Before going any further I started to make up the bulkheads which are made up from multiple layers. Here the instructions (or my interpretation of them) let me down again and I managed to get the overlay for the top of the front bulkhead out of sequence meaning that I had to cut a section out of it to prevent having to undo a lot of work meaning that it sits around the lockers not behind them (it was quite easy to do with scissors due to it being half etched). It isn’t visible in the end result but I know I had to do it.

Front Bulkhead

LNER 06 (MOK 8F) Tender – Front Bulkhead

LNER 06 (MOK 8F) Tender – Front Bulkhead

Fire Iron Tunnel

LNER 06 (MOK 8F) Tender Top – Fire Iron Tunnel

LNER 06 (MOK 8F) Tender Top – Fire Iron Tunnel

Although I have made some progress on the chassis, recent minor surgery on my toe has left me struggling with the time/energy to give this the thought that it needs to get the motion assembled so I have been doing a few small jobs on the J6 until my energy returns

LNER 06 (MOK 8F) – Springs sand boxes and steam pipe

LNER 06 (MOK 8F) – Springs sand boxes and steam pipe

LNER 06 (MOK 8F) – Springs sand boxes and steam pipe

I am having a little more one step forward and two back with this build and it’s my own silly fault. In my eagerness to crack on I hadn’t noticed a photo in the Wild Swan LMS Loco profiles book on the 8F’s that shows the inside of the cab and more importantly the backhead. It seems that I have too much pipe work for my period so some of it needs to come off again.

I am thanking myself in that I took the extra time and effort to make most of the parts removable because that will make redoing it much easier.

This shows how the parts are removable

LNER 06 (MOK 8F) Backhead – Dismanted

Below is a crop of the cab photo in the Wild Swan book. The photo is credited to the National Railway Museum and is used here purely to illustrate the differences between what I have done and what I should have done.

A Happy New Year to all.

First a bit of a refresher, those with long memories can skip over this bit.

About 8 years ago my good lady became ill and had to give up work. She was fortunate in that she was able to take redundancy and she spent some her redundancy money on a kit for me. I chose the MOK 8F – MOK = Modern Outline Kits available from here MOK

I wanted the 8F to build as one of the locos that were ordered by the LNER during the war. My initial plan was to build one of the examples built by the Southern Railway for the LNER but further research since has changed that to become one of those built by the LNER at Darlington. You might ask why – because I wanted a riveted tender and I had already bought spoked wheels.

The ones built by the Southern had welded (smooth sided) tenders and most of the LNER built examples had solid wheels as on the tenders of the A3/4’s but at least a couple of the Darlington examples had spoked wheels to go with the riveted tender. So mine will now be either 3135 or 3144

Rather embarrassingly I started it in September 2012 (please look back through my blog entries for the time for more details) and never got anywhere near finishing it. About 18 months ago I had a second bash but still didn’t even get the tender finished. Chris has been pointedly asking most of this year when I am going to finish it and I had planned to return to it when I got distracted by the J79 in October. So I made the promise that I would return to it over Christmas and endeavour to get it completed.

I thought I would ease back into it with something easy, or so I thought. I started on detailing the backhead a week last Saturday.

These are some of the many parts that make it up.

LNER 06 (MOK8F) Backhead Fittings

LNER 06 (MOK8F) Backhead Fittings

I had to make this up from a couple of pieces and I drilled and soldered a spigot to the back to make it easier to attach to the backhead itself.

LNER 06 (MOK8F) Backhead Fittings

LNER 06 (MOK8F) Backhead Fittings

Then the myriad of spaghetti that will be the pipework.

LNER 06 (MOK8F) Backhead Fittings

Having seen Nick Dunhill’s masterpiece a few weeks back I was keen to replicate the gauge glasses that he did. On this particular backhead this entailed cutting off the levers, and then cutting out the rectangle of brass to insert the square perspex later in the build and then reattaching the levers to the sides.

LNER 06 (MOK 8F) Backhead – completed apart from the gauge glasses

LNER 06 (MOK 8F) Backhead – completed apart from the gauge glasses

These are the almost finished article that has taken just over a week to put together. – Most of the parts are removable to allow the backhead to be painted.

The main goal now is to get it finished.

Life has got in the way of any modelling for the last couple of weeks or so but a little progress has been made on the brakes and water scoop gear.

Starting with the brakes.

I had a proper DOH! moment with these when fitting the crank I read the instructions and worked out where it all went but for some reason I didn’t start on it for a couple of days and foolishly didn’t re-read the instructions… As I was fitting it the crank should have fitted as it is in the red square but initially I worked on fitting the end of the shaft through the etched holes which I had enlarged before realizing (red curved line).

The next bit of the instructions says words to the effect of assemble the water scoop gear using the 1/32 brass pins provided. Which at the outset doesn’t seem very helpful, however there are a couple of isometric drawings, and a couple of prototype photos in the main instructions and a supplement to the instructions which has a useful photo of a made up model and another drawing. Careful study of these allows you to work out what goes where. Thankfully I was also able to confirm my workings out were correct by asking Tony Geary who built one recently.

In the last photo once I had worked out that the two long operating rods (part 16 for anyone building one) needed to be soldered together I also decided to beef up the two end links that were half etched. I soldered them to a bit of scrap nickel fret, drilled them out and filed them to shape. The prototype photos show balance weights for parts 14 but the photo of the made up kit didn’t have them. I couldn’t find any castings for them so I made them up from some brass rod that I had in stock. I drilled through the middle and soldered a brass pin in to give some end definition (Tony suggested that I ask Dave Sharp for castings but by the time I saw his note I was well on with making them).

All I need to do now is put it all together…….

I haven’t had much time recently so progress has been a bit intermittant. I have been working my way slowly through the valve gear and following Richard Lambert’s example on another forum (not as nice as his efforts though). I have modified some of the bits so that they are a bit more prototypical. I am using the combination of the best bits from the kit and the premier rods. The mods are creating a fork on the ends of radius rod (Premier), creating the forked ends on the union links (MOK)

I didn’t have any scale hardware nut heads of the right size (and funds are a little tight at the moment) so I made do with just putting a piece of scrap etch in the bottom of the expansion link.

Its probably not that visible in the photo but as Richard had to move the oiler from the side to the front on his cast combination lever. Mine being etched didn’t have any at all. But a couple of pieces from some 2mm (I think but haven’t measured) brass bar have done the trick (to the naked eye at any rate).

Although I have been quiet I have not been idle and the 06 moves slowly on.

The last few evenings and over the weekend have been spent on the cylinders/slidebars etc.

While it has taken time to get these sorted and the instructions do lack a little in places – I only discovered the cylinder backing pieces by accident while looking for something else…. it is a very enjoyable kit to build and I am learning all the way.

I didn’t get any modelling done last week but since then I have made some steady progress on the 06

I have done a bit more at the chassis

Next up was the front bogie.

And lastly just before going on holiday I ordered a set of coupling rods etc from Premier which were waiting for me when I got back. I also took the time to make up some of the rods that came with the kit.

The next step was to clean up and test fit the chassis components

First up was to fit the horn guides and compensation beams

This kit is a joy all the parts fit and accurate slots and tabs hold it all together before taking the plunge to solder in place.

The next shots show the frame spacers and the ash pan assembled once again dry fitted no soldering yet..

When you buy the MOK LMS 8F kit you get a fair bit for your money, Sheets and sheets of etches, 8 bags of lovely lost wax castings and a few white metal castings .

This is the first sheet of etchings to be tackled.

Here are a couple of shots of the horn guides and the compensation beams made up ready to attach to the chassis.