MOK 8F - LMS 8425

A Happy New Year to all.

First a bit of background, about 8 years ago my good lady became ill and had to give up work. She was fortunate in that she was able to take redundancy and she spent some her redundancy money on a kit for me. I chose the MOK 8F - MOK = Modern Outline Kits available from here MOK

I wanted the 8F to build as one of the locos that were ordered by the LNER during the war. My initial plan was to build one of the examples built by the Southern Railway for the LNER but further research since has changed that to become one of those built by the LNER at Darlington. You might ask why - because I wanted a riveted tender and I had already bought spoked wheels.

The ones built by the Southern had welded (smooth sided) tenders and most of the LNER built examples had solid wheels as on the tenders of the A3/4's but at least a couple of the Darlington examples had spoked wheels to go with the riveted tender. So mine will now be either 3135 or 3144

Rather embarrassingly I started it around 6 years or more ago and never got anywhere near finishing it. About 18 months ago I had a second bash but still didn't even get the tender finished. Chris has been pointedly asking most of this year when I am going to finish it and I had planned to return to it when I got distracted by the J79 in October. So I made the promise that I would return to it over Christmas and endeavour to get it completed.

I thought I would ease back into it with something easy, or so I thought. I started on detailing the backhead.
These are some of the many parts that make it up.





I had to make this up from a couple of pieces and I drilled and soldered a spigot to the back to make it easier to attach to the backhead itself.






Then the myriad of spaghetti that will be the pipework.



Having shown Nick Dunhill's masterpiece a few weeks back I was keen to replicate the gauge glasses that he did. This entailed cutting off the levers, and then cutting out the rectangle of brass to insert the square perspex later in the build and then reattaching the levers to the sides.





These are the almost finished article that has taken just over a week to put together. - Most of the parts are removable to allow the backhead to be painted.

Over the next couple of days I will post up where I have got to with the rest of it.

 

Thanks Chris,
I find that taking photos helps to pick up where you might make mistakes that otherwise go unnoticed until it's much more difficult to rectify.
I am also a great believer in sharing things warts and all because you learn much more from where someone has gone wrong and then had to correct it than you do from them only showing you the best bit's.
Sadly far too many people are too embarrassed to share their journey, which for me at least is the interesting bit.

 

Right then, a few posts to recap from where I started in September 2012.

When you buy the MOK LMS 8F kit you get a fair bit for your money, Sheets and sheets of etches, 8 bags of lovely lost wax castings and a few white metal castings .

This is the first sheet of etchings to be tackled.



Here are a couple of shots of the horn guides and the compensation beams made up ready to attach to the chassis.

 

The next step was to clean up and test fit the chassis components



First up was to fit the horn guides and compensation beams



I am still at a bit of a loss as to why I never finished it because this kit is a joy to build, all the parts fit and accurate slots and tabs hold it all together before taking the plunge to solder in place.
The next shots show the frame spacers and the ash pan assembled once again dry fitted no soldering yet..

 

A bit more progress on the chassis



Next up was the front bogie.






And lastly just before going on holiday I ordered a set of coupling rods etc from Premier which were waiting for me when I got back. I also took the time to make up some of the rods that came with the kit.






The next few evenings and over the weekend have been spent on the cylinders/slidebars etc.










While it took time to get these sorted and the instructions do lack a little in places – I only discovered the cylinder backing pieces by accident while looking for something else…. it is a very enjoyable kit to build and I am learned from it all the way.

 

Next I worked my way slowly through the valve gear and following Richard Lambert's example on another forum (not as nice as his efforts though). I have modified some of the bits so that they are a bit more prototypical. I used a combination of the best bits from the kit and the premier rods. The mods are creating a fork on the ends of radius rod (Premier), creating the forked ends on the union links (MOK)


I didn't have any scale hardware nut heads of the right size (and funds were a little tight at the time) so I made do with just putting a piece of scrap etch in the bottom of the expansion link.


Its probably not that visible in the photo but as Richard had to move the oiler from the side to the front on his cast combination lever. Mine being etched didn't have any at all. But a couple of pieces from some 2mm (I think but haven't measured) brass bar have done the trick (to the naked eye at any rate).

 

The build stalled there.

Fast forward to May 2014 and in an effort to get back into the thinking without having to pick my way through where on the loco I have got to at this stage, I decided to start on the tender.

So far I have made up the outer frames and the compensation beams for the inner frames.

 

I managed to crack on and get a smoothly rolling inner chassis yesterday.


I bought this kit in 2010 and the instructions are dated much older than that, however the last revision of the etches is dated 2007.


This makes for an interesting time in places. – For example, on the section of the instructions dealing with the assembly of the compensation beams it mentions using alternate parts from a 15 “thou” supplementary etch which is now one of the main etches – quite easy to work out as the parts are quite distinctive and are clearly duplicated (I just ran the digital caliper over them to find out which ones were 15 “thou”).


The next little bit that could trap the unwary is the next page which covers the assembly of the inner chassis is text wrapped around a drawing so it takes a bit of following.

But the key is that the drawing is in fact of a different bit entirely that isn't mentioned in the text and I almost moved onto the next section without assembling it.

I was just double checking and ticking off what I had done when I noticed it. Hopefully this might help someone else when they come to build one.









This last photo highlights one of the rare bits where a couple of the tabs don't align. Again this is highlighted to assist future builders rather than being a criticism of the kit. As I understand it Dave Sharpe (MOK) withdrew it for a while to correct the few minor errors but there wasn't enough interest to warrant the time so he re-released it unchanged. The fact that these two tabs don't align makes no difference to the accuracy or ease of going together of this section because all the other bits that interlock with this (whose tabs do align), mean that once you snip these two off it goes together nicely.




Miss aligned tabs

 

A little progress was made on the brakes and water scoop gear.


Starting with the brakes.







I had a proper DOH! moment with these when fitting the crank I read the instructions and worked out where it all went but for some reason I didn't start on it for a couple of days and foolishly didn't re-read the instructions… As I was fitting it the crank should have fitted as it is in the red square but initially I worked on fitting the end of the shaft through the etched holes which I had enlarged before realizing (red curved line).

The next bit of the instructions says words to the effect of assemble the water scoop gear using the 1/32 brass pins provided. Which at the outset doesn't seem very helpful, however there are a couple of isometric drawings, and a couple of prototype photos in the main instructions and a supplement to the instructions which has a useful photo of a made up model and another drawing. Careful study of these allows you to work out what goes where. Thankfully I was also able to confirm my workings out were correct by asking Tony Geary who built one recently.











In the last photo once I had worked out that the two long operating rods (part 16 for anyone building one) needed to be soldered together I also decided to beef up the two end links that were half etched. I soldered them to a bit of scrap nickel fret, drilled them out and filed them to shape.

The prototype photos show balance weights for parts 14 but the photo of the made up kit didn't have them. I couldn't find any castings for them so I made them up from some brass rod that I had in stock. I drilled through the middle and soldered a brass pin in to give some end definition (Tony suggested that I ask Dave Sharp for castings but by the time I saw his note I was well on with making them).

All I need to do now is put it all together…….

PS in doing these multiple postings I have come to truly hate this forum software, roll on the upgrade

 

This brings us up to date and while working on the cab last night I came across another problem which I am not sure is my fault or an error in the kit - given how well the other parts fit I am more inclined to think that it's my error.
I posted the message below on Western Thunder this morning because I know that there are two or three builds on there.

Now a plea for help and advice for those that have built this kit before. I have a bit of a problem and I am not sure if it's me that's done something wrong or it's a minor bip with the kit? - I am inclined to think the former given how well all the other parts fit.










From the photos you will see that the cab sub structure doesn't sit flat underneath the cab and when pressed and held in place the curved front doesn't match the profile of the cab sides leaving an unsightly gap. I can of course unsolder the base plate and file some of the curves of the frame but would prefer to understand what the problem is before I attempt to fix it.

Many thanks in advance for any insight you can offer.

 

Hi Pete,

Tony Geary built one and he too had issues but he's a superb builder and managed to sort them. - if you have a search on RMweb for a thread called the Derby Line it's in the first few pages I think.

I have seen it in the flesh and its a handsome loco. From what I recall if I am thinking of the same kit they were a limited edition of 50 so you are quite lucky to get your hands on one despite it's issues.

I sort of have half an eye open for one but given the expected work it would need to be at reasonable money for me to indulge.

 

Hi Pete,
I thought it was Jim Harris who did the Acorn kits or am I thinking of another range? - too many Jim's