HR54 Yankee Tank Superstructure

HR 54 Yankee Tank

The nickel silver sheet superstructure of my HR Yankee Tank is almost complete. The boiler backhead, which is a much altered LGM casting, slots into place between the side tanks in the cab and can be removed which will help when I come to add the backhead fittings later. I have no information on these fittings, nor does any exist, so I'll do the best I can by basing the details of the backhead on what I know of other Highland engines of the time and include injectors, water gauges, a regulator and lubricators which should be a good start on what I'd like to be a busy cab interior. The vacuum ejector pipe which is mounted on the right side of the boiler, leading from the smokebox back to the cab, needs to connect to something inside the cab. Hmmm...I'm looking into this matter now.
The cab rear has been constructed as a separate assembly which will be soldered in place but not until I've done as much work to the cab interior while access is relatively good. The upper cab side sheets butt together above the cab entrance where the joint will be partly disguised by the half round beading surrounding the cab opening.

7mm Yankee Tank superstructure

The brass boiler fittings are very accurate castings and were supplied with the "Lochgorm" Yankee Tank kit, however they're practically the only parts that I've retained from the kit. The "Jones"chimney is a two-part casting which allows a common base to be fitted with different tops to enable modellers to build all five versions of the Yankee Tank that were built by Dubbs & Co. in Glasgow. However the safety valve casting supplied, being of different provenance to the chimney and dome, was much oversize and needed drastic time consuming surgery before it was acceptable.

Yankee Tank cab detail

The cab appears spacious enough from outside but in fact the interior is cramped by the bunker which protrudes inside the cab and by the over scale side tanks which leave little space between them for the crew. I intend to design a driver and fireman for the engine who should fit nicely into the cab but it will be quite a challenge. They will of course be available commercially in my "Heroes of the Footplate" range.