Coal Tank; construction complete.




LNWR Coal Tank; construction complete.

 


The front of a Coal Tank is a busy place, plenty of interesting detail.




The tool boxes were cast in white metal from my own patterns, the shed plate, which clipped to the rear edge of the roof, is no. 32 Workington. The vaccum ejector can be seen on the right hand inside tank top.



From the outside a good deal of cab interior detail is visible. The tool boxes slightly overhang the bunker sides and are held in place on raised blocks by hooks and a turnbuckle on the ends.



Cab as it would have been in 1891 before carriage heating equipment was added to the engine to  further complicate the interior detail.



LNWR Coal Tank ready for the paint shop, she'll eventually be no.771 which was shedded at Workington.

Highland Railway D9 composite coach

Lochgorm Kits HR D9 coach.

I built a kind of Cleminson system, using parts from an Ambis etched fret... LWBOL-7 obtained from Hobby Holidays, which allows the axles to articulate and steer round curves, a six-wheel coach runs well with this arrangement. There's a lot of superfluous detail on the fret, which I discarded, to be left with just three axle carriers and a connecting spine to mount them on which in turn fastened to the Lochgorm Kits coach underframe. The centre axle carrier travels laterally across the underframe; the the outer ones are arranged to move on an end pivot. The rod that connects the carriers and co-ordinates their movement is fixed to the central carrier but only loosely attached to the outer ones to allow them to pivot.

The D9 coach is intended to pair, as part of a composite Highland Railway train, with my D19 all third coach... which you can see if you click on "Coaches" on the Home page. Ultimately, this pair, with a PBV and a selection of HR goods stock in tow, should make a fine sight behind my Skye Bogie or even the Wee Ben. 
 

Coal Tank... brake pull-rods

Brake pull-rods screwed in place.

 There are brake-pull rods both inside and outside the wheels on a Coal Tank. In order to allow the wheels to be taken off the outer rods need to be removable. So, though I soldered the inner rods in place onto the transverse spacers, I screwed the outer ones on. I tapped the small diameter tubes, which act as spacers for the rods 16BA, there's one of these tubes attached to each brake block as well as to the brake rod operating arm behind the rear driver. The screws are 16BA cheese heads which I've rounded off to look something like the rivets used on the real thing. You can just see the rear sand pipe in front of the brake rod operating arm protruding between the paired rods. The brake rods were rather fine, only 2" wide, a mere 1.16mm in 7mm scale. I made them from 1.18mm half-round rod which makes them both robust and to scale. When they're drilled for the 16BA screws there's very little metal left which necessitates a washer over the hole for strength... I think I can see the same arrangement on a photo of the prototype.

Below the chassis, behind the operating arm, you can see part of the lever connecting the transverse brake shaft to the reversing mechanism mounted in the bunker above. The cut-out shape in the chassis behind the rear wheel is much in evidence in this picture but is masked by the cab step once the superstructure is in place.


 

Coal is glued onto a Milliput former, the bunker top tool boxes are not yet in place.

 

 

 

The master pattern for the tool box was difficult to construct but is now finished and in a mould in the workshop. If you want some castings of this yourself there should be some available in a few days. The tool boxes stand on wooden blocks mounted on the bunker top, they protrude slightly beyond the bunker sides though they are held firmly in place by hooks which attach to the tool box handles.

I've been busy working on second version of the Coal Tank fireman in a less specific pose, so he's no longer "straddling" the works. This new character will be useful on almost any engine, he's also in a mould in the workshop at the moment and will be available very soon and will be featured on the Blog.

As construction of the Coal Tank is nearing completion I've been considering my next project. I've decided to step back into the realm of the Highland Railway and will be working on a D9 composite coach from a set of Lochgorm etches. I've spent some time working on the coach recently and will be making a posting on the progress I've made very soon...