Britannia 70013 in 5"g - images

[barlowworks]

Lovely work as usual Norman, it certainly inspires me to try harder.

Mike

[oldnorton]

The other way around Mike, I'm just starting on the tender and have looked at your thread, thank you for the input. I will not match what you have done. I just console myself that it is a Modelworks rebuild I am attempting.

Norm

[oldnorton]

Like many of us recently, a bit of a gap since last posting news of what is happening to my Britannia. I am prompted to add the following in response to Jim's request, and in recognition of how much I have enjoyed Jim's postings. I have also benefitted from images many others have posted of their nice builds, so thank you.

The Britannia rebuild stalled for June, July and much of August as we went back to doing many of the things that Covid had previously stopped; motorbikes were started again and a caravan was well used. It meant that my series of articles to Model Engineer was halted and I think I was in the Editor's bad books, but he was very understanding. I know that many of you on this forum do not see Model Engineer so my putting a few of the images here might be appreciated.




This is a Hewson cab kit finished. I was very pleased when this image appeared on the cover of ME. It was the building of this cab that 'ruined' my thoughts of a simple and practical rebuild of the Modelworks Britannia that I bought. I had initially planned to make a working, reliable and presentable club engine but once this cab was finished I knew that everything else on the engine would have to be to a similar standard. I stress that this rebuild does not meet the prototype adherence of many of the engines seen on this forum, but I hope that I have made some parts of it pleasing to look at. Always, my build standard is that things have to be robust and function mechanically well, and these performance criteria will overrule scale accuracy for me.



Having finished the boiler and firebox cleading I made new platforms for the sides and front. It was quite tricky getting them to line up with the right place on the cab, run horizontally forward (spirit levels) and drop correctly onto the buffer beam. My problems were now appearing as this was essentially a Perrier design underneath, with boiler dimensions altered by Modelworks, and I was trying to fit Hewson prototypical items over the top. The firebox height is 12mm too large for the Hewson cab causing the cab to sit high, but I cannot do anything about that.



I did reuse the Modelworks smoke deflectors and buffer stocks. I do like this image of the front still in bare metal, unfortunately it is all in black now.



The boiler fittings and pipework have taken quite a bit of effort. I think this is what makes the appearance of a BR standard with its exposed pipes and parts. That is a white metal, dummy Metcalfe exhaust injector. The core has been bored out to accept a pipe and top fittings so that cold water from the tender hand pump is fed to the top feed. The water feed from one of Cro's valves turns back under the cab floor to feed a 'real' model injector. If you know your Britannia pipework then you will spot the nonsense of the carriage warming valve supply being fed into the Metcalfe injector. I did this so that the two injector steam feeds could carry on down and under the cab floor, but leaving the overall appearance just like the prototype. I have since realised that I could have designed a hidden pipe crossover behind the side platform valance.



This is the same side, but inverted. In order to hide the two 'real' model injectors under the cab floor there is quite a lot of extra pipework that Crewe did not have to install. The pipe sticking out in the centre is the injector overflow. Although it does not look simple, it is reasonably straightforward to remove the injectors for cleaning.



The injector steam valves have working universal joints. It proved essential to fit working ones to get the valve brackets, cab apertures and handle brackets in line. They are not as small and neat as Adam's but I kept the job simple with left-over castings from the reverser gearbox.



The cab has a Driver's Pedestal, which turned out to be a project on its own. The handle on the top is the prototype vacuum brake but here it connects down to a steam brake valve. It is a similar principle to the Perrier outline but I have made my own PTFE seated valve. The stops on the handle are an addition to limit the movement between steam on and vent. At the front, lower down, is a conventional steam blower valve. The trickiest thing was getting those pipes to end up in the right place to meet accessible backhead fittings. An important design consideration was easy removal of the pedestal for valve servicing.



This image is how the backhead looks today. Everything will be taken off, and the cab, for painting in a few months. The water glasses and the firehole door are much larger than the prototype and if you compare images a full size Britannia looks looks very empty in the middle. The door handle swings the opposite way to the prototype - it has to otherwise it would swing far behind the Pedestal. I shall probably replace those steam injector handle brackets on the right - they got messed about a few times lining up the rods and now look a bit odd. On the right of the Pedestal is a handle for the draincocks.



On this side one of the model injectors does feed through the dummy 10X injector and on up to the top feed. I thought about it, but I am not going to attempt a steam test before painting. The chassis has been air tested, the boiler has had a x2 shell test, so I will make those many, many pipe fittings pressure tight after it is painted.

[kipford]

Norm
It looks stunning!
Dave

[Deleted]

Superb work Norm, that's going to be a very impressive loco that will stand out from the crowd, and rightly so.

Pete

[92220]

Superb job Norm!!

Bob.

[terrier060]

Fantastic work Norman. Such tallent on this forum. Love to see it in action.
Ed

[flyingfox]

Excellent work, always a problem trying to make a silk purse from a sows ear, but you have succeeded. Well done.
Brian B

[Cro]

Looking great Norm - will we see it at Gilling in August along side 92012? (If I pull my finger out).

Adam

[don9f]

Yes Norm, impressive work and I like all the various detail / fittings. The dummy injectors along with the working water valves really look good.

Cheers Don

[coniston]

No question about it Norm, it really does look like a Britannia, unlike so many others around (not on this form BTW)

Chris

[barlowworks]

Simply stunning Norman, you must be so proud.

Mike

[Jim]

Oct 18, 2021 11:50:44 GMT @greenglade said:

Superb work Norm, that's going to be a very impressive loco that will stand out from the crowd, and rightly so.

Pete

I'd agree Pete, Norm has taken this model to a superb level of craftsmanship.

Jim

[simplyloco]

Oct 18, 2021 21:48:00 GMT coniston said:

No question about it Norm, it really does look like a Britannia, unlike so many others around (not on this form BTW)

Chris

Thanks Chris, I will finish it soon, I promise!
John

[oldnorton]

Oct 18, 2021 13:45:08 GMT Cro said:

Looking great Norm - will we see it at Gilling in August along side 92012? (If I pull my finger out).

Adam

Hopefully at Gilling MAY 2022. Can you pull two fingers out? 

[Deleted]

I would love to go to Gilling but think it's a little far for a day or two...

[Cro]

Oct 19, 2021 18:39:09 GMT oldnorton said:

Oct 18, 2021 13:45:08 GMT Cro said:

Looking great Norm - will we see it at Gilling in August along side 92012? (If I pull my finger out).

Adam

Hopefully at Gilling MAY 2022. Can you pull two fingers out? 

Sadly it’s only August for me, can only manage to have my week away from home playing trains once a year really! And no chance of finishing by May, I just started a new tender for it!

Adam

[oldnorton]

My chum at Northampton Club is the webmaster and he has done a clever job of posting some more of my Britannia photos on the club news page. www.nsme.co.uk/LatestNews/Latest.htm

If you click on the photos and click again for the (+) symbol the large images let you see a lot of detail (and my errors!).

The other club pictures are also very interesting for those of you who like to have a browse.

Norm

[theflyingscotsman]

wow, that brit is absolutely stunning. Well done you're a very skilled man!!!!

[oldnorton]

My last posting showed the engine in a largely complete state, barring many detail finishing jobs and the small matter of painting. Unlike some very competent forum posters here I am not very good at capturing images of machining steps and detail, but I do sometimes remember to photograph progress so I can show you those for interest or amusement.

The tender is now complete, but a few months ago I had a very tired and worn looking Modelworks chassis to improve. The tank was beyond saving as it had been subject to several modifications in its past and so a brass kit from MEL was waiting.



The wheels, axle boxes and brakes could be reused but I wanted to reduce the size of the large, metric hex headed screws that fixed the frame plates to the stretchers. The stretchers were solid bars of brass or iron and not prototypical, but I was happy to reuse these as they are largely hidden. The Warnett tender drawings were very helpful and Winson/Modelworks had copied most all the dimensions, although not the screws (!)

It was fully dismantled, paint stripped, and then all the holes in the frames, for the stretcher attachment screws, were welded up. New holes were drilled, offset by 5/32" in many cases so that the original stretcher could be redrilled and tapped. 7BA hex setscrews with 8BA heads were generally used to rebuild. Spring hangers were riveted on and new buffer and drag beams made.

I am afraid that this chassis has none of the lovely detailing that Mike has shown for his Britannia tender, but this is supposed to be a Modelworks rebuild and I suppose I do have limit just how much gets changed.




An odd feature was what Modelworks, or a previous builder, had done with the springing, or should I say complete absence of springing. The leaf springs were strips of bronze with a steel top leaf, and a securing screw passing down and through to press directly on the axle box. The problem was that these leaves did not give at all - solid suspension. Warnet shows a coil spring sitting inside a dummy leaf spring casting. I decide to copy this for simplicity and so silver brazed the leaves together (otherwise the coil spring will bear on the top leaf only), then drilled for the coil spring.

I could not find wire-wound small springs of sufficient force, and not even as high as Warnet suggested, and so the red ones seen are described as commercial die springs, and are wound from square section wire.