BOXHILL by Martin Evans

[jma1009]

hi shawki,

thanks for your very kind comments. i do get eye strain when doing small stuff like 12BA screws!

one of the most distinctive and characteristic features of William Stroudley's locos is the cab roof. unfortunately, although martin evans' GA is correct, his detailed drawing of the cab roof is not, and many an otherwise excellent loco has been spoilt by having a cab roof of the incorrect shape by not being familiar with the fullsize locos and following martin evans' drawings.

anyway, a part i'd been dreading making! though sometimes the parts that seem the most difficult actually turn out to be ok. so, my cab roof! i found out that i could swing the head of my dore westbury mill at just under 6" radius, which is correct for the end elevation curve on a scale cab roof (martin evans' cab is too wide so NOT scale!). probably the daftest and most dangerous set up anyone has attempted on a dore westbury - me machining a 6" radius in a block of plywood packed 3 1/4" off the bed, with the head bolts slackened off and no control over movement other than a piece of steel strip shoved in the motor plate! after doing the above i then ground up a gouging shaped chisel from an old bevel chisel to make the small radii on the side elevation. the former then had a 1/2 round coarse file rubbed over it, and a coat of cellulose dope, then was left in today's sunshine to dry off. i then sanded the former a bit. whilst the sun was behind the tree at the end of the garden (timed almost to the minute) i annealed some copper 38 thou thick. this was a piece of copper that had previously seen use in the lounge stove to block off the ashpan as with the stove doors open there is no separate control on the ashpan.

when next door decided to mow their lawn on a bank holiday afternoon i decided i would add to the noise and bash the copper in the former! took 2 minutes each half. in fact most of the forming was done with the palm of my hand, the remainder being done with a raw hide mallet. the former is quite undamaged and available for anyone else with a scale 5"g Terrier cab!

anyway the pics probably explain things a lot better than my text!

(i did mow the lawn and do a lot of gardening today as well, and cook a shoulder of welsh lamb for roast lunch!)

cheers,
julian

[jma1009]

if anyone can spot half a dog biscuit in any of the pics they get a special prize!!

[Deleted]

what an unusual roof?.. not seen one like that before... very nice work Julian.. looks great...

Pete

[Jason]

Photo 2 resting on your ring spanner!! :-)

[jma1009]

well done jason,
i'll post you the half dog biscuit! what's your address!

[Jason]

Hi Julian,

I’d be scared of the Royal Mail damaging such a valuable prize, if you are visiting the Midlands show I could take delivery of my prize there, probably be an improvement on the biscuits sold at the show to dunk in my tea!

Cheers,

Jason

[jma1009]

i havent managed much on STEPNEY the last few weeks. the cab roof was trimmed and filed to size and a framework of angle milled for it to fit into on top of the cab.

current hassle is the cab beading - which ive made out of old fashioned brass curtain rail after a lot of milling. the offsets on the bottom ends of the cab beading for the handrails taxed me a bit - eventually siver soldering on some 1/16" nickel silver pieces which im in the process of filing to shape. not quite finished yet. very fiddly and tricky to get right. ive made the coal bunker door and the slides it fits in, but otherwise not a lot else to show as progress!



cheers,
julian

[Shawki Shlemon]

Nice work Jullian .

[jma1009]

thanks shawki!
i forgot to add that bottom left of the above 2nd pic can be seen on the surface plate a length of cab beading that melted when i was annealing it! not everything goes to plan sometimes! i must remember not to rush things and attempt annealing when sunlight is coming through the workshop windows!
cheers,
julian

[Deleted]

lovely work Julian... very neat shaping of the brass sections.. great stuff..

Pete

[Geoff (Carlisle)]

Hi Julian, regarding your bench, i see what you mean, you've beat me , but carry on with your excellent work.

Geoff (Carlisle).

[jma1009]

i feel like im nearing the end of the cab - hoorah!

ive fitted the cab beading with rivets on one side plus done the side strips (in my case angle) underneath tha cab roof angle, and also attached the strips/angle on the front and back spectacle plates. only one more side to do plus a heat up for jim scott's excellent tin/silver solder substitute for soft solder and the cab will be finished. 3 months of extremely boring and time consuming awkward fiddly work.

how i hate platework!!

the most boring part of building a loco IMHO!

cheers,
julian

[jma1009]

1/32" diameter rivets in platework really does try my patience! (there are a four in the above pic, which has the cab roof angle not screwed down to the cab in the pic with its 10BA screws, hence the daylight between the bits. most of the 1/32" dia rivets ended up on the workshop floor). 4 more left to do, and then that's it for fiddly stuff on STEPNEY and a big sigh of relief in one of the Valleys in south wales!

i remember very well my first ever steam trip behind STEPNEY at age 4 years old in 1971. it poured with rain and i remember a picnic in the Sheffield Park car park under a groundsheet with primus stove. i havent seen STEPNEY in steam since, as on each visit he has been under repair or laid up awaiting repair.

cheers,
julian

[Jim Scott]

Hi Julian

Platework? Well that is what my old mentors used to call ‘character forming’. Personally I don’t mind platework at all, just another part of the build, although it’s the bit that people see first and hence gives that first impression.

I think you may well have caught up and passed me now with the cab construction, even though it must be a bit more difficult for you without the boiler and side tanks in place for reference. Surely the end of your cab construction must now be in sight, I know mine seems never-ending.

Thanks for the for the photos and correspondence both here and off-line, this has helped me a great deal when trying to accurately portray Earlswood as she would have been circa 1890. I was quite surprised to find that line drawings by some very well known writers in Model Engineer and elsewhere contained serious errors, only those by C J Binnie, although small, appear to have everything in the correct place.

It will be good to seeing the cab cleaned up and with a coat of primer, then you can look forward to the prospect of a bit of copper bashing..!

Jim

[jma1009]

hi jim,

many thanks for your kind comments.

i hope you will post some pics of your terrier cab and bunker as it is much better than my own.

yes, i am looking forward to getting the cab and bunker finished and applying a protective coat of primer, and also looking forward to making a start on the boiler. i am not in any great rush though, apart from needing to finish the cab and bunker asap so i can paint it and stop it going rusty over the winter.

cheers,
julian

[jma1009]

a bit more progress - front half of the cab finished, missing 'T' section from the curved bits of the cab beading fitted and soldered in place, and rivet heads filed flush and a bit of tidying up and davids zinc 182 grey spray primer added. also the rear spectacle plate (removable) sprayed with primer. cab window 12BA screws cut to length.

the paint finish completely hides the complexity of construction of the front half of the cab with it's silver soldered parts and complex cab boxes etc! makes it look like it was a piece of cake to make - which was anything but the case!

should only take a few evenings to make the missing 'T' section curved pieces for the rear cab, then i can solder those on and run the solder around the cab beading made out of brass curtain rail, and add the half round beading to the top of the rear bunker plate, then the rear half of the cab can be painted too.

im quite a fan of davids zinc 182 spray can grey primer. ive used it for years.

cheers,
julian

[uuu]

Your pictures show off the curiosities of the loco very well. Having a footplate where you can just about walk right around the loco is quite a surprise. There's room to enlarge the cab back quite a bit and then you would't have to climb over the splasher (and around the pole quadrant) to get in.

Wilf

[jma1009]

hi wilf!

you and i wouldnt have a problem, but someone of 'ample girth' might have a problem! behind the rear bunker is the toolbox (ive cut up the steel but havent put it together yet - though the toolboxes were/are actually made of wood). the toolbox wasnt actually a toolbox but a battery box for a very early form of train communication system between loco crew and guard. the IW locos all had their bunkers extended and the toolbox was removed. incidentally martin evans draws the cab far too wide and completely wrong in the end elevation in almost every detail - ive corrected these errors on mine as has jim scott.

cheers,
julian

[Deleted]

very nice work Julian.. looks great..

Pete

[GeorgeRay]

Hi Julian
What makes you think that the tool box was only a battery box. I have never heard this suggested before.
The tools allocated to each locomotive were quite numerous and there aren't many places particularly on a Terrier that you could place all the tools e.g. the 5 ft pinch bar. The complete list of tools carried was:
Set of double ended spanners stamped with the engines number and the company initials
Special spanners for mud plugs, eccentric and big-end bolts and piston and valve spindles
Two lead hammers
One hand hammer
One sledge hammer
Two flat chisels
Two large and one small pin punch
One firing shovel
One fire drawing shovel
One pricker
One rake
One tube cleaner
One one gallon oil bottle
One half gallon oil bottle
One large and one small feeder
One 5 ft pinch bar
One 2 ft pinch bar
One side lamp
One hand lamp
One bucket
Two gauge glass lamps
Three headlamps.
The toolbox might at some stage have contained a battery for a train communication device but that was not the main function. There was no train communication device on the C class Jumbos AFAIK but they were fitted with toolboxes as were all Stroudley classes whether passenger or goods.