Yorkie's Connoisseur 4F build

Resurrecting this build thread showing the pick up arrangement I employed on my 4F build ... hope this helps Paul and Toto... this picture shows the leading driving wheelset with pick ups located in the forward frame bulkhead.

 

Keeping these posts as separate items to help with locating descriptions if needed. Strictly speaking there is no real need to fit pick ups on the centre driving wheels as these are designed to not make contact with the rails, however I fitted pick ups on them and also the rear wheelset as seen in the picture. There is enough room here to avoid interference with the motor and gear assembly... Pick ups were also fitted to the tender front and rear wheels.

 

Now here is where I did a bit of detailing and scratch making on the sandpipe assemblies, the pipes have a support bracket which was made from thin scrap etches from the kit and twisted into shape, one end was drilled to take the sandpipe and I added some micro tube against the bracket to represent the sand blower valve, some 0.035mm wire as also fitted to represent the steam blower supply. The other end of the sandpipe bracket was tucked inside the frame and soldered in place.Having worked on 44422 years ago this was a feature I wanted to capture but in reality is not so visible on the model.

 

As we can see these tiny sandpipe details are not strictly speaking absolutely necessary but they do make a nice touch, also it is not entirely obvious to see that the centre driving wheels are lifted about 0.5mm off the rails. If I did another 4F build I would certainly think about making the centre driving wheels contact the rails by either a sprung wire or a set of hornblocks.

Incidentally when it comes to painting all unlined black freight locos had white cabside transfers and not cream which was used on black mixed traffic lined livery and also Loco Green livery on passenger designated locos. The correct size white Gill sans numbers are available from Fox.