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| Building a 31/2" Gauge Locomotive Engine |
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| sbwhart:
Ok Chaps Her's my starter for ten The Loco is a 2-4-0 LNWR Precedent Class to LBSC's Mabel Design. Hers a photo of a model built by a chap in Canada I choose a LNWR loco because both my Grandfather and Great Grandfather had both been loco drivers with the Company. LBSC otherwise known a Curly Lawrence serialised the construction in Model Engineer in the sixties, just before died, his last of over fifty model loco designs. The Precedent class of Loco earned the nick name JUMBO by its crews from its power and work rate, with one engine HARDWICK clocking up over 2 million miles in just over ten years, this Loco is know preserved at the national railway museum in York. I like the idea that my predecessor may have drove this engine I bought a set of castings and drawings from Reeves and being on the lazy side ordered set of laser cut frames from another company this saved me a fair bit of work (and hacksaw blades) as they also marked out all the holes positions. I held off with the boiler, agonising over this safety critical component, : the thought of making a boiler scared the sh1t out of me, A commercially made boiler would cost about £1000 whilst the bits to make one would be about £350. I joined my local model-engineering club (South Cheshire Model Engineering Society http://www.southcheshiremes.com ). A lot of the chaps at the society have built quite a few Locos and have loads of experience with boilers :bow:, they convinced me that I could build my own boiler and that they would help, if all goes to plan I should be starting my boiler in the summer:- so watch this space. :clap: Have Fun :wave: Sew |
| sbwhart:
To bring you up to date I'll load up some photos of the build to date most of the photos will be selve explanitry. As with most things there is more than one way to do a job this is just the way I did it, there are probibly better ways, the important thing is to do it safely and to have fun. Cutting slot in buffers beams, the beams are clamped together a a pair so that they are exactly the same Milling up the outside of the hornblocks Milling the horn blocks up to take the bearing. The horn blocks a riveted to the frames and the frames temporary riveted together back to back so that everything lines up axactly, you rivet the frames together for drilling holes ect so everything lines upexact Making the bearing blocks again you have to ensure that the blocks assemble into the horn blocks in the same way as they were machined so that the holes line up for the axles. :borg: |
| sbwhart:
The buffer had angle brackets riveted to them I tried brazing but a trial run on some scrap resulted in failure I couldn't get enough heat out of my kit so riveting it was. The beam was then clamped together on the main strecher frames and when everything was nice a square, checked by measuring the diagonals, the fixing holes were spotted through onto the buffer beam and the lot screwed together. Next job was the wheels thse were turned up on a sacrifical face plate and a mandrel so that they were all exactly the same size. |
| sbwhart:
The axles are made from ground mild steel bar, which was set up to run dead true in four jaw both end centred and the diameter turned between centres for a push fit on the wheels. The crank anxle was made up in sections:(sorry no photos) the section were glued together with high strength loctite and pinned after assembly, it takes about 30 seconds to go off so it gives you a chance to get things lined up, to get things at 90 deg I used a set of 1"2"3" blocks these are realy andy bit of kit to have round the shop. The wheels were drilled for the crank pins using a simple jig so that they were all the same the crank pins again were turned up as a push fit in the wheels and fixed with high strenght loctite I'll pin them at a later date when I know everything is OK, the wheels were quatered on the axles using the 1 2 3 blocks and a set square a bit of a fiddle where you wish you had three hands :borg: but with care and a bit of practice it can be done. |
| sbwhart:
Next bit was the coupling rods:- first job was to mark one rod out, then using a jig with a off set bush accuratly set it up on the wheel crank pin centres, checking that both sides are the same if you've got your quartering or your bearings wrong it will show up at this point. Then use this jig to transfer the hole centres to your coupling rod: drill one hole in each rod than clamp them together with the jig and drill the other hole through both this way everything will match up. The next part was to make a jig for milling out the rods, I had two attemps at this my first being a right cock up :hammer: the sucessful method was to locate off dowels in the crank holes this way everything came out on their centre line including the fluting. The final job was to radius out the end I could have done these with a filing button, but I like to machine things out so I used my rotary table. Hows it going so far chaps :D I hope I'm not using up yo much memory with the photos :) Cheers |
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