BOXHILL by Martin Evans

[jma1009]

dear old STEPNEY has tried my patience a bit the last few weeks. however i have persevered, and am getting close to finishing the valvegear and taking a big sigh and taking a break from work on the chassis.
anyway here's a few pics of recent progress. here are the eccentric straps. castings but a bit too small for my liking, so very careful setting up in the 4-jaw to bore to size without too much pressure on the castings. i made a lot of extra work for myself by making the eccentric straps as wide as the castings would allow and incorporating rebates on the sides to accomodate the shoulders on the eccentric sheaves. i wanted to fit 'bolt on' eccentric rods which necessitated silver soldering additional bits on as the castings werent wide enough for this.

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[jma1009]

next, the eccentric rods. the first 2 took a week, the remaining 2 an afternoon. not sure why! fabricated and silver soldered. they are really quite small and delicate, and have been made so the pairs are 'back to back' as per fullsize. the forked ends are quite deep due to the rather excessive swing of the expansion links. some tricky silver soldering. the brazing hearth consists of 2 thermalite blocks plonked on my vice with the jaws opened wide. i find this very useful, handy, and space saving.

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[jma1009]

the partly profiled rods attached to the eccentric straps

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[jma1009]

finally, the partly completed rods attached to the straps on the loco, with expansion links added temporarily to get an idea of everything lining up. although the connrods and crossheads have been removed the innards still look 'compact' or 'cramped' depending on your point of view! ignore the lifting arms and crossbar... the crossbar is just a piece of 3/16" HSS tool steel to line everything up, and the lifting arm fabrication may get ditched for something a bit closer to scale.
anyway quite a bit more required before i can get to the 'fun' stage of setting the valves and forgetting about what's between the frames!
cheers,
julian

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[jma1009]

incidentally, the bolts fitted to the eccentric straps are fitted bolts in reamed 1/8" dia holes very much as per fullsize. the eccentric straps were made in traditional LBSC manner, ie machining front and back to width, then split in 2 halves with a junior hacksaw, the bolting surfaces machined with a skim in the dore westbury vertical mill then soft soldered together, then the bolting holes carefully drilled and reamed. the rebates for the shoulders on the eccentric sheaves were done very carefully in the 4-jaw at the same time as boring for the eccentric sheaves...ok till you turn them round to do the other side when some careful setting up was required. lots of micrometer blue required to get them each to individually spin freely on their respective eccentric sheaves after a bit of scraping. havent done this for quite a few years since the last loco, so taxes the memory and grey cells!
Bullied referred to eccentrics and their straps as 'disc brakes' so ive always been very careful to get everything ok at this stage!
cheers,
julian

[Deleted]

lovely work Julian.... look forward to seeing her running on air..

Pete

[johnh]

It's starting to come together now and looks really great! I must get mine back on the bench once again.

Keep up the good work!

John.

[jma1009]

hi pete and john,
many thanks for your kind comments! im glad the recent pics and blurb were of interest.
cheers,
julin

[jma1009]

ive done a bit more to STEPNEY as the attached pic hopefully shows.

the valvegear and motion etc is all finished and set, and i decided to paint the bits and chassis and then found out i'd run out of vermillion paint! so ive got to take the chassis apart one final time to rub the inside of the frames down before a few coats of vermillion when i get some more paint!

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[jma1009]

hopefully the second pic shows the valvegear clearly and how it differs from the martin evans design.

the lifting arms are plain and there is a crossbar through them onto which the lifting links slide.

the intermediate valve spindle has square forked ends.

the eccentric rods are 'back to back' and attached to the eccentric straps with nuts and studs.

the glands are all proper studded glands for the piston and valve rods, and you can see how tight clearances are with the channel section slidebars. the slidebars are case hardened, and the oilers were quite fun to make and fit!

the reverser arm is also plain ie no forked end. the weighshaft and bearings extend into the frame for added bearing surface.

the dimensions of the valvegear parts differ from the martin evans design thanks to don ashton kindly re-designing the gear for me to remove a number of errors in the martin evans design.

when i have time im slowly cutting up a sheet of 1/16" steel plate for the cab parts as i need to make the left front cab box to which the reverser will be attached. for setting the valves i clamped a piece of steel plate to the frame and reverser arm with various settings marked out...i cant do this anymore now the chassis is painted as i will spoil the paint work!

i dont know whether the FDC and BDC markings can be seen on the driving wheel tread in the pic but they were established as per the usual proceedure.

i absolutely hate platework so am not enjoying same after all the fun of putting the chassis together and setting the valves!

cheers,
julian

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[johnthepump]

Hi Julian,
I got on shed last week at Havenstreet as I wanted to photograph the front of the Terriers as we are making a new front for the other top for that steam outline battery loco that Norman & co made. If these pics will help your project let me know & i will send them to you.
Regards John.

[jma1009]

hi john,
that's very kind of you!
can never have too many photos to work from!
cheers,
julian

[Jim]

Very nice work there Julian, very nice indeed.
It's a pity that ultimately all the valve gear working will be tucked away and largely out of sight. I must confess to having a bit of a thing with valve gear working, could watch it for ages.

Jim.

[jma1009]

a bit more progress of sorts with STEPNEY...
here's some of the cab parts cut out and temporarily assembled..

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[ejparrott]

I love it when platework starts coming together...looking good!

[jma1009]

oh dear, all the pics have disappeared off this thread!
do i need to start a new thread as it says the thread has exceeded its limit for pics?
can one of our kindly moderators help please?
cheers,
julian

[Deleted]

hi julian

there's a thread 'New Mech Layout' which is discussing this issue in more depth, lots of unhappy bunnies .. me included..

Pete

[jma1009]

thanks pete..

im afraid the complexities of computers and the internet are beyond me! much happier with a file and a ruler!

i do hope this problem can be sorted as like you i think the pics add quite a lot to what we are doing and stimulate constructive comment!

cheers,
julian

[jma1009]

belated thanks to Tel for sorting out the issue with pics.

ive done quite a bit more on the cab/bunker, but have a different computer which hasnt got a program on it to compress pics...anyone know of a good one to download free online?

main reason to progress with the cab assembly at this stage is because (as on many GWR express locos) the reverser 'stand' is integral with the cab on the fullsize Terriers (though not on the martin evans' arrangement for his BOXHILL). i must admit that to copy correctly the fullsize Terrier cab contruction and design in 5"g is proving very time consuming, but the effort is well worthwhile. i have silver soldered the main components together which is something ive done with all but 2 of my locos. ive even painted and temporarily fixed in position the LBSC&R numberplates to give a boost to moral and a sense of illusory achievement!

will post some pics of further progress if i can compress them!

by the way, the fullsize STEPNEY celebrated his/her 138 year old birthday last saturday!
cheers,
julian

[jma1009]