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.

  

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.