I don’t know if there is a link to it (I haven’t found one), but it’s a tv advert about Amazon apprenticeship, showing somebody, seemingly not knowing how a ratchet ring spanner works, trying to make the viewer believe she’s mending a conveyor belt.
and the bottles tied up in a cradle of some sort (as a falling bottle that knocks the regulator off goes up the workshop like a torpedo) yes have seen it happen.
Norman.
Agreed.....the lads on the TV show “Mythbusters” rigged up a device to knock the valve off a full oxygen bottle that was laid in front of a specially built wall for the test. It demolished this wall and also went through the workshop’s real wall!
I use oxy-propane as well as just propane in my workshop and +1 for Hobbyweld as an oxy supplier. There is a place just a few minutes from me, so works well.
Hi, pleased to report that the Butterley Park Miniature Railway re-opened today, carrying its first passengers since the end of the 2019 season! More running tomorrow....
Thanks very much....I’m quite pleased with it myself. The Fox transfers arrived today (only ordered yesterday), but sadly they’ve sent the later “Lion holding a wheel” type, not the ones I actually ordered 😠 Something else to sort out!
Hi, after another rather long gap in updates to this thread, I thought it was time I took a few photos and showed where I’m up to....
There’s been nothing very interesting, or out of the ordinary going on, just slowly assembling the tender tank, sealing the joints, filing down & filling screw heads, rubbing down, priming and so on. Also finish assembling the frames with all the attendant pinning of suspension and brakegear parts. The point came where I really wanted to get on and get some black paint applied and with all the recent hot weather, this meant getting up quite early and doing a bit of painting before it got too hot. So bit by bit, I’ve got to the point where all that’s left really, is applying the transfers....BR “Lion astride the wheel”, which I’ve ordered today, plus fitting the capacity plate/tender numberplate etc....which I hope will arrive from Diane Carney before too long.
I took the following photos today, hope they are ok as being in Satin Black, some of the detail doesn’t show up so well! Although I’ve made the tender front, with lockers etc., I will be leaving that off for now. It can be fitted later if required and I’ve left two small pieces of the top beading removable, as it has to slide down in where the beading would otherwise be in the way:-
The Don Young design produces a very strong set of frames and drawgear:-
The water valves can be seen here, they are home made and just fit above the brakeshaft:-
Just temporarily put together,...I’ve finished and painted all the steps and will put them on at a later date:-
That’s really it for now on the tender, hope that’s been of some interest. I intend to make a start on the boiler next.....
Very frustrating, but in my ignorance, what is a swab box?
These are the samples of swab boxes....they contain trimmings to drip oil down the pipes. Used for such things as axlebox, hornguide, piston rod gland lubrication etc.
The walls of the boxes are very thin and I’ve had a few over the years where something went wrong in the casting process, resulting in holes in the walls. The last ones I received were actually very good.
Hi Geoff, have a look at this photo, which shows these cab floor supports on 70000. I’m presuming that the Clans were the same as this.....as you may know, the later Britannia’s were modified to have a more traditional fall plate arrangement.
This next photo shows the short, outermost bracket of a Clan quite well.
Hi all, so far I have found this whole discussion about EVs fascinating and have learned a lot from some of the very informed members! One question I have that hasn’t been covered though is this:- Do the chargers work out the cost of the electricity? As for example, if someone wanted to charge their car at your home, you might want to know how much to “charge” them! Just curious about this.
Hi Gary, I have also filed screw heads away, including the slot and yes it works well, apart from the possibility of unintentionally filing away or marking the material round the holes! I have just finished the process of filling dozens of fully countersunk screws used in the assembly of my current Fowler tender project, with Isopon P38 (from Halfords) and just wanted to remark on how well I found it will adhere to properly cleaned & degreased brass....as an alternative method. I know your tanks are only 18g, so maybe a bit thin to take the full head depth using that method?
I would love to know the max load my 9F could handle, but probably won’t get the chance to find out nowadays. Many years ago, I had the opportunity to pull 26 adults round the track at Urmston, but the loco struggled up the inclines from under the various bridges there....not because of a lack of power, but slipping on the aluminium track. I also recall pulling about 50 wagons at Gilling once.....again aluminium, but no problems that I remember. Doing this sort of thing, you have to be confident that your drawgear etc. is up to the job! It’s only after it’s recent overhaul that I’ve fitted a safety chain arrangement to the tender, which is a current rule at our track. Our track is steel, but we don’t have enough trucks.
I don’t know if this is still the case, but back in my days at the loco depot I worked at, Oxalic Acid was used in the washing plant to get the brake block dust / grime off the bodywork. (Can’t remember what the other stuff was for fetching the oil off).
Actually this was Bank Holiday Monday but it’s taken me a while to upload the video. Our miniature railway is on a site that is still closed to visitors, but a few of us needed some steam in the blood, so we had a running day just for ourselves. Weather obviously was great and we all enjoyed it....here’s my 9F stretching it’s legs:-
From memory, as I don’t have the proper documents these days, when first introduced the flangeless wheel profile was “coned” the same as what was the “A” profile of the leading & trailing drivers, obviously without the flange! At some point, probably early in their existence, this was changed to a flat, ie cylindrical profile over the centre section of the tread, with two different coning angles repeated on either side of this....what became known as the “Special X” profile. The diameter of the cylindrical part was turned to the same diameter as those drivers with the ”A” profile, measured at their reference point, which is (nowadays) 70mm towards the tyre’s outer face from the back of the flange. The flangeless tyres on a 9F are slightly wider than the other tyres and the intermediate driver’s tyres have thinner flanges than the “A” profile. (Nowadays the “A” profile is called “P1” and a thin flange profile is “P9”). When I built my model, I didn’t know about all this and just followed the Les Warnett drawings and made all the driving wheels with the same tyre width and coned the flangeless ones at 2 degrees, like all the others and didn’t machine any thin flanges! After hundreds of miles, the cast iron wheel treads of its drivers all show some hollow wear, but the flanges still look ok.
Thanks Malcolm, I do have a copy of the General Arrangement drawing and although I can see that the valve is flange mounted to the auxiliary steam outlet from the LH injector steam / clack valve, it only shows a sort of side view with no real detail. It’s arranged like the carriage warming valve on the RH fitting in this photo of a 4F:-
Hi as some of you will know, my current project is to continue the build of one of the “Austin 7” locomotives, that was started a long time ago by an unknown Model Engineer. I am nearly at the painting stage of its newly built Fowler tender and have decided to build the boiler as the next stage. My aim is to have the backhead and its fittings giving at least a passing resemblance to the real thing....something that thus far, I have never seen a photo of. I’ve no doubt that the backhead was probably very similar to those of such locos as 4Fs, Crabs, S&D 7Fs and so on, but one difference would definitely concern the steam brake valve. The Austin 7s were not vacuum fitted, so wouldn’t have the familiar LMS type of drivers combined vacuum/steam brake valve and I have no idea what their steam brake valve would have looked like!
Any ideas anyone, or suggestions about photos, other reference material etc? Any help would be much appreciated.
Hi, here’s a photo from my (old) Jinty thread, showing the simple design of ashpan made from stainless steel and brass angle, just rivetted together. Nothing wrong though in silver soldering it as well!
Hi, ME threads do use the Whitworth threadform but the pitch of a 3/16” Whitworth screw is 24tpi, a lot coarser than 40tpi. Could you obtain a 3/16” x 40 split die and make some bespoke screws? No real need to screwcut them.