petesworkshop

Working from the Tatlow drawing in "Highland Locomotives" I remodelled the downward extension of the main frames behind the bogie wheels as well as the after part of the frames which carry the rear driving wheel springs. The springs that were etched as part of the frames were cut off and discarded; these proved to be a remarkable 12mm too long, which I thought might be a record for inaccuracy in etched kit design. I’m not sure how to represent the springs yet, I’ll just leave this detail until a later stage. I have the running plate and frames pinned down to a block of MDF to keep them flat and have secured the frames to the running plate by means of a slot at the rear and a nut and bolt towards the front. The front steps are in place though I had to remake them as those on the etch proved to be just "any old steps" hardly matching the drawing in any dimension. It’s a sturdy construction and as soon the cast rods I ordered from LG Miniatures arrive I’ll put the wheels on and get the mechanism up and running. 

I’ve made some progress with my Wee Ben tender chassis lately; I’ve soldered the white metal springs and axle boxes to the side frames and fastened these in turn onto the underside of the running plate. I’ve restricted side play on the wheels to a minimum; they don’t need much, so there’s plenty of clearance between wheels and side frames. The buffer housings were a problem as they met the side frames when I tried to locate them in their holes in the buffer beam. So I sawed part of the buffer housing away at the back, making a flat that mated with the inside of the side frame; in fact I had to remove so much material to do this that the hole in the rear of the buffer housing ended up "D" shaped; so when I come to fit the buffer shanks into the housings they’ll similarly have to be filed into a "D" shape to run nicely, and I’ll need to do away with the retaining nut somehow too. I’ve retained the chassis to the running plate by means of a nut and bolt at the front, which you can’t see, and at the rear by trapping the chassis under a length of angle section soldered to the buffer beam. Structurally the chassis is very strong, it’s looking good and hasn’t presented too many problems. However I’ve had a look at the superstructure and I must admit that I was dismayed by the coal rails which are going to need a lot of work to sort out as they’re etched solid, by which I mean the upright supports are etched in the same plane as the horizontal rails, it’s all going to have to be cut up and remodelled. I was even more dismayed by the way the flare of the tender sides has been etched as if it is stepped inwards, rather than stepped outwards; as if the designer was trying to give an impression of the construction of the flared section rather that confronting the problem of actually producing something that looks like the real thing. I must admit that at the moment I don’t know how I’m going to put this to rights, but it looks like a lot of work.     

I pinned the tender footplate down to a small piece of MDF before soldering on the valances, drawplate and rear buffer beam. I cut the latter part too short so it was flush with the valances, as I misread the drawing, and had to laboriously remake this part, as photos show the buffer beams overlaping the valances on both tender and loco. I’ve done some work on the buffer castings too, cutting away the excess thickness on that part of the casting that attaches to the buffer beam to make a better representation of the HR style buffer housing.

I similarly pinned the loco footplate down flat to MDF and had just nicely tidied up the front buffer beam, after flattening out the rivets that I’d pressed into it by accident, when I discovered that in this case both the rear draw plate and the front buffer beam were too short by 1.5mm, so I’d no option but to remake these parts and discard the offending parts that I’d so lovingly burnished flat. The front buffer beam and drawplate as well as the loco footplate have half etched holes beneath them, inviting the unwary modeller to press the rivets out; this must be resisted at all costs as the Wee Ben was not rivetted in these places in either HR days or under LMS ownership.        

Progress on my Wee Ben has not been spectacular over the last few weeks, I’ve mostly been working in the flat assembling various components such as the etched brakes which I thought looked better than the cast ones that came with the LGM Small Ben parts pack. You can see in the above photo how I’ve bent the tender chassis to shape (using a bending jig from "Metalsmith") and soldered brass sprung hornblocks into cut outs in the chassis sides for all six wheels. Another job that took some time was shorting out the wheels of one side of not only the tender but the loco too, as I intend to use the so called "American" pick up system. I joined the brass central boss of each wheel to the outer steel rim by means of a fine brass rod running in a groove cut behind a spoke and locating in small holes drilled in both the rim and the central boss, thus effectively shorting out the plastic insulation. You can just see this arrangement on the back of the near axle offside wheel. I drilled access holes in the top of the chassis so I could adjust the screws that control the ride height of the tender. Washers were added to all the axles to restrict sideplay of the wheels.

I made some new n/s side frames for my Small Ben’s front Bogie which allowed me to solder on guard irons, for which the kit made no provision. I drilled and opened out the axle holes into which I fitted brass axle bushes inside out, then I trimmed them almost flush where they protruded on the outside. I bought a pair of LGM white-metal bogie side frames which I glued in place, they really make the bogie look the business. The bogie frame spacer was adjusted so that when the w/m sides were in place the complete assembly measured 26.5mm across the springs, which matches the loco frame width.

I’ve spent some hard evening sessions working on this little Fordson tractor and here it is: the construction complete at last. I managed to make two left wheels instead of a left and a right, and though at first I thought it might not notice; it looked odd, which it was, and I had to unsolder all the strakes on one wheel and turn them round so they ran in the right direction; I think it was worth the trouble. I’ve just sprayed the model with etching primer as the brass parts need this treatment and I’m sure the white metal components won’t mind. I used my new Badger spray gun which I bought especially for spraying etching primer as I didn’t want to put this stuff through my air brush; it only cost about fifteen pounds and is proving a really worthwhile piece of kit.

There were lots of half-etched rivets on the buffer beam, and I started work on my Small Ben by carefully pressing them out; such was my concentration on the job that it wasn’t until I’d pressed them all out that I checked my references and realised that actually there were no rivets at all on the buffer beams of Wee Bens, either in HR days or after the LMS rebuilt them, so in the bin with the buffer beam. This goes for the rivets half-etched on the footplate too; there aren’t any; fortunately I didn’t press them out. I decided to do without a few more rivets on the loco chassis too; what you see above is what you get. I’ve cut off one of those downward protrusions behind the rear bogie wheel arch as it’s the wrong size and shape; both sides will be replaced with something more the part after I’ve bent the chassis to shape.

I added some extra detail to the fish truck to bring it to life; Andy at Lochgorm Kits sent me some HR wagon plates, there were no suitable numbers so I modified them by scraping off the second etched digit and replacing it with a tiny length of brass rod to represent a 1; this gave me a correct fish truck number plate. I added a brake safety strap; cast horse hooks and some door fastening detail; the little "chains" retaining the door pins were fashioned from two strands of 5 amp fuse wire; it was a fiddle but worthwhile.