Stanier 2-6-4 tank

The other week an unexpected email from David Andrews saying that a kit I'd made an expression of interest in was now available, to be honest I'd completely forgotten all about it so with money winging its way to him the kit arrived a few days ago. The kit in question is a Stanier 2-6-4 tank and is probably the last loco kit to be re issued by David as he is shutting up shop and retiring, even so the Stanier tank was very common on the Churnet Valley serivice and some were shedded at Macclesfield and Stoke with a couple kept at Uttoxeter. This loco will run with the LMS three car set I'm also building, here is what came in the box.

The etch brass etch frames.




The nickel silver chassis and motion etches.




Lost wax and white metal castings with rolled boiler barrel. I might swap some of these castings out for different ones ... thinking more about the oil lubricators because I have a pair of Floyd Krammer 3D printed 10 feed Silvertown ones spare in the bits box.




Finally the instructions... this kit is very similar in design and shape to the Fowler 2-6-4 tank I built last year. More when this build happens.

 

Oh dear sorry to learn about the unwanted accident damage... is this the BR Standard class 4 tank from MOK?
I built the David Andrews Fowler 2-6-4 tank last year in conjuction with Jon Fitness who was building the Signature Models version at the same time. It would seem both the Stanier and Fowler 2-6-4 tanks share some same etch items.

 

Oh dear I don't seem to have put many pictures of this build on this thread... they must have been uploaded onto another thread I cannot find, anyway apart from this one being a shelf queen for some while it has now come to the top of the list. The first job was to complete building up the backhead with fittings of a reasonable quality and some "lookalike" additions which with luck will pass muster inside an enclosed cab. I don't have an actual drawing for the Stanier 2-6-4 tank cab layout only drawings for Black 5's and 8F locos which I used as a general guide, however the boiler I understand was a modification of the Midland Compound boler used to develop the taper boiler, sadly I don't have the LMS Locomotive Profiles book for that class in my library so this effort is my best shot of building this backhead.



Just as a recap this is the build so far... apologies as this picture appears in another thread ... let the completion begin.

 

That is a good idea Jim, detail the loco with a soul... on other previous builds I have scratch made firing irons and shovels... adding stuff like that really makes a difference. Add a crew and lamp detailing too... all in good time, well soonish I mean.

 

So today I spent a few hours painting the backhead with dry brush techniques and wet washes to give a basic effect of a well used eorking locomotive once the black primer had gone off, I'm not much for pristene clean models which look a tad plastic... well to me they do and no offence to the RTR chaps intended. The concern I had when building the loco body was that the tank ends inside the cab are wider when continuing the actual widths outside onto the running plate, this set up an issue because it meant the backhead would have to be trimmed in width at its base to fit between the tank sides and that would in turn restrict how the plumbing was routed. Now if I reworked the tank ends inside the cab reducing the width, where the reverser and seats are; then that would in turn decrease the space needed for driving wheel clearances and set up potential electrical shorting problems... I guess this was the compromise to be had when the model was designed originally. I opted to reduce the backhead width at its base as I just cannot be bothering with models that start to throw up electrical problems later on, that was the trade off as I felt that once the cab roof was fitted these critical things would be less obvious on the eye. The backhead casting is good but there are errors ... the shelf is too high up on the backhead as Stanier boilers had the shelf sit just over the firehole door rebates. If the shelf had been fitted in its correct position then I would have been able to fit sanding valve regulator and pipework ... the sanding alve cast is not supplied and would have needed to be scratch made, anyway not having a drawing to proof I shall let this go. The gauge dial faces will be fitting next and these are from Paul Bambrick which I have several sheets in stock.

Next few jobs will focus back on the body ... most likely the fitting of the cab roof which will need some local surgury me thinks.

 

Thank you Rob for the upload, I do muchly appreciated however the 2P backhead is nothing like the Stanier 2-6-4 backhead as its got a steam manifold and the regulator position is different. My big concern was attempting to get the plumbing into something reasonably in order (taking into account the discrepencies in the white metal casting which did initially throw me off. In the end I thought the position of backhead fitting coudn't be much different from a Black 5 so I went with the diagrams in the Jenkinson Essery books. Unfortunately I was unable to find room to fit sanding valve apperatus and associate pipework in the near correct place because of the incorrect placement of the backhead tray. I think however I shall be all right when it comes to fitting out the 8F backhead and also the Princess Coronation as I have plenty of diagram info to go on.

 

This may be a useful tip I thought I'd share for those building a tank engine who want a tight fitting removable roof... RTR plastic ones excepted . Obviously as the thread says this is a now discontinued David Andrews (later reintroduced) kit as he has now wound his kit designing business down. Anyhow this kit comes with a one piece half etched cab roof which when curved to shape to fit in place has a 1mm overhang on each side which makes the model look wrong, I dealt with this over size in the following manner... something I learnt about from Tony Geary aka The Derby Line, so its not actually my idea.

I laid the half etch cab roof flat down and scored a straight line along the inner edge of the rain strip using a metal rule and blade until the etch parted, I ran a file along the rain strip edge of the removed piece to atain a nice flat face edge.




Then repeat on the other side ensuring the cab centre piece has the vent apperture facing forwards towards the firebox.





I tack soldered the first piece into place ensuring that it aligned with the cab entrance beading with just a tiny overhang of 0.5mm along the cab side, this took a couple of attempts to reposition the piece correctly and that is the beauty of tack soldering as re heating allowed the solder to give sufficiently for me to adjust the fix until I was happy.





The piece looks like this from the outside and twists and curves of the half etch will be sorted later on.





Now the other side was tack soldered into position using the same method of fixing with two (forward and rear) solder points. Again lets not worry about any twist occuring the main thing to ensure is both sides align and are set the same over the front cab spectacle plate. this will ensure that when the centre cab roof piece is located there will be a continuous edge front and back.





Now to test fit the centre piece in place, the centre piece is tucked under the rain strips with just a slight nip and is held in position by the spring in the etch curved shape. This proves will be square all round and more importantly will look right when finished.





So now the two roof edge pieces can be seam soldered up, I made sure not to allow solder to creap right up to the rain strip as I need to get the centre piece to tuck under each side so allowed about 2mm unsoldered front and back for this to happen. Any twist in the edges can be corrected now.





Now I refitted the cab roof centre piece and then formed the sliding roof vent hatch covers to the curve profile, removing the centre piece and then soldering the vent covers in place, I do like to make it look like Summer so the covers were fitted in an open position... it also allows for a view inside the cab as well.





Now here comes the party piece ... to prevent embarrassment if the cab roof centre springs off when the engine is running in public I soldered short pieces of 0.5mm wire at 90 degrees on each side edge of the roof, this just allows a little more grip in holding down the centre roof. This does not affect fitting this half etch piece as there is good spring in it to slip under the rain strips forming a tight and neat fit.





I'll clean the excess solder up in the morning as its now gone cold in the studio but for at last the cab area is complete. All outstanding plumbing jobs and fitting front fallplate steps will happen tomorrow along with fitting drawbars,

 

Purely because there isn't any fitted at the front... I did consider making lockable hatch lids which slid open and shut on rebated runners fitted to the roof profile and making tiny locks to keep the lids closed but discarded the concept as my fingers wouldn't go inside the cab without breaking the minute gauge glass taps. However on the Leek station model I did manage to make and fit flush pull chains to the Victorian lavatory cisterns Andy.

 

Thank you Mr S for your very kind comment...however the 3D cisterns you printed for this project couldn't flush properly as I think the fall pipe was too thin.

 

Anyway back to more serious stuff ... not that Mr S's stuff isn't serious but one of the reasons for my slowed down turn over of making models is down to this four legged chap... he thinks he is a studio assistant but much of what we have to do involves walking down lanes and stopping to watch sheep in the Pastures. This is Roland who is eight months old and weighs in at 28 .8kg... I think I might have to set up a go fund me to cover the cost of his kibble.

 

So back to the 2-6-4tank build progress and all bar the oil lubricators need fitting now, these are 16 feed Silvertown lubricators from Floyd Krammer, I am just forming the pipe shapes and will fit this afternoon. Anyway all the main plumbing is now complete, this is pipework from the live steam injectors are located behind the cab steps. I had to work from photos to study the detail as there are no drawings for this class of engine I could find... visually it looks in order.




And from the other side, once the lubricators are fitted the body can have a good clean scrub up and go into grey primer. Next attention turns to completing the motion and fitting motor with wiring, then this loco can be called done.

 

Thank you Walking the Dog... he is a big boy and is learning fast on retrieve and place board training. Although he is gun dog pedigree we just love him as a family pet and didn't get him to be a working dog.

 

Just to recap as to where all these build projects are going this photo taken by Trevor Birch in 1963 will say it all. This picture shows Stoke allocated Class 4 tank number 42454 with three LMS non corridor suburbans departing from the Up platform at Leek with a morning workman's train bound for Uttoxeter. The aim of the "bigger picture" project is to recreate this scene in model form, I have the three coaches as work in progress kits from Malcolm Binns at Sidelines Kits and of course Andy and I are working on Leek station build as time permits, right now its down to canopy builds and the roof profiles to make then a detail weathering paint job. So yes it is a huge project and it will all come together in time.