70036 Boadicea

[Jim]

The last few days have been spent deciding on how to set out the firebox door. Given that the doors are in fairly constant operation I wanted to be sure the door runners were securely fixed to the back plate cleading. To achieve this a 3/16" brass plate was cut and drilled to fit over ends of 4 stays purposely kept longer for that reason.

The photos shows the plate temporarily held in place on the back of the cleading.



The next photo shows the door guides more or less in place with the bottom guide marked out ready for cutting to shape and with the anchor points for the door operating mechanism drilled and tapped.



The final photo shows an earlier temporary setup to check the layout for the doors in relation to the water gauges.



It all looks a bit 'hows your father' at this stage I must admit, but once things are completed I think it will work the way I want it to.

Fingers crossed,

Jim 

[donashton]

Hi Jim,

I fell over when I read 'it all looks a bit how's your father'. It's an incredible phrase that manages to mean everything and absolutely nothing both at the same time!
It's common enough here in Lancashire - any idea of origin?
Dear oh dear I'm still laughing to tears. Hope others enjoyed it s much.

Don.

[jma1009]

hi don,
'how's your father?' was one of UK music hall star Harry Tate's famous catchphrases. it was picked up and used by British serviceman in WW1 to refer to lots of different things, including the use it is now remembered for.
Tate later appeared in a number of films, the best known being George Formby's 2nd Ealing Film 'Keep Your Seats Please'(1936).

hi jim,
the backhead and firehole assembly are coming along nicely.

cheers,
julian

[Jim]

Hi Don,

Glad that expression 'put a smile on your dial' as they say Don. As to the origins of the expression I have no idea but it was one of my dad's favourites and he was a big fan of music hall so a clue could be there.

Hopefully today I will be able to get everything tidied up and looking properly Britannia like.

Jim.


PS While I was writing this Julian confirmed my suspicions...Thanks Julian.

[jma1009]

(doing a bit of a 'Hagley' here, for anyone who wants a large dose of nostalgia of Music Hall/Variety especially the 'Old Uns' on here, ive been waiting for this to be released for many years...

www.youtube.com/watch?v=3hSrjU6nLuo

jump to 45 to 52.30min

last show of The Crazy Gang at The Victoria Palace 1962 filmed 'live' for ATV, with special appearance of Chesney Allen with Bud Flanagan. Jimmy Gold and Charlie Naughten were both 76 at the time.

Bud and Ches recorded a song 'if a grey haired lady says how's your father' during WW2.

Ches outlived them all by a considerable margin, dying in 1982 at age 88. i saw Ches live at the chichester festival theatre in 1981.

Bud famously recorded the 'Dad's Army' song 2 weeks before he died in 1968.

nothing to with model engineering or Jim's wonderful thread!

cheers,
julian)

[Jim]

Mention Bub Flanagan Julian and I can instantly hear his voice singing "Who do think you are fooling Mr Hitler." 'Harry Tate' was also the rhyming slang for the RE8 WW1 Biplanes.

Today apart from being in the workshop humming hits from music hall I managed to get a bit more done to the fire hole guides.

The first photo shows the bottom guide roughed out and ready to be milled to profile.



The next photo shows the guides in place to check that the two doors can slide freely in the guides. At present they do but if a similar system on the Burrell is any indication some fitting and adjustments to the linkages will be needed to get the doors opening and closing smoothly.



The next job will be to make up the linkages that open and close the doors

[donashton]

Whatever would we do without our knowledgeable friend Julian? And add campanology to his skills, plus a deep wish to help others.
Many thanks Julian - I had no idea of the rich history - and thanks to our long-time host Jim, who is too nice a guy to grumble about an aside to his magnificent thread.

Don.

[Jim]

You are far too kind Don and how could I complain especially when Julian leads me to a youtube site that also has Jack Hylton and his band...I think I'm being led astray here.

Jim.

[stan]

Hi All
I think model engineers are a wonderful bunch who are always ready to help with a problem, I love watching the building of other locos as they help to solve many problems, I have made many friends on this site. But were would we be without the Internet.
Stan

[Andrew C]

Glad to see things are a happening again Jim.

I can't remember if someone told me or I read somewhere that it was a good idea to remove the back (fire side) of the U slot for a short length (2-3mm) where both doors touch each other . The theory being any muck in the slot being pushed by the doors will get pushed out and into the firehole and not stop them closing.

By the way the saying how's your father is Victorian or older and has to do with daughters and chaperone I'll let you run it past Wikipedia wink wink as they say

Doesn't stop the WWII music hall being fun though this is probably where most of our parents the therefore us have it from

Andrew

[Jim]

Just an update on the fire hole doors which are now finished. I've opted for the flat door version rather than the those with the raised heat shields and more complex actuating arms.
The previous update showed the 1/16" plates sitting in the door guides. To these I have now silver soldered the bulk of the doors made of 1/8" plated cut to move smoothly between the runners with the 1/16" plate forming the retaining tongues. The centre boss is drilled and tapped to take a 6BA hex head screw which will retain the door's actuating arms. I did consider making the proper pivots with split pin retainers but decided that it was a lot more fiddling for not much gain and being a lazy lad....well. 

The photo shows the doors before painting with heat resistant black which is applied direct to the bare metal. 



Andrew's comment about a short cut away at the rear of the bottom guide to clear grit and dust is a very good one as it only takes a bit of char grit to jamb things up completely.

The next job will be to make the actuating arms and links.

Jim

[Geoff (Carlisle)]

Hi Jim, now that looks good, don't know yet which door i'll have but I'll take Andrews idea on board.

Geoff (Carlisle).

[Jim]

One of the problems with the backhead cleading being in one piece is that, if as in my case the lower water gauges are set slightly behind the cleading it is almost impossible to tighten the locking nut between the gauge and the bush.

Various options crossed my mind but in the end the solution I settled on was to split the cleading using my trusty jeweler's saw. 
The new arrangement lets me align and tighten the gauge lock nuts while the joint line looks part of the many joint lines on the real thing.
With a soothing ale tossed in all this only took a day. 

Jim

[Shawki Shlemon]

Very nice , I hope I will see it one day .

[Jim]

Thank you Shawki, that would be a pleasure. 

Jim

[Boadicea]

I'm coming too Jim.
The full size loco was my favourite Britannia, hence the name.
Really enjoying your pictures - keep them coming please.

[Jim]

Thanks for the kind comments Boadicea they are much appreciated.

Today was one of those fiddly days cutting out a bracket to hold the pressure gauge then spending ages trying to decide on the best place to locate it. Up fairly high as on the prototype but probably hard to see if under the side roof panel or lower where I could be fairly sure it would be visible. As with all these things it can be changed.

I also managed to fit one of the washout plugs to add a bit of detail. Other jobs include making the three non working gauges and their mounting bracket on the driver's side which should also hide the blower/hollow stay connection. For that job I'll need to make miniature dials and I've run out of soothing ales  

Jim



Jim

[ejparrott]

Funny...so have I!

[Tony K]

Jim, have sent PM

[Jim]

Many thanks Tony, I've just got the PM. 

Jim