Building a Spaceship

It took some thinking out but thanks for the thumbs up Mossy... we shall see if all this effort works out as intended.

 

Bit of a change of plan regarding motors and motor positions on the 9F... I just ordered a coreless motor with helical gearing from MOK, its their MOK 30-7E and pulls 1.5amp max... apparently its ultra quiet too. It will mean some rearrangement of support to the rear end of the frames and changing the pick ups from 5th wheelset to the 4th but better now than later. One point which sold it was if the motor was fitted on the fourth wheelset then some cutting away of the firebox lower front will be needed and that area is quite visible due to the open frames... more when the motor arrives.

 

Moving on to the sand pipe arrangement was the next job, the 9F has sanding gear on the front and centre wheels only, so I cut six pieces of 0.8mm nickel silver wire to a near correct length and formed to shape, each piece was soldered in place behind the frames and the oversize cut away. The picture shows the front set of sand gear with the small offcut positioned below the wheel... just to show how frugal when it comes to wastage.




And the four sand pipes each side of the centre wheelset.





The next job was to form the sand pipe brackets from scrap brass etch the drill each end for the pipe to pass through, a final bent shape was achieved onceeach bracket was fixed in place before soldering. With each sand pipe held fast with solder it was so much more easy to deal with these fiddly brackets.




As the this picture shows there isn't much room to work with, the pipe brackets yet to be fitted along with the sand box filler tubes.

 

I used some scrap copper wire about 3.5mm thick to make the sand filler tubes which were soldered on the inside of the frames. By now all the sand pipe bracketshad been added and a representation of the sand blower valves made using 14BA nuts filed to shape on ce soldered behind the brackets... the steam blower feed pipes which are very prominent from old photos use 0.mm wire, I've done the front set and will complete the centre set tomorrow. The second set of motion brackets were also fitted into place and a test undrtaken to see if the wheels could be removed from their axles which I'm relieved to say the can be.





Finally a few close up pics of the work done so far.

 

9F chassis has coupling rods fitted both sides now and a quick push test proved there were no tight spots anywhere on the wheel rotation, I'll work on making up the remaining slide bar assembly and fitting connecting rods to the crossheads. A coreless motor has been ordered from MOK and this is the type designed for fitting to the rear axle on 9F and 8F locos, the motor is MOK 30-7E and draws a max current of 1.5 Amp on full load. Once the motor has been test fitted I'll strip the frames down again for painting as per instructions before building everything back up for the final time... here are a couple of latest build pictures.




The cylinder block can now be aliegned then permenantly fitted prior to painting... the front motion brackets may have to be fiitted afterwards.

 

yes I can believe that too Ken ...

 

Thanks Paul... I hoped you'd say thank

 

Well back at the 9F ranch after a weird couple of weeks having to deal with totally unrelated model railway subjects here is another update. Having wrestled with which axle to install the motor gearbox on I had a small lightbulb moment, upstairs in the railway room sat a lonely Riddles BR Standard 2-6-2T loco fitted with an ABC short reach helical gearbox and motor arrangement at 26:1 ratio, it didn't take long to whip out and install in the 9F and low and behold it fitted perfectly. So being with frugal Yorkshire mindset and always looking to save a few bob (well actually over a hundred quid or so) it was decision made. Seriously the MOK special rear axle motor I'm awaiting order on will fit in the 8F build when that build happens.
Now the issue of do I solder motion brackets or make them removable was also solved, in an impulse moment I soldered motion brackets in place one side only, figuring at that point it would then still be possible to release the wheels... hey presto it worked so I fitted the other side and guess what it is still possible to release both sides of wheels without them becoming trapped... the axles then just pull out from the frames. So I solved the motor issue and motion bracket issue which meant I could then crack on with the build again.



Now I just needed to scratch make a small motor securing tab from scrap etch, this is soldered to the rear cross member support on the frames which sits behind the fifth axle position, the two holes on the tab allow the motor to be banded fast and the rod acts as a backstop holding the motor at the correct position of it all to slip inside the firebox port... this eliminates having to alter the back end of the frames for rear axle drive, something which the Scorpio kit isn't really designed for. The white plastic tube in the side frames will insulate the spring wire pick ups of my own design.

 

The next couple of jobs was to scratch make some additional parts which are not included in the Scorpio kit, first off was the coal slacking rail and brackets in the tender, I had to study under magnified conditions something similar fitted to a BR1B tender but I thing the BR1C as fitted to my model would have the same however I don't claim my effort to be entirely true to the original ones.




Next I turned attention to detailing the front truck, I'd previously altered the original kit to include a solid centre block and lateral spring castings from Ragstone, now I scratch made the centre pivot boss using a spare 3/16 axle bush filled down to clear the underside of the frame stretcher plate. Some 1.6mm square rod was soldered at quarter spaces around the bush flange and all filed back to suit, finally I fitted an 8BA nut inserted into the centre of the assembly to take the holding down swivel pin which would retard lateral swing holding the truck in proper alignment on the tracks.

 

So now we have frames painted after a good clean down, home made pick ups fitted on 1st, 2nd and 5th wheelsets, the motor fitted secure and the wheels are able to be released now the motion brackets are fitted... I'll photo the home made pick ups another day. The outside motion assemblies are being made up so soon a basic power test can be undertaken on the rolling road... more on that soon. This 9F is now going to be Speke sheds 92138 only because I came across of picture of it on Stoke shed in 1966... still lots to do.

 

Thanks Paul, these Scorpio Seven Model kits make into good representations... well the reworked ones do, not sure about the earlier versions. I've built a few different types now and like the Brit boy are they heavy when completed.

 

Nice 9F kit build there Ken, any chance of more photos of it please? I like the MOK kits but they are just a bit out of my price bracket at the moment.

 

I followed a Crosti build over on another group having had the heads up on it from a member here, the builder made a lovely finish of the job despite (I think) he was working with the earlier and somewhat more awkward version Scorpio had inherited... various give away tell tale signs such as cab roof being too short and the motion bracket assemblies being brass etch and not being on their own nickel fret frame. The Crosti model is complex and there is more on it... I think he did 92026 and funnily enough a cleaned up video of 92026 in Stoke yard and shed exists as a recent release on YouTube, the original Cine film was shot by Stoke Guard Hugh Brown in 1966. Huge had two or three stints on BR over the years and at one time worked as a bus driver for PMT... a quite softly spoken man who was a passionate railwayman I knew well.