Small Goods running at CDOGG

Resplendent in Drummond II unlined green livery HR27 runs through the station on the club layout today with a short train of Highland stock. It was quiet in the clubroom this morning which gave me the opportunity to test the engine for over an hour on the circuit. Later I added a few more wagons that were brought in, though it was never a test of strength. I think it would manage a dozen wagons. I was  pleased with the engine's performance, it ran smoothly and gave no trouble at all. 

You can see some of the detail inside the cab in this rear view, the crew are my own sculpture, specially designed for this type of open cab. The Loco Coal wagon is built from a set of resin sides and ends which I produced myself. The wagon is completed with a mix of commercially available underframe parts and scratch built brake gear. 

The club has some great model makers and their buildings and other detail in the scenic section of the club layout make for a realistic scene.

Highland Railway 6-wheel 20 ton goods brake van, built from an etched "aid to scratch building", which I had made; the nickle silver sheet included all the hard-to-make-yourself parts.

HR 27 Small Goods, Jones Rebuild of 1891...finished

Nothing was easy constructing my Small Goods engine and the same was true when I came to paint it; my choice of paint, Precision P727 Dark Green 1905-1912, which suits the unlined Drummond II livery is now permanently deleted, only P725 Light Green remains in stock. I had a small tin of this fortunately and I experimented by using it as the base colour. I added matt black and by a process of trial and error found that simply adding black and nothing else made a credible match for the lost 727. You can judge yourselves from the pictures displayed here the degree of my success. I have no infallible recipe for the colour, making it was a haphazard business and dependent on continued supplies of 725.

Despite keeping my precious mix in a tightly lidded jar, to my dismay it dried up to a jelly overnight before I'd painted the cab interior. So I embarked on a further experiment using Revell semi-matt Dark Green 363 as a base. I added a good deal of matt black and rather less yellow (15) which produced a credible colour for the cab. I think success depends on the base colour being as near as possible to the colour you're aiming to mix. 

The cab interior is based on the drawing in Peter Tatlow's "Highland Locomotives" (p.57), showing the interior of a Loch Class engine of 1896. I think the cab of the Jones rebuild of the Small Goods was probably much the same as that of a Jones designed Loch. The backhead owes much to a Lochgorm Kits etched sheet; brass castings are mainly sourced from Laurie Griffin and 62C Models, revised to fit this particular cab. The oil can and grating visible in the center are my own white metal castings. 

The dark green base colour, mixed from my own recipe (above), was applied with a Badger Anthem 155 airbrush. The contrasting areas of black were brush painted using Humbrol matt black to which a touch of talc was added; when dry these areas were buffed with a soft toothbrush to produce a sheen. Transfers on the buffer beam and rear of the tender are methfix type from a rather depleted Guilplates sheet of Highland Locomotive transfers which are sadly no longer available. The number and maker's plates were etched to order by Light Railway Stores. 

 

The driver and fireman are my own sculpture though now available from Chris Smith at Invertrain Models in his "Heroes of the Footplate" range. The figures are designed with contrasting poses which maximise the restricted space available in the cab and by avoiding standing shoulder-to-shoulder they allow a good view of the interior and of the backhead details. 

The 4 ton capacity tender is identified by 9" Highland numerals. Design of these early tenders owed a debt to those of the LNWR, the coal had to be shoveled from floor level, a back breaking task.

 The tablet catching apparatus has a handle which goes into the cab between the side sheet and the stanchion. The fall-plate is shaped to clear the sand-boxes and allow the engine to negotiate curves on a club layout and also masks the un-prototypical, though most effective way, the engine hooks to the tender.

Aids to Scratchbuilding, Jones Open Wagon.

Pete has produced a new set of cast resin ends and sides to add to his expanding range of 7mm scale Highland Railway wagon scratch building aids. The parts are for a HR Jones open wagon, they are available direct from the author at a cost of £20.00 per set plus postage at cost, £1.29.

If you buy 2 sets of castings postage is free (UK). 

Buy three or more and discount is 10%.

You can e-mail, phone or message on...

armstrongps1@gmx.com

017687 71302

07342 637 813

The wagon corners are mitred and there are slots behind the solebars to allow room for sprung buffers to move. Once the sides and ends are assembled a 1mm Plastikard floor is cut and faced with 4mm spaced planking; this locates in a groove between the sides and on the rear of the buffer beam to complete and strengthen the basic body structure. All components below the solebar can be obtained from the trade, or can be scratch built from sheet metal. In effect, with a little help from the scrap box, you're creating your own multi-media kit, and all the components are your own preferences.  

HR buffers and 3ft 6" wagon springs are available from Invertrain.

Axleboxes from Lochgorm Kits

Wheels are Slaters' Ref. 7123 3ft 7" 8 split-spoke.

Horse hooks and brake pin rack from 62C Models.

Slaters' Plastikard Ref. 0434 4mm spaced planking

W-irons; Slaters or Furness Wagon Co.

Resin sides and ends for Jones 15ft 4-plank open wagon HR diagram 19

Completed wagon; brake gear from spares box, with parts cut from sheet and from 62C models

HR Jones d.16 open wagon

Jones Open Wagon 1470 complete

A purposeful Jones open wagon with a timber load, ready for action.

Things to Come...

Pete's next project is already underway, so watch this space. On the drawing board at this moment is a Drummond open fish truck with drop sides...and what Highland train would be without one? The detail underneath may stretch the resources of your scrap box more than the Jones wagon, nevertheless I think it'll be interesting to build and make a fine addition to your Highland stock. 

HR Ballast Wagon Complete

Highland Railway Type J 8 ton drop-side ballast wagon 

The model was built with the aid of an etched brass kit from Lochgorm Kits' for a 4-plank open wagon, from which the model was converted with the addition of extra parts. It seemed simple enough at the outset but turned out to be a laborious and time consuming way of producing a ballast wagon. A limited number of resin bodied ballast wagon kits were produced recently by a Highland Railway Society member and I'm sure these would make a very nice model in rather less time than the road I took. Though I prefer all-metal construction, a quicker build second wagon to make a pair, one empty and one with a load, is a temptation.

I printed the oval number plate on the sole bar myself on an inkjet from my own artwork. Transfers are from HMRS sheet 20. The basic colour of the wagon is Phoenix Precision P963 Dark Brick Red. I used this colour as I've run out of Caledonian Goods Wagon Oxide, which I usually use, it seems to be more or less the same colour.

The inside of the wagon was painted with Humbrol matt 110, a light brown colour, this was dry brushed dark to light. The ironwork was painted matt black then this and the planking was lined with thin black paint which flowed round the detail and into the intaglio by capillary action.

A residue of ballast chippings and an old sweeping brush add interest to the interior.


   

Jones Tank bogie rebuild.

HR Jones Tank No. 58 after her repairs

At the February Running Day on the CDOGG layout in Carlisle my Jones Tank, which was built some time ago did not run at all well, in fact she failed to negotiate the circuit at all. I thought it was partly a problem with the front bogie and partly due to the vagaries of the track, particularly where the lifting flap provides a testing unevenness, which has been the ruin of the pretensions of many a poor engine. My misgivings about the track were however unjustified in this case as examination of the offending bogie running on my test track at home highlighted the fact that the rear wheels were not even revolving! The problem proved to be entirely a bogie malfunction. Closer investigation showed that the frames had somehow expanded and were actually breaking away from the horizontal stretcher and locking the back wheels. There was a good deal of lead weight glued into the bogie between the frames and I could only surmise that, depite my using Araldite epoxy glue, expansion of the adhesive was somehow to blame.

The engine started life as an aged Jidenko/Shedmaster kit, described by Laurie Griffin himself as "a difficult kit" and difficult it is, nearly impossible actually, without a great deal of modification and improvisation. The bogie frames were, on examination, found to be only 0.45mm thick, too flimsy for frames really. In addition, the mudguards on the front bogie wheels had always been a problem, the restricted clearance causing them to foul the cylinders and front buffer beam. Though this did not result in an electrical short circuit, as the wheels are insulated from the mudguards, it did not improve the engine's running characteristics. I resolved to simply scrap the old bogie and build a better one and see if I could improve clearances at the same time.

The mudguards are clear of the cylinders now though it's still tight.

I cut the new bogie side frames from 0.7mm nickle silver and built the bogie solid, without compensation. The earlier version had enjoyed the complication of hornblocks for the rear wheels to slide in, which I decided to scrap in favour of simplicity, relying on the central pivot of the bogie to provide articulation in all planes. I omitted most of the lead weight, adding only a modest amount this time. I was able to re-use the mudguards, though I remodelled them as tight to the arc of the wheel as possible and though I probably managed to pinch less that a millimetre, it made all the difference and the rebuilt bogie ran visibly clear of the buffer beam and the bottom of the cylinders. I made new guard irons, bending them and their support from a single strip to replace the earlier multi-part lash-up, not only providing a more robust solution but also an improved appearance.

The engine runs well now, at least it does on my own test track in the studio, taking the 6ft radius curves in her stride. An ABC Gears' Mini Gooch gearbox with an 1833 motor and flywheel, which I deem essential if space allows, ensures smooth running.

My aim when building a locomotive is that it should perform well in a "club layout situation" and these repairs should ensure that it does just that. However, due to the ongoing deadly virus crisis, her test run on the club layout in Carlisle is postponed indefinitely...

Rebuilt mudguards and guard irons, note clearance under buffer beam is tight.

Dunrobin, Making a Start.

Dunrobin frames under construction

Lochgorm Kits' 7mm kit for Dunrobin, the duke of Sutherland's private engine, was I believe designed originally in 4mm scale by Alastair Wright of 5522 Models and enlarged to 7mm by the late Andy Copp when he took over production of the former's Highland Railway kits in 2011. Alastair began introducing Highland Railway designs to his range in the 1980's; these were hand drawn and, though not designed for 7mm, when enlarged they served well enough though they took their faults with them to the larger scale and magnified a number of these, so some of the etched parts of this kit need to be remade with more accurate replacements.

The chassis (above) is etched in sturdy 0.7 nickel silver and the frames are a respectable 26.4 mm outside diameter so I had to file a bit off the frame bushes to free the wheels. I've introduced a few more cross-members for the cylinder front and rear and for the ash pan. I've ordered an ABC Gears' Pug Special gearbox with a Canon 16 x 20 motor which I think should provide enough power for this little engine. It will sit upright in the firebox and drive the rear fixed driving axle.

Rear bogie complete

The bogie builds well without much modification and is a solid job. I used Slaters' 1/8" frame bushes for the axles. I plan to mount wiper pick-up wires behind the left hand wheels and short out the wheels on the other side; I'll try silver conducting paint and see if that works.

The superstructure is built on a flat wooden former. 

The boiler in the kit was half-etched to provide boiler bands, which resulted in a flimsy structure, this inadequacy when compounded with a mistake in the diameter of the boiler condemned the offending part to the recycling bin. The front splashers were found to be undersize and new parts were made to replace these too.

I intend to double-skin the cab all round so the acetate glazing will slide between the outer and inner skins; in addition the inner sliding cab windows will be constructed in this manner too. The cab front and rear present no problem though the cab sides will be replaced with more accurate parts to facilitate my ambitious glazing scheme.

Currently the real Dunrobin is undergoing major reconstruction, so there's nothing of her to see at Beamish, her home, though their newsletter is helpful and charts progress. I intend to build a detailed cab interior, though it's going to be some time before I get to this stage, I hope that by then I'll have more information on this aspect of the engine. At the moment some details, particularly of the backhead and controls, are rather hazy.

Photos taken on an Apple I-Phone 11.

Highland Railway Type C brake van in action.

HR Type C goods brake van in action at CDOGG.

I think you'll agree that this photo of my HR Type C brake van in action, passing through the station, on the club layout in Carlisle is the business. It's a short train, in fact there's just an open wagon behind the engine which is HR Passenger Tank no.46. The guard can be glimpsed through the glazed rear window, he's on the other side of the van.

The ends of the van are painted red which makes for a lively colour scheme though there's no certainty that the ends were this colour when the vans came into service in 1898 as the practise of painting the ends red seems to have been phased out late in HR days.

There is little evidence of the exact colour of Highland Railway goods stock, indeed it may have varied over time and no doubt weathering changed the colour anyway. In this case, as I've modelled a van fresh from R. Y. Pickering's works, the paint is a rich red oxide with a glossy sheen. I used Precision 436 which is their Caledonian goods wagon oxide and made no changes to it.

The large H R letters flanking the ducket are HRMS Pressfix transfers; the rest of the lettering and numbers are from the water-slide sheet included with the Invertrain kit. These are carried on a varnish film, which leaves an edge, though a couple of layers of gloss over the transfer, later toned down with eggshell should disguise the edge. The transfer for the Pickering works plate is particularly effective, this is mounted on a rhomboid metal plate and trimmed with a file which nicely takes care of the varnish edge. Similarly the OIL transfer sits inside the horseshoe plate on the solebar which disguises its surround.

There are two good works photographs of the Type C van in existence which appear in Peter Tatlow's book, Highland Railway Carriages and Wagons. Apart from these the Type C van seems to have exercised a remarkable reticence towards the camera, though recently a rather grainy photo has surfaced in the HRSoc archive showing a Type C in LMS days bringing up the rear of a mineral train, headed by a Skye Bogie at Erbusaig Bay; the vans evidently saw much service on the Kyle line.

Type C van at Erbusaig Bay, approaching Kyle of Lochalsh. (HRSoc Archive)

Highland Railway 13Ton Type C Goods Brake Van

 

In a recent article in the Highland Railway Journal I mentioned that despite modellers of the Highland Railway being well served by kit manufacturers, a gap existed in the case of the Type C van. Remarkably, within weeks of publication, the gap was plugged and a sample of the kit was on my work bench. The kit was designed by Mike Williams and commissioned by Chris Smith of Invertrain.

This is a difficult kit, or you could call it a basic kit or an aid to scratch building. Whatever you call it, the kit demands patience and effort, it’s a project for the experienced modeller.

The panels have been etched into the sides and ends of the bodywork which leaves them flimsy, it may have been a better idea to have designed the sides with a separate surround to the panels, designed to be soldered on, which would have made for a more robust
body. As it is, some reinforcement and bracing is needed to produce a satisfactory structure.

I made a floor for the van and built the body and chassis as two separate modules that screw together. The chassis has a simple rigid wheelbase, without compensation.

The chassis is a separate module. Note the cross members, which support the brake hangers.

The transverse veranda locker was not part of the kit so I made one myself, which improves the appearance of the model and strengthens the structure. I double skinned both the ends and the sides of the veranda interiors, which both thickens the van walls and simplifies glazing the ends, the clear acetate sheet simply slips between the inner and outer skin. The inner end walls of the verandas are faced with 2mm Plastikard planking overlays, the side walls are not planked. The interiors of the glazed verandas are dark when the roof is in place so really you can get away with much less detail than I included, though a minimum would be to make the transverse locker and to thicken the top of the door and the opening above.
 

The van body is a separate module. Plasticard planking is used for the inner end walls and for the veranda floors.

 

 

 

There are flaws in the design which need correcting. In particular the ends of the buffer beams require shortening and an insert needs to be made to seat the ducket sides correctly. The instruction sheet, which is useful without going into minute detail, makes it clear how these improvements can be made. I used Slaters’ cast lamp irons in place of the etched offerings in the kit and also discarded the roof which was half etched and far too thin; I made a replacement from 0.45 sheet and doubled the thickness of the edges. The roof is removable, to allow glazing of the van after painting and is held in place by a screw which fits neatly down the chimney and locates into a longitudinal member in the cabin. 

There is ample scope for ingenuity in making adjustments and additions to the kit and obviously the more input and effort you put into the model, the better will be the end result

 

HR Type C goods brake van complete and ready for painting.

HR58 Jones Tank 4-4-0T

HR58 Jones Tank in Drummond II plain green livery 1902-1912

HR58 was built some time ago with the aid of a Shedmaster/LGM kit or rather an "aid to scratch building" though the precise amount of aid derived from the etches, the provenance of which is shrouded in the mists of time, is hard to determine; precious little I thought at the time. Perhaps they could best be described as providing more in the way of moral support rather than being of any practical use. However on a positive note the castings that came with the etches were good quality and quite indispensable. When construction was complete the engine languished for a deplorable length of time in the sidings of despond before I got round to painting it...this month in fact.

I built the engine originally as it would have appeared in LMS days with appropriate buffers, lamp irons and steam heating fittings. Between building the engine and painting it not only did several years fly by but my interest changed, so despite the attraction of the post-grouping red livery which suited these engines so admirably, I decided in favour of  finishing the engine in its pre-grouping guise, in the unlined Drummond II livery of 1902-1912. The HR green livery of that period before the Great War though plain endowed an engine with gravitas which when enlivened by an abundance of brightwork could never be considered dull.

HR58 Note the bottle shaped buffers characteristic of this particular engine in HR days.

 As I considered the as yet unpainted engine it became apparent that by some curious process of thought I had made the boiler too small, a mere 3' 8" rather than the 4ft clearly shown on the drawing and the more I looked at the engine the more the deficiency glared at me! I think the confusion may have had something to do with the diameter quoted in Cormack and Stevenson which I now realise must be without the outer cladding. So I decided that, along with a few other modifications to set her back into HR days, I'd have to re-model the boiler.

De-construction was the easy part of the process... and rapid, a couple of saw cuts and the offending boiler was off! Rebuilding was more painful as not only the boiler but the front of the tanks had to be reconstructed though the end result, as I think is evident in the accompanying illustrations, was well worth the bother. The profile of the smokebox, boiler and side tanks not only conforms to the drawing but also, being correct now, carries its own conviction. The steam heating pipes were quickly stripped off the engine as they were an addition of the LMS as were the lamp irons which were altered to HR pattern.

The buffers were however a problem as there were no commercially available castings for the characteristic bottle shaped ones used by the HR on this particular engine. I can find no other instance of HR engines being fitted with these curious buffers so the lack of available castings is unsurprising. My mate Bob Goodyear turned a pattern for one of these buffer housings on his lathe and had a set cast in brass from me by one of his mates which solved the problem, I think they look the part. A set of number plates and a builder's plate for the bunker rear were commissioned from Guilplates who also provided the HR transfers.

HR58 The brightwork enlivens the plain HR green livery. The fireman in nonchalant pose sculpted by Pete himself.  

As a base colour for the engine I used Phoenix P727 HR Dark Green 1885-1912 Dull to which I added just a touch of black to give the colour a little additional gravitas. I then added some P727 Gloss to the mix, just enough to enliven the surface, the amount of gloss is a matter of personal taste. I masked up as much of the brightwork as I could then airbrushed the basic green overall. A lot of work then went into cleaning up the brightwork. The smokebox, chimney, footplate, roof and other black areas were brush painted with matt black, these areas were scrubbed gently with a stiff bristled brush later to give the surface a dull glow rather than remaining completely matt. Light weathering was applied with thin washes of paint in all areas and some dry-brushing of lighter tones was used to bring out highlights.

HR58 running through the station with six bogie coaches at CDOGG on Saturday

HR53 Lybster progress

HR53 Work in progress

The chassis runs smoothly, though as an 0-4-0, as I've made no provision as yet for pick-ups on the bogie wheels. I have all the parts I need to hand now including the dome which together with the chimney was turned by pals at the Carlisle club. These need a good deal of file work to finish them, nevertheless they're looking the part. When the front splashers are in place they should mask most of the area under the boiler so I don't plan to model any inside motion. A metal fillet will be added inside the cab corners which will help when I round the corners off . The front and rear of the cab will be double-skinned to facilitate glazing.

HR53

The MSC fly wheel much improves the running quality of the chassis. It protrudes into the cab and will run partly inside the backhead though it will have to be reduced in width to fit. There is a circle of rivets behind the smokebox, clearly visible on photos of the prototype. I've left room for them on one of the rings behind the smokebox and plan to use resin transfer rivets from Archer Surface Details to model them. There's an instructional video linked to their website which shows how to make a circle of rivets. I made a trial circle and thought the results were encouraging, the backing to the resin transfer rivets is very fine and won't show behind the smokebox and the rivets themselves seem robust enough for the job. I plan to use these transfers to model the little lines of rivets that surround the window openings too.

Lochgorm Tank Painted

HR57 Lochgorm Tank 0-6-0T

I completed the construction of this scratch built Lochgorm Tank engine in time to have a picture of her included in Vol.7 No.108 of the HR Journal for early 2014. It was not until later in that year that I realised that the transfers that I had hoped to have printed for the name "Lochgorm" were not going to materialise, the quotes I had from transfer printers were sky-high and interest in the job was marginal to say the least so reluctantly I abandoned the idea and turned to Dave Studley, a painter of some repute whom I'd heard was good with lettering.

The Highland Railway water slide transfer sheet supplied by Guilplates was Dave's starting point. The lettering on the sheet provided the initial "L", which is slightly larger than the rest of the name, along with the letters "G" "H" and "R". The numerals on the sheet supplied the "0"s  which left only the final "M" annoyingly missing. Dave contrived this from an "M" from Guilplates' LBSCR transfer sheet, some subtle work with a fine brush was necessary on this letter to persuade it to adopt the uniformity of the rest. I think you'll agree that the lettering works well.

The crew were painted by myself and are figures from my own "Heroes of the Footplate" range, they are designed specifically for this loco though I'm sure they'd fit nicely in the cab of many another engine.

        



HR57 Stroudley Lochgorm Tank

 

On Saturday HR57 will be taking to the rails in finished form for the first time on the Carlisle Club's layout, I hope to have some photos of her in action at CD0GG with a train next week. 





HR 54 at CD0GG Running Day

HR 54 running today at Carlisle

It was a busy running day today on the CD0GG layout in Carlisle and the best I could manage was a picture of the engine in the sidings waiting with a train of a dozen coal empties and a guards van, which when her turn came on the layout she pulled effortlessly, running remarkably smoothly and taking the points, crossings and the odd irregularity in the track in her stride, I must say that I was very pleased. The coal wagons were built by Peter Whiteside from Kendal, a skilled modeller in a group which is remarkable for the number of talented model makers it has attracted to its membership. It was remarked that the next stage, painting that is, would spoil what was in fact a piece of sculpture in nickel silver... nevertheless the paint shop will indeed be the next stage and I hope fairly soon to carry the project through to a finish and that HR54 will emerge resplendent in the HR's green Drummond II livery.

New Bogie for Yankee Tank

New bogie posed in front of redundant one 

The original bogie, shown in the background above, was built from the etches in the Lochgorm Yankee Tank kit which began the Yankee Tank saga way back in March last year. Having long ago consigned the remainder of the kit etches to suffer the opprobrium of despatch to the recycling plant, I decided that the bogie should in its turn follow suit and be replaced by a better scratch built version with springing and with a more prototypical appearance...

The 0.7 n/s side frames are spaced 20mm apart, which necessitated using extended hornblocks which I made by soldering together two of Slaters' hornblocks, front to front and cutting off the protruding outer circular bearing. This produced a 6mm slotted hornblock which protruded 4mm beyond the frames. These run in cut-outs in the side frames and are prevented from rotating by slim vertical side strips, the extra unwanted slot in each hornblock was filled with a brass insert on top and finished with Milliput.

The compensating beams, outside the frames, are cut from 0.7 mm n/s and are mounted on 12BA screws threaded through the side frames. Although they are non-working there is a wire spring behind them bearing on the tops of the hornblocks. The cosmetic w/m springs behind the beams are castings that I made myself some time ago for my HR Wee Ben. There is no side play on the bogie, the pivot point of which is located some way behind its centre point which effectively allows the bogie to negotiate the 6ft radius curves of my test track in the studio without fouling the cylinders or drain cock operating rods.

Tomorrow HR54 goes to the Open Day in Carlisle for a run on the CD0GG layout where we'll see if she can negotiate that!

New bogie in position.




 

Yankee Tank construction complete

HR 54 complete and ready for the paint shop

Yankee Tank finished at last!

The paint shop is the next stage for HR54 and that means the garden workshop or shed as it's sometimes rudely referred to by a certain other member of the household. The engine will be finished in the unlined Drummond II livery in which she ran in the years after 1900. Note the tool box on top of the side tank which must have been necessary on the isolated Invergarry & Fort Augustus branch line. A traversing jack appears, possibly one of a pair carried on the footplate, in many photos of the Yankee Tanks...I must get round to making one. The crew are under consideration at the moment, they're at the design stage, in gestation and they'll not be ready for her trial run on the CD0GG club layout on Saturday in Carlisle, nevertheless I expect her to perform well as she has done on the test track here in the studio.

Cab Interior Yankee Tank

Yankee Tank cab interior

The boiler backhead can still be removed for detailing, which is now complete, and for painting at a later stage. The bunker has been filled with Milliput modelling putty along with a strip of lead which I like to distribute judiciously about the engine. More Milliput will be added to build up the coal level which will then be topped with real coal.

The vacuum ejector pipe can be seen entering the cab on the right hand side, below the window, where it makes a sharp left turn along the cab front plate, then left again over the backhead to loop and join the Gresham and Craven driver's brake valve, a very fine casting I acquired from Hobby Horse Developments. On the left, under the window, you can see the operating handle for the front sanding mechanism; to its right is the handle for the rod and crank blower control which is mounted on top of the backhead.

Cab Interior Yankee Tank.

The hand brake is mounted to the left of the coal hole and the rear sanding mechanism operating handle is to the right of it. The constraints imposed on the cab width by modelling in Finescale have left an uncomfortably cramped cab with little room for the crew who will have to be carefully designed to fit. Though the large cab roof suggests a spacious cab, this is not the case, it's minute!
A metal plate to fit the floor has been inserted into the cab to which wooden planking will later be added.

Yankee Tank Backhead

This disembodied view should clarify the arrangement of the backhead fittings and its associated plumbing. The fine quality of the cast brass fittings from Hobby Horse Developments can readily be appreciated in this view. In my last post I left the vacuum ejector protruding into the cab at very much a "loose end", joining it to the driver's brake valve seemed the best and most plausible solution to the problem, I hope you'll agree.

Yankee Tank January 1

HR54 Yankee Tank approaching completion 

January 1st seems an apt day for a progress posting on my Yankee Tank project, the saga of which began back in February.... it's almost complete, just a few details and I'm there....however I'm much tempted to replace the front bogie with a new sprung or compensated one. At the moment the engine is staggering along with the bogie I built from the parts in the "Lochgorm" kit that was the starting point of the project. The bogie was the first thing I constructed before I began to jettison the offending parts of the kit to the extent that the engine became a scratch building project. I think the bogie will probably join its fellow miscreant components in the scrap yard and be replaced by one based on the principles expounded by Geoff Holt.

HR54 Rear of cab with coal rails and mesh over windows

In 1901, along with several other changes, coal rails were added to HR14 to increase the coal capacity of the bunker and the engine was renumbered HR54. A protective wire mesh cover was put over the rear windows and in addition, as the rails overtopped the windows slightly, wooden boards were placed in the bunker against the mesh to further protect the windows from damage from the heightened coal load.    

HR54 showing work on the cab interior in progress.

Cab and backhead details are generic though the reverser and brake standard are in the right place as can be confirmed by glimpses of them in photos of the engine. Some guidance for cab details can be gleaned from Eddie Bellas' article in "Steam Railway" of May 1984 in which he says that "injectors were mounted on the boiler backhead". He prefaces this with... "steam feeds for the various auxiliaries were taken from a large steam fountain inside the cab". Though I've modelled the injectors, I'm floored by the fountain! Control rods, such as the whistle operating rod and the sandbox operating rod, that protrude through the cab front plate have, or will be given, suitable hand wheels or operating  handles inside the cab.

The vacuum ejector pipe enters the cab on the right hand side and remains at the moment just a loose end, I'm not sure what to do with it?

The water fillers on the tank tops are cast at home from my own master patterns and are available to fellow Yankee Tank builders on request.

Chassis showing cylinder drain cock mechanism.

The cylinder drain cock operating rod leads back to a small lever mounted on a rod below the motion plate, the rod leads across to its opposite number on the r.h.s. Between the frames, protruding through the motion plate, are the valve rods/spindles, which are all the inside motion that I've modelled. Now that I've moved the motor/gearbox onto the front axle this is no longer available to mount the eccentrics on. You could say that I've sacrificed some of the inside motion for a flywheel and improved running characteristics.

Unfinished... but nevertheless it's a busy place under the cab.

A curved balance pipe sits in front of the brake cylinder and joins the side tanks, it only just clears the rear wheel flanges with the aid of a cut-out. In front of the cylinder there is a vertical support for a horizontal cross rod on which is mounted the brake operating elbow, still in its roughed out state. The brake pull rods will be attached to this elbow. I cannot see the horizontal cross rod on the Bellas drawing, nor can I fathom the drawing at all in the area below the cab, so I've followed the details in the GA drawing of a "Loch" class engine in Tatlow. Despite Bellas' assurances that his drawing was taken from an original Dubbs drawing of 1891, its detail of linkages beneath the cab seems implausible.

The cast w/m springs are from my own patterns and castings.

Superstructure and chassis united in harmony.