York Paul's Britannia loco 2020 Shelf Queen competition entry.

Actually my apologies for a lack of progress pictures as promised... I've just come in from the workshop at silly o'clock. Pictures tomorrow but basically the whole body is complete bar for a lamination etch that covers some pipework along the boiler which I'll put on tomorrow. Everything is square and the body sits well on the chassis, lost wax castings to dress the body are next to fit... hopefully do some of them tomorrow too and then it will be time to build up the chassis.

 

And here are the very last two etch items to be fitted to the body and once these are on in a few minutes I can start the plumbing and fitting of castings... this is a pipe cover and consists of quite a few small components making up this assembly, it took about two hours to put together along with the other side step which fits onto the firebox. The diagram shows how the assembly is constructed.

 

Burning some midnight oil yesterday evening I made a concerted effort to round the bodywork up to a point where all that was left to do were add castings and the handrails along with the plumbing, so using some offcut boiler band I knocked up a couple of band cleats for the top of the firebox.

 

This afternoon the loco was given an identity... Severn Mill Nameplates... and for some reason the nickel silver etch of the number won't solder into place, it must have some sort of protective coating covering the metal so I used cyano.

 

I thought the smoke deflectors might cause some grief soldering them into place at the correct pitch but I was mildly surprised all went very well... just a couple of low brackets near the smokebox which were difficult to get the iron onto... in the end they succumbed and are nice and solid now.

 

The side view and looking quite majestic already.

 

And looking up from the river bridge... I'd forgotten to put the draft curtain back on for this posse.

 

Now the overhead view.

 

Another posing bridge shot... quite like this angle. The long pipe cover on the boiler firebox was the last item I put together today, for such a simple thing it needed sixteen pieces to make the assembly and it still has to have the castings added yet..

 

Thanks Pete... I'm highly tempted to move onto the chassis next but I really want to finish the body with castings and then I can prime it.

 

Finally the view from the other side, thanks everyone for liking and the comments I do hope you have enjoyed following this weeks progress... I'm highly drawn to wanting to do a rebuilt Merchant Navy at some point now I can see light at the end of this Pacific tunnel.

More progress stuff with pics next week folks.

 

First chance I've had to get back in the workshop for the last few days due to other commitments, anyway I made a start on the plumbing. The fountain head sits on top of the firebox and various water feed pipes run through it. The first job was to drill the casting to take the pipe fixings, large pipes are 1.6mm the smaller one is 0.7mm and the tiny pipe I drilled 0.5mm to accept a 0.45 mm wire, next job is to bend the pipes over the firebox sides and onto various other small castings.

 

And from the other side, I felt it better to first fix the pipework then dry fit the fountain block into the firebox to form the rest of the pipes... onwards and upwards more tomorrow. Thanks for following progress.

 

I wanted to show folks here a little tip when working with brass that I happened upon by chance, last night I formed some plumbing routes from the fountain casting and today I too was not happy with the result when offering it to the engine... the bend on one of the pipes was just way wrong and almost overhung the firebox side, only one solution do it again. So because the first 90 degree rigt angle bend is so close to the fountain casting it was difficult to form properly, working with a fresh piece of wire a new bend was formed and the excess cut off to the correct bend point, now here's the trick, this wire is 1.6mm in width and needs to fit to the fountain connection which is also the same size, hmmm might have a problem now in drilling down the wire to insert a thin connector. Ok so I set the wire up for drilling on my Proxxon TDM220 drill combination table and started drilling, I only needed to go down about 2mm but suddenly I burst through the angle on the pipe. Well what a happy accident because I could now insert a 0.7mm wire all the way through the bend and into the fountain AND hold everything steady for soldering, in effect we have formed a fixing nail the short stub of which can now be filed flush to the pipe. The joint I'm talking about is the one which doubles back on itself on the right hand side.

 

So we can see how the fountain pipework will work when located over the firebox, I can form the pipes down the firebox sides once I have drilled a location hole for the fountain to fix too, before that can happen though I need to locate the regulator rod in place as the pipes have to have a joggle made in them for the regulator rod to pass under.

I'll crack on and get that done today... more pictures latter.

 

Thanks Toto comments muchly appreciated... I haven't put the time in this week as I'd have hoped but ah well I've done a bit more this afternoon... pictures in a minute.

 

Well I cracked on this afternoon whilst the heavens opened up so I had to carry on as it became impossible to get to the house without getting drenched, anyway I formed all the large pipes to shape; a not so easy as it looks job but eventually after several attempts I managed to get the bends looking as near correct as I was able to make. Here is the first side done with handrails and reverser rod in place.

 

And the other side formed up with pipework soldered onto the Tee valve castings and then it hit me in the face.... oh drat... somehow in the early stages of this build a couple years ago now when forming the firebox wrapper I'd managed to solder the washout plug pieces onto the wrapper face instead of behind, the result is I have a lovely decorative ring around the plug instead of the sunken look behind the cladding. Well its way too late in the day to sort this now as I'd literally have to dismantle the far majority of the body in order to get access by removing the thin firebox wrapper... oh well never mind I know for next time when it comes to doing a 9F.