After a short interlude to finish of building a Gauge 1 Warship that was started way back in 2017 I am back on the 8F since attending Guildex last weekend.
I started by replacing the wrong handed upper lamp iron.
Right Handed Upper Lamp Iron
Then I folded the bends on the tops and fronts of the two MOK replacement welded sides and added the handrails. I also took the time while they were accessible to file the tails of the handrail knobs and the wire of the rear ones flat.
Handrail tails filed off
With that done I marked up where the solid bits were on the tender cage so that when I solder them on I apply the heat in the right place.
Something a little different from me. I have been quite for a few weeks because I was focusing on building this for delivery at Stafford. I started this way back in 2017 but the kit was supplied with came with ex San Cheng motor and gearboxes which were quite popular at the time. The minor issue with them was that the retaining collar on the final drive was very thin and in order to get the grub screw to clear the gear above you needed to file a slot in the axle. This is all very well if you are using solid axles like those provided with Slaters wheels but the kit came with Mark Wood wheels mounted on telescopic axle which are not good for filing slots in.
San Cheng final drive gear
Having discovered the issue I sent the motor and gearboxes back, explaining the issue and asking for some different motor and gearbox units which didn’t require a slot cut in the axle.
After chasing it up a couple of times without response it was ultimately placed in a cupboard and forgotten. When I moved house I recalled that I still had it but it wasn’t until after covid that I got in touch with the guy and reminded him that I had it. It then took another couple of years or so to actually get suitable gearboxes (we had tried some Slaters axle mounted bogie units but they were not suitable either – for the life of me I can’t recall what the issue with those were now).
I finally received suitable units last year but I was in the midst of building the Princess and having waited so long I didn’t want to just drop everything to do the Warship.
Fast forward to about 4 weeks ago and I decided to try to get it finished for delivery to Stafford.
I had made the chassis and bogie frames back in 2017 so the first job was to fit the motor and gearboxes to make sure that they would indeed fit.
Warship bogie Motor fitted underside
I used the mill to neatly enlarge the slots for the motors and then heaved a sigh of relief when they went in as planned.
A trip out to Harrogate show on BH Monday allowed me to get the T stanchions fitted and as a bonus, I also got the brake rigging finished on both wagons so just bolsters, buffer heads and couplings to sort now.
I even gave them a good scrub, although now they are dry, I obviously made a better job of one than the other.
After discovering the out of square holes and correcting them at Redcar show I was able to get both wagons up on their wheels and the single sided brakes fitted.
Further progress was made on Saturday while supporting the Stainmore Railway Railwayana event with the buffers and the main brake cross shaft fitted. I had some spare Slaters cast buffer stocks so I replaced the whitemetal castings provided in the kit. I also managed to do something that I haven’t done for some time and that is melt a couple of white metal T stanchions for the ends while tinning them with 100 degree solder. I was busy talking to a gent and wasn’t concentrating.
I am making some replacements from some coarse scale rail that I have to hand. The profile makes a great starting point for T section.
Back in June last year (Here) after some discussion on the Guild forum about tapping guides I made one but since then I haven’t had a circumstance where I might actually use it.
Yesterday while doing a little job I needed to tap a 12ba thread in two sides of U shaped pieces. By gripping them (they are rather small and fiddly) in an engineers clamp I was able to rest the guide on the flat side of the clamp and use my shop made tap spinners to tap the holes. One tap spinner holds the taper tap, while the second has the bottom tap.
Set up for tapping small holes in U shaped brackets.
Having got the back sorted I turned my attention to the front of the tender and the next on my list was the intermediate buffers. The parts list has them as whitemetal casting but I cannot find them so I decided to make my own as I have done for other tenders. However looking through the Wild Swan 8F book, showed that at least some of the Stanier tenders had intermediate buffers that were different from the usual round type.
This is a snip from the tender front photo on page 90
They are interesting enough for me to have a bash at making some.
Stanier Intermediate BufferStanier Intermediate BuffersJLRT Stanier Tender Front
Here we are with them fitted. I have no idea whether the tender fitted to 8425 had this type of intermediate buffer fitted and almost zero chance of finding a photo to confirm or deny their existence, so I can enjoy them being a little different from the other Stanier tenders that I have built.
It was at this point that the difference between the upper lamp iron and the replacement lower ones started to bug me. It gnawed at me for a few days, before I succumbed to making a replacement for that too.
Replacement Dual lamp IronReplacement Dual lamp Iron
Some time ago I made some Dual lamp irons for the loco.
Milled Lamp Irons
I should have made some for the tender at the same time but I hadn’t decided to swap the tender at that point so saw no need for them. Then when I did need them I had completely forgotten how I made them.
So some trial and error over the last couple of weeks has given me these which still need some hand filing to finish them off
Rear Lamp ironsReady for hand finishing.
Then came the problem of the upper lamp iron for the rear of the tender. It has been a bit elusive but I did eventually find photos of one and then worked out a way to mill it.
After squaring the end of some stock up last night I milled out the main shape today.
Again it needs cutting of and hand filing to final shape.
After a couple of failed attempts I managed to get some red painting onto the tapered fire extinguisher. Which in my view at least has improved it no end.
Over the last few show demos I have been slowly building a pair of Connoisseur LNER Single Bolster wagons. At Embsay Hunslet event last weekend I got to the point of soldering on the axle guards in anticipation of getting them up on their wheels when a minor disaster struck.
Prior to I had popped the bearings in the holes to ensure that the holes were deep enough but what I hadn’t noticed was that the holes themselves were not at right angles to the axle guards.
In my ignorance I soldered a pair of axle guards onto one side of each wagon but when I slipped the axles in ready to solder the other side on I found that the axles were sat at a jaunty axle. It was at this point that I realised that I didn’t have the right sized drill bit with me to attempt to straighten the hole
When I got home I had the thought that a suitable sized burr might be better than a drill bit to straighten the hole so I bought a set of burrs via Amazon and planned to use the 2.5mm to do the job. They were not expensive £8 for the set but I figure they will be good enough to work on whitemetal.
Once I fitted the burr in my Proxxon Mini Pillar drill I realised that with the axle guards fitted to the wagon body the chuck would hit the body stopping me from being able to drill in the correct place. At this point I had two choices I could either remove the axle guards to drill them out or make an arbor to hold the burr further away from the chuck. I chose the latter route as being the easiest.
I made an arbor from a piece of 6mm rod recycled from an empty toner cartridge. Drilling a 3.25 mm hole in one end and cross drilling and tapping M3 for a couple of grub screws
Then using a couple of bits of coffee stirrer to support the casting level I set up to realign the holes.
Set up jig
Using the depth stop on the mini pillar drill I was able to straighten and make the holes slightly deeper without drilling through the face of the axleboxes
The MOK 8F is progressing albeit slowly. I have been working on the replacement JLRT tender which is coming together.
The welded tender rear plate needed rivets punching out and I had to make another anvil to make sure that the spacing was correct. Sadly I made a complete hash of punching them out, only getting one set out of 6 where they should sit.
After much muttering I made the decision to flatten the punched rivets and file off the reamng stubs. Then I riveted a piece of thin brass along one edge with blocks of three rivets at the correct spacing. Between those I left a space so that I cold cut them to fit. I fitted the JLRT steps first, then soldered on the riveted plates above them to compete the illusion.
MOK-JLRT Tender Rear
The casting for the water gauge supplied by JLRT was whitemetal and seemed very big so I machined another one based on the one supplied with the MOK tender
I still need to solder it in place but it looks the part.
JLRT Tender Front
I also started to add details to the tender front, I couldn’t resist trying to make the locking latch work by filing down a brass dressmakers pin to act as the pivot.
While searching for something else I came across a kit for an LMS Long Low by the long defunct Blacksmith Models.I had a quick look in the box and was pleasantly surprised to find that it contained a set of wheels presumably added by the previous owner. I bought it along with a number of other kits a few years ago before we move up to North Yorkshire. A closer look also revealed quite an interesting and I suspect quite advanced for its time underframe etch. I didn’t take photos of it in the flat but I was intrigued as to just how it folded up and couldn’t resist having a go.
Blacksmith Long Low Underframe
This is just folded without any solder applied yet.
I have been working away on small bits for 8425 and I have now got to the front lockers on the tender. These have a number of hinges which have tiny rivets that need to be pressed out very close together.
I tried my smallest anvil and that didn’t allow tight enough spacing so I made another.
The one on the left is the smallest one that I had made previously and one that I have used a number of times recently. The one on the right is the new one and since the photo was taken I have blackened it and used it successfully to press out the rivets on the locker front
Way back in 2010 for my first 7mm scale build an LMS Period One Full Brake, I scratch built a full interior from brass. As part of that interior detailing I made a couple of fire extinguishers, not having a lathe at that time I made them from brass tube and other bits and pieces finishing them with a couple of 4mm scale etched plates that I had in my spares box.
I fitted on in the coach and the other sat in my spares box for a long time. I can only assume that I fitted it to a brake van at some point because I can’t find it.
I made them from tube etc. because that’s the only way that I could see to make one up and I was really pleased with the result. However since then I have had a longstanding itch to make one of the tapered/cone type fire extinguishers. My recent success with the oil cas prompted me to have a go. I found a few photos and had a go. The first attempt wasn’t that great because my rivets were to pronounced so I changed the punch on my rivet press and had another go. This time I was happy and although they look big in the photos because that are massively magnified they do look the part when viewed at normal distances.
Fire ExtinguisherFire ExtinguisherFire Extinguisher
Jim, kindly includes a cast oil can in the kit. I had added a handle from scrap etch, painted it and stuck to the footplate. As you can see below it came adrift and losts its coat of paint.
Connoissuer Oil can
I was initially going to repaint it with gunmetal grey but then thought I am sure that I can make something better.
Back in 2017 I built a Connoisseur J79 which was painted in early 2018 and then after some test running it sat in my cabinet with occasional trips out on my demo stand. Somewhere along the line I managed to get a large chunk of paint removed from the bunker. I may have attempted to patch paint this but I also noticed that somehow when fitted the backhead had slipped and moved off centre.
This was one of those thigs that despite being in the enclosed cab one I had seen it I couldn’t unsee it and it started to bug me. I popped it in a box on a shelf and tried to ignore it but eventually I decided to take the plunge and strip the paint of it.
Just a reminder of what it looked like in January 2018
Connoissuer Models J79 Tank Engine PaintedConnoissuer Models J79 Tank Engine PaintedConnoissuer Models J79 Tank Engine Painted
Fast forward to a couple of weeks ago and we have this.
You will note in all the photos above that there is an infilled section under the boiler behind the smokebox. I didn’t notice this when building and only noted it when I had got it all assembled. Now having stripped all the paint off I took the plunge and cut that infilled section out and I have to say that the loco looks much the better for having it removed.
J79 footplate cut out under boiler
You will also note that there have been a couple of casualites during the paint strippoing process – One of the cab steps broke off, one of the cab handrails came adrift and I removed and stripped the backhead. I also managed to lose completely the curved handrail from the smoke box door.
At the last Bolton Show before its sad demise I picked up a Connoisseur kit for a pair of Single Bolster Wagons. These were the last design of 13 ton single bolster wagon built by the LNER between 1945 and 1948 with all steel body and underframe.
Having finished the LSWR Brake vans that I had previously been working on while demoing at shows I needed something else so at Harrogate show last year I made a start by folding up and soldering the body pans which are all one piece. Then they were put aside until last weekend.
I didn’t get much done on Saturday because it was so busy. Literally all I managed was to solder three layers of brakes together for each wagon.
LNER Single Bolster Wagon – Brakes
Sunday it was quieter so I managed to get quite a bit of detailing done on both bodies.
LNER Single Bolster Wagon – Bodies
As I was adding the details I had been looking at the rivets in each corner of the body initially thinking that I would have to fill in the unsightly dimples on the inside faces where I had pressed them out with the rivet press. This got me thinking that there must have been something on the inside. A Google search found an good image of a preserved example at Bo’ness which clearly showed that there is an inner washer plate which isn’t provided in the kit so on Monday morning I had a go at seeing if I could make some. It took a couple of goes to sort out the spacing and sizes but I got there in the end. The most fiddly bit was getting them to fold straight.
