first go at scratch building in brass.

Hi guys, just thought I would share with you my first go at building an 0-4-0 Andrew Barclay shunter in 7mm in brass, I must be honest, I started ages ago, well before joining YMRC and never really got beyond cutting out the frames, however I got an invite to exhibit at the Great Central model rail show in June and as I only have one loco finished I decided it was time to extract my digit from where the sun don,t shine and get on with it so here go,s.

the first pic is the drawing I am working from, its as originally built but as most people will know things change over the years, so i,m also using photos etc to proceed the build. its very early days yet so please bear with me.



the next pic is of the frames and the cut tube for the cylinders, I must point out that I do not have access to any machine tools so its allhand tool work so the finish on cut parts may not be great but up to now I,m happy with the results.



as you can see I,ve put compensation on the front axle, with an 0-4-0 its important that the 4 wheels stay in contact with the rails at all times for consistant contact and pick up.



sorry for the poor photo my camera dosn,t do macro.  I have now capped the ends of the cylinders and when I next post I will show you them filed down I will also put some shots of other bit and pieces I have done.

Cheers Pete.

A few more photos for your perusal.



here we have top the slide bars to the left one of two coupling rods and below on top of the cylinders the piston gland boxes the one on the right is almost finished the left to do.



the chassis upside down and the method of rocking compensation shown, above are the running plate and boiler, still loads of chopping about to do on the boiler to get the dcc chip in, as well as the motor.



these are the castings in white metal I,ve managed to source and the motor and gears the motor is an 18/24 as it should be powerful enough and a little shorter than the usual 18/33 most kit manufacturers recommend. The numbers are the sizes in mms.

By for now. Pete.

I look forward to seeing your progress looking really good

Right I,ve got a little further on I have fitted the cylinders to the chassis and i have measured up for the slide bars supports so the next job will be cutting them out, any way some photos of progress up to now.







thats it for now, its taking longer than I anticipated but I am also working on buildings for my layout, but thats a different thread. I will post up when I get a little bit more done.

Later dudes, Pete.

Hi Pete,

Keep it coming please. Interesting stuff. I like seeing these kits come together a little at a time. I have a similar kit tucked away for when I feel confident but in 4mm.

Cheers

Toto

Hi Toto, thanks for the interest,I wish it was a kit, being a scratch build the majority of it I have to make myself and I constantly have to measure double check and then measure again before taking hammer chisel and angle grinder to thin brass,( only jokeing), I use a razor saw, piercing saw and needle files I will try and show what I am doing in a little more detail as I go along, starting with the slide bar supports.
Cheers Pete.  

Hello again, just had a pleasurable 3hours cutting out my slide bar supports, not really much to show but here go,s.



this is the blank marked out ready for cutting I used a black felt tip marker pen to show up the lines I made with my scriber, not sure why my words are all underlined :???:.



this is my home made cutting out rest and my piercing saw, the blades for the saw are very thin with tiny teeth you would not think they would cut as well as they do, however they do snap easily.



heres one cut out ready to do the next.



for longer cuts I use this my goscut tool I have had it for donkeys years it cuts dead straight lines, Iwould not be without it despite being offered silly money to sell it I don,t think you can get them now.



blanks cut out and filed.



and cleaned up and strip soldered around edge to imitate a casting.

Thanks for looking

Cheers Pete.

Excellent work Pete. :thumbs

Terry

Thank you , it is very a very satisfying project if it turns out ok I may try something else, a Beyer Garratt would be nice .

Pete.

Very neat, Pete.  :thumbs

Beyer Garratt?  :hmm

Can't wait to see it. 

I managed to get a little more done today, the cross heads with piston rods.



brass blank with black marker pen.

marked out and pivot holes drilled cut and filed as per the slide bar supports.



and the finished result lots of cleaning up to do still but at least I am getting through the fiddly stuff ok just need to make some connecting rods and I can solder up the brackets and cylinder mounts, clearences are tight between the front wheels coupling rod and the rear of the cross head but I think I willbe ok.

cheers for now Pete.

Certainly looking the part Pete. A great build to follow. Keep it coming please.

Cheers

Toto

Not posted recently but then again not done a great deal to my loco either, not much to show but here go,s.



I have had to do some serious thinning down of nuts and bolts to get some clearance for the motion plus filing clearance on the motion brackets to clear the connecting rods but it does now run easily under finger power, I have since fitted the gearbox and motor (wired directly to my test controller) and run it up and down my little test track, I will post a photo later when I go back in the shed.

Thats it for now, see you later. Pete.

Very nice Pete. :thumbs

Terry

Have some pics of a 16inch if you would like some. We have one on the local railway so can always get more if you need them. This one frequently does a round trip with four or five Mk 2 coaches behind it.

Lovely engine, they are very interesting locos as they made so many variants and their owners would often replace parts or adapt them for their own needs so no two locos would look the same. Thank you for the offer to take some more photos for me I would very much appreciate them, (you cannot have too many photos of steam engines I say!). Luckily we have one at the Ecclsebourne Valley railway close by to us, well half an hour away or so, that has started its summer time table, running midweek trains so should be a little quieter for photography. I am going to try and get some shots of details that I need.
Pete.   

Will put some up on my website later today and let you know the specific address of the site. I will leave them there for two weeks so you can download them at your leisure. (Or anyone else who wants pics of a Barclay 16inch)

Hi all, been a while since I posted anything about my little project, to be fair I haven,t had much enthusiasm for it since backing out of the GCR model rail show, and I,ve been doing some exhibiting of my Lister engine over the summer, well the rally season is over for us now and I seem to have got a bit of my mojo back so here is an update on what I have managed to do so far, I managed to get some of the castings I needed but I couldn,t find any brake shoes so I decided to make my own, to scratch build them individualy would probably not have worked as I couldn,t guarantee they would all look the same, so I decided to make one as a pattern and use it to cast 4, I made a box out of plasticard and stuck the pattern to the bottom,



I then squeezed some ordinary mastic into the box making sure it got into all the nooks and crannys, using a little vegetable oil as a release agent,




next I mixed some 5 minute epoxy and put it into the mould- unfortunately I didn,t take any pics of this part  but here is the finished item,



the brake shoes as they came out of the mould had a fair bit of flash on them that took a while to file up not helped that they where clear and I couldn,t see what I was filing properly still I don,t think they look to bad? the photo is a bit cruel they look better in the flesh so to speak. Next I have cut out the smoke box saddles they need some cleaning up but I can do most of that once they have been soldered up.



thats about it for now, time for tea.


Cheers Pete.

Real modelling, Pete.  :thumbs

Looking good Pete, each piece is another step down the road matec:thumbs