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| Dunrobin superstructure, parts in nickle silver are replacements or additions by the author |
The cab sides needed the top rail above the cab door thickening and the only way I could do this was to replace the whole side. I'm working on the new sides in the flat, adding the inner sliding windows which completely enclose the cab when closed. The separate assemblies of the engine, the boiler and smokebox, the tank and cab sides and the footplate and cab interior, will be assembled when the interior is as complete as I can make it. The stepped seating arrangement in the cab rear is based on photos taken at Beamish, after Dunrobin returned from Canada. I have a couple of pictures of part of the inner cab front plate and the top of the backhead, though I the suspect that some of the equipment in the pictures was added in Canada and is not relevant to a model of the engine in original condition.
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| Part of the frame will be removed behind the front bogie wheel to allow the bogie free movement |
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| Cab interior showing inner sliding windows and right hand drive reverser. |
The cab of Dunrobin is generously proportioned because of the seating at the back of the cab and I plan to fully detail the interior though I have not yet obtained all the information I need to complete the backhead and other details at the front of the cab. I have a useful side elevation drawing of the cab, which shows the reverser well and allowed me to model the lever and its ratchet frame. On the opposite side of the cab, the fireman's side, stands a handbrake stanchion for which I also have information enough to make one.
An important consideration in building Dunrobin was the manner in which the cab windows were to be glazed to look convincing not only from the outside but from inside too. My solution was to double-skin the cab sides to allow the glazing to slide between the outer and inner skins. The sliding inner windows are a single layer with glazing glued behind them with ZAP canopy glue, which dries clear. These windows slide in 1mm U section brass, soldered inside the cab sides.
I decided not to double-skin the cab front and rear plates due to the presence of those etched ventilation slots high up between the windows, these I could not reproduce on the cab inner with any accuracy, so single skin they remain and I think they are more convincing as they are.
The driver's door on the right hand side is modelled closed because the driver will be positioned there leaning on door and looking out of the cab. The left hand cab door will be in the open position to allow a good view of the cab interior detail, the inner sliding windows will also be open.
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| ABC Gears triple reduction gearbox with 1625 motor |
Power is supplied by an ABC Gears "PUG" gearbox, designed for small prototypes, the 1625 motor drives the fixed rear axle through a triple-reduction gearbox. The mechanism sits upright in the firebox and fits inside the diminutive 3ft 9" diameter boiler very neatly. Wire pick-ups bear on the rear of the wheel rims on the left hand side and on the right are shorted by means of an 0.5 wire running in a spoke, which connects the brass central hub to the wheel rim.
