece it’s a tiny little thing but I’m really quite pleased at how it’s turned out.

I turned and added knobs to the piano front and smokebox door as well as fitting the locking handles. They are only little things but I perfected a technique where I could knock out a knob in 5 minutes so I made a couple extra for my friend’s G5 at the same time. The locking handles came from the spares box.

Next on the hit list was the vacuum ejector pipe or rather it was bending it to shape and making and fitting the nuts or slotted retaining rings that were designed to be tightened with a ‘C’ or hook spanner.

I have to confess that it took three attempts to get these to where I was happy with them. For the first attempt, I used a small slitting saw. Unfortunately, it was from a cheap set and the arbour that holds the blades isn’t a very good fit and therefore the blade doesn’t run very concentrically. This combined with trying to cut too many slits for the diameter of the rod basically ended up chewing a third of it away before I gave up.

For the next attempt I kept things simple. I used a couple of pieces of bar with a couple of metric 123 blocks stacked on top of them to get me to the height of the brass bar held in the spin indexer collet. To make the grooves I used an Olfa cutter and reduced the grooves to six from the eight that I had tried on my first attempt.

This worked but I wasn’t happy with the grooves, they were not defined enough. But having got the idea I thought about what I might have that would make a better- defined groove. The next thing that I tried was a carbide 60degree thread cutting tool. Which I lined up on the edge of the 123 block, and by carefully running the point of the tool against the brass rod. After a few passes, the slots were acceptable.

Here is the finished pipe complete with fittings and bent to shape but not fixed in place yet. I still have the Westinghouse pump and associated pipework to fit in front of the tank which might be easier if I can temporarily remove the vacuum ejector pipe

Finally (for now), as I’m returning to the 8F for a bit. Having looked at lot of photos, many of them show, one or both of the tank filler locking screws unclipped and dangling down. There isn’t much room to leave the right hand one dangle due o the Westinghouse pump and governor fitting so I took the left hand one off and refitted it the other way up and slightly bent outwards.

A small detail but it all adds to the fun.

The next part on my hit list was the coal rails. Unusually for one of Jim’s kits I had a bit of a fiddle to get it to sit correct and ended up filing the curve to get it to sit better against the rear of the cab.

After looking at the drawing to see how the rails were mounted on the full sized loco, I made up some mounting strips cut from some 10 thou nickel sheet.

Then it was the turn of the cab handrails. These are, like on many locos of the period, tapered from the bottom up. I made them by putting some short lengths of 1mm nickel rod into my Dremel laying it flat on the cutting mat and running a diamond file upon it to create a subtle taper. It doesn’t look very tapered in the photos but it does taper from 1mm to 0.7mm over the 30mm or so. I also turned up some washers for the top to take up the difference in the etched holes and some collars for the bottom which gives a bit more area to create the soldered joint while looking prototypical

I have also fitted one of the cab doors. Most photos show one of the cab doors open but the design of the kit doesn’t make that easy, so some more thought is needed before I fit the other one

I finally got all the cab furniture fitted. I made the individual pieces up last year while out at shows, but I’ve only just got around to fixing them in place.

If you are wondering what the little round bung is on the splasher/locker in the last photo. There was an etched hole presumably so that the reverser cold be fitted at that side or it was just a mirror of the splasher on the other side so the hole came with it. Either way, I just turned up a small bung to fill the hole.

It was at this point that I permanently fitted the boiler in place. Tom Burham had kindly shared some photos of how the brass transition cover was retained by cladding band clamps so I endeavoured to add those. I managed it but I confess that the front one that is fitted to the transition ring is barely visible when you turn it upside down let alone from normal viewing angles.

I also fitted the clack valves. I had to make a small top hat type bush to sleeve the pipe as it passes through the foot plate

You will also note that I have fitted the filler cap locking screws that I had beefed up in the last post.

Moving on I did a few easy bits and fitted the pipes to the vacuum ejector elbow and clack valves. All of them are Connoisseur castings from Jim’s specific pack of upgrades.

From there it had struck me that ex NER engines would have probably had wooden roofs and a quick enquiry to Tom Burnham confirmed this was the case. So, I added canvas from my usual recycled spectacle lens cleaning tissue.

Next up it was time to start detailing the tank fronts and first up was the locking screws for the filler caps. As they come, they are very two dimensional, flat etches. I added some half round beading and I filed a piece of 1.6mm rod to half round to represent the bottom hinge.

Not perfect by any means but a little better than the flat etch.

Then I moved on to the sander operating rod and the tank front handrails, not forgetting the tank front lubricators

New

As has been mentioned plenty of times it’s the detailing that takes the time. The N10 is no exception. Some time ago I bought a number of Ramsbottom safety Valve cover castings from Gladiator (@Genghis). I have allocated one to each of my ex-NER locos. Oddly the one that I had added to the N10 box had a slightly strange double sprue fixed to the base which had I wished to fit it through the fire box would have needed quite a hole.

I find that cleaning up and making castings fit the firebox/smokebox etc that have bottom feed sprues is nigh on impossible without removing the sprue first. Or if there is a way of doing it I haven’t worked it out yet.

Mostly, I grip the casting by the sprue and drill down from the top but in the instance gripping it by the sprue wasn’t feasible. So I turned down the end of a length of brass rod so that it fit the hole in the top of the casting and soldered it in to use as a mandrel.

Then I cut off the sprue as near to the base of the casting as I could and used an end mill in the tailstock drill chuck to remove the remaining spigot to get t to sit down flush. Or as flush as the raw casting would without any additional cleaning up. From there it was a simple matter to wrap some emery cloth around the boiler and rub the casting base until a good seat was obtained.

One of my pet hates irritations is looking down model chimneys to find them blocked solid at the base. The Connoisseur chimney, although very nicely cast has a spigot on the bottom and is solid for the bottom 25% or so of the chimney. So again, I gripped the spigot in the lathe chuck and carefully drilled out the bottom of the chimney until it broke away from the base. I finished opening out the hole with drill bits turned by hand and finally an end mill held in a spare Jacobs chuck.

This is the chimney base before any cleaning up after drilling it out. It’s not going to take much effort to get it to sit flush.

A view from the top. Hollowing them out does make locating them centrally more difficult but worth the extra effort in my view.

hese are a little out of order but I thought continuing the discussion about the inside motion created a better flow for anyone reading this in the future.

I started by making a replacement for the upper handrail support. These are included on the etch but are quite vulnerable during handling and assembly so I managed to knock one off. I made the replacement from a strip off the nickel chassis so it’s a little more robust.

Then I moved to fitting the sand box fillers and sanding levers which I figured would be much easier to fit before I fit the boiler in place.

As it happens the sandbox filler caps were missing from my kit or at least, I haven’t found them yet. I know that Jim would have happily let me have some more but I bought the kit some time ago and it was easy enough to make some replacements.

I started with some 5mm brass bar and turned a short length to 4mm. Next, I turned a section to 3mm leaving 0.5mm at 4mm to give a step.

Repeating this, I turned a 0.9mm spigot on nth end again leaving a 0.5mm step at 3mm. Then I popped them in the spin indexer and took some off of each step to leave me a pair of flats on both the 4mm and 3mm steps. These once parted off gave me the oval sandbox filler caps.

And yes, I know that once fitted the right way up very little can be seen but I know it’s there…

Here they are fitted along with the sanding levers. I also turned some small upstands for the levers.

Those with a keen eye will also note that I filled in the back of the splashers so you can’t see the back of the wheels when looking between the frames.

I also fitted the inner tanks and filled them with strips of lead shaping it to clear the middle wheels.

In between messing about with the smokebox rings, I also detailed up a few of the other parts using either additions from the spares box or those that I made up from scratch.
Starting with the roof, I added the outer skin, fitted whistles from the spares box and the roof vent. The latter I attached to a strip of etch that I bent to allow the vent to be open but so that I wasn’t relying on a solder joint purely on the edge of the vent.

Then I rolled a strip of brass angle to cover the firebox to cab joint.

Then I prepared a few of the cab fittings starting with the cupboard at the back of the cab I made up a couple of door knobs

Plus a third knob for the coal space shutter.

I also fitted a brake standard from my spares box.

This is as much as can be added to the cab floor before fitting or it won’t fit past the beading in the cab openings.

Sticking with the cab I fitted the reverser and made up a mounting/fixing for it.