It started with a buffer

[JonL]

I'm glad I read this forum, I'd not have thought of that!

[barlowworks]

Hi everybody

Just a quick update on the plumbing for Flying Dutchman's tender. This is the other part of the collector box arrangement and incorporates the 3 stop taps. They are all held in a bracket and the inlet pipes are soldered into collars let into the side of the box. I soldered the pipes in place in situ in the tank so that everything lines up and both units fit onto the securing bolts. This unit is now in one piece and can be bolted down in place securely or removed if required. By careful forward planning I have managed to put the two securing bolts for the box under the pipes. Though access is a little awkward I can get a nut on both bolts and tighten them up, once the tender is finished it will probably be bolted in permanently. I trial fitted the handle just to see what it looks like, they will probably want cutting to length once fitted.

IMG_2503 by Michael Cawthorne, on Flickr

Next I have to do some through tank connectors to take the various feeds below the tank bottom.

Mike

[barlowworks]

Hi Everybody

Just a quick note to bring you all up to date. I ended the last entry with the water system complete. The next thing was to fit 3 connectors through the tank floor. I had ordered a tube bender from Ebay but when it arrived I found the minimum radius was just too big. I bought one of the Hemmingway kits for their tube bender and this was the result. It works fine and I really enjoyed making it, it being the first time I have attempted anything like this. Confidence gained, I am now planning to make a riveting press out of a big sheet of steel plate that someone gave me.

IMG_2507 by Michael Cawthorne, on Flickr

Armed with tube bender, here is the water system more or less complete (minus filters and stop tap handles, not fitted at the moment). The new tubes are the feed for the axle pump from the right hand stop tap, the feed from the hand pump and the bypass overflow from the axle pump on the left. That should be visible when the filler lid is open. The two remaining feeds from the stop taps will go to the water filters below the tender tank. They will be dummies as the filtering is done inside the tank. Finally the overflow is complete thanks to an O ring from Polly at the Manchester exhibition. It has now been shortened to give a good seal on the O ring and about 20mm from the tank top when it overflows. This will all be dismantled and put away safely for later.

IMG_2509 by Michael Cawthorne, on Flickr

The rest of the plumbing will be completed when I finally unite the tank with the chassis. I think the next job will be a cranked handle for the water pump, as it is I can use about 1/4 of its travel.

Until next time.

Mike

[barlowworks]

Hi everybody

Just a couple of odds and ends to catch up on before I progress to the next part of the tender build. Firstly this is the cranked handle for the water hand pump to enable me to use the full movement of the pump. Me being me, I bent the handle in the wrong place and so the clearance at the pump outlet is measured in microns but I'll leave it for the minute. I intend to permanently attach the ladder to the back of the tender so it might need adjusting later anyway.

IMG_2511 by Michael Cawthorne, on Flickr

This is a riveting press that I cobbled together (cobbled is definitely the right word) from some 15mm sheet steel that someone gave me. Its another piece of kit that I am going to need quite soon so I covered the workshop in swarf making this. I still have the dies to make when some ball nosed cutters arrive from that well known auction site. I may also make a rivet shortener from some gauge plate if I remember it at Doncaster.

IMG_2513 by Michael Cawthorne, on Flickr

I think the next part of the tender will be the front with the locker doors and the coal plate, quite a complicated piece because I'm going to redesign the lift out access for the backhead so I'm left with some skin on my hands after an operating session.

All the best.

Mike

[barlowworks]

Hi everybody

A quick update to my last update. I know I said that the front bulkhead would be next but I realized that if I started that and the coal hopper I would not be able to fit the pipes from the filter boxes to the stop taps as they would be under the hopper. These are the 2 finished pipes soldered through the tank to come out into the filter boxes. Just typical that a 1 foot length of tube was about 3/4 inch too short. I can still remove the filter unit and taps if required for maintenance/repair.

 

IMG_2516 by Michael Cawthorne, on Flickr

I think that is all of the inside piping done, a bit over the top perhaps but all the water leaving the tender will have to go through the filters which is what I set out to do. The outside piping will be done when I unite the tank and chassis permanently along with the pickup scoop and filter boxes. I think I will probably paint it all before then as well. Now I will have a go at the front bulkhead (hopefully).

Mike

[barlowworks]

Hi everybody

More progress on the tender. The front bulkhead was already part built by the previous builders. It incorporated the original removable section that gives poor access to the backhead so I decided to modify it in a way similar to the way Jim did it on his build thread. This is the revised tender front with a lot bigger removable section. The front bulkhead is held together with 4 tapped spacers to give the correct spacing.

IMG_2517 by Michael Cawthorne, on Flickr

I decided to do the detailing work on the bottom of the tender front before starting the lift out section. The first detail was this water level gauge, an etching that I got from the Steam Workshop. It has the correct 12 bolts holding it together. Hopefully no one will spot the tank capacity.

IMG_2519 by Michael Cawthorne, on Flickr

These are the tender window frames from Model Engineering Laser. The real ones are held together by 10 countersunk bolts that trap the glass in the window opening in the tender front. I made 4 work to clamp up and the others are dummy. They are 14 ba countersunk screws but should really be 16ba. I didn't fancy tapping the holes 16ba, I broke a 14ba tap as it is. I will eventually run a rubberized carborundum disk over them to blend in the screw heads.

IMG_2522 by Michael Cawthorne, on Flickr

These are the details so far added to the tender front. Also included is the reinforcing strip round the edge. There should be bolts through this strip but I've still to work out when they were fitted and when they were removed. Oliver Cromwell still has them but other tenders I have seen show them removed ( I might fit them anyway as I like the look of them).

IMG_2529 by Michael Cawthorne, on Flickr

More details soon

Mike

[Deleted]

Nice detail Mike...your tender looks superb sir...

Pete

[barlowworks]

Thanks for the kind words Pete. Let's see whet it's like when I've done chopping it about. It's all a bit heart in mouth at the moment.

Mike

[Deleted]

It will be worth it in the end of that I'm sure....

[timb]

Looks great Mike, making me more anxious about bending my tender sides and water tank. If they come out half as good as yours I will be pleased!

Good work!!

Tim

[barlowworks]

Hi everybody

Another quick update, that just about covers the completion of the bottom part of the tender front. The first thing is the brake and water pickup gear cover plates that had already been made by the previous builders. Though built to the plans I felt I could do a bit better. These are the original cover plates.

IMG_2531 by Michael Cawthorne, on Flickr

And these are the new ones fitted to the tender front. There are the correct number of bolts and I have tried to represent that the real cover plates are in 3 pieces by scribing the lines into the metal with a scrawker (which removes a v shaped sliver of metal without raising the edges). I also made the cover plates out of 0.9mm brass rather than the original 2.0mm brass that the old ones were made from. I used the internals from the originals and reused the handles, figuring that they would be more robust for putting on the brakes (the water scoop handle will be pinned up in operation).

IMG_2536 by Michael Cawthorne, on Flickr

I also fitted the shoveling plate and the strange rectangular support underneath, I cannot see any other use for it. I also decided to fit the studs and nuts for the bellows round the outside beading. I don't know if they were fitted by 1955 but I quite liked the look of them. It just remains for me to box in the interior to stop coal falling inside and then this part will be completed. The next part will be the lift out section itself with the cupboard doors and hopper access doors but I may spend some time working on my garden railway ready for the summer and also see about painting my A4 now its getting a bit warmer.

All the best

Mike

[don9f]

Hi Mike, I think the “rectangular support” you refer to connects to some slots in the shovelling plate, a short way back from its leading edge and directs any filthy dirty black water down the front of the tender, instead of it coming over the shovelling plate and filling your boots! It’s only made of relatively thin sheet steel.

Cheers Don

[barlowworks]

That makes sense now. I saw the slots on a photo I have of Oliver Cromwell. I thought they were a later addition. If I had known I would have put the slots in. 😉 Ollie also has a drop in baffle to stop the coal coming forward which I haven't seen on another Brit tender, that's what made me think the slots were a later addition.

Mike

[don9f]

Yes I’ve sometimes seen these baffles....I think on Standard 4 Tanks but during preservation days so don’t know if they are original fittings or not. There was nothing like that on 92214’s tender which had all its original shovelling plate etc....BR1G ex Barry from 92212.

I think there was an additional drain hole/grid arrangement further back along the shovelling plate, near the point where it attached to the uphill part of the bunker bottom. This discharged down through a pipe(s) somewhere near the front axle.

Cheers Don

[barlowworks]

Hi everybody

This is a final update before I concentrate on my garden railway during the summer. One of the things that worried me about the design of the BR1 tender was that the front bulkhead has 2 plates in its construction. This meant that when I removed the lift out section with the cab doors in it the 2 plates and the void between them would be open and me being me, I would end up filling it with coal which would also get into the brake and water pick up gear, not a good idea. Also I didn't  fancy the idea of picking up the tender after the end of every run to empty out the coal and dust. .

IMG_2538 by Michael Cawthorne, on Flickr

My answer was to make a couple of covers to go over the void. Made from some 20 gauge nickle silver sheet I happened to have in stock they are made to clip into the offending space and save my embarrassment when trying to turn the tender up side down.

IMG_2541 by Michael Cawthorne, on Flickr

Now onto my 16mm narrow gauge garden railway for the next few months (queue for the weather to change) and paint the A4 for my long suffering mate Mike.

All the best

Mike

[JonL]

I await the next installment!

[barlowworks]

You might have to wait a while Nobby, garden railway pointwork to build and an A4 to paint first. Oh, and a replica of the Victoria bridge on the Severn Valley railway to refurbish.

Mike

[barlowworks]

Just to show I have not been totally idle since having a break from the Brit tender here is some of the point work I have made for the garden railway. Mostly its custom made to a tracing of the rails and built up from there. Construction is a couple of layers of plasticard then copper clad fibreglass sleepers glued to it and finally the rails soldered to the copper clad.

IMG_2543 by Michael Cawthorne, on Flickr

These are some of the turnout operating units and cranks made up from tube and rod soldered to a brass base plate. Stores for the point work set me back quite a bit but working out the cost of buying ready made points and turnout operating units would set me back about a grand and then they would be off the shelf and not custom made for each location. No brainer really.

IMG_2544 by Michael Cawthorne, on Flickr

Also I have finally fitted the DRO's to the lathe and mill that have been sat under my bench for the past 3 years. Now I just have to make sense of the pretty, lit up numbers.

IMG_2547 by Michael Cawthorne, on Flickr

I keep telling Madam Battleship the bib and brush is for cleaning up the workbench but really its for cleaning up the crumbs when she's brought me some cookies with my coffee.

IMG_2548 by Michael Cawthorne, on Flickr

All the best

Mike

[Deleted]

Love the trackwork Mike...did you by chance use 'Templot' for the turnout templates? It makes light work of building the most complex points system in any scale.. I made a B6 turnout in 'O' gauge and loved building it, in fact,more so than building loco's/rolling stock. One day if I get time I will build an 'O' gauge layout (including the garden) using Templot throughout...one day...

Pete

[barlowworks]

Hi Pete

I have made my own track work for years and have used Templot in the past. In the garden I usually put the track down roughly were I want it to go then take a rubbing on a big sheet of tracing paper. I then draw in the point blades etc using a length of rail. Finally the sleeper spacing is taken from one of the Peco track templates and adjusted to suit the point work.

Mike