My English Electric 'GT3' Project.

jakesdad13 wrote:

Hi Pete.
Yes, I had tried the connecting rods on the ends of the jig axles and they fitted perfectly, just didn't take a pic of them in place. I emailed Chris Gibbon about the bearings and motor yesterday, but don't expect a reply until Monday at the earliest. I've had the kit since February so not sure about warranty on the motor, and of course, since Mr Mashima has now retired and closed the Company, his motors will soon be in short supply and premium prices I expect. Been doing a bit more on the front bogie, but until I can get the 3 sets of driving wheels in place for the height, I can't sort out the bogie pivoting, as there isn't provision for it in the kit (too many alternative ways of doing it, I guess).
Keith.

 

Dunno about brave Toto, more like the blind leading the blind!

Seriously though, just in case any members are not aware of the GT3 itself, this is what the actual loco looked like in the flesh. It was built as a 'Demonstrator' by the English Electric Company, supposedly as a way to use up surplus loco frames (rumour had it that it was spare 'Black 5' frames) but in fact the frames were custom built. Despite successful trials, although with heavy fuel consumption, BR decided that Gas Turbine traction was a step too far, and the loco was sidelined around 1961/2 being eventually broken up in 1966.

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I've got a little further with assembly, having now attached the bogie sideframes and painted the complete bogie, further laminating being done with the brake arms, 3 of left hand, 3 of right hand, each one made up with 3 layers, and soldered up whilst pinned to a block of wood for accuracy.

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Whilst I'm waiting for the replacement Mashima motor, I've been doing a bit more work on the tender, adding the base and bogie side panels, to which the axlebox castings solder, and also the plates which will be bonded to the inside of the tender body (another Araldite job!). I've soldered two 6BA nuts to the base of these plates, so once the plates are bonded, screws from the chassis underside will go through to hold the body in place. I will also need to add some weight as the complete tender is on the light side.

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Tender with body in place. I obviously have quite a lot of work to do on the tender body, cutting out the window holes, fan vent on top, and adding in the brass fret detailing parts.

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Received the replacement motor from Chris Gibbon at 'Highlevel kits', together with the 2 missing 3mm bearings, so bearings soldered in and the inner ends filed down to create enough space for the gearbox to fit between. Once that was done, I was able to paint the chassis and fit the motor back onto the gearbox, having refitted the worm to it's shaft. All ran smoothly on a test run, so time to fit and quarter the wheels, an easy job with my GW Models wheel quartering press, then add the connecting rods. After a bit of fiddling and fine adjustment, it runs really well although it will be even better after a 'running in' session later. There is a set of what can only be described as 'hubcaps' to fit over the crankpins which I shall fit later in the build, the pic several posts back of GT3 in the flesh will give an idea of what I mean by 'Hubcaps', just domed covers, which have been produced for 'Highlevel' by 'Modelu'. Next job will be probably to sort out the front bogie pivot and make something up for it.

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Further work today, glued on the wheel weights.

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I needed to add some weight to the chassis over the driving wheels, as the motor is in the nose of the loco. Not being comfortable with just fixing a metal weight directly to the chassis, I decided to make a rectangular 'Plasticard' box assembly, supergluing it to the chassis first, then adding lead strip and finally gluing on a 'Plasticard lid, so the weight is sealed into a box, can't move about, and more importantly, can't short any electrics out. (It also provides a handy mounting point for the DCC decoder!)

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As a prelude to decoder fitting, the loco needs pickups. I cut and fitted two small pieces of Veroboard between the chassis undersides, cutting the copper strips slightly short of the metal chassis edges to avoid short circuits, and also cutting a small section out from the middle of each pair of copper strips, then supergluing the Veroboard in place. I then used two lengths of 1mm brass rod soldered in line onto the separate copper Veroboard strips to form two electrically isolated 'Busbars', then soldered short lengths of Beryllium Copper wire onto the Busbars so each wire end pressed onto the back of each wheel to pick up the track current. The yellow heat shrink sleeving was fitted where the Busbars passed close to one of the chassis crossmembers so there was no risk of a short circuit here.

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As the Mashima motor draws quite a low current, I decided I'd use one of my usual Laisdcc decoders, plenty big enough current capacity for this job. It comes as standard with 'Stay-alive' connections, and I may possibly add a capacitor or two, depending on space within the body, but for now, I've left all the unused wires on the decoder (I may decide to add loco lamp and cab lighting at some point). I'm considering making the tender permanently attached to the loco, and adding tender pickups directly wired to the loco's pickups, which ought to make it pretty 'bomb-proof' over points etc, current collecting over 6 pairs of wheels. As the Lais decoder is quite small, It's just taped in place on top of the weights box with pickup and motor wires as short as practicable, the rest of the wiring will be tidied (or removed if un-needed) nearer to completion. Once programmed, it ran quite smoothly, but will need a period of running in on completion.

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Having had something of a rough weekend with a heavy cold, I felt much better this morning, so got back into the swing of things. I had previously carved the tender body about to enable me to fit the brass fret detail parts, and had given it a spray of Red Oxide primer, red simply because the finished colour is a brown-ish red, so it made sense to prime in a similar shade.

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The vent in the roof was for the train heating boiler, and the tender had a corridor and even a crew toilet! At the back end, the door detail is evident.

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I had lots of fun cutting away large areas of bodywork on the loco body to accept the various brass fret grilles. The top vent at the front is made up of about 20 separate parts, soldered together, large side vents are a simple 2 part affair, top slot vents just one piece, all fixed in place with Araldite, then primer sprayed.

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As the front centre panel has a red painted fan fitted behind the grille, this part (which I had already black painted) was masked off before primer spraying the body. The cab has yet to be fitted, but I want to fit crew, possibly a cab light and probably glazing before fixing in position. I will then have to use 'Maskol' to prevent paint getting onto the glazing, but it's about the only way I can see a 'workaround' as I can't fit the glazing from the outside.

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I got around to putting the first finish coat of paint on the loco body and tender yesterday. Ian Macdonalds GT3 instructions for the detail frets and finishing state using car aerosol paint, Rover "Russet Brown" as the best match since there are few colour photo's of this loco and each seems to show a slightly different colour due probably to film colour rendering etc. Anyway, although doubtful as to the availability of this paint since Rover are no longer with us, I was surprised to find a can of this colour, acrylic too, at a local car spares shop, so put a coat on the bodies, but I'm really not sure about the colour. To me, a "Russet Brown" would be a sort of 'Reddish-Brown', but the finish, although it looks good to me, doesn't seem quite the right colour, maybe not a GWR Brown, but certainly not "Russet" as it's not "Red" enough to me (more like "Gusset Brown!)

Comparing it to the colour pic of the actual loco further back in this thread, it's nothing like correct, although again, the colour rendering is dependant on individual computer screens. As an alternative, I may have to attempt mixing my own colour unless there's a suitable alternative available in the Vallejo range. Any suggestions/opinions/ideas guys?
Keith.

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