NSW 'B' class mogul

[simon6200]

I and my friends at the club use Rust Guard SLS Etch primer. Then Rust Guard satin black epoxy enamel for black locos. It sprays very nicely and is as good as anything. Before spraying brass with the etch, I clean with acetone, sand every surface with fine wet&xdry, say 600-800, clean with acetone again and spray that day. I might use grease and wax remover as a first wash, but nothing is as good as acetone (Bunnings have it). Wear gloves as acetone is very hard on skin.

[David]

I've been painting bits and pieces - boiler wrapper and backhead, dome, a few fittings, etc.

With the boiler off for painting it was a good time to fix the cylinder drains which were damaged when I moved the loco home from Barry's place where it was stored for about 9 months.

The red loco had taught me how to do this so the sketchiest part was flipping the frames and getting them onto the mill table. I was worried they would unbalance the mill and tip the lot over, it's only an RF-45 clone so not much weight or stability. I'd done the same for the red loco a few years ago, but its fames are shorter and have a flat top so it was easier to deal with.

Anyway, I did the one I knew was had it - the threads in the cylinder casting had been stripped. Then I noticed the operating arms were not painted so did that. When putting it all back together I noticed another drain was basically a rattle fit and if not on the verge of falling out, certainly not secure and would probably leak, so I flipped the frames end for end and fixed that too.

Not much left to go. I think the cab roof is the biggest unpainted bit. The safety valves still need dummy nuts & studs and the front buffer beam isn't red.

I have a bin of cast iron here as a counter weight to all that table & frames hanging off the right hand side.



Here it can be seen how the transverse operating rod was bent during the move. The drains all still open, and I tweaked it a bit by hand but am not going to do anything else.

[Jim]

You are making nice progress David.

Hope to get across to the next 'play day' with my 400 class railmotor. It would be nice to give it a good test run on the club track.

Jim

[racinjason]

David,
The scale weekend is a few months away... ?
Cheers Jason.

[Jim]

Thanks for that info re the Scale Day Jason.

Cheers

Jim

[David]

On Sunday I decided to put the smokebox and boiler back on the loco.

I realised the buffer beam had to be painted first so to try and avoid too much masking or taking it off I tried brush painting it. That was a disaster. So Tuesday I took it off and spent a couple of hours with a tooth brush and thinners cleaning off the red paint while trying not to damage too much of the rest of it, then masked and sprayed it that afternoon.

Yesterday I went to put it on and found I never made D shackle for the front drawhook, and had no spring for it or any way to attach it to the buffer beam. Given I had made the hook I must have had a drawing for it at some point, but I could not find it to see how it's meant to be held in but it had a 5BA female thread in it. So I made the shackle, found a suitable screw to cut a bit off and made a washer to sit between the bolt head and the spring.

The buffer beam is finally back on.




I've finally glued in the little J hook for the dummy springs (had to go buy some Araldite).

Then I had to adjust the lid I made for the lubricator so it would not interfere with one of the spring hooks, and so it would close.

That plus a few other bits have just been primed.

The smokebox and boiler are still not on! Maybe later today, but probably tomorrow.

[dhamblin]

It might help to do a quick check list of all the bits you need to attach before mounting the boiler. Helped me enormously last weekend, but even so there are the odd few awkward jobs that you can't avoid.

In my case a union nut on the axle pump end of the feed clack pipe - had to be kept slightly loose to allow the other end to be connected to the clack. That's going to be awkward to get a spanner on up between the frames and wheels, hence think ahead to try and reduce similar.

Regards,

Dan

[David]

Finally some proper progress to show. The cab is not on properly but the smokebox, boiler, and running boards are properly attached.

I also touched up all the parts of the tender I could see where the paint had come off. It's pretty nasty because I didn't know how to make the paint brush on nicely, but I'm sure I'll become blind to it soon enough.

There's 2 or 3 coats of primer and 4 coats of paint on just about everything and it's still as thin as water - you can see every ripple and ding. I'm happy enough with how the paint goes on but it seems to be way too thin to me, and a bit flatter than I'd like. I'll just drive it until the paint is too bad to ignore and I guess I'll have to strip it and start again with something else.

Pretty happy it's finally looking like it might get finished within a conceivable timeframe.

[Jim]

Looking good David.

Jim

[David]

I think I'm about ready for a steam test. I need to put the smokebox screws back in through the frames but I think all the plumbing is there except for the whistle steam pipe and whistle itself. I've made a new overflow pipe for the RHS injector so it misses the arm on the brake shaft. I also need to put the LHS of the cab on so the reach rod is present.

The tender still leaks, even after a second go at sealing it. I think the stuff I'm using is too 'anti-sag' such that it's not sagging into and over gaps and the first application was so rough the second one couldn't get to the gaps. I'm going to switch to bitumen paint and give the front of the water tank a good dose of it and the edges somewhat less.

[Jim]

Hi David,

Great progress and as you say almost ready for a steam test.

I see this afternoon's storm caused flooding in Orange. I just hope the club hasn't been impacted given it borders the storm water drain through Matthew's Park.

All the best

Jim

[David]

Sadly not much progress so the loco is nowhere near together - still unpainted fake pipes etc. to go.

But I did put a fire in it for the first time on Sunday and it could have been worse.

The RHS injector farted about a bit at first but then worked perfectly for the rest of the test steaming.

The LHS injector got a piece of crud in the steam cone immediately. I am so used to this I figured it was probably the problem and put it down to being a new boiler with flux etc still in it. I've just removed the piece of crud.

The LHS check valve ball stuck on its seat. I'm sure both check valves were leaking a bit but not enough to stop the injectors working.

Most union fittings seemed to be leaking so I might need to do a compressed air and soapy water test. The RHS dummy clack seemed to have a bad leak and I can't screw it in any further but I think it might have settled down after
a time. I can't remember because I was really fixated on the LHS injector. Some of the leaks were quite noticeable and too bad to try and run with. The nut on the regulator spindle moves with the spindle too, not sure what to do there.

The loco did move under its own steam but seems to hit a tight spot that isn't there when running on air. Tight enough to stop it. So perhaps temperature related. Or maybe it will go better when it is on a track rather than it's stand where I had to be very careful with the regulator and distance moved (about 20 cm max). Perhaps something will wear out? Disappointing because it runs on very little air.

The firebox door paint got sticky but I was able to open it. The smokebox door got more sticky and I haven't been willing to try and open it much because I'm sure a huge amount of paint will come off.

The tender still leaks like a sieve after a second application of the grey goo so it's getting bitumen paint this time.

But it sort of works and it didn't blow up so I guess that's a win!

[suctionhose]

Good one David! The first fire is usually underwelming. Press on..

[David]

The tender still leaks like a sieve, even after the first application of bitumen paint. I'll put some more in. I only realised this morning that the grey goo should have been applied as a bead to the bottom of the angle that holds the tender body to the floor before joining the two. If I didn't have to take all the brakes, wheels, and other underfloor detail off I'd be tempted to dismantle, clean, and try again. But it's too much to dismantle the entire thing. I also had to make adapters to get the irrigation strainers to fit. The 1/4" copper tube wasn't quite 1/4". More like 6.3mm, plus I hadn't left enough poking through the floor. I wish I'd made those bits like I did for the red loco tender where they just screw in.

I was chasing leaks with air yesterday. So many leaks.

Weirdly, almost every screw in the dome was leaky, despite the fact they are going into blind holes! Can't figure that out but Loctite 567 fixed it.

One of the injector steam pipes had a pinhole leak in the soldering so that was easy to fix.

A valve needed the gland nut tightened, easy.

Both dummy clacks leak where they screw into the boiler, and the blowdown bush too. I can't do anything about the blowdown without lifting the boiler so it's just doing to have to do its best with expansion. I've left the dummy clacks but they are relatively simple to remove so I may give them some loctite. Or not because I might scratch the paint getting them out or back in. I painted them in place due to that risk.

I think the worst one left is the gauge glass, leaking both top and bottom.

I took the LHS injector steam cone out and got the flake of crud out of there.

The LHS inline clack seems to be sealing ok now after taking it apart a couple of times.

Smokebox door still stuck closed and paint on the firebox door ruined. I can unscrew the firebox one and repaint if I can't stand it.

I was hoping to run it next weekend, even in its unfinished state, but I can't see that happening. There are many non-loco things demanding attention at present.

[David]

The tender *still* leaks, but less. There is still a leak in the front right corner of the tank, and a weep halfway up the rear right corner. That second one should be a simple fix but the front one has had 3 goes now. I'll slop even more bitumen paint in there. If a 4th application doesn't work I'll try and seal it from the outside, at the bottom of the coal space.

The loco handbrake screw jammed in the nut after only a couple of turns. It used to be free, so not sure what happened but a tap through the nut fixed it.

A rod through one of the boiler tubes knocked the smokebox door open. Some paint came away but only where the door joined the smokebox so you can't see it much.

I've painted the dummy oil pipes and some other details but haven't put them on yet.

The front buffers are on for the first time. I couldn't find the correct springs but I did find some springs, so good enough.

I have not made the gauge glass blowndown spindle long enough. One day I'll make a longer one. I can just get to a nasty little spindle handle I made.

I was trying to get it together for a run today but didn't make it.

[Jim]

Despite what you say you're making great progress David.

I too had leaks in the tender and solved the problem with silicant shower sealant which could also be painted over. It took a couple of goes but it worked.

Cheers

Jim

[simon6200]

For future reference, the petrol tank sealant kits you can buy work extremely well. My brass tender leaked badly when finished but the stuff fixed it completely. It has to be used first up though, on bare metal.

[ettingtonliam]

Radweld?

[David]

No progress other than a dummy brake pipe at the back of the tender, and a lot more paint has fallen off. And I've lost a few bits. I think I may have cut up a carefully bent U shaped dummy pipe by mistake because I can't find it anywhere.

I'm adapting the board I have in the back of the car to suit this loco and tender, and it should still also suit the red loco and tender.

Sadly the wood I bought for the wheel guides is a few mm too high so the rods on the brake cross shaft scrape along them. If I lay some thin metal along the outsides of the wooden guides it will raise the loco just enough to avoid this.

I also haven't decided how to secure the front of the loco and rear of the tender. I've seen brackets that go over the buffers. For going to the local park it would be enough to just have a chain and turnbuckle I think.

This piece of wood is very old, very buggered chipboard. I'll need to make a new one soon!

[simon6200]

Hopefully a nice piece of plywood, not crappy chipboard.