The Caffeinated Engine Driver

So 11 months on and family life is starting to settle down into some kind of routine, and I'm beginning to find the time to do the odd little bit of modelling here and there. Just to prove that things are indeed happening how about some newly designed parts for one of my ongoing projects....

While writing the previous post I realised that I did have some model, albeit a tiny amount, to show you. If you remember from the last modelling post back in April I'd made a few small steps forward with my model of Tallylyn, including fitting the smokebox door. When I posted I'd just about convinced myself that I could live with the moulded smokebox door handles. Usually these are one of the first things I'd look to replace on a model, but I thought I could live with these, but a few comments on that post made me realise I'd regret not altering them.


So as you can see I've now gently removed the moulded dart, fitted a turned replacement, and resprayed the primer. The new dart looks quite different to the handles currently on Tallylyn but I've based these on old photos from the period I'm modelling the loco. I think this looks a lot better than it did before and I'm glad I didn't do any more work on the model before replacing the dart because it was easy to do without doing any damage; if I'd left it any later through the build process I'd probably have had to respray a top coat of paint which would have been much worse.

Unfortunately that was still the last modelling I've managed and I did this back in the second half of April so I've still no real progress to report.

As predicted back in November I've had very little time for modelling over the last six months. I have, however, managed to grab a few minutes to take two small steps forward on the Tallylyn model. The last time you saw the model on the blog I'd just fitted a lamp bracket to the rear cab sheet. Well I've now also added one to the smokebox, along with the smokebox door.


The smokebox door is a 3D printed replacement from the Narrow Planet detailing kit. The door isn't a perfect match for the time period I'm modelling (the door would have been smaller looking at photos) but it's close enough.


As you can see I've also made a start on painting the model. Only a very basic start though; primer from a rattle can on the separate body pieces. On the plus side this hasn't shown up too many areas that need any work before more painting can take place. So the next decsion is what colour am I painting it. I had wondered about going with a heavily weathered black, but I think I'll go with a heavily weathered dark green (so weathered as to be almost black) instead.

While I've painted numerous models for myself, one of which even did well in a competition, and built a model as a commission, until recently one thing I hadn't done was produce a display model. As I won't be going to ExpoNG this year and I didn't fancy risking any of my completed Hudson-Hunslet models in the post, I decided it would be good to have a display model that people could see on the Narrow Planet stand to entice them into buying a kit.


As a display model it doesn't need to work so it doesn't contain a motor or layshaft etc. This is partly as I built it around a misprinted brass chassis that won't hold the layshaft, as well as some gears on the axles that I damaged during building of the first prototype model. Of course none of that matters when it's simply being viewed on the display stand. So if you haven't had the chance to see one of these Hudson-Hunslet models in the flesh yet, have a day out at ExpoNG and hunt out the Narrow Planet stand for a good look.

As well as being fun to build I also experimented with a new painting technique but that can wait for another post.

With all the pipework now sorted I think I'm down to the last two details I need to finish before I can think about painting; lamp brackets and the smokebox door. The smokebox door will be covered in another post but today I've fabricated the lamp brackets and fitted the rear one.


The original cab moulding had empty lamp brackets at both the botom corners of the rear sheet, and a lamp in the middle just below the windows. I wasn't happy with any of these and so they were all removed quite early on. Having looked at old photos I've settled on a single lamp bracket on the rear of the cab, and as you can see have used a whitemetal casting for the lamp itself (this is actually a 3mm scale casting from 3mm Scale Model Railways). Of course the loco would usualy only carry a single lamp positioned at the front or rear depending on which way it was travelling, so I've made the lamp removable so in theory it can move between the rear and front lamp brackets.


Here you can see the fitted bracket, along with the lamp (modified with a locating loop), and the tool I made to form the brackets. The tool is simply a piece of brass with a slot in it, but it allows you to easily bend a strip of brass for the brackets. Not much to show I know but I think it's a nice feature. I might find I glue the lamp on because it's more hassle than it's worth but for now having the ability to remove it should be a nice touch.

After a lot of hunting through old photos (thanks to everyone who helped me find them all) I finally managed to get enough of an idea about the pipework alongside the dome to produce a passable representation.


It's not perfect but from normal viewing distances I think it will do the job nicely.

My work-life balance seems to be all over the place at the moment, and even when I'm at home modelling has ended up fairly low down the list of priorities, but I did find some time this weekend for a little bit of modelling, including a balance pipe!


Due to the chassis block the pipe had to be made in two pieces that put up against the chassis but once it's all painted I think it will do the job. I also added the small pipe from the saddle tank into the drivers side of the cab. This isn't on the prototype now, but is clear on old, pre-preservation photos. No idea what it does but I thought it was worth adding.

Not sure what detail will be next, although I'm still trying to figure out if there is any pipework across the boiler in front of the dome during the early years of the loco. None of the photos I've found are particularly helpful.

Yesterday I finally managed to clear enough space (by temporarily dumping things elsewhere) to setup the lathe to turn a full set of spectacle plates. If you remember I ran out of brass after making one last time.

Armed with some new brass rod I set everything up and made a start on turning the 6mm rod down to 4.25mm for the outer diameter. My plan was to turn down quite a length of rod so that I could make four or more in sequence ensuring the outer diameter stayed the same. Initially I must have got the tool height wrong because as soon as I tried to take a small cut the tool dug in which tried to lift the front of the crossslide. While a little bit of pressure on the front of the crossslide stopped that happening the surface finish was terrible. So I stopped, made coffee, and then set everything up again. This time it was fine so I carried on.

The sequence was essentially to turn down the rod for the outer diameter, drill the central hole to 3.5mm (I would possibly have preferred this to be a little bigger but I was limited by drill sizes), face off and then turn down the end to 0.75mm to 4mm in diameter. This leaves me with a frame on the end of the bar which I then parted off. At that point I could just repeat the process from the facing off step to cut more frames.

I decided a photo of just four rings wouldn't be very interesting so instead we have a group shot of the main brass bits I've made for this model.


I actually made six parts, even though I only needed four. The first one I parted off badly which distorted it, and one pinged off never to be seen again during parting off leaving me the four I needed. This does mean that my success rate is climbing since I turned the buffers as two thirds of the parts were usable; it might even have been as high as 80% if I'd been able to find the one that got lost.

There will likely be a bit of a pause again as I'm getting ready for a work meeting next week that won't leave me much, if any, free time but then I have some annual leave so hopefully I'll be able to crack on with the final detailing and some painting...... although that would mean I need to settle on a colour scheme. I'm also not sure yet if I'll fit the window frames before painting, and then paint them brass coloured, or polish them up and fit them after painting. Anyone have any thoughts on which would look best? I'm thinking painting them might help me make them look worn and dirty as I don't want an ex-works condition loco.

So far most of the work on making Skarloey look less like a cartoon character and more like the prototype it is based on, has revolved around detailing above and below the footplate. I have, however, been working for some time on the footplate itself. Specifically I've cut it into two pieces!

As you may remember, I've been working towards a model showing Talyllyn not as it is today but as it was in it's earlier pre-preservation life. So far that had meant moving the blower pipe to the drivers side, but I've now made a more drastic change by altering the footplate. Currently the locomotive has a footplate that runs along both sides of the boiler and encloses the tops of the wheels. Originally though there was no such footplate, with just a thin strip on the fireman’s side to give him somewhere to stand when topping up the water tank. To model this I've cut away the plastic footplate and added a thin metal strip which results in this.


It still needs some tidying up and a little filler in places but I think that looks fairly promising. You also notice that I've remove the box (I assume toolboxes although could be a sandbox I suppose) from the front right as again originally there was only one on the front left.

I think the main things left now are the remaining window frames and possibly a replacement chimney, but both require me fully reclaiming my desk again so I can get the lathe out. Hopefully that won't take too much longer.

I hate having to pack away my modelling stuff when people come to stay as I never end up getting the space back quickly. This time it's been over a month since I last had anything to report, and in fact I've still not cleared my workbench. Mostly this is because work has been hectic, but we've also been trying to tidy the house a bit so keeping stuff on my desk has given us more room to work. Anyway, this morning I managed to grab a little time and space to do some more work on turning the model of Skarloey into less of a cartoon character.

As well as the face, the main problem with the model, as it comes, is that the cylinders are seriously over sized compared with the loco on which Skarloey is based. Also, probably as it's marketed as a toy, the crossheads are seriously chunky looking. Fortunately all these problems can be solved with Narrow Planet's new detailing kit. This kit is truly a joint effort containing parts from four different people, which improve the look of different aspects of the model. I won't necessarily be using all the bits in the kit but I've now fitted the new cylinders, slidebars, connecting rods, coupling rods, and crossheads.


It's once you get the original cylinders off the model when it becomes obvious just how big they are, or how small the replacements are in comparison. The new cylinders just slide onto the chassis, but the slidebar brackets and crossheads need soldering together before they can be fitted. Fortunately the etch design makes this really easy as you just align the outer frames using some cocktail sticks and then let solder wick between the layers. One thing you have to be careful with is that originally the brackets for the slidebars were plastic so it's important to make sure the metal replacements don't cause a short; hence why I've painted them and nothing else.


Fitting all the parts is very straight forward and the model is soon back running again. I made slightly more work for myself as in stripping the model right down (something you don't need to do if you are just fitting the detailing kit), I managed to have almost all the motor wires come loose -- the original soldering to the small board was shockingly bad. Anyway now I have the new cylinders and slidebar brackets in place I can start to build the rest of the bodywork back up.

One of the things that now often puts me off buying ready to run models is the inclusion of moulded details. While I understand that fitting details by hand to a model would raise the price above what was economically viable, I think they nearly always ruin the look of what may otherwise be a fine model. On Skarloey there are lots of moulded details; in fact I don't think there is a single detail which isn't moulded. Given I don't have to worry about damaging the paint finish etc. I've decided to really go to town and replace many if not all of the moulded details.

So far I've removed the following details from the model; rear lamp, rear lamp brackets, blower pipe, cab handrails, drivers side boiler handrail, the number plate on the cab rear, and a small disc like feature from the cab rear the function of which I'm at a loss to explain.


Of those details so far I've only replaced the blower pipe and cab handrails but already I think that dramatically improves the model. Interestingly I didn't just have to replace the blower pipe but I've moved it from the firemans side (where it is currently on the prototype) to the drivers side where it was pre-preservation. This also raises the issue of which of the other details I need to add back. For example, the only old photo I've found showing the rear of the cab doesn't show any lamp brackets or a number plate, although a drawing I have shows one lamp bracket rather than the three currently fitted. I'll keep looking for more photos before I make any decisions but if anyone knows when the extra brackets etc. were added or any other info about such small details it would be great if you could leave a comment.

The feedback on my first attempt at turning a buffer suggested that the problems with the surface finish were related to the speed at which they were being made. Specifically that I was probably turning the lead screw too quickly, but also that I might need to run the lathe faster than the 1500rpm I was using. I've now had another go using a faster lathe speed of 2450rpm while turning the lead screw much more slowly. This reduced the problem considerably although I notieced that the grooving was still present but was only happening when reversing the lead screw so was solvable by backing off the crossslide after taking the last cut to set a specific diameter. After a few false starts, mostly related to me not being able to count, I've now produced four almost identical buffers that I'm more than happy with.


In total I've turned 10 buffers giving me a success rate of just 40% but for my first lathe based project I don't think that's too bad at all. One thing I did learn is that I really want some resettable handwheels. In the end I resorted to facing off the brass bar until the dial read 0 so that it was easy to count out the other measurements along the bar. I also know I really want a collet chuck for holding small items as doing the final work with the buffer held in the 3 jaw chuck by the locating pin was fraught with problems and in one case I ended up with it clamped out of centre somehow which ruined the buffer when I added an off centre notch around the front face.

Anyway, I'm really happy with how these have turned out and in retrospect I'm actually quite impressed that the success rate is as high as 40%, I thought I'd go through a lot more brass than that before producing four usable buffers!

Today I've spent a little time adding two more details to the cab interior, specifically that big wheel (I'm assuming it's the brake), and the pipework that runs across and down the sides of the backhead. Unfortunately I didn't have any spare wheels of the right type or size so I had to knock one up from some brass wire. The pipework was at least nice and easy as I did have some small etched handwheels (on the same sheet from RT Models as the reversing lever) and the rest was just wire.


Again not necessarily an accurate rendition but they will do the job nicely. I may need to add a few more details but these will be fixed inside the upper plastic part of the cab so I think this finishes the backhead parts attached to the body casting.

So having added the firebox door yesterday, today I added the regulator handle and the two gauge glasses. In the process I managed to remove the firebox door and the boiler wrapper, so the entire backhead has now been rebuilt.


It's not quite as neat as it was before and the lesson is that I need to buy some low melt solder for adding details without unsoldering the main parts. While it may not be pretty I'm still happy with it as it is still performing the job I'm building it for... to give an impression of a cab interior when glimpsed through the door.


I don't know about you but I think that does the job adequately enough.

So having fitted a very basic cab interior to the main body casting of Skorloey (which I really should start referring to as TR No.1) I've made a start on adding some more details to the boiler backhead. The first item to be added was the firebox door, and it's probably going to take me longer to write this post than it did to make the thing.


I made a very basic template on the computer to give me the right sized oval with two pieces of strapping. This was printed out, stuck to a sheet of 0.12mm brass and then cut out and filed to shape. The point of a small round file was then used to gently punch some rivets into the strapping. The only other item required was a bit of 0.45mm brass wire to act as the hinge. Assembly then simply involved smearing some solder paste on the rear of the strapping and then folding the strapping around the wire and over the door. A quick touch from a soldering iron and everything was fixed solid and could be tided up.


The finished door then had some more solder paste smeared on the back, it was positioned on the backhead and another brief use of the soldering iron fixed it in place. A quick clean up with a file and fibreglass pen and the job was done. As with the rest of the cab details it might not hold up well under close scrutiny but when glimpsed through the door of the cab past he legs of the driver or fireman it should give the right impression.

Having removed the coal from the top of the drivers side bunker I decided I'd continue working on the main body casting by doing something about the inside of the cab. On the unaltered "toy" the cab contains a full height plate with no details at all. I'm guessing this was added to give extra strength to the plastic cab but not only does it look wrong when you look through the cab doors but you can't even look through the windows. Removing the top half of the plate was the first thing I did to the casting, even before I took photos of the parts or stripped them of paint. Originally i thought that was all I would do but having thought about it some more I decided to go further and hack out more of the plate so I could fit some details within the cab.

For an idea of what I aiming for here is a useful photo of the prototype without it's cab allowing a good view of the boiler backhead.


The first stage was to cut away more of the vertical plate to allow space either side of the boiler for the coal bunker door and the reversing lever on either side. As I found before the casting is actually quite solid so this took some time. On both sides I cut two vertical slots with a razor saw and then used pliers to snap the piece of the casting away, before tidying up (to a certain extent) with small files.


With space on either side of the boiler I then set about making pieces to fill the gaps. Working with 0.12mm brass sheet I made two parts that fitted nicely either side. These parts were then detailed. On the left side I added a representation of a door into the coal bunker, while on the right I added a reversing lever. The reversing lever was made by cutting down on on an etch of detailing parts from RT Models and making up the base from more brass sheet. The two parts were then glued onto the casting (I did try soldering but the casting just soaks up the heat and I didn't fancy using the blowtorch on the small details).


The next stage was the boiler backhead itself. It ook me four attempts to get something I was happy with. My first couple of attempts involved trying to cut out the right shape and then gluing bits of styrene to the back to hold it in the right place over the casting and then filing the styrene to give the round shape of the boiler. After what seemed like hours with no end in sight I gave up. The next couple, including the final result, were made by roughly rolling a piece of brass sheet to the right diameter, soldering that to a flat sheet and then cutting and filling to give something that would slot over the casting.


Getting the initial shape right was actually quite easy, and then it was just a case of filing and testing it on the casting over and over until I was happy with the result.


It's not a perfect representation of the real thing but once the cab is in place I think even in it's current state it will do the job of providing some detail to glimpse through the door. I am, however, not yet finished as I'm intending to add some of the pipework, a firebox door and that large wheel is a must.

So here we are, the last post on the build of this the third Clayton prototype (the second never got made up but allowed me to test the keeper plate). The driver is now in place which means the whole loco now weighs in at 34g. Possibly a little light for an O14 loco but there isn't much space to add extra weight.


Obviously it's not entirely finished as it needs painting and the name and works plates fitting but these will be left to David as my painting skills aren't up to producing a loco that would fit in well with the quality of Rhyd. It seems strange packing it up to send it off to it's new home as I've never built a model for anyone else before. Hopefully David will enjoy it and if you see Rhyd at an exhibition you might even see the Clayton working the quarry tramway. For everyone else here is one final video of the loco in action.

One of the first comments I received when I announced I was working on a model of the Clayton was that the light mouldings really were crying out to be fitted with working lights, and who am I to refuse such a sensible suggestion. The problem is that while the mouldings are big in relation to the size of the model they still aren't very large. Fortunately LEDs are available that will fit but they are very very small.

The smallest surface mount components I've used before are the resistors in the Hudson-Hunslet, which come in a 1206 package. They are known as 1206 as that is the imperial measurements of the component, i.e. 0.126" by 0.063" or in metric just 3.2mm by 1.6mm. For the lights on this loco I've had to go for LEDs in a 0402 package which is 0.039" by 0.020" or an eye wateringly small 1.0mm by 0.5mm. Given that those dimensions are for the entire LED you can probably imagine just how small the two contacts are that you need to solder wires to. My eyesight for close work might be quite good and I have a brilliant magnifying lamp on my desk but I don't think I would have the patience or dexterity to wire these up. Fortunately you can buy them pre-wired on eBay! This helps but the wire itself (referred to as magnet wire) is also ridiculously thin so it's still a fun challenge wiring these up.

Of course there isn't just the LEDs to wire in, but a resistor to protect them from the full track voltage (2.2K Ohm in this case) and a capacitor to help reduce flickering all of which need to be connected together and then stuffed into the small space behind the motor.


As you can see there is quite a bit of stuff, even if some of those wires were trimmed back before I finished) to get into the body so there was a fair amount of careful stuffing involved. Once the body was on the result though is this.


I could probably have used a slightly bigger resistor to drop the brightness a little further but for a loco that originally worked in a long dark tunnel this seems okay, and a bigger value capacitor might have reduced the flickering a little further, but in general I'm really happy with the result.

After a break of afew days due to visiting family I'm now back to building the Clayton loco and fortunately, given the little time remaining to post it on Monday, things seem to be going quite well, although the carpet monster did eat the small pulley although it then spat back two 1.5mm bearings! Anyway here is the current state of play.


The main job today is to fit and wire up the lights, and then I can add the final body details. Then tomorrow I need to finish the driver figure and to give the whole thing another good test run.

One of the parts I had to redesign from the second prototype of the Clayton was the stainless keeper plate. If you remember I'd managed to design it 0.2mm too wide and reducing the width by hand was a nightmare due to the strength of the stainless steel. So I altered the design to remove 0.1mm on both sides, and opened out the screw holes slightly for an easier fit. The larger holes meant a change to the rebate for the head of the screw as well.


As you can see the changes worked well and everything fits together nicely. The two bolts are lightly glued into place just to make sure they don't come loose, and while the layshaft is now fixed in place (the two worms are fixed to the layshaft with Loctite which holds everything firmly in place) everything else is removable just by undoing the two retaining screws. Next job will be to strip it down again, and fit the pickups and associated electrical bits so that I can get it running up and down my test track.