Leaf Spring advice?

[darrene]

Does anyone have details for the main driver leaf springs on something like a 5" guage Duchess or Black 5?

The previous builder of my Princess Royal seems to have intended the drivers to be leaf-sprung - there are certainly the start of some hangers and the frames are pre-drilled for them.

I am happy to get stuck in to what I've read is quite a rewarding job, but I'm at a complete loss to know what size steel and how many leaves I'd expect to use for the size and eventual weight of the loco

Any guidance would be gratefully received!..

Darren

[Deleted]

Hi Darren

My A1 is a similar size to a duchess, I covered my main springs in detail a few years back. You may find this post on my blog of interest although I'm not familiar with the Duchess spring design which may be totally different to a Gresley pacific, others blog entries may also help. There is an index page to help navigate what is a faily large blog now.

4472flyingscotsman.co.uk/main-axle-spring-arrangement/

Kind regards

Pete

[darrene]

Hi Pete, Thanks ever so much for the pointer. That's fantastic; just what I was after.
The design looks very similar and your blog ia fascinatingly comprehensive. I think I may have just entered a rabbit hole which I'll be spending a few evenings reading through

Kind regards
Darren

[44767]

I'm sure Pete's blog is all you'll need but I covered this in my thread of the Class 3 Tank here:

class 3 leaf springs


Perhaps a look at the posts leading up to it and a few after may help too.

Cheers,
Mike

[darrene]

Cheers Mike, that's brilliant. I'm lapping up any information I can at the moment so it's very welcome - thanks for taking the time to post it (and for exposing another rabbit hole to read and drool over )

All the best
Darren

[brick5096]

I have just read your posts on Class 7 locomotive springs ( Britannia ) Refer to Don Youngs Black 5 Magazine "Locomotive Large and Small" No46 Page 20 On sheet 4. Leaf spring paticulars stated by Don for the Black 5 are 3/8/x1/32 spring steel top and bottom leaves. Intermediate 3/8 x 1/32 Tufnol suggested top 2 = 3 steel and 1 at the bottom, all other leaves are tufnol. My Black 5 looks good with this format.

Hope this helps

Regards
Stuart