Scratch Built Loco - Severn a Shropshire and Montgomeryshire Railway Loco

Given impetus by Paul's mention of Toto's intention to scratch build a loco at some point I thought that I would share with you my very first 7mm scale loco build with was a scratch build.

A gent called Ken Mason who goes under the user name Jazz on various forums scratch built one which was chronicled on RMWeb which I greatly admired and fancied having ago. Ken had built his from a drawing in a 1963 Model Railway News and I asked if if I could have a copy. Ken kindly sent me one and I also bought a book entitled the Shropshire and Montgomeryshire Railway by Keith and Susan Turner.

By this time I had a few bit's in the spares box that I had picked up at a couple of shows and I had invested in a couple of sheets of 0.3mm brass from Mac Models on eBAY.
So off I went.

Boiler and firebox from brass sheet cut with an Olfa cutter using the score and snap method.






I had previously invested in sets of GW Models Rivet press and Rolling bars which proved a god send during this and all future builds.









Some of it looks a bit crude before assembly.



Although slightly blurred in the shot above the buffer planks were made from thick brass sheet that I rescued from and old brass letter box - I also recycled the hard wood from the door into some picture frames but that's another story.

 

ianvolvo46 wrote:

Hi Ian,
It's not as hard as it looks once you get the hang of cutting pieces that are square and you can always cut outside the line and file back to square.

 

Toto wrote:

Thanks Toto,
I couldn't agree more, become confident with kit's first since they take a lot of the thinking how things will fit out of the equation.
At the risk of sounding like a broken record I would also add the recommendation to initially only build kits that have a good reputation for fitting where they should and having decent instructions.
As an example I haven't built any of the JLRT loco or wagon kit's yet but their Gresley coach kits while excellent quality are let down by very basic instructions.

 

Onwards with the build.



Vacuum pipes from brass tube and guitar strings - although I still have some guitar strings I keep forgetting that I have them and wind my own using brass beading wire and a pin vice.








The basic chassis, I made the springs up from phosphor bronze strip sold by Markits.








The rather peculiar shaped coupling rods were made by filing a strip to shape and then finishing of with a piece of round nickel rod that I filed about a third of the diameter off before soldering it to the face of the main rod which gives the impressions of round rods with rectangular bosses at each end - all done by hand with no machine tools beyond a pillar drill for drilling the crank pins holes.

 

When fitting the cab I discovered a bit of a discrepancy in the photos and the drawing that I was working to - The drawing showed the cab extending to the back of the bunker which essentially made it sit inside the cab with the sides exposed. The photo however had the cab attached to the front of the bunker as you would expect on any other tank engine.

Ken had built his to the drawing and in the meantime I had also found an article in a Railway Modeller by Bob Alderman detailing one that he had made from the drawing too. I elected to follow the photos.
Bob has done a much better job of representing the cylinders on the front of the chassis than I did and should I ever chose to do anything with it I would follow his example.











The windows are made from scale model boat portholes that I bought from our local model shop before the owner retired and it closed - it was a proper model shop that did everything, plastic kits, RC cars, Dolls Houses, Clock making/restoring kits and lot's of raw materials like brass and plastic sheet and strip. It was a huge loss to me when it closed.

The Boiler backhead was from Hobby Horse - another great supplier that has sadly closed it's doors.

 

Thanks Gents,













Surprisingly it only took a month to complete it ready for painting.

 

Hi Pete,
I must admit that I did have plans to build a Beames 0-8-4 Tank but then thought that since I model the LNER that I ought to build something appropriate but I have never found a suitable drawing so I will just try to make a decent fist of some of the pretty poor kits that I have acquired over time.

 

So it's onto the painting. It must be said that I built this before becoming proficient with an airbrush so it's rattle cans all the way - Halfords finest.










Then I did the details and added the plates. I was fortunate in that Guilplates have plates for it as a stock item.












Although I had a photo which showed that the loco was lined at this point I didn't have the courage to apply any lining so it remained unlined for a couple of years.

 

ianvolvo46 wrote:

You will have me blushing Ian