70036 Boadicea

[Jim]

Jul 10, 2017 15:08:43 GMT barlowworks said:

Hi Jim

Seeing this detail reminded me of something Geoff in Carlisle said in his thread about it. Basically there is a small cutout to one side to allow the vac pipe to connect to a wagon. Check out page one of his thread, about half way down. I would post a link to it but so far it has defeated me. Damn technology. 😠

Mike

Many thanks Mike and Jack. You're quite right Mike there is a small cut out for what I guess was the earlier high swan neck vacuum pipe before it was changed to the low version seen in most photos.

Now you've pointed it out I'd best get back and put it in.

Jim

[Jim]

This is the rear view of 70004 on p11 of Derry's book showing the swan neck vac pipe in that little cut out. Being the silly old gosson I am I initially had a swan neck on the front buffer beam before changing it leaving the half moon cut out. It's a worry.



Jim

[barlowworks]

Hi Jim

A very good photo with lots of interesting detail. I did not realise that the handrails and lamp irons were originally bright metal. Also the rivet detail on the tank top and what appears to be a chain attached to the dome, to hold the filler lid open perhaps ? Does it say which engine the tender was from, I wonder if it was one of the ones bulled up by the Southern for the boat trains.

Mike

[Jim]

My apologies Mike,

I should have added all the in formation about the photo of 70004. As you'd know the Britannia is 'William Shakespeare' and the photo was taken at Marylebone, 2 April 1951 and in what is described as 'that famous exhibition finish' which accounts for the bright finished lamp irons and hand rails among other things. Like you I hadn't noticed the rivet detail on the tender top before either. The tender is No 763 which 70004 had from new.

If you don't have it David Hey's wonderful site covers all the variations and modifications made to the Britannias in their life times.

You can find his site here;  www.davidheyscollection.com/page90.htm

Of course me being me I only check things after I've done them. For example the high vac pipes were fitted to Brits 70000 < 70018 in other words those constructed no later than 1953. which means 70036 Boadicea never had the high vac pipe but did I check before carefully filing the little notch for it?

Today I managed to make up the two long hand rails on the rear of the tender as well as fixing the rear to the side panels with 2 x 12 BA round head screws in place of the first and last rivets in the row across the back of the tender. As a result the sides are now held firmly in place front and rear so I can start work on drilling the holes for the screws securing the sides to the tender floor. While I may never need to I want to be able to take the floor off to access the interior of the tender should the need arise.

Jim

[barlowworks]

I believe William Shakespere was one of the engines reserved by the Southern Region for the Golden Arrow service and always kept in immaculate condition. I think the other one may have been 70014 Iron Duke but I stand to be corrected on that. All the rest of us at least have an excuse to allow our engines to get a little work stained. 😊

Mike

[dhamblin]

I haven't got my reference books to hand but 90% sure that those bright parts on 70004 were chrome finish.

The Southern region allocated Britannia's were 70004 and 70014, both at Stewarts Lane shed.

Tender is coming along nicely Jim, great to see both yours and Steve's builds getting closer to the finish line.

Regards,

Dan

[Jim]

Thanks Dan,

I'd say you're right about the bright work being chromed as it would among other things make life for the cleaners just a tad easier. Richard Derry mentions that both 70004 and 70014 were victims of the wheel shifting episodes which occurred on a number of the early Britannias and resulted in some serious remedial work.
Having your two star locomotives out of action would have caused some major worries for the SR but fortunately the problem was resolved.

Jim

[mbrown]

In "Steam in the Blood", Dick Hardy, who was shedmaster at Stewarts Lane in the early 1950s, talks about how the cleaners worked incredibly hard to maintain 70004's exhibition finish. Eventually, it got "lost" on the LMR and came back with the bright work painted black. If I remember correctly, Dick got it all scoured bright again.

Malcolm

[Jim]

Stan Pearson sent me this photo of 70004 cleaned, polished and ready to head the Golden Arrow service on its next run. Thank you Stan.



Jim

[Tony K]

I am interested, in particular, in nos.36-41 because they were all moved to Immingham for use on Cleethorpes/King's Cross trains between about 1961 and 64, to replace the B1s. I used to see them all at that well-known railway and cultural centre, Spalding - I believe the only regular Britannia workings into King's Cross. My favourite was no. 39 "Sir Christopher Wren" and a slide was advertised recently showing it backing down into King's Cross for the return journey.
Since we have been attracted to the rear recently, I wonder what the top access is to the right of the water filling hatch.
The quality of the coal leaves a little to be desired?



Incidentally, I did buy the slide but have not scanned it yet - so please forgive the water mark.

[Jim]

Many thanks for the photo Tony.

In answer to your question there was some discussion a page or so back about these extra features that appear in later pictures of Britannias and their tenders. In this case I would guess it is the chute for the water treatment bricks. I'm sure Stan or one of the others will know for sure.

It's amazing the detailed information that builds up on a site such as this which reminds me, I should check out the David Hey site to see what it says.

Thanks again Tony.

Jim.

[92220]

You are right Jim. It is the access cover to the water-treatment brick container. Not sure why it would be on the right hand side of the tender though, because the BR drawing puts it on the left, as is born out by the hatch cover on Evening Star's tender also being on the left. I also see on the photo above, the tender is fitted with the low level dome over the water scoop inlet.

Bob

[Andrew C]

Hi Jim

I can find no reference to any of the Brit's being fitted with any form of water treatment, clearly they were. Mind you towards the end they were exchanging tenders in the mid 60's, so It may be that is why Sir Christopher Wren seem to have acquired it.

Does anyone have a definitive list? there are so many differences in the 'Standard' class 7

Andrew

[mbrown]

The RCTS History of BR Standard Steam Locomotives, Vol.1 on the Pacifics, has a list of Tender Numbers, Types, and Pairings on pp.117-8. It does, however, note that details of pairings are only available for the early years and that, "towards the end of steam many changes/exhanges occurred." - presumably unrecorded.

I haven't read the text in great detail but I don't see anything about water treatment, only the height of the water scoop internal pipe and the associated dome.

Malcolm

[Jim]

This is just a test to see if I can post photos from my imgur album following Steve's guide.

Haha Success!

For some reason my Imgur set up seems a little different in that I ended up with4 options including BBCode(Forum) which I selected and it seems to have worked.

So after all that all I've done is complete the rear plate securing the tender to the rear of the chassis. I've also marked out the locations for the cosmetic details to be added such as rivet lines lamp irons and I need to drill the locations for the side and centre hand rails. One day I'll get organised and finish the job

Jim

[springcrocus]

That's a nice view down to your tender chassis, Jim, and a reminder to me to put the extra little notch in the sole plate. If it was not so clean, one would think they were looking at the real thing.

I also need to make a stand and what you have there looks just the job. I've some 16mm box section tucked away sonmewhere, salvaged from an old bed frame.

Regards, Steve

[Jim]

Thanks Steve. I must say as others have, that Imgur is a lot easier and faster to use than the old Photo Bucket.
Today I managed to upload 80 photos relating to building my 3" Burrell SCC traction engine. The time it took to upload was about the same length of time it took PB to upload 1 photo! Arranging the photos is simple too compared to PB's clunky system.

Jim

[Jim]

The rear of the tender is starting to come along nicely with the two lifting lugs riveted in place and all the holes for the rivet lines now drilled.

The first photo shows the method I used from my high school tech drawing days back when the Brits were brand new, to lay out the spacing for the rivets.



With the end marked out I used the existing hole for the round head securing screw at the end of the rivet line to locate a rivet as a pivot while the rivet line was lined up using the laser edge/centre finder. You can just see the red point of the laser on the line in front of the rivet. The edge finder is versatile bit of kit.
 


And still on the line at the far end which was then clamped to prevent movement.



With the holes drilled I couldn't help myself so slipped the rivets in place and being careful not to spill them fitted the end to see how it looked.



Satisfied that the spacing appeared right I repeated the drilling process for the remaining rivet lines using the original spacing and then just for a bit of fun added the tender number and capacity plates. I notice that there is a variance in the location of the the plates depending on which drawing is used so before I fix them in place I'll check the works drawings.



The next job will be to remake the two side handrails, which for some weird and wonderful reason I used the wrong peg hole on my bending jig and so made them too short

Anyone following this probably realises by now the thread should be renamed  'Jim's Guide to Coarse Modelling' which is why you shouldn't count the rivets or check the spacing

[GWR 101]

Hi Jim, I like the laser centre finding device and also the dedication to the fine detail. I wonder if it's time for a soothing ale ... or two. ? Regards Paul

[steamer5]

Hi Jim,
Looking good! Don't you just love those laser center finders, once you have one you find all sorts of odd uses for them.

Cheers Kerrin