David Andrews Princess Royal - 6206 Princess Marie Louise

Thanks Andy,

Is he still around?

 

Ahh, I purposely don't watch anything on the BBC.

 

Thanks Ken,

I had worked out where it was meant to go, what I was struggling with was how to attach that bracket to the LG castings.
I got sidetracked yesterday so hopefully by the end of today I should have both injectors in place.

 

Well things have moved on somewhat since my last post. I did get the injectors fitted.





Then I moved onto the sandpipes which are almost the last bits for the chassis (unless I find something that I have missed. I say almost because there are also the bottom halves of the sandbox fillers to fit to the chassis, they are split at footplate level.



I started with the brackets which come as a hockey stick shaped etch. Looking at photos they need to be bent into handed pairs. where they fit around either side of the wheel.


Next in order to make the fittings for where they pass through the brackets and combine with the steam pipes I soldered two different diameter microbore tubes together.

I cut half a dozen lengths at 2.5mm and another eight at 1mm using a pin chuck a ruler and a piercing saw
I also created a hex on some thick walled tube to make nuts from. Again cutting lengths off with the piercing saw


From all the photos that I have, there are only six sand pipes fitted so I have two spare brackets.
In the photo below you can see the assembly order of the various bits of tube, bracket and nut. I will have to trim all the pipe ends to the same length

 

I forgot to add that I also managed to get the sand box filler pipe sections cut and fitted to the frames.

 

At least they have seen daylight, I have had mine eight or more years and haven't managed more than occasionally having a sly peep...

 

This week has been about adding small details to the body work starting at the front, I added the smokebox door dart, and the handrail above it. The LMS design of handrail has the rail ending in a button at each end. I have heard of people making these from microbore tube but I didn't have any nickel silver tube so I put a short length of 1.4mm nickel rod in the lathe and drilled it out to fit over the handrail at either end and then fitted the rod into a pin chuck to chop of the appropriate length soldering on to the hand rail and filing to finish. From the photo I still have a bit of cleanin up of excess solder to do on the handrail knobs.



One detail that is quite prominent on the smokebox door but absent from the kit is the door latch. It is included in the GA reproduced on the front cover of the Wild Swan volume so I was able to import this into Fusion 360 not only to get the length and spacing of the handrail and knobs but also the outline and dimensions of the latch.




The latch itself was filed up from a strip of scrap etch which I doubled up at the thicker end to file to shape to accommodate the curve of the smokebox door.
The brass rod will be the stay which fits into the front ring. It's 2mm x 1mm bar and I popped it in a 1-2mm ER 25 collet to turn the spigot on the end. The fun bit will be soldering the latch onto the door. But more of that when I have achieved it.

 

Hi Ken,

Great minds think alike, that's probably the way that I will go with it

 

Still plugging away at the small details but it's moving forward and that's what matters.

I got the top feed fitted to the boiler which in the period being modelled is domeless so one less bit to worry about. Then I added the covers for the pipework underneath and two circular covers on top of the boiler. - Since starting to post this I have re-read the instructions and realised that I have fitted the wrong etched covers under the top feed so they will have to come off and be swapped.





I still have the pipes to fit where they come out of the sides but as they disappear into the centre splashers I need to wait until the boiler is mounted to fit those.

Next I have been working on the front end of the footplate where there is a surprising amount going on and photos are invaluable here as the instructions are not that easy to follow.



Initially I fitted all the lamp irons the same way around but noted that the two outer ones are in fact reversed. Fitting the steps to the curve of the footplate was fun. The first one went into place really easy and first time. I tinned them and used the RSU from the back with the footplate on it's edge and clamped to the workbench to stop it moving away as I held the footstep in position. The second one took three or four attempts to get it in the right place...



Still much to do but we are getting there.

 

Progress has been inhibited somewhat by another bout of cold but I have been working away at the sand box fillers which are mostly fitted but I have forgotten to take photos of them and the many oil boxes that are dotted about the footplate. I haven't got them fitted yet, or to be more accurate I haven't even finished piping them all up yet.

This is the process I went through to get the pipes fitted to them.



Starting with the castings, I cut them from the sprues and cleaned them up making sure that the backs were flat.



Next I soldered them to some lengths of coarse scale nickel rail that I have.

It was at this point where I realised that I had yet another sprue so the process started again...

Once soldered to the rail, the rail was supported on a parallel and held in place in the vice with a small offcut from a brass plug pin.

Initially I tried to drill out the cast 'nuts' on the bottom of the oil boxes but they were so misshapen that I ended up filing/milling them down to witness marks and redrilling. I soldered in short lengths of micro bore tubing which I had filed to a hex and them some lengths of 28 gauge brass beading wire.


In hindsight I am not sure that on most of them it was worth the effort of filing the hex but I know it's there...

 

A one step forward and two back moment this morning. Yesterday I spent some time finishing off piping up the rest of the 2 port oilboxe castings. This morning I pored over photographs to see where on the footplate these things were fitted. the upshot was that I was quite dismayed to find that of the 10 or 12 2 port oilboxes only possibly 2 of them were piped from the bottom as in the castings. The rest were piped from the back or inset into the footplate. I need to see if I can find a clear shot of the rear of the bracket supporting the front 4 port oil boxes as the instructions show a 2 port mounted to the inner side of the back of this bracket but I don't know whether this was fitted by 1936 or if it's a later addition. BR period photos show what appear to be two 4 ports back to back but they may be a 4 port on the front and two 2 ports side by side on the back.*

Now I need to decide whether I file off all the pipes and 'nuts' that I have added to those that don't need them or whether I make some replacements and put the piped up versions in the spares box. I did a quick check through my spares box and kits to see if I had any suitable castings that I could swap them out for but I don't.

Decisions, decisions...

Edited to add that I found a photo and I do need a couple piped up from the bottom.