David Andrews Princess Royal - 6206 Princess Marie Louise

I got a get out of jail free cards re the oil corks. Apparently they had sealed roller bearings so no oil corks needed. One job less.

 

Still working my way through getting the chassis running and I now have the inside motion running forwards at least.

As an aside I have reversed the front crankpin bushes to look more like the prototype and to give additional clearance for the motion. I was wondering about how to tighten the reversed bushes and remembered the late David Smith talking about making peg spanners as he called them. I chose a similar route but instead of pegs I used the same approach as the 4mm scale Romford screwdriver (I still have one in my modelling toolbox).

For those who haven't a clue what I am talking about this is a Romford screwdriver

This is the leading crankpin bush that I am talking about


This is the custom big boy's 'Romford' Screwdriver that I made to tighten them. The business end is 3/16 silver steel and the end was shaped with a 3mm end mill with the rod held in a square collet block so that I could keep flipping it over to take the same amount off each side.


If I wish to use this method of securing the coupling rods to the front wheels again in the future I will probably need to make another one with a smaller diameter to fit reversed Slaters bushes. The crankpins on this build are 8BA so bigger than most builders make them (the wheels were already tapped 8BA for the crankpins when I received them with the kit). Continuing my current 'Dremel' tool theme I used a ball burr in the mill to make the grip. Previously I have used the ball burr in a similar manner to an end mill by cutting into the top of the work piece. This time I did it differently and side milled it. This gave a much better finish and was easier to do. I milled the grooves before turning the taper.

 

First run of the chassis with the inside motion fitted. Actually it's the second run I had it running initially last night but realised that I had one of the insulated wheels on the wrong side so I had to strip the rod off and swap it over.

 

It's certainly a more doable alternative than splitting axles for cranks if you are only looking for the bit of visible movement in the frame cut outs. I turned my own eccentrics but Laurie Griffin sells them and the straps as separate items at a lot less than the full inside motion kit. Thinking about it, one pack of each would do for two locos as you get four of each in the pack. Attaching the eccentrics to the axle via a sleeve and locking pin/screw also makes removing them easy should you need to.

 

The last couple of weeks have been steadily working towards getting the outside motion working as smoothly as the inside motion. It has fought me much of the way.

Some of the issues have been of my making, mostly due to my clumsiness in dropping bits on the floor which subsequently disappeared into the black hole in the workshop floor.

As I was working my way through the motion and I got to the motion bracket, I discovered that he support rod for the reversing mechanism wouldn't go through the chassis due to it hitting the middle wheel set.


Initially, I wondered if the cast wheels were slightly oversized but they aren't and a bit of further investigation got me to the support brackets which are too long when compared to the GA drawings in the Wild Swan book. I wonder if other people who have built the DA kit have experienced the same issue?

 

It seems that I am not the only one to have had the same issue. So while I need to do something about it, at least I know that it's not as a result of something that I might have done wrong earlier in the build.

 

I do hope so Andy. I got part way through making replacements last night. I will hopefully finish them later in the day.

 

Thanks Ken.

 

A wider discussion on the subject over on Western Thunder has highlighted that there is more wrong with the motion than just the reversing rod supports.

So far I have modified the Radius Rod, moving the pivot hole nearer to the slot by 1mm. I have also modified a spare set of Combination Rods as those supplied are too long too.

Nick Dunhill had a replacement set of motion etched when he built his three. He has very kindly offered me some of his spares which I will collect at Barnsley. Progress on the chassis will be put on hold until I have the alternate etches.

 

A major personal issue has kept me away from the bench for a few weeks apart from a few intermittent sessions. I will reveal the issue when I know if/how it's going to be resolved.

During those sessions I have managed to move the reversing support rod so that it now passes through the hole in the frames. Once I have finally set the ride height, I may need to make further adjustment.



Nick Dunhill kindly supplied me with a few replacement parts at Barnsley show and I have managed to refit a slightly shorter combination lever.

 

Not a huge amount of visible progress from my seemingly endless tinkering with the outside motion. It all fits but I am loathe to solder the slide bars to the motion bracket until I am happy that it all runs smoothly.

My problem in getting it to run smoothly is that in fitting the inside motion I have had a bit of an own goal. When I assembled the frames I soldered two 8BA nuts to the frame spacer between the cylinders as the kit intends but I can no longer access the front of the cylinders to insert or tighten screws to hold the cylinders in place for testing. I am now exploring alternatives. I know that the footplate will minimise any movement once fitted, but I want to be able to run the chassis without the body on and without any 'Heath Robinson' set up to do so.

 

Hi Paul,

I haven't any direct experience of the DA Coronation but comparing the Finney Duchess with the DA Princess. The Finney product seems to be much finer in all respects. The brass/nickel castings look much better quality, and the etches look to be crisper. The other thing to note is that in the Finney kit the firebox, smokebox and boiler are all resin castings. If the DA Coronation follows similar design principles to the Princess then only the firebox will be a casting. I am led to believe that there are similar dimensional issues with the Duchess firebox as there are with the Princess firebox albeit that not everyone will be fussed about it. I also had to do quite a bit of work on the forward smokebox saddle to get it aligned. It would have been very difficult to do it without the use of a milling machine.

My Finney Duchess was bought from Martin before Finney 7 took it over but I have no reason to think that the castings won't be equal in quality now or perhaps even better now that the Finney 7 team are at the helm. From what I have seen in the W1 kit their standards are high.

 

Hi Ken,
There is already a flat stretcher which might be suitable but I need to confirm that I won't cause footplate/smokebox saddle fitting problems If I do that. That's the plan this afternoon if I don't get side tracked by life.