Winson 45xx

[JWKB]

Hi,
I recently bought a part completed winson 45xx and was looking for some advice and tips and if possible someone in south wales who could help me.

Regards,

[Garry]

Hello, I dont know about the 45xx kits but I do know of lots of problems with the 14xx, Brits, 9F's, Jubilees, A4's and the recent 57xx and Black 5's. I have only seen about 5 locos out of all these kits actually running including my own, and each one has been heavily modified to make it run so be prepared. I hope you dont have problems but on the past AND present history I cannot think that everything will be as straightforward as it seems. Do you have all the kits with only some assembled? I am not familiar with western region locos and inside valve gear but one of our club members has the 14xx (and still trying to complete it after about 5 years, it was from the first batch) and the chassis would lock up solid everytime it was put on air although he could push it without problem. The reason was his instructions had been written with the timing 180 degrees out so this might be something to look out for as yours is a similar type. If you have the boiler watch out for the gauge glass position as a lot of Winson/Modelworks boilers have the lower bush too low which can give a false reading in the glass.
Garry

[steammadman]

Hi,
this won't be much help to your,or anyone elses problems,but please allow me to tell this tale of woe.
A freind and neighbour used to visit me in my workshop
and look at the slow!! progress on my loco,(Maid of Kent),the about 18 months ago he had a biggish win on the lottery,(LUCKY SOD),then one day,he saw Winsons ad in my model engineer,i'll have one of those he declaired ,then he saw a complete kit on EBAY,put in a bid and got it,an A 4, when it arrived he called me round to have a look,it's great isn't it?,he says, "i'll have this together and running before you finnish yours ",he says,
i grinned and went home, autumn's gone,winter has nearly gone,and he still has NOT got a rolling chassis.
in fact the wheels won't turn without binding, when the
coupling rods are on.
SO MUCH FOR Mr WINSONS EASY BUILD MODELS !!!!!

I'll carry on slowly at least i'm getting there ,and it didn't costme a few grand.!!!!!

cheers
brian (steammadman)

[Garry]

Hi, how are you doing with your 4500? Is it 5" or 7 1/4". I ask as since your first letter I have aquired a 7 1/4" version in January (minus a few bits of valve gear)and last week I had the chassis running on air. This ran very nicely although I did have fun trying to get the valve timing set. I did not follow the instructions as the support arm mounting block was low and at times fouled the radius links so this was moved to a higher position. I made a cover block to go around this as I thought the 1mm thickness was not very strong and this cover also prevents the screw undoing, I did not feel I could loctite this as per instuctions without difficulty. I also modified this support arm as I thought the original would not last too long as designed, this also meant a new design of rod from here to the the rockers. As these rods were missing from the kits (Modelworks supplied the drawings) I made new ones using their hole centre positions only The lifting arms were also too long by about 2mm which stopped the forward / reverse lever going fully forward but had a lot of clearance in reverse. The shorter lifting arm has given me equal travel of the die block in the radius link, it looks it anyway. The other parts missing (rocker assemblies and trailing connecting rods) were made to drawings supplied and as I said it runs nicely on air. I was worried as each drawing had ERROR STATUS stamped on but it does work. I have also done to this what I did to the A4 and bushed all valve gear linkage and made new PTFE bobbin rings. If I can be of help with your loco please get in touch.
Garry

[Phil Sutton]

Hi Gary,
Glad to see you are progressing well with you 4500.
If you read my coments on Winson loco kits in general,you will see where I said that not all kits from the same batch suffered the same problems(but when they do,they really do!),and also Model works suffer less major problems than winsons.The devil is mainly in the details.
I have a feeling that the 4500 actually wasn't a piston valve engine when winson made it,in fact the valves looked a little peculiar when I saw the drawings of them,but I could be wrong.
I do think Modelworks have got thier quality control pretty well sorted out,and my friend building the 1400 is progressing well.In fact I shall have to pull my socks up and get cracking,or he will beat me to steaming!

Phil

[Garry]

Hi Phill, When I collected the 4500 from Modelworks I was talking to them about it and although the loco started as a Winson it was continued by Modelworks, as was my A4. I was told that all the 5" 4500's were slide valve and the 7 1/4" were piston valves as it was easier for them to manufacture that way. You dont have to tell me about problems, similar batch's, similar locos or not, I know of lots. I would agree to a certain extent that Modelworks quality control is better but not a lot, it still leaves a lot to be desired. The last 15 kits of the A4 and about 10 kits for this were Modelworks and there are quite a few mistakes but with perserverance and a lot of hard work a reasonable loco will appear. I know this is not satisfactory when reading the advert and you only screw the parts together but these have been bought and you either try to get your money back (I wanted these locos) or you have to work on them. What is your loco kit?

Garry

[Phil Sutton]

Hi Garry.I'm building a Winson 99 series 1400 tank.It is 90% complete,and has run on air.
Problems? far too many to go into now,but usually a bit of thought and some brain picking of other members of my local MES,(always a good move,joining these)will point to solution,somewhere.One of my biggest problems was not having a lathe,but having just bought a warco mini,I am confident of going forward and finishing the beast.
This forum give you a way of tapping into a vast accumulation of knowledge,and all will be more than willing to help.You only have to ask.....

Phil