Thanks Steve... I'm still waiting for gear / motor combo from ABC... goodness knows when that will happen. Right now I have all the fine parts to put on the Cravens and I'd like to make some headway with the Leek station diorama first... but could then get the frames assembled and the tender if nothing else.
So here are the many bag fulls of goodies, some new reworked lost wax castings ... not really opened them up yet, the slidebars are cast nickel and the cylinder covers are lost wax. Bought the wheelsets at the same time. And the etches... again not unwrapped them as yet.
thanks Kim I've always got on well with Scorpio stuff and your 9F is a complete reworking by Pat's late son David same as the Brit I did, so these builds will be a pleasure to make and follow.
Now then chaps as they say in Yorkshire or at least these parts of Yorkshire ... the Caprotti 5 build begins and its all due to the snow and bad weather which has forced me to select which projects I can do and those which have to be put to one side until the sun starts shining again, so the Class 129 DPU is held up until warmer weather for lining and final painting and leek station is still awaiting paint. But the good news is I cracked open that lovely long black box full of shiney bits and started to assemble the mainframe of the Capprott 5, all run of the mill standard Scorpio stuff which I've covered on previous builds so no need for start up pictures. Needless to say I've opted for beam compensation on the loco and hornblocks on the tender centre axle, the motor will be a Cannon EN22 with a VML2 helical gearbox at 26 to 1 ratio as supplied by ABC Gears. I have everything I need except transfers to do this build so here goes.... Frames now built and aligned and a wheel test says everything is good so far. next job is to scribe the wheel circumference on the outside face of the frames and drill for sprung plunger pick ups on all driving wheels and drill to fit crankpins. That's tonight's job so tomorrow I'll crack on with the brake rigging. Thanks for your interest and more progress pics as they happen which according to the weather forecast predicting snow all this next week will probably mean we'll see a rolling chassis before too long.
Just a simple job today making up the front truck, aligning the bearings so everything is nice and balanced. And fully dressed with wheels in place also shimmed to avoid side creep. At some point I need to fit or scratch make a pivot side spring assembly which will sit inside the slotted open stretcher beam. Anyway for now this piece is back in the storage box for safe keeping. The loco frame has got the cylinders and side brackets fitted and the slidebars with crossheads are pre assembled and ready to go on once the slidebar bracket is fabricated. Once the wheels have had a dry fit with connecting rod clearances checked I'll prep the wheels up with crankpins and fit the brake rig castings which have all been cleaned with holes drilled 0.9mm.
The basic mainframe construction has reached a point where focus has to turn to other parts of the build, I cannot fit the Caprotti steam chests, mechanical lubricator shelf or associate plumbing until I've made progress on the footplate and body since I need this component completed in order to align the bits just mentioned into the correct positions. The Caprotti drive shafts and rotating couplings will also wait until later but now the chassis rolls freely with coupling and connecting rods rotating freely, the brake rigging was the last job ftted this afternoon. So I turned attention to starting the tender because this will also recieve electrical wipers for current pick up, thinking here was if the tender was done then everything could be wired up together when the mainframe work has been completed and under paint. This will be the 1C tender with additional coal capacity of 9 tons and the etches are the original Acorn ones... so yep you guess correct a mod or two was called for in the instructions. First off is to reduce the depth of the rear frame spacer so as to avoid snagging on couplings and also to make appearances "look" good, second off was to add the tank base aligning with the inner chassis frame and drill a new 2.5mm hole for the fixing nut and screw, this eliminates confliction with the tender bulkhead when fitting together. Finally the centre wheels will have hornblocks which I'll make up and fit tomorrow and run a seam of thin solder down the length of the angled fold which carries the bunker and tank. Tomorrow the wheels and brake rigging will be fitted and I'll start the tender tank proper. Thanks for viewing folks.
During the last couple of days I've pushed forward building the tender, the inner frames now have wheels and brake rigging fitted and the water scoop added too, now attention turns to the body and the most difficult part was in forming the curves on the side tank wraps. The underside of the tender chassis.
With them not having a conventional running plate the BR standard tenders look a little tricky to my eyes. Im not looking forward to the BR1 on the clan.
Its not that confusing Paul... just think of the relationship between chassis /wheels and tank body as being offset, I've built a BR1A tender and its all fairly well straight forward.
Great progress Paul Will the tender chassis and body come apart, just thinking of when you fit your sound decoder Paul
Yes it will separate as both are held together with 8BA nuts and screws... just come out of the freezing workshop having only finished soldering the two nuts onto the tender base plate amongst other jobs completed on the tender tonight.
The basic chassis frames of the tender are now built up and the front bulkhead dressed too, so now I have chassis and frames made up and rolling for both loco and tender. Tomorrow hopefully will see the tank fabrication finished and hopefully soldered in place onto the tender footplate. More as it happens and thanks again folks for watching progress.