Super Claud

[durhambuilder]

deep breath........

Here goes the start of my 5" Super Claud build. Well actually I'm two months in so have the frames, horns and axle boxes done. So far so good but the drawings do lack some detail and I'm glad this is my second loco. For example nowhere on the drawings or ME series does it give any clue as to what goes across the bottom of the horns, I'm cribbing some detail from the Waverley series which followed shortly afterwards.

First things first, I always like looking at other people's workshops, so here's mine.



from left to right,

ancient Brown and Sharpe horizontal mill, really should go to the scrap yard but the table makes a good level surface for marking out and setting up the frames etc.

equally ancient qualters and smith power hacksaw,

Dore Westbury Mill,

Henry hoover, the most useful machine in there!

Axminster pillar drill

Boxford AUD.

Didn't take any photos in the first month or so but hope to make up for that in the future.

Here's one of the axle boxes having the radius milled on the flanges



and finally progress to date.



The rear axle boxes will be finish bored to suit the coupling rods once they are done.

Cheers.

[springbok]

Hi D
Yes I like to look at other peoples workshops I should imagine the the insulation gives extra reflection of light, and a Henry is an esential bit of kit mine is an old dyson that is on its last legs but doese what I want. Please keep us posted as look a very interesting project.

Bob

[itsbluesteel]

Hi,

Looking good, can i ask is the super Claude the same as Claude Hamilton? forgive me if this is a stupid question
I had the pleasure of running a wonderful 5" Claude a couple of years ago, here's vid just in case its of interest.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=NZwbJDMfAmo

Steve

[GWRdriver]

I'm curious . . . when I look at the axle boxes I see the "brass" on the bottom and conventional wisdom tells me the brass (bronze, etc) should be in the top half since the axle will bear upon the upper half of the box. What am I missing?

[Richardw]

Steve

The history of the Great eastern 4-4-0's is long and complicated so I won't go into it here but a summary can be read at www.lner.info/locos/D/d14d15d16.shtml.

To answer your specific question though, a Super Claud is the large boilered Belpaire version of the class introduced in 1923 and is the variant that you drove/filmed. I wish I had been in a position to buy that one when it was available!

Richard

[itsbluesteel]

Richard

Thank you for the info, i can see now why you say its long and complicated, i did google the super claud and got many different versions, as for the one i drove like you i really did fancy buying if but like you i just wasn't in a position to do so, anyway it really was a nice engine to drive and in the flesh looked even better.

Steve

[fostergp6nhp]

Cast iron axleboxes with brass keeps?

[durhambuilder]

Correct, axle boxes are cast iron with brass keeps, the load is taken by the cast iron, keeps are brass for ease of manufacture, I hope they'll be ok.

I had a look at the wheels tonight, I must admit I was a little apprehensive because the bosses on the casting stood 3/8" proud of the rim whereas the drawings call for 1/8". Machining did chop into the spokes somewhat but a quick trial tracing around the pear shaped lobe with the vertical mill and an hr with a thin file I think has produced an acceptable result.

Bottom as cast, top left machined to thickness, top right lobe milled out and spokes filed, a touch of white paint shows the finished spoke profile better.
.

My castings are second hand so I can't be 100% sure that they are 'correct' super claud ones, the overall dims, number of spokes and balance weights (2 drivers, 2 coupled) are correct I just can't fathom why the bosses were so high to start with.

Hopefully they will all be finished by the end of the weekend, night off tomorrow.

[Smifffy]

Great workshop and great results so far :-)

[Deleted]

Interesting stuff! I notice the axleboxes have only one flange, is this to save space for the crank axle? Setting up to machine the radius on the flange must have been tricky - was it just a matter of trial and error?

[miken]

Dec 30, 2011 22:19:31 GMT @superseven said:

Interesting stuff! I notice the axleboxes have only one flange, is this to save space for the crank axle? Setting up to machine the radius on the flange must have been tricky - was it just a matter of trial and error?

Im guessing that its because inner flanges serve no purpose. Ive never bothered on any of my locos. Ive never understood why so many published designs show them. I just file the rads.
Nice work, keep it up
Mike

[Shawki Shlemon]

You are doing very well , all looks very good to me . As for axle boxes , I do the same , the inner flange does nothing for the model and restrict the angular movements , likewise on tenders I only have inside flanges, I respect other people opinions but with one flange the axle box ( wheel ) is free to move up and down easier .

[durhambuilder]

No photos today, wheels not finished yet. Axle boxes are as per plans, probably as superseven says to make more room for the crank axle, nevertheless it's good to know they're not really required anyway. The flanges were originally milled parallel and to thickness, the rotary table was set up by trial and error just to take the corners off.

Thanks for the encouragement.

[durhambuilder]

wheels machined and temporarily slid onto axles, I can now roll it back and forth and make chuff chuff noises, woo hoo!


had a bit of a eureka moment marking out the bogie frames I don't know why it never occurred to me before and I don't recall ever seeing it mentioned so I though I'd pass it on. Having marked all the vertical lines clamp a decent straight edge to the bottom datum, all of the horizontals can then be scribed by using different thickness of parallels with no fear of anything slipping..

[durhambuilder]

Spent the last few weeks machining the coupling rods. Started with two 10" lengths of 1" x 3/8", put in the wood burner overnight to relieve any stresses. They were then drilled to take the bronze bushes and used in this state to set up the axle boxes for boring.
Bolted down to the milling table to reduce the width, left over size at this stage


these were then turned on edge to reduce the thickness in the centre section



flute cut down the middle, slightly undersize to start with then a shave off top and bottom to centralise

Ends rounded off on the rotary table then back on the mill to machine to final width and thickness




A 10 thou thickness was left on the ends to protect the milling table and act as datums for squaring things up, this was simply removed in a few minutes with a file.


final polish and bushes fitted with loctite.


Incidentally the blanks weight 490gms each, finished rods were each 134gms.

[silverfox]

Durhambuilder

re the driving wheels, the Clauds as well as the B12 had the raised 'centres'. Would suggest, if not already in your possesion is to get hold of the Yeadons volume on the class. lots of info

Regards

Ron (the other one)