Northumbrian Build Thread

[peteh]

Almost a wasted day today - spent a lot lying down with migraine. however felt better in the evening aand got in the shed around 7:30pm, Finished at 9:30'sh and now am waiting for the locktite to cure on the piston rods / cross heads. Later I will pin them also.
Must hve damaged the thread on one of the piston rod glands, although I could not see anything wrong with it it would not screw in more than a single turn. Made a new one and that works fine.
Pete.

[peteh]

I have now drilled and tapped for the guide bar brackets. Both brackets are now bolted on but I seem to have introduced a little binding so will need to fettle that out.

[peteh]

Not much progress on the building side this week - getting too close to the silly season At the clubs Christmas members run day today however I was given approval by one of the club boiler inspectors the OK on the drawings so once the final sheet of 2.5mm copper arrives I can make a start on the boiler - after I finish the chassis to working on air. Still have to work until end Friday before starting my holiday.

[peteh]

I now have the sheet of 2.5mm copper so I think that I now have all the materials together for the boiler. Spent today doing some major rethinking on my shed layout. I was given a surplus metal table from work before we broke up for Christmas and this has now been used to replace a rickety, smaller desk. I have also moved some other stuff around so that I have a central island table as well. When/if I get a seperate mill this will go on the end of this central area.
Probably will have to concentrate on getting stuff ready for Tuesday tomorrow so I wish you all a Merry Christmas and a great ME New Year

Pete

[steam4ian]

G'day Pete

Keep up the good work, I am enjoying your series. Greetings for Christmas as well. I see some hot weather is coming you way.

Yesterday afternoon it was 43 degC in the workshop so my time in there was very limited. Nice inside in the aircon then off to float in brother-in-law's pool with a good white wine in hand. Cool change has followed so I can get out to the shop today.

Do you have rolls for making the boiler barrel?

Regards
Ian

[peteh]

Hi Ian,

I do have a 12" set of rolls, but won't need them for this boiler - the barrel is just 3" seamless tube which I have. I did manage a little time in the shed today (before heat exhaustion set in! ), just made the cylinder studs for the steam chest and rough timed the first cylinder. The 8Ba all tread I got however seems faulty - I had nuts threaded on to refom the thread after cutting off with the dremel and got to the 6th stud and could not get the nuts further up the all thread, neither could I get a nut on from the other end! As Polly had no more stock I have one on back order but that will noe be in another year (OK probably only a few weeks).
I have tried running a die down the thread and even that does not work, even when fully open - weird! Guess I will have to find other things to forward the build while I am waiting.

[doubletop]

Pete

Seasons greetings. I'm still dropping in to see progress and waiting to see it running on air.

BTW did you see GLR is no more?

Pete

[peteh]

Hi Pete and Happy New Year to you. Yes I read about the demise of GLR - real shame. Looks like the Northumbrian could end up as a rare collectors piece

At the moment we are getting some terribly hot weather, the next few days until next Sunday are meant to be around 40 and above. First move on getting up at 6.00 am is to hit the aircon on! Needless to say I'm not getting that much done in my tin shed.

[doubletop]

At the time I bought mine Pete Harmon had told me that he'd sold around 75 sets of the castings and the gauge 1 guys were also selling them. So there are a few out there being built but I only know of a handful through various posts on forums.

We apparently had the hottest Christmas day since 1934 at 29degC. Being sat in the middle of a large body of water it has the effect of moderating temperatures so we don't get the huge variations those on larger land masses experience. I'm not getting much shop time, but I've finished my Simplex refurb and have it running now. (should do a post really)

regards

Pete

[peteh]

I wonder how many of those stopped after the frames fiasco?
Glad you finished the Simplex refurb, yes please do a post. How is the new track going - is it finished yet?.
We (NDMES) have just installed a new shed for passenger car storage and a some members are building a flexitrack section at the moment to allow us to get the raised track cars into it. We are also looking at a larger area for traction engines/road vehicles to operate as well.

[Shawki Shlemon]

Pete , it is normal , from what I have been led to believe there may be more castings laying idle than what really go on tracks ,if you watch smex.net.au you will see that some surface for resale but many don't .
This is understandable as there are many reasons for it , too hard , health , death , financial , lost interest to mention a few .I know of some .
I still give credit to those people , they had a try .

[steam4ian]

Pete.

The frames fiasco to which you refer. Was there a problem with the frame design or drawings?
IMHO the frame drawings were about as useful as a hip pocket in a G string. I could not find a dimensional reference point. Critical dimensions like wheel centres were provided by inference not direct dimensioning. If prospective builders got into trouble it is no wonder.

Good drawings should provide a reference point from which all dimensions are made except those with a critical relationship to one an other. That's what I was taught in Engineering Design 1 anyway.

Regards
Ian

[peteh]

Hi Ian,

In the original part 1 of the ME articles there was an incorrectmissing dimension on the drawings, which meant that the frames ended up 1/8 too short (somewhere in the middle). It was only around the 3rd or 4th issue that the mistake was admitted so a lot of would be engineers had no real option but scrap what they had already done, with the further result that they no longer trusted any more of the articles i feel.

[steam4ian]

Pete

Can't say I am surprised.

I contend that if the drawing had been dimensioned in a professional manner the mistake would not have occurred.

Pete I understand you are building the loco for experience and I don't want to burst your bubble. It is an attractive model.

I have to question why a magazine would publish articles on a model which inherently has insufficient weight on the single driving axle to pull even the would be driver. A beginners engine has to have some chance of pulling the driver and to ensure it is not his/her last effort a load that includes his/her life's partener.

Keep us informed, I am enjoying your series.

Regards
Ian

[peteh]

Ian,
Doubletop has already arrived at this problem, even after adding a couple of kilo's of lead to the front. Havn't heard yet wether this has been overcome yet as I believe his club is still building their track. It has been suggested to me by a Rainhill owner to add a bearing to the front axle and then make a tender with no leading axle, but a strap to the bearing on the locomotive, thus transfering the weight forwards.
As regards my partner - she works Sundays which is the runday at our club, but supports me in my purchasing etc. Neither of my two children have any interest in the Model Engineering either so I am pursueing it alone anyway

[doubletop]

I certainly have arrived at this problem but its exacerbated by it being the festive season an the driver putting on weight faster than it can be practically added to the front of the loco.

One suggestion I had made to me was using neo magnets on extended horns front an rear of the drivers. I did some quick mental sketches and looked at what was available and, with about 1/8" clearance, worked out I could get the equivalent of 8Kg of weight. The lump of lead I fitted gave me 2Kg. Of course it would need steel tracks and whether that is enough is a matter of trying it.

When I started the "who's doing one of these" thread on ME I was surprised at the apparent low response given the number of sets of castings sold. No doubt the subject of ratio of finished builds vs projects starts has been analyzed in the past. From my brief involvement in the hobby I'd guess its a pretty low percentage.

For me I have no regrets building this, it served a purpose of proving to myself I could go through all the processes required to build a loco. It's a good first project. It runs, I've got it going on gas and it has a novelty value as its quick to throw in the car, take to the track and get running in the lull between the big guys fixing this or that.

As you know I've moved on got a Simplex refurb which I've also got running now.

So keep going Pete the best bit has yet to come.

Pete

[RLWP]

I can't see your magnets giving a reliable solution. The air gap between the magnets and the rails makes a huge difference, and will be changing all the time.

Also, it won't work on aluminium track

Richard

[steam4ian]

Pete

There is a bloke at our club who uses what he calls "semi-trailer" mounting of the tender. The front axles are not or lightly sprung and the front half of the tender weight bears on the rear of the loco adding weight to the drivers. One loco is a Fletcher 2-4-0 (look out for it as a poterntial winner at 2013 convention) the other an SAR (Oz not Sarf Efrica) 700 class 2-8-2. The latter engine has a ride on tender so that puts a lot of weight onto the drivers. I get to drive it on occasions and even though it is injectors only it is very easy to keep in traffic with loads of general public. I have to remember to lean back at one place in the circuit so my mass does not cause the ashpan door cylinder to strike a piece of track at a crossing. The down side is that the owner had to retyre the rear drivers.

For you running a bar under the loco from the tender to the front axle could add some weight to the wheels.

Regards
Ian

[pault]

Hi All
I have fitted steel tyres to a number of locos and these give a noticable improvment in tractive effort over cast iron wheels, with no other changes. It may well be worth fitting steel tyres to the driving wheels.

Regards
Paul

[peteh]

Thanks for these comments guys.
Like Doubletop, I am building this locomotive for learning skills, which will then be used in building a passenger hauling locomotive (Blowfly). If it runs, I am happy. Even if it does not run I will have learnt a lot, and in making it run will learn even more.

Just hoping on some cooler weather so I can get in the shed and continue.