Some North Eastern & LNER Locomotive Builds

[mikemeg]

I see in the latest Snooze, that Will Litchfield's page expresses the hope that "I'm proof against being shocked into silence by my being featured again".

Well, Will (some kind of illiteration here) fear not; there's no chance of my being shocked into silence. I'll just keep on building and keep on posting. But many thanks for the consideration.

Cheers

Mike

[mikemeg]

Bachmann B1 Conversion

The cylinder assembly has now been added to build #2 bringing them both to the same stage, once again. The piston gland, piston valve guide and relief valves have also been added to build #2.

Now for the expansion link bracket on each build.

Cheers

Mike

[mikemeg]

Bachmann B1 Conversion

I had heard, from a number of folk who have built Dave Bradwell's kits, that they are beautifully designed and extremely accurately etched. I have to say that as I progress through the stages it becomes more and more apparent just how much thought has gone into the design of this kit. But, that precision does demand a simlar level of precision on the part of the builder.

The kit is effectively designed as a set of sub-assemblies. So the cylinders are a sub-assembly attached, as they are, to a plate which is screwed to the top cross member of the chassis. The expansion link bracket is another sub-assembly desiged to be assembled in situ, using positioning rods (0.8 mm and 1.25 mm) which are inserted across the mainframes into corresponding holes each side of the chassis and then withdrawn once the sub-assemby has been soldered up. This sub-assembly can then be put aside for later attachment to the top plate.

Each successive stage does reinforce Dave Bradwell's advice, in the instructions, that this can't be rushed if it is to be done accurately and correctly.

Cheers

Mike

[mikemeg]

Bachmann B1 Conversion

The final stage in the assembly of the expansion link bracket and the trickiest, is adding the bearings to the bracket itself. These are very small ( 2.0 mm diameter) and easily lost. The end of the bracket was lightly tinned, and then the hole cleaned out back to 0.8 mm. The 0.8 mm rod, used for positioning, was dipped in olive oil and then the bearing slotted onto the rod. Once the bearing is in position with the oil box at the top, then a touch of the iron and, hopefully, the bearing is fixed, the rod is not! The rod is then withdrawn and the bearing and bracket polished up.

Now to do the whole thing again on build #2. Dave Bradwell did say this can't be rushed and these parts certainly can't.

So both cylinder assemblies and both expansion link bracket assemblies are removeable and will be removed when adding the hornguides and axleboxes.

Cheers

Mike

[mikemeg]

Bachmann B1 Conversion

Time now for some rods, so that the hornguides and axleboxes can be fitted to build #1. Both the connecting rods and the coupling rods are formed of two layers of etch 0.45 mm thick with additional layers at the big end journals. My normal method of setting up rods for the two layers to be soldered is to use appropriately sized tapered broaches pushed, though not rotated, into the holes in the journals as per the photograph.

The two layers are then nipped together and then held together while the edges are soldered. I normally do around a centimetre at a time, while nipping the two layers with the tweezers, then move the tweezers by another centimetre and solder that. I always solder the rods from one end to the other, never from each end to the middle.

Once soldered, then the broaches can be removed and the rods cleaned up with fine files and the fibre brush. The articulated coupling rods use a 1/32" brass pin as the bearing, which is cut off at the back and the end rivetted using a small hammer and a steel block. These rods should move freely but should not move from side to side out of their parallel plane.

Now to set up chassis #1 forthe hornguides and axleboxes.

Cheers

Mike

[mikemeg]

Bachmann B1 Conversion

If anyone is wondering 'has Mikemeg gone away?' then the answer is no. But I am awaiting delivery of a couple of gearboxes for these B1's and can't really proceed until I receive them.

So these builds should resume later this week.

Cheers

Mike

[Julian Roberts]

Good to know, Mike! Following your thread with keen interest.

[mikemeg]

Bachmann B1 Conversion

While waiting for the High Level gearboxes - ordered earlier this week - temporarily stopping any further progess on the chassis, I thought I would assemble the bogie as this is a free standing assembly. Some times, building etched kits, you come across a piece of design and etching which is really something. Often not too easy to assemble but with care and patience just very rewarding. Such a piece of design and etching is the bogie assembly for the B1. The sides are composed of two layers with the outer layer carrying the rivet detail. These must be aligned precisely to allow the axle holes to line up. The end pieces must then be aligned and, in the case of the front end piece, formed to the profile of the side before soldering.

Anyway, after a couple of hours the bogie is assembled and is now ready for the addituon of the springing, on the underside. For bending the guard irons, I consulted a prototype photograph to get the bends in the corect place and at the correct angles. Amazing how many models have their guard irons wrongly profiled and not over the rails.

The wheels are 3' 2" 10 spoke Alan Gibson; P4 of course!

This photo is something like three times the actual size of the assembly.

Cheers

Mike

[DougN]

Mike, as you can say with the bogie David Bradwell really thought the design out to achieve a great result. It makes modelling very enjoyable.

[mikemeg]

Bachmann B1 Conversion

What's that old saying about silk purses and pig's ears? So, before I resume work on the loco chassis I thought I would begin the work on the tender. The instructions for this kit do provide quite a lot of assistance in the additon of detail to the tender, including the movement of the rear coal plate, which took place in the 1950's. The first of the Bachmann tenders for these two B1's has the rear coal plate in its original position so no need to move it.

First job on this tender is to strip out the plastic coal load, which is moulded integrally with the tender top. So this requires cutting the moulding out and then dressing the tender sides, inside, to remove the last vestiges of that moulding. The rear coal plate has then been thinned to a more prototypical thickness and the front coal plate will be similarly treated. After that additional detail will be added to the tender top - rivetted fillets, fire iron tunnel, coal space and a coal load of real coal.

More stripping back of the moulded brake gear will be done before fitting a tender chassis, new brakes and P4 wheels.

But before any of that can be done, warmer and sunnier climes beckon for a few days, though with 16 C here, yesterday, perhaps not much warmer.

Cheers

Mike

[mikemeg]

Bachmann B1 Conversion

Back from the sunnier climes, though it seems I missed a 'freakily' warm February week here.

Anyway now back to the workbench to continue the rebuilding of the Bachamnn 4200 gallon LNER tender. A new tank top, with coal space, has been made and a fire iron tunnel with the tapered front section has also been made. The fillets holding the sides to the top plate or fire iron tunnel have also been made and fitted. A very light coat of primer to show any inaccuracies and to allow for further detailing, where white on white would not be easy to see.

All of this is comprehenively covered in Dave Bradwell's instructions, with all of the appropriate dimensions.

Cheers

Mike

[Dave Holt]

Welcome back, Mike. I was beginning to suffer withdrawal symptoms.
I'm sure you've got it right, but as B1s were left hand drive, I'm surprised the tender fire iron tunnel was on the drivers side. Was this arrangement on all the group standard tenders do you know?
Dave.

[mikemeg]

Welcome back, Mike. I was beginning to suffer withdrawal symptoms.
I'm sure you've got it right, but as B1s were left hand drive, I'm surprised the tender fire iron tunnel was on the drivers side. Was this arrangement on all the group standard tenders do you know?
Dave.

Dave,

Many thanks, it's good to be back.

The tender, as supplied, does have an opening, in the right hand side of the front bulkhead (looking back from the cab), though the fire iron tunnel itself isn't modelled. Dave Bradwell's instructions also show this tunnel on this side.

As to whether this arrangement was the same on all group standard tenders, I don't know.

Regards

Mike

[mikemeg]

Bachmann B1 Conversion

It appears that I have got the coal plate re-location on LNER 4200 gallon tenders, the wrong way round. As built, the tenders had the rear coal plate, which was much flatter in radius, spanning the water scoop dome. The tenders were then modified, during the 1950's, to move the rear coal plate further forward and to fit a raised plate.

So the tender shown, with its modifications and additions, is no use for a B1 in 1950. This was commented on by a contributor to the RMWeb site, as well as referencing a photograph of a B1 in LNER lined green with BR markings just pror to its July 1950 overhaul. That B1 was Hull's 61010, which was the first B1 to be built after the intial batch of ten wartime builds.

So, of course, one of these B1's will be 61010 Wildebeeste in LNER lined green with 'British Railways' in full on the tender.

These sites are really great for checking prototype details, dates, etc.

Cheers

Mike

[mikemeg]

Bachmann B1 Conversion

This thread has been silent for few days while I await delivery of one of Mr Bradwell's kits for the LNER 4200 gallon tender. Having looked at the Bachmann early (pre 1950's) tender moulding with the rear coal plate spanning the water scoop dome, I've concluded that this moulding is not really up to being modified. So the first of these B1's - 61010 - will be equipped with the kit built tender, as will the second a little later.

Having now established that 61010 - Wildebeeste - carried the LNER lined green livery with early British Ralways markings until July 1950, I've now decided that the second of these B1's will be Hull Botanic Gardens' 61215 - William Henton Carver - this in BR lined black.

So now to build a 'proper' tender!

A couple more of those precious black and white photos, again courtesy Mick Nicholson.


Cheers

Mike

[mikemeg]

By way of a slight digression I'll post a couple of photos taken inside a locomotive shed. I first became interested in the railways in 1958, just as the dmu's were seeing off the last of many of the older passenger tank classes.

A few months later I and my youthful contemporaries discovered the 'holiest of holys' for a Hull trainspotter- Dairycoates locomotive depot - and we also discovered that the shedmaster's vigilance, in keeping out the local spotters, seemed to lessen slightly on a Sunday afternoon. So began an 'association' with this place which would last for the next six or seven years and would see us 'bunk' around this place four or five hundred times.

Even after its mid 1950's rebuilding it was an enormous edifice with its two internal turntables and two more turntables outside of the shed building. On a Sunday afternoon over a hundred locos could be seen.

So, the two photographs attached really do speak with a siren's voice, recalling those steam day Sunday afternoons in this place, this great 'cathedral' of a place dedicated to the steam locomotive. These two photos, both taken in Hull Dairycoates shed, though many years apart and courtesy Mick Nicholson, are two of the best photos I have ever seen for conveying the essence of these places; the magical nature of them.

You can almost smell that unmistakeable mixture of coal smoke, oil and steam hanging heavy on the still, warm air of a summer's afternoon 'on shed' and see the stygian gloom punctured by those ethereal, yet almost solid, shafts of sunlight streaming in through the broken or soot stained glass in the shed roof. Refracted from a pool of oily water into the swirling colours of the rainbow. No sound, save the gentle hissing of steam; the occasional drip, drip, drip, of water onto the floor and the fluttering of pigeons up in the roof.

Tomorrow, this place would be hussle and bustle; the epitome of a working railway but today there was only stillness and quiet, as these huge machines rested.

The colour photo could almost be a David Sheppard painting, so balanced is its composition.

Wonderful places; wonderful days!

Cheers

Mike

[Phil O]

Very evocative photos, with the sunlight streaming in.

Phil.

[mikemeg]

NORTH EASTERN KITS NER Class E1 / LNER J72 Long Bunker

Fresh out of the erecting shop is this; Arthur's kit for the longer bunkered version of the NER Class E1/ LNER J72. This kit can be built to represent any of the batches of these locos other than the first twenty, which had a shorter bunker and a different mainframe profile. These first twenty are covered by Arthur's other J72 kit, with the shorter bunker and different mainframe profiles. Both J72 kits contain two different smokebox wrappers, to cover flush rivetting, as originally applied on early locomotives, or the visible rivetting of later smokeboxes. The different safety valve arrangements (Ross pop mounted on the firebox or the 'trumpet' housing) are also covered by the castings in the kit. The instructions also cover the fitting of the vacuum pipes for those locos which were vacuum fitted.

This build has been finished as one of the first twelve (not vaccum fitted) of the batch of J72's built by British Railways in 1949 - 1951 characterised by the large sandboxes just behind the cab footsteps and by the abscence of sanding operating rods. The model is to be 69011 of Hull Alexandra Dock shed in its mid 1950 state.

Both versions of this J72 kit are in the process of being released and Arthur (North Eastern Kits) can confirm the detailed schedule of release.

Cheers

MIke

[Julian Roberts]

Very evocative photos, with the sunlight streaming in.

Phil.

And writing, too!!

[Horsetan]

NORTH EASTERN KITS NER Class E1 / LNER J72 Long Bunker.....

Both versions of this J72 kit are in the process of being released and Arthur (North Eastern Kits) can confirm the detailed schedule of release....

*starts clearing space in the drawers for one*

[iak]

Ooop, better get the cash flow sorted then...

[mikemeg]

Very evocative photos, with the sunlight streaming in.

Phil.

And writing, too!!

Many thanks.

I can still remember, with vivid clarity, that first Sunday afternoon 'bunk' around this place in late August of 1958 on a sultry, warm, late summer's afternoon. The pictures, which that event painted in my mind, have remained until this day, though they would be joined by a myriad of others from many other places around the country. It is those pictures which still inspire the models in a desire to recreate some vestige of those days, those places and that world.

In the ensuing seven years, up until 1965, I 'visited' around half of the major loco sheds in England, Scotland and Wales. Often the visits were abortive as the shed foremen spotted us, intercepted us and ejected us but I only eventually failed to get around about five of the 'attempted' sheds - Gorton, Copley Hill, Kings Cross were three of them where I was repeatedly thwarted.

I can also remember putting the books away and giving up on the railway, in mid 1965, as steam was rapidly progressing towards its extinction. Who, in those days of 1965, 66, 67 and 68, could ever have imagined the renaissance, not only of so many locomotives but of the whole environment in which they lived and worked. And who could ever have imagined that numbers of new locomotives would be built; some of classes which we never saw i.e. Gresley's P2. Perhaps these machines are so deeply embedded in our national conciousness, so that whole new generations can now thrill to their sight, their sound and that unmistakeable smell.

So I'll post yet another of Mick Nicholson's 'rescued' black and white photographs of a different railway, in a different time from a very different world! This was the 'straight shed' at Hull Dairycoates, with one of the four turntables to the left of the straight shed. Prior to its 1955 rebuilding, this shed boasted a building housing six turntables,though this original shed building was actually built in a number of stages.

And the date of the photo? Sunday July 24th, 1960.

Anyway, the great kettle on wheels with its coal scuttle behind is alive and well and treasured.

Cheers

Mike

[ArthurK]

NORTH EASTERN KITS NER Class E1 / LNER J72 Long Bunker

Fresh out of the erecting shop is this; Arthur's kit for the longer bunkered version of the NER Class E1/ LNER J72. This kit can be built to represent any of the batches of these locos other than the first twenty, which had a shorter bunker and a different mainframe profile. These first twenty are covered by Arthur's other J72 kit, with the shorter bunker and different mainframe profiles. Both J72 kits contain two different smokebox wrappers, to cover flush rivetting, as originally applied on early locomotives, or the visible rivetting of later smokeboxes. The different safety valve arrangements (Ross pop mounted on the firebox or the 'trumoet' housing) are also covered by the castings in the kit. The instructions also cover the fitting of the vacuum pipes for those locos which were vacuum fitted.

This build has been finished as one of the first twelve (not vaccum fitted) of the batch of J72's built by British Railways in 1949 - 1951 characterised by the large sandboxes just behind the cab footsteps and by the abscence of sanding operating rods. The model is to be 69011 of Hull Alexandra Dock shed in its mid 1950 state.

Both versions of this J72 kit are in the process of being released and Arthur (North Eastern Kits) can confirm the detailed schedule of release.

Cheers

MIke

I am currently packing the first batch of the long bunker version of the J72. I have a list of those that have expressed an interest in this kit. Those at the top of the list will be receiving an Email or PM very soon. I have increased the price a little to cover the additional parts (train pipes and alternative cab fittings) so as to cover those fitted for working passenger stock.

ArthurK

[mikemeg]

NORTH EASTERN KITS NER Class E1 / LNER J72 Long Bunker

One or two issues sorted out on this build such as the folding slots at the rear of the cab opening, which have now been filled. It should be noted that these slots have been removed from the etches for the production version. A couple of other items have just been slightly straightened - the front sandbox filler cap.

So another photo of the longer bunker J72.

Cheers

Mike

[mikemeg]

I hope it isn't straying too far off topic if I post another of those atmospheric photos taken inside a locomotive shed. This one was taken in Hull Botanic Gardens shed in May 1952 on what was obviously a very sunny day. Amazing the light effects in these places as the sun strikes down on the floor and on some parts of some of the locomotives while the rest of the shed is in comparative gloom. Again, what a painting this would make!!

Interesting that the continuous stall between the two turntables effectively provides a road right through the shed.

Once again the photo is one rescued and cleaned up by Mick Nicholson. You might be forgiven for thinking that I have an enormous fondness for these old black and white photos; this one taken nearly seventy years ago.

Cheers

Mike