KIT 9

[paultomlinson]

Has anyone heard when kit 9 will be ready. I have phoned MW several times but I can't get an answer out of them. That puts the Duchess almost three months behind schedule, beginning to sound like their Britannia.

[Deleted]

Hi Paul,

The final Britannia kits went out last week, so this may free up some production capacity.

Regards,

John

[duchessmike]

Hi Paul,
Debbie said middle of this coming week - when I spoke to her last week.
Yes, it is slow and getting further behind; but then how long was the wait for the last (incomplete!) kit for the Britannia? At least we are having the delay spread out amoungst the months!
Hope that you got the main wheels quartered correctly - eventually....
Best wishes,
Mike

[paultomlinson]

Hi Mike
Yes, all wheels quartered exactly and on the chassis with springs and sanding gear, looking quite good. I have been doing some work on a Winson Jubilee and I must say the MW kits are far superior to the old Winson ones. Just wish they could improve their communications, the "middle of next week" has come and gone and still no sign of the next kit.
Anyhow Mike how is your loco progreesing?

Regards
Paul.

[ahernem]

Words from Debbie today is that they are putting the next kit together for shipment.
Bit late, but I would rather wait and see the project through than see it fail due to hurried deliveries.
My wheel sets are now well sorted, and quartered correctly thanks to a very kind friend. I've never seen 'stepped' or 'staggered' keys before, but that's what was needed to get the quartering OK.
Maybe those 'builders' who are not watching this site will have some fun when they fit the rods, or maybe the free-play in the rods will mask the errors!
Each wheel set was (is) different, so the keying needed individual adjustment to suit.
Nearly finished the tender, but need some axle box covers and can't be bothered to wait for MW to supply them in kit 57.
And I'm not sure how I'm going to line it............
Did your front bogie axles stick out of the wheels by 1/16"?

[duchessmike]

Well, Kit 9 is here and what a feast of jobs that it brings!
How are we all doing with the brake hangar pins?
Jammed on the flanges at the bottom of travel in the horns?
And how exactly do you screw the middle one in with the flanges in the way?
Really looking forward to Kit 10, the inner cylinders!
Best wishes to all the MW Duchess Builders!
Mike

[Deleted]

I see that the Modelworks web site 'latest news' page at www.modelworks-int.com/asp/news1.asp has now been updated with pictures of the inside cylinders being manufactured.

Regards,

John

[paultomlinson]

Kit 9 has now been worked on, painted and fitted to the loco. Overall the quality was good, pleased to see that the steel sheet parts were laser cut rather than stamped out, this leaves a much better finish and easier to clean up. Points to note from this kit:-

The flats on the brake hanger pins had to be re-worked so that they did not touch the flange on the wheel. I made new pins for the centre brakes exteding the threaded portion so that they could be pushed through the frame stretcher (after drilling) and then nutted.

The spiggot on the brake cylinder is too large to fit through the hole on the stretcher so a little work required here.

The upper brake blocks need a little milling/filing to clear the brake hangers when fitted to the loco.

It was good to see that MW included a few extra bits to enhance previous kits. Note that bogie guard irons are now included but will need some work to attach them to the non-existant holes on the bogie. An extended ladder is included for the ladder but as steps are fitted to the tender top it would also be a good idea to include rear steps for the loco chassis. Extra fittings are now included for the tender pipework for the axle pump but as in a previous kit the holes through these fittings are too small and need opening up as much as possible.

Roll on kit 10, hopefully by the end of the month, we are only four months behind schedule at this point.

Paul.

[Deleted]

Hi Paul,

Does your tender pipework now included separate feeds for the handpump and the axlepump? I'd like to change my Britannia to have this, rather than feeding the handpump output into the axlepump input.

Mike mentioned the problem with the small bore in the tender pipe fittings when I saw him at the St Albans club last week - I checked mine and they are the same (2mm), so I'll have to drill them out. There's plenty of thickness in the brass to do this.

Regards,

John

[duchessmike]

Hi JJ,
I don't think that we know enough to speculate on where the three feeds from the tender will go; only one is from the hand pump, and the other two are just gravity feeds via a couple of globe valves.
On the loco, there's two axle pumps between the frames; how fed I don't know!
Roll on Kit 10!
Mike

[paultomlinson]

John

Not too sure what MW plans are for the water feeds. In this kit there are two extra elbows for water feeds so these could be for a feed and return for the axle pump, who knows?
Regardless my plans are to have separate feeds to the pumps with the axle pump return ending adjacent to the tender filler so I can see if the pump works when water is not being delivered to the boiler.
I shall not use the globe valves to control the water feed to the injectors but instead use on/off valves situated on the engine.

Paul

[Deleted]

Hi Paul,

I was also thinking of replacing the globe valves for the injector water feeds with 90 degree on/off valves. Polly have these in their catalogue, in various pipe sizes for about £15 each. They should be quicker to operate, the handle shows immediately whether the valve is open or closed, and the throughput should be better than a globe valve.

Regards,

John