Scrap Tank, construction progress.

Construction of the chassis of my 7mm scale Scrap Tank is well advanced and the mechanism progresses smoothly under power along the test track in the studio, so a test run on the club layout in Carlisle at this stage might be a good idea. There is still much detail to add below the footplate which I will leave for a later stage of construction; meanwhile I'm looking into the possibility of 3D printing some components, particularly the sand-boxes and driving wheel springs and maybe the rivetted wheel balance weights. The coupling rods were made for me by WMI; the connecting rods I built myself. The gearbox is an ABC Mini7E mounting an M1833 motor. The footplate assembly is screwed to the frames through the front frame spacer; the rear frame spacer slots into a housing fastened to the inside of the back buffer beam.

Phosphor-bronze pick-up wires (0.5mm) are arranged to bear on the tops of the centre and rear drivers which will locate inside the engine's spacious side tanks; those that bear on the front driver have not been resolved yet. The left hand driving wheels are shorted by means of an 0.5mm p/b wire soldered between hub and tyre and slotted behind a spoke.

With the front driving wheels are in position, the axle screw is masked by the slide-bar/cross-head assembly and inaccessible. To overcome this the axle and its brass bearings is retained by a keeper rod soldered to a plate. The removable plate slots in place against the front frame spacer and is retained by a screw. 

Clearance between the chunky cross-head casting and the coupling-rod is minimal and much metal had to be removed warily from the rear of the casting and from the head of the protruding crank-pin screw to achieve free movement.  

HR Scrap Tank, Making a Start in 7mm Scale.

Test running the chassis through the crossings on my track at home. Mini 7E gearbox with M1830 motor and MSC flywheel. The motion plate is in place though the slide-bar, cross-head and connecting rod are yet to be fitted. 

Undoubtedly the Scrap Tank is aesthetically one of the less appealing of Highland Railway engines, it does not have the elegance and visual appeal of so many of their designs. It nevertheless has a certain fascination which has drawn me repeatedly to consider a model of one of these ungainly yet curiously appealing shunting engines. It's a fascination to which I knew I'd eventually have to give in to and  indeed I have... and I've made a start on the model. 

The Scrap Tank, though a fairly simple engine, nevertheless presents some constructional problems of its own, probably the most difficult to solve being the lack of clearance between the coupling rod and the cross-head. The slide-bar and cross-head assembly needs to be as close to the side frame as possible to allow the connecting rod to run parallel to the side frame and not be spaced too far out from the coupling rod on the center driving wheel crank-pin; I'm working on it. 

As you can see above, I've arranged wire pick-ups on the center and rear drivers, which will be hidden inside the side tanks. The front pick-up is not so simple and as yet I have not contrived it. A wide leaf spring will be mounted behind the front driving wheel, which will make arranging a wire pick-up from this wheel difficult. I've not mounted the spring in place yet, nor have I managed to source a casting for it, so it's not an immediate problem. Watch this space... 

Cut-out parts and sub-assemblies for the superstructure await the next phase of construction.. A few castings I need are proving elusive, particularly the leaf springs, so I might try having them 3d printed. 

I wanted to have the chassis running before the turn of the year and indeed it is up and running, which is a good point to leave off the modelling as it's New Years Eve...and go into festive mode!

HR Loco crew in 7mm scale.

HR NEW SERIES. Driver HR1 and Fireman HR2

 Loco crew have always been a favorite modelling subject of mine and I've recently sculpted some new ones in 1:43 scale based on photos of Highland Railway loco crew, which are now available to enliven the cabs of your locos. There are currently four New Series figures which can be seen in the accompanying pictures. These are cast in quality white metal and are available assembled and mounted on a small base unpainted.

A limited number of figures, painted by myself, are available while stocks last, these are illustrated in the accompanying photos.

Prices.

Painted Figures are £15. You can mix and match any of the painted figures seen in the pictures.

NEW SERIES 

HR1 Driver, HR2 Fireman, HR3 Guard, HR4 Fireman Tank Engine.

New Series are unpainted assembled figures @ £8

Postage @cost

Email. armstrongps1@gmx.com

Three locomotive drivers

Four locomotive firemen

A driver and fireman that go well together.

Assembled unpainted white metal figures. NEW SERIES HR3, HR1 and HR2 

Designed for a tank engine, this is NEW SERIES HR4

HR 118 In action.

HR118A glides smoothly through the complex point-work on the CDOGG club layout. The wagon behind the engine is a HR fish truck, built from my own Sides and Ends resin castings and still available.

HR118A had its first outing on the club layout in Carlisle last week and performed well with a train of ten pre-grouping wagons and a guards van, which though less than it could have hauled, was a realistic load, as the prototype engine was not noted for its pulling-power. The engine is painted in Cumming's unlined moss green livery with vermillion buffer beams, the front one carrying the number 118A in the Highland's distinctive gold lettering edged with green and black. Cumming introduced this livery in 1923 and photographic evidence shows the engine in this livery during its later days of service on the Highland. There are currently no Highland Railway colours in production, so I was fortunate to acquire a practically unused tin of Phoenix moss green from an HRSoc member (P728 HR Dark Green 1912-1922) which saved me the problem of trying to mix this elusive colour myself. I used an old sheet of Guilplates Loco Insignia transfers which, being Methfix, have no hard to disguise carrier film and make for a neat job, particularly on the tank sides. The loco crew are my own recent sculpture, cast in white metal and designed to maximise the space available in the cab of a small locomotive. The loco lamps are also my own castings, they add a touch of colour, which together with the brightwork, the gold shaded insignia and vermillion buffer beams enliven the somber livery.

The driver is on the right, positioned in the doorway where he doesn't crowd the cab.

The fireman is on the left, he leans out, looking ahead and allows an unobstructed view of the busy cab interior. 

A New Photo of HR 118

 Image of 118 cropped from a photo of  a Scrap Tank at Inverness.

I was unaware of the image above until it was brought to my notice by Charlie Wrigley while I was building my model of HR118 recently, despite the photo from which it is cropped being included in M.C.V. Alchin's "History of Highland Railway  Locomotives", which sits on my bookshelf;  I'd simply not noticed the diminutive engine sneaking partially into view beside a Scrap Tank at Inverness Roundhouse.

The buffer beam displays the abbreviation "No", with the "o" underlined, to the left of the hook and to the right, the number 118 with a small "A", discernible with the eye of faith, between the 8 and the vertical row of rivets, which points to the engine being turned out in Cumming's short-lived livery of 1915-22. The colour of the engine at this time is described as Moss Green and I'm fortunate to have a tin of Phoenix P728 (HR Dark Green 1912-23), now deleted from their list, which I hope will not disappoint. 

The rivets on the buffer beam were a surprise to me and were modelled in retrospect, both the vertical rows, which fasten to the ends of the frames and the row along the top; I rivetted the rear buffer beam too as I presume it would have been similar. I noted that the couplings have been changed from the earlier photos to three-link ones, which confirms a shunting role. The lamp-iron on top of the smokebox is well seen in this view as is the vacuum pipe, which has been detached from the buffer beam presumably to allow the door to open.

Below the buffer beam can be seen the cylinder drain-cock operating shaft, which passes in front of the valve chest and is supported centrally by a bracket attached to this.

The additional information contained in this partial view is limited though it has helped with some constructional detail, in addition it shows that the engine was turned out in Cumming livery towards the end of her service which is the time-slot of my model.

PS. While rummaging through back issues of HRJ I noticed in No.56 for early 2001 an item in Highland Lines showed that "Home of 0 Gauge" listed a 7mm scale kit for HR118. 

  

HR 118 Construction Complete

 

Construction of HR118 is complete, it has taken the best part of six months to get to this stage. I'm working on a suitably posed crew now before painting the engine. The white metal castings I made from my own masters are in evidence on the pictures on this post. Particularly in view above are the sandboxes front and rear. Below you can see the water filler castings on the tank tops and the curved covers that sit on the footplate either side of the smokebox.

The cast white metal cover beside the smokebox is well seen in this view as are the buffers which have tread-plates added. A rod passes in front of the engine below the buffer beam which operates the cylinder drain cocks.  

The front sand box snuggles behind the motion plate, above it on the footplate sits the sand box mechanism with an operating lever disappearing behind the side tank.

The position of the brake stanchion is established from photographic evidence though much else of the cab interior detail is an imaginative reconstruction. I've included as much detail as possible to bring the cab interior to life although most of this will be masked from the outside when the crew is in position. The coal on the floor is small coal as the bunker opening on the outside is only about 3" wide. 

The back-head was built by myself though the castings seen here are commercial ones modified to fit the situation. I'm sure there was much more to it than this, but I have no information to work with.

The engine has been weighted with lead strip added below the cab and in the side tanks and will haul 10 wagons and a brake van with ease. I imagine the real engine might manage about the same; it was not a powerful engine, its tractive effort being less than half that of a Yankee Tank. 

The restricted bunker opening is in evidence here. The rear sand box can be seen behind the cab step, though how it was filled is obscure, neither is the sand box mechanism in evidence.

HR 118... Progress So Far

Photo reproduced courtesy of HRSoc/Am Baile

There are only three extant photos of HR118 and a side elevation based on them drawn by Laurie Ward, which results in some blank areas and uncertainty about several features of the engine, which causes difficulties for the modeller. Probably the most mystifying feature, seen above, is the "upper bunker", or "coal chute", which appears to be attached to the rear spectacle plate, about level with the driver's left elbow. This is not included in the Ward drawing, nor was it part of Peter Kay's early 4mm kit for the engine. Sandy Harper's model of the engine which featured in the GOG Gazette of Aug. 2013 is a useful reference; he included the "upper bunker" as an exterior feature, though offered no solution to the interior arrangements.

The design of the prototype engine allows for a 3/4 ton bunker at the rear of the cab, filled presumably by means of the outrageously tight 3" opening between the spectacle plate and the back of the bunker, the spectacle plate would have been cut away below the top of the bunker rear to allow coal into the bunker. 

It is possible that the upper coal chute was added to allow a wider (about 6") ingress for coal. However, in that case there would have been a corresponding opening in the spectacle plate inside the cab to allow the coal into the bunker below, which appears to have had a top plate or shelf. Some contrivance would have been necessary to stop the coal simply spewing all over the cab, and this is not evident in the photographic record. In particular the photo of 118 on the scrap line at Culloden in 1923 shows no evidence of an upper coal chute inner opening; perhaps this curiosity was removed as impractical. Anyway, I decided not to include the feature in my model. 

Cab rear showing the narrow opening for loading coal into the bunker. 

As you can see above, though I've no evidence for this, I've modelled the side tanks continuing into the cab which also enclose the rear driving wheels. The back-head is attached to an inner front spectacle plate which can be removed for detailing. There is little evidence for the cab interior so it'll be based on probability. Castings for the back-head fittings are proving elusive, available items proving oversize.  

Chimney (Lochgorm) and dome (LGM) still need some refinement around the base.

 Initially interpretation of the photos of 118 led me to build the side tanks without the plate which covers the gap between the inside of the tanks and the boiler. I thought that what the photos showed was an attachment bracket rather than a complete top plate. However the large gap between the tall side tanks and the boiler led to a re-think and I modelled a wider top, which covers the gap and it looks better too. 

Under the cab, between the frames I've built what I think is a well tank to fill the gap. It's a convenient space to add weight which has vastly improved haulage capability.

The cab steps are attached to a cross member fastened to the frames. A sand box sits behind the steps and another one behind the motion plate, I need to make patterns for these and also the tank top water fillers and cast them in pairs.  

I'm working on a driver and fireman to suit the engine and the wee dog is under way too, these will be available to modellers as castings as soon as I've completed the moulds.

HR118 at Culloden out of service 1923 photo HRSoc/Am Baile.
The rear of the cab is well seen in this view though there is no sign of an interior opening for the upper coal chute. The position of the brake standard suggests the engine is right hand drive.