Backwoods Miniatures 0-4-0+0-4-0 Garratt

 

Spotting that James Hilton has been working on a Backwoods Miniature industrial Garratt kit prompted me to dig out my model for a couple of photos. 

Despite the age of the model, I don't think I did to bad a job with it. This isn't the easiest kit to build, but that's mostly to do with the prototype. The only niggle I remember (it was a long time ago) was squeezing the motors into the thick brass boxes that form the tanks either end before being wrapped in thnner, half-etched brass. 

I made holes to correspond with the ends of the spinning bit of the motor. Only 1mm gained, but just enough for really free running. 

The valve gear looks fearsome, but because it's all etched in thick nickel silver, there's no pesky laminations to do. I riveted it all together and the last side took about 20 minutes.

Given some juice from a 9V battery, the model still runs, although only backwards. I remember this being an issue, one end is a bit lazy and years of standing around haven't helped. Given the need, I''m sure I could have it back and working. We used to shunt with it on Melbridge Dock!

Garratt arrives!

Yet another locomotive I never expected to see in RTR form is now in my possession - the famous (and infamous) Beyer-Garratt commissioned by Hattons and manufactured by Heljan.

Many years ago I talked to the original David of Dapol (as opposed to Dapol Dave who is a completely different person) and he explained that despite promising to make one, after tooling up for the chassis at a cost of £100,000, commerically it hadn't made sense to move on to the body as the final price would have been over £100 per loco. Back in the early 1990s, this was a massive amount that no modeller would contemplate. Except me. I'd have paid it like a shot.

Which is why I forked out twice that for the loco you see above. I've seen a pre-production model in green plastic (it was broken) and an earlier version in LMS colours (it was broken) but I knew I needed to own one.

My choice was the rotating bunker version in clean BR colours. I have the K's kit for this loco but I was never happy with the chunky bunker they produced always planned to build mine with the (IMHO) more attractive standard bunker. I still will one day. Heljan have done a better job with their plastic version and it looks pretty good to me. As for weathering, I'll dirty it myself than you.

Some people have had problems with their models. Hitting the price point has (IMHO again) been at the cost of some niggles and fragile parts. I'd have been happy to pay and extra 50 quid and seen these resolved but then the Interweb would probably be full of moaning modellers if that had happened. Oh. Hold on...

First up, I unpacked the model and gave it a done of 1960s H&M power. Straight from the box running is excellent. All the waggly bits waggle and the loco moves with plenty of apparent weight. Someone has engineered that bit well as it trundles far more like a real loco than a model.

Niggles? Of course there are a few but nothing I can't fix:

What is this screw and why can I see it? Is there a filler cap missing or something? (Update: Yes there is. It had fallen out as was in the packaging)



The pony brakes hang in mid-air rather limply. At the very least they need to be brought closer to the wheel, possibly by replacing the plastic hangers with wire. First though, I'll check they were present on the real loco as I think some were removed.

The coupling chain. What on earth is going on here? 5 tiny links? Someone was told to add chain and no-one thought to explain what it looked like. Those steps look a bit random too.

Apart from this, at the moment I'm very happy. I have a great big chuff-chuff that runs well and looks great all for less than a kit of the same thing would be. I don't buy much RTR as my tastes tend toward things available in kit form, but this is a great addition to the cabinet and eventually will make a fantastic shunter on the layout!

Gauge 1 Garratt seen in the wild

For many years, I've been suggesting to Trevor at Mercian Models that he ought to produce his rather nice industrial Garratt kit, currently available in O gauge, for Gauge 1 modellers. I've always thought that it's a good little big engine and would probably appeal to those in the larger scale.

The idea appealed to him but you can't just blow the etch up, someone has to master all the cast lumps too.

A few months ago, he mentioned that Dave from Cromford models have offered to do this job and so the project looked like it was on.

Last weekend, I saw the first results. Dave was sitting in the basement of St Albans exhibition. I greeted him with, "How's the gauge 1 Garratt coming on?" to which he responded by handing me construction shown in the photo. A real live bit of the model!

At the moment, the model is just etched bits but it looks like progress is seriously being made. This means even more saving up for me as I'll be wanting one of these to add to my collection of unbuilt kits in the future...

Models from the cupboard: Industrial Garratt

Another loco from the stockbox and a pair of cracking Nevard shots which is all the excuse I need to feature the Garratt again. At least the colliery is an appropriate setting for the industrial locomotive which ran at Baddesley Clinton coal mine. The biggest surprise was that so few people had seen it before - one visitor quizzed me for a while about the prototype.

As far as the model, another thing that people are asking about, it's a Backwoods Miniatures etched brass kit that I built many years ago when in a fit of wealth. Since then regular readers will know that I've produced the same prototype in 7mm scale a couple of times from the Mercian Models kit. In 4mm, the kit is an easier build than you might expect. All the waggly bits are etched the correct thickness so there's no tiresome laminating. Assembled with valve gear rivets and you can do a side every 20 minutes!

 



My loco might be famous soon - I'm sure that's Ivo Peters Bentley on the bridge!

Garratt Pivots

David asks:

I’ve just been reading your piece dated 10 October 2008 on Garratt Pivots and I have some questions:
1. Do the pivots take the whole weight of the boiler unit;

Yes they do. It's nopt that heavy to be honest, I try to get most of the weight in the engine units.

2. Does the boiler unit “balance” on these pivots alone or are there other secondary bearing surfaces or restraints ;

The female pivot is a top hat bearing so provides a modest extra bearing surface. The streatcher that the male half is fitted to sits on this.

3. Does the bearing itself accommodate the relative motion of the bogies on poor track work and if so how much tolerance do you allow, (eg front bogie on a slope, rear bogie still on the level or front bogie canted over with rear bogie still level).

Nothing sophisticated I'm afrid. There is a bit of slop in the bearing and that seems to be enough to accomodate track irregularities. If the track is very bad then this might not work.

I’m thinking about making a model but I want to be clear about the pivots and anticipate potential problems.

Good luck. I suspect you are over-thinking the problem. On a model, these parts don't need to be very sophisticated at all.

Waggly bits question

Richard asks: Glancing through your pages I spotted a photo of a Backwoods Vivian Garratt (4MM) you built for your layout, did you have any problems with the build and clearance around the valve gear and wheels, I’ve found the instructions in some area’s a little vague, any input on this would be helpful

It was a long while ago I built my Garratt but I don't recall any particular problems with clearance. The main thing I did was to rivet the parts together which reduces the sideways slop considerably. The first corner took forever but with practice the last one was done in about 20 minutes !

The other trick, is where the valve gear links to the cross-head, you can't (or I couldn't anyway) use a rivet. A brass pin has to be soldered in. Place a bit of tin foil from the kitchen between the crosshead and connecting link and push the pin through. This should allow you to solder without the solder gumming everything up solid. It works most of the time for me but do practise using some scrap metal first.

Hope this helps.

Now you've made them, it's time to use them...

Happy days. I've stuck rivet strips all over the tank end of the Garratt locomotive. I did my best to follow the photo and the results don't look half bad.

The whitemetal vent stands have, for the first time I've built one of these kits, been put in place. They were topped by more plastic and then the vents. Around the sides are strips of lumps and up the fronts of the stands. At the back - well I don't have a photo and there isn't a corresponding line of rivets on the outside of the tank, so I left them off.

The pipe is simply a bit of wire bent up and terminates in a washer. The straps holding it in place are strips of paper. I tried to use microstrip but the plastic isn't flexible enough to bend around the rod. With a good soaking of superglue I think they will look OK.

Finally, the lifting lugs are made from left over etch. Measurements are done by eye but 3mm for the raise part and the same for the flat bit looks pretty close to me.

Lines of rivets

Here's how you get nice straight lines of rivets - use all the bits of the press. That means the cross-slide which has only been out of the box a couple of times since I bought the thing. I mean I always planned to do some scratchbuilding but never quite got around to it. And I know this tool is a bit over engineered for punching out the half etched marks in kits, but then it is loverly to use for the job.

Anyway, the plastic was clamped in the slide, exposing the one failing of this machine - namely the clamping system only works with quite wide bits of material. If you want a thin strip you'll have to rivet it first and then cut it back. Either that or follow Pete Kazers example and make a clamp that fits in the clamp to hold your metal a lot closer to the press and anvil.

The slide advances 1mm for every turn of the graduated handle so that's the spacing I used. You couldn't get any closer really in plastic without the deformed areas overlapping. One you get the hang of it the jobs pretty quick too. I haven't counted how many rivets I made but there will be well over the hundred and every one in place to withing 0.05mm. I don't get any more accurate than that !

Of course you might be wondering why I'm bothering. Slaters do some riveted plasticard and I could just use that. Well, I do have some but (IMHO) it's not as good as my home brewed version. The embossing tool Slaters use is quite small so the result is lots of squares of bumps that don't line up. If I want I could make a strip as long as the bit of plastic.

My bumps look better than theirs anyway. So there.

Riveting plastic

Adding the rivets tot he Garratt bunker seems, to me, to be a job easier carried out in plasticard than metal. I could cut little bits of brass shim , rivet them and fit in place but I think some of the blending around corners will be easier if I have a solvent to hand to smooth things out. Putting bumps in thin strips only results in mangled metal and bad language anyway.

So, all I need is to form rivets in the plastic. In theory this is possible using my rivet tool so I stick various thicknesses under and have a go. The 0.7mm stuff forms nice little domes with only a touch of adjustment to "bompiness" of the tool. Sadly it's far too thick for the thin sheet I need to represent.

0.4mm seems best but it's a lot more fragile. To be honest this sheet feels a bit brittle and has probably been kicking around for a few years. Tool adjustment is a lot more critical as it's very easy to punch through the thin material. Ideally I'd alter the punch to be less pointed but I don't have an spares, or the ability to make one with a perfectly centred point.

Anyway, now I think I have to find a way to make long thin strips of rivets to go around the bunker edge. If I manage this then the bunker detailing will be easy. Probably.

Inside the bunker of a Garratt

Loitering around after the show at MOSI a week ago and wearing an "Exhibitor" badge prominently, I spent a lot of time crawling all over the "William Francis" Garratt locomotive taking lots and lots of pictures. Not exactly holiday snaps but very useful for working out the details.

Thanks the helpful staff, I was even allowed to nip up on the footplate and see just how small the inside of the cab was. It seems ironic that Beyer-Peacock seemed to bless the locos with automatic stoking devices with ballrooms at the firey end, yet when the fireman would be shovelling, he was cooped up in a cubicle. I doubt I'd have shifted much coal before bruising my arms and legs as well as those of the driver through inept use of the shovel.

Anyway, from the cab I could see into the coal bunker. This has always been mystery to me as there aren't any pictures of this area and if there were, most of the detail would be covered up by coal. My modelling efforts have been best guesses with lots of black Welsh gold to hide the errors.

No more though. As you can see, the vents are supported on substantial boxes. There are actually parts for these in the kit but no-one has ever known what they are except the pattern maker and I don't even know who he was. Now I know, I can fit them and the vents in the proper place. Sadly this means I can also see I need to fit an awful lot of riveted material too. And an interesting looking pipe. And the lifting lugs hiding behind the box. Then try not to cover it all with coal.

Still, it's nice to have a challenge isn't it ?

The only Beyer-Garratt built in Manchester this year

Well, the only Garratt built in the Manchester Museum of Science & Industry this year during the "Great Garratt Gathering" anyway.

For some people, three days demonstrating model building means three precious days modelling time. That is, IMHO, the wrong attitude. Far better to say that if you get anything made at all then you haven't been talking to the public enough.

Well, this weekend I think I managed to get the mix about right. On Friday the frames for the front engine unit went together. Plenty of time spent checking resulted in decent alignment of the parts as far as I can tell. You need to be careful as it's easy to find just over a millimetre of error thanks to a bit of slop in the parts that slot together.

Saturday there was lots of riveting - which seemed to interest people a lot. I could have done with a couple of GW Models riveting presses for sale I think as no one seemed to think the cost too horrific once I'd explained my reasoning behind the purchase. After making metal dimples, I assembled the front tank. Of course I then went out and looked at the prototype to discover the vents were 90 degrees out of correct. Once of these promptly fell off but it's safe in my "little bits" box.

Sunday was time for the rear tank. Three goes it took to get the wrapper exactly right. Partly this was my fault for trying a different method for attaching. Let's just say, starting in the middle means everything fits. Start and then and and the results aren't quite so good. Still, I did manage to demonstrate how to un-solder things...

Of course all this soldering means the parts have to be cleaned and here I can offer more advice. Scrubbing them with Shiny Sinks in the en-suite of a Premier Inn travelodge works fine BUT without some washing up liquid to clean them up afterwards, the surfaces tarnish. Bulling these up with a fibreglass burnishing pen works, but wastes a chunk of time at the start of the day. But then we want things to look good for the audience don't we ?

Great Garratt Gathering

Workbench
Originally uploaded by Phil_Parker

or: "Phil's Workbench on tour"

For the last few days I've been based at the end of the Mercian Model stand situated in the Manchester Museum of Science & Industry for the "Great Garratt Gathering". This event celebrated the production of the first Beyer-Garratt locomotive in 1909.

Part of the event involved bringing together as many Garratts as possible so we were in a room with lots of them - and since Trevor (Mercian) currently produces a kit for William Francis, and I have built a couple of these, we were invited along too. This was especially useful as William Francis had been hauled out of Bressingham Museum and brought to its birthplace in Manchester.

At the moment, I'm still feeling a bit boggled from the weekend - suffice to say is was very busy. The crowds we interested in what I was doing - so much so that on Saturday I looked at my watch and saw 11:15 and thought, "Must think about getting some lunch soon" and the next time I saw it was 2:35. Good job we'd had a big breakfast !

The crowds were my favorite sort, not full of model railway enthusiasts but made up mainly of normal people. Even better, normal people with well behaved and polite children. This meant questions rather than challenges about the placing of rivets. Fascination that anyone makes things any more and some ego boosting compliments about my work. If you are reading this and were one of the people who saw me soldering or riveting, thank you.

If you are reading this blog for the first time after picking up one of my cards, you might be interested in the following links:

My William Francis Garratt locomotive building.

Building the Gauge 1 Ruston.

Mercian Models.

Or if you want to see more pictures from the event, I have a gallery on Flickr.

Crewmen

Thanks to speedy work by S&D Miniatures and some lightening fast painting by yours truly, the Garratt Locomotive has a crew.

I'm a little worried though. The driver looks very like Bluto from the Popeye cartoons. It's something to do with the beard, angry expression and figure, although the later isn't quite corpulent enough. I don't really understand how I managed this either - it wasn't intentional, in fact I didn't spot the likeness until I looked at the photograph.

Both figures are really mainline crewmen but they will suffice for industrial use. Watching British Transport Films while working recently, it seems that everyone in the 1950's wore a hat of some kind and engine drivers always had a proper peaked cap to denote their superior status over the flat cap wearing population. And they both have shiny footwear thanks to regular shining and in this case, satin black paint.

Yet another Garratt

Initial Garratt Bits
Originally uploaded by Phil_Parker

Oh, look, some bits for a O gauge industrial Garratt.

Yes, one down, one to go. All thoughts of having the model in a state of near completion in time for the weekend events have long been forgotten. The best I can do is assemble some lumps of locomotive to talk about on the stand.

However, there is one important thing about this model - it's mine. I'm finally getting to build myself an O gauge Garratt. That I get to keep. Forever.

And that means the project has a different emphasis. Instead of simply assembling the etches (first model) or building the best looking loco I can within the time available (second model), I can fiddle with this all I like. If I want to alter or even replace parts, I will.

One of my influences will be pictures of the locos produced by The Model Company of New Zealand and advertised in Model Railway Journal back in 1995. These models were hand built, scratch built engines of the highest quality - and price, the magazine noted "Obviously handbuilt RTR models will cost a few thousand pounds". I drooled over these but even now wouldn't have a hope of affording such beautiful workmanship, but I can do my level best to reproduce it with the help of the kit !

Of course, not having a deadline helps. The plan will be a do a bit, put it away, leave it for a while and then do a bit more. I'll be basing the model on William Francis, not least because I should be able to take some photos of the prototype over the weekend to clear up some of the pipework mysteries. Whether I name the model thus (plates have been tracked down and ordered from Guilplates), I'm not sure yet. I fancy a red liver with black lining rather than anything the loco would have carried in real life. And it's my choo choo so I'll paint it any colour I want, which won't be the colour the prototype is at the moment !

Dirty Blue Garratt

Dirty Blue Garratt
Originally uploaded by Phil_Parker

One down, one to go. The first Garratt is finished. Well apart from a crew (on order) and some nameplates (struggling to track these down) but apart from this, it's done. The locomotive runs under it's own power along the test track, or at least it does now I've wired the motors up so they run in the same direction !

The new owners plan to display the model in a scenic setting eventually and so agreed to some light weathering. Let's be honest a clean industrial steam loco looks a bit odd - their condition varied from grubby to absolutely filthy according to the pictures I've seen. Having said that, crews often did take a bit of pride in their machines so some evidence of cleaning looks nice.

Weathering started on this loco with a wash of very weak weathered black around all the pipes and rivet lines. Then the rivets were dry-brushed with a bit of rust followed by the cylinder ends and ash pan. This mixes a touch with the black and takes the edge off the redness.

With the paint still not completely dry I then spray the model with three colours - an overall dark brown (Humbrol 170 if I can get it, why was it discontinued ?) followed by a dark earth for the underpinning. Finally some black is drifted onto the top to simulate soot.

Finishing touches include glazing (Krystal Klear) and grease on the buffer heads done using an ordinary HB pencil. A touch of weathering powder gives texture to the very rust bits.

The satin varnished paint shines through the muck when the light catches it giving an oily impression. The main body colour was a good choice too as it's bright enough to stay visible under the dirt, something the much darker blue used on the last Garratt I built didn't.

Motor hole

Motor hole
Originally uploaded by Phil_Parker

For some reason, this motor in the back of this Garratt locomotive, doesn't fit. I'm sure it fitted when I carried out the test build. Maybe the supplied power unit is longer than before ? Checking the photos of the build, I think the configuration is the same one I used last time.

Anyway, the motor has to poke into the coal space. Not a lot but enough to require a hole in the metal. This was easily cut by drilling the corners of the hole and then "joining the dots" with a piercing saw.

A simple black plasticard box will cover everything up and then a pile of coal with hide this. Anyone looking at the model will never know.

Update: Problem solved. The motors are longer than before. Problems with Tenshodo supply apparently.

Walschaerts

Does any other word strike so much fear in the model locomotive builder ? Walschaerts valve gear is wonderful stuff on an engine, it adds complexity and detail under the footplate. All those rods form a natural focal point. Built properly, every modeller will ohh and ahh over it.

And joy of joys, the Garratt has four sets. To be fair, if you ignore the connecting rods then the complexity is formed of only 6 parts. OK, so all of these are double thickness lamination's but that's not too bad.

No, the worst bit is jointing the parts. Most of mine are done with brass pins or in one case, a brass rivet. All are soldered. Some days this works, some days it doesn't. The first day I tried to build up the valve gear, I made the first joint 5 times before it flexed. The next day everything went perfectly. To stop the solder running I used the tin-foil method and it worked a treat.

One issue I did find was that the unit where I had fudged things to get enough clearance between cross head and front crank pin didn't work. The joins were too small and kept breaking so I had to bit the bullet and dismantle it, rebuilding with the cylinder faces moved out to gain space. It just shows you need to do each step properly before moving on or it will come back to bite you.

Grab that Garratt

Workbench
Originally uploaded by Phil_Parker

How do you hold and work on a Garratt locomotive engine unit ? There aren't many flat areas it can sit on - and you don't want to bend those delicate waggly bits yet you still need to be able to get at the thing from lots of angles. With both hands.

Solution - stuff the motor down the central tube of the reel of solder. It's heavy enough to stay put and the motor/tube interface (as they say in management apparently) is good enough to ensure it remains stable while hot irons, pliers and bad language are brought to bear.

Fag paper clearances

Cylinder backs
Originally uploaded by Phil_Parker

You don't get a lot of space between the back of the cross heads and the front of the leading crank pin on this Garratt locomotive. In fact unless you do some serious fiddling, the clearance is nil or less than nil - the crank will wallop the bars as it tries, unsuccessfully, to rotate.

On one end a combination of things (error probably, but fortuitous ones) allowed me to cheap and fit the slide bars to the outside edge of the cylinder face. This bought me enough space - just.

On the other end this ploy wasn't going to work so off came the cylinder ends courtesy of the RSU. The holes were elongated towards the outside edges and the spigots thinned down on one side. This bought me about 1.5mm on each side, enough for the wheels to rotate freely. Wish I'd thought of this before I put the thing together first though !

Blue is the colour

Blue Garratt
Originally uploaded by Phil_Parker

How do you decide on the colour a model locomotive should be painted ? Normally it's easy enough - look at the photos of the real thing and copy them. Sadly, the real thing is currently painted in a sort of mustardy brown, a shade it never wore during it's working life.

According to those who know, when the Garratt worked, it was blue. Probably dark blue. Or black. That's why I painted the last one I produced S&D blue. Personally I think it's too dark, it may be right but in model form doesn't suit the engine (IMHO). A bit of weathering helps but unless you chuck lots of light at it, the paint looks gloomy. Now on the stand there is a nice spotlight to brighten things up but the new model is destined for display in a church in a case, which means there will be less light.

So, the decision has been made to go for a lighter shade of blue. Humbrol No.25. To my eye, it's not a bad match for NCB blue and certainly sits well on the locomotive. Fresh from the airbrush the colour is a bit flat, it is a matt paint after all, but give it a coat of satin varnish and this give it life.

Mind you, there is a long way to go. Quite a lot of this model is black and that's a hand painting job.