It started with a buffer

[Deleted]

Very nice models Mike, I also use modules to make life easier for maintenance not that my one (near finished) loco has needed any yet just sitting in a display case along with it's brake van, it has been run in though. I love that crane, makes me want to get on with an 'O' gauge layout but like you have something a little bigger to finish first...

Pete

[barlowworks]

Hi Pete

Check out Yeomans Quay on You Tube to see it in action.

Mike

[Deleted]

Jan 17, 2019 17:55:04 GMT barlowworks said:

Hi Pete

Check out Yeomans Quay on You Tube to see it in action.

Mike

that's excellent Mike...love the motion and the sound, works brilliantly...one day I'll have a layout, I've been doing some research to find a suitable location, not got there yet, not easy wanting an ECML location with either a branch line or industrial connection that isn't over 30' long in 'O' gauge. I'm working on it though.. then need to sell up and buy a big enough place to house it and the big stuff...

Pete

[mbrown]

Returning to the Britannia, I wonder if the tray was made so that the hand-pump could be used to test the boiler ( or "a" boiler) before the tender body wash finished?

Malcolm

[barlowworks]

That may be true, the loco came with a commercial boiler but it has never been steamed.

Mike

[don9f]

Hi Mike, good to hear from you again! Those models are absolutely stunning and I hope to see them for real one day.

I had the pleasure of seeing Mike’s crane in action at the Sheffield track open day last summer....how many different motors were there for all the functions Mike?

Very impressed!

Cheers Don

[barlowworks]

Hi Don, good to hear from you. Yes, there are 5 motors and 5 DCC chips crammed into the crane. I have some build photos if anyone is interested.

Mike

[don9f]

Yes please!

Don

[timb]

Hi Mike,

Just cought up with this thread as it came to the top of my list today. Excellent work, spurring me on to better achievements myself. Are you by any chance a member of a Sheffield club? I am looking for somewhere local.

Tim

[barlowworks]

Yes, we meet on Abbeydale Rd just up from and opposite the industrial hamlet going out of town. Look for a track going into the woods, thats us. Work days are Wednesdays and Sunday mornings for a brew and a chat then public running every other Sunday afternoon in the summer.

Check out the club web site for details.

Mike

[timb]

Jan 18, 2019 11:42:38 GMT barlowworks said:

Yes, we meet on Abbeydale Rd just up from and opposite the industrial hamlet going out of town. Look for a track going into the woods, thats us. Work days are Wednesdays and Sunday mornings for a brew and a chat then public running every other Sunday afternoon in the summer.

Check out the club web site for details.

Mike

Thanks Mike, I have looked at the website, I guess I will fill in the form!

Tim

[barlowworks]

For Don and anyone else interested here are a few construction photos from the making of the O gauge crane. These are from a series I took to illustrate an article on its construction for British Railway Modelling. The crane is scratch built using mainly nickel silver sheet with brass gear wheels and angle.

3 by Michael Cawthorne, on Flickr

This shot is the crane base complete with the big gear used for rotating the crane. I cheated here and drove the upper part from beneath. It would have been impossible to get another motor into the top and make it operate like the prototype. The continuity for the power to the upper part while rotating is done with a miniature stereo jack plug set into the large gear. Also shown are the outriggers, usually the crane would be raised up on jacks at the end of these but on this particular prototype they were just chocked up on big blocks of wood or cut up sleepers. They were also clamped down onto the rail top with rail clamps.

4 by Michael Cawthorne, on Flickr

This shot shows the two motors driving the rotating mechanism and the drive to the axle so the crane can move along the track plus the two associated DCC chips.

7 by Michael Cawthorne, on Flickr

Moving along to the upper works we can see the three motors located under the boiler. These operate the gears for raising and lowering the jib, raising and lowering the hook and driving the outside cylinders. Each motor has a flexible coupling to a long shaft driving a worm gear to a remote long bearing for the relevant operation. I subsequently had to change motor 2 for a coreless motor of the same size as the original one just did not have enough power to raise the jib from a resting position on the match truck.

8 by Michael Cawthorne, on Flickr

This is a shot of the upper works nearing completion with all the relevant gears and drums in place. The spoked gear was originally solid, the spokes being laboriously fretted out with a piercing saw.

9 by Michael Cawthorne, on Flickr

This is the second go at the jib. On the first one I forgot that the plan view of the jib was actually at an angle on the drawing so it came out too short...Doh. I subsequently had to modify this one as the lifting pulleys under the top plate were impossible to thread so I had to fit a clip in access panel.

13 by Michael Cawthorne, on Flickr

This is the upper part complete with roof, hinged chimney and boiler. There are also controls under the roof but can hardly be seen. The crane has a sound system and the speaker is situated in the boiler pointing down. It also had a smoke unit but with the current draw of the chips and the smoke unit it had a habit of melting the wiring. The cables used to rig up the pulleys are actually braided fishing line, ideal as it does not form a memory while wrapped round the drums.

15 by Michael Cawthorne, on Flickr

This is were the chips live behind the side tanks, two ordinary chips on one side and a larger sound chip on the other. The side tanks are made to slide down.

In operation the crane uses DCC control. To the uninitiated, this is a system of computer control where a chip controls a specific motor and has a unique code number. The chip will only operate when the code number is input and all other chips will remain idle. Each chip can be addressed to set the code number and set parameters for specific slow speed running and top speed and in effect be fine tuned for the requirements of that motor. My DCC system uses push buttons, one big one for 8 speed steps and a smaller one for single steps. Total speed steps are set to 28. All the chips are set so they reach their optimum speed after one big button press effectively making it one button operation. On a real crane the outside cylinders are the motive force and always move irrespective of what the crane is doing. On the model I replicate this by asking my DCC system to set up a double header but in this instance I am controlling two motors rather than two engines. One of the motors always has to be the outside cylinders and this is the one that has the sound chip. The other motor is then linked to whatever you want the crane to do.

The sound system originally had a sound project from a J94 and no one said it sounded strange. I then spent an enjoyable day with the lads on the Kiethley and Worth Valley steam crane recording them in action and found that a steam crane sounds totally different to a loco. The sound project now installed incorporates all the sounds recorded on that day.

I hope you found this look into my previous modelling life interesting and will try to answer any queries if I can.

Now I really must get back to the Brit

Mike

[Deleted]

superb work Mike, I'm interested, I did 'like' your post asking if anyone was interested.. guess I should have spoken up... brilliant work sir

Pete

[don9f]

Yes thank you very much for that “diversion” from the 5” Britannia. I had to keep reminding myself that it’s all in O gauge....brilliant!

Cheers Don

[Roger]

Thanks for sharing, this is a stunning piece of work! Very interesting.

[David]

Very impressive!

[barlowworks]

Hi Everybody

More shenanigans from Barlow Works. I'm now back on the Brit after being sidetracked by the smaller stuff and it's time to have a look at what already exists of the tender tank. Before that I checked the hand pump which does indeed pump very well. The use of the curious little tray it is sitting in has been solved, its designed to be clamped in a vice. I know that because that's what I did to test it and I had a light bulb moment. I ran the rule and square over the tank and apart from a few dimensions that have drifted a bit, its not too bad. Considering how much work has already been done I'm happy to live with it. The tank has been nicely riveted and they all appear to be tight but I thought I would run some solder over them on the inside anyway just to be sure.

IMG_2455 by Michael Cawthorne, on Flickr

The bulkhead for the end of the coal space was solid which I didn't like, restricting access if anything came loose or any bits of coal got into the tender. This is how I modified it. The ends and bulkhead are screwed to the sides, the previous builder using round headed screws. I'm not sure if they were supposed to look like rivets or were going to be changed later but I countersunk the existing holes and reassembled it with countersunk screws. These holes will then be filled prior to painting.

IMG_2458 by Michael Cawthorne, on Flickr

There were two sides included that also incorporate the sides of the coal space. I soldered guide pieces to the bulkhead and the tender front to hold them at the right angle so make fabricating the coal space easier. One of the problems I have discovered is what order to attach things. A lot of the parts will eventually be permanent and I didn't want to fix something permanently that may make another piece impossible to fit later. Also the tank will need to be soldered together eventually and I will have to work out what order to do this. Much joined up thinking required I think.

IMG_2461 by Michael Cawthorne, on Flickr

One feature I wanted to include was the inspection hatch for the water level indicator. This was not on the original tank so, heart in mouth I cut a hole. Luckily other builders have included this feature and I managed to find drawings in Jim's Boadicea thread, I think provided by Bob of 9f fame. Thanks guys.

IMG_2468 by Michael Cawthorne, on Flickr

Here is my take on the inspection hatch. The hole was backed by a sheet of brass soldered in place and the hatch was made from 0.9 nickel silver to give the necessary depth from the surface of the hatch. It is held in place by 4 12ba screws and nuts, the rest being dummy ones on the hatch. The handles are also nickel silver and are soldered from the back into holes in the hatch. The reason for doing this now is that the front bulkhead will need to be relieved to fit round the hatch.

IMG_2469 by Michael Cawthorne, on Flickr

The next part will be the tender front, which already exists but the access to the cab uses the small lift out coal space. I would like to change this along similar lines to the way Jim has done it with a much larger lift out section incorporating all the locker doors and the coal tunnel. I think a lot of joined up thinking will be required first.

All the best.

Mike

[barlowworks]

Hi Everybody

More shenanigans from Barlow Works. While I had the tender apart I decided to run a good fillet of solder into the joints to make them watertight. Also a blob of solder on the fixing nuts and bolts that hold the sides to the base, you could bet your life they would leak if I forgot them. The solder I used is 145 degree melting point and can be run into the joint with a small flame without the worry of anything buckling. The next part that will need to be soldered in place will be the front bulkhead but that is not ready yet.

IMG_2473 by Michael Cawthorne, on Flickr

With that done and the tender tank cleaned with white spirit and then washed down with hot soapy water to remove the flux I had a think about the water connections. I have had a good look at various methods of providing water to the engine and they all seem to be different. I drew up a list of things that I wanted to achieve.

1. I wanted any water that goes into the boiler to be filtered.

2. I was going to fit a hand pump and that would also require filtered water.

3. I wanted to turn off any water supply so the tender would not automatically empty when I unplugged the connections.

4. I wanted a means of preventing overfilling and also a means of quick emptying.

5. I wanted a method of remote filling of the boiler from the line side when steaming up. One of my thoughts is to carry my own supply of good old Sheffield water if I go visiting other railways. I think it's better to use water I'm sure of than take a chance.

6. I wanted it all to come apart easily if any maintenance is required.

7. Anything else I have forgot or not thought of yet.

I have managed to incorporate most of these things in a plan of attack. Now seamed the best time to start while I have good access to the tender tank. Central to my thinking is what I have called a water collection box. This will be bolted down to the base of the tender tank and the filters feed into it. This is the basic box silver soldered together waiting for the various access holes to be cut onto it. The hand pump will also be mounted onto this box.

IMG_2474 by Michael Cawthorne, on Flickr

These are the filters I came up with. The filter part is an "Aquarium Stainless Mesh Guard Steel Inflow Filter Fish Shrimp Inlet" according to EBay and cost £3.90 for 3 from China, p&p free (how do they do it for the price). They are a push fit onto a little brass fitting I made up with a modified 1/4 inch through connector soldered into the end and a 1/4 inch pipe inside curved down for low water pick up. The reason I fitted a through connector was so that they were removable and I could reverse flush them if I ever needed too. I found I had to superglue the rubber bushes in place to make them more rigid. They should be OK super glued, apparently that is what they use in aquariums to glue coral together.

IMG_2479 by Michael Cawthorne, on Flickr

The filters were soldered into the collection box in the tank using brass collars to help support the pipe rather than just rely on the thickness of the box for a fixing. The rest of the piping will be 3/16 thin wall copper so there should be enough flow into the box.

IMG_2481 by Michael Cawthorne, on Flickr

I will cut the rest of the holes as I require them and fit the various components as required and hopefully all will become clear. Next I think I will fit the hand pump.

Mike

[mbrown]

That's a really canny solution to a problem that exercised me when I built my tender - and which I never quite cracked! Good thinking. One to store away until I make another tender....

Malcolm

[barlowworks]

Hi everybody

A quick update on the water system. I have been fitting the hand pump to the collection box and the first thing I needed to do was extend the nut on the bottom of the pump so it draws water from the bottom of the collector box. This was a simple turning exercise in brass soldered onto a carefully turned rebate on the nut.

IMG_2488 by Michael Cawthorne, on Flickr

Then a close fitting hole was drilled into the box along with some fixing holes to hold the pump in place, tapped 6ba. The holes actually lined up first time, most unusual for me.

IMG_2489 by Michael Cawthorne, on Flickr

Finally the pump is fitted and should draw filtered water from the box.

IMG_2492 by Michael Cawthorne, on Flickr

More soon.

Mike