Roundhouse Fowler "Victoria" Build Pt.6

Continued from Part 5.

 

This article is very, very late..

11/09/18
As running in continues, I decided to put the tender on, to give the loco a better workout. I get some more work done on the rake of cane bins, while I keep an eye on Victoria. Here, the table saw in it's box makes for a "good enough" workbench.

 The light system seems to work pretty nicely, though the headlight isn't nearly as bright in reality. Might look into repositioning the bulb, at some point..

 19/09/18

I've gotten round to putting rails in the storage cradle. They're just two layers of coffee stirrers superglued in place. I've yet to conjure up some kind of a detachable ramp, to go on the end, so the loco can be rolled out onto the track, and vice-versa.

I'd not thought of this. The whistle fouls on the handle mounting screws..

 ..So the balance point of the loaded cradle was found, and the handle fitted there, sideways.

 The loco is held very securely by the mini bungee straps. I'm quite confident she'll survive being lugged around to other railways, with this arrangement.

Now, I was never quite happy with my aluminium smokebox dart. It was too bright and shiny.

Additionally, my drill press isn't accurate enough to drill the holes in the centre shaft properly, so long story short, the handles had to be held in with Loctite. This was hardly satisfactory, as they both kept getting caught on things and ripped out.

So I bit the bullet and ordered a proper dart from Roundhouse, as I should've done from the get-go. Besides, the colour of steel is much more appropriate than aluminium.

05/10/18
Just moved into a new house, after 11 years at the last one. Took about a fortnight before I could get the workshops back to a state where work can continue.

Sanding rod fitted. The bolts will be painted during final touch up..

 New dart fitted. Ideally, I would've fitted it properly, using the nut supplied. That however, would've required removal of the smokebox, something the headlight wiring makes very difficult. So the paint in the hole was removed, both surfaces carefully cleaned, and the dart glued in with JB Weld.

 06/10/18

The tender needed a handbrake, so the fullsize one at ANGRMS was measured and photographed.
Being a casting, the top bracket/bearing presented a challenge to replicate on the model.

 Yes, the shaft is very badly mutilated, somehow at both ends.

While I was at it, I measured the beading along the front bulkhead of the tank. On the Roundhouse model, this is just modelled with an etched outline. I may yet do it properly with some styrene strip with dressmaker's pins for rivets, if I can be bothered..

The footplate is quite spacious for a 2ft loco, being much the same design as most 1920s Fowler tank locos, but without the coal bunkers running back from the front corners.

 08/10/18

After a lot of thought, I decided the easiest option was to make the top casting by layering 1mm styrene sheet together, then drilling the shaft hole and filing the front to shape. Coats of Tamiya Nato Brown were used as a fine-finish filler of sorts, to hide the joints in the layers.

09/10/18

The top casting still looks a little lumpy, and will have some more careful finishing work before the assembly is sprayed flat black.
The shaft and handle were made from an old 2mm steel bicycle spoke from the scrap box, with the hub machined on the lathe, from an old Mamod crankshaft. The parts were then silver-soldered together.
The ring on top of the bracket is a slice of styrene tube.

The footplate casting had to be drilled so the shaft could pass into it by about 0.25mm. The threaded shaft is separate from the rest of the shaft, and loctited into the footplate casting, to allow the tender tank to be removed if needed, without having to remove the handbrake entirely. Just loosen the screws holding the footplate in place, and wiggle the tender tank away.

The generator was painted a few weeks back, so with the paint cured, I've sat it atop the boiler. A sharp pencil was used to lightly outline where the base covers the cladding.

The lines were more visible than the camera makes them look.

The lines' purpose was to determine where exactly I needed to remove the paint with a dull knife blade, for a good bond between the cladding and generator bracket. Lines were scribed in both surfaces, cross-hatch pattern, with the knife, to give the JB Weld more "tooth" to hold onto. This was also done to the underside of the generator bracket.

I took a short scrap of point motor wire, and glued it into a hole I drilled where the power conduit would be fitted into a full size Stones generator.

It was then carefuly bent to shape, prior to painting..

11/10/18
At this new house, I now have my own bathroom and a balcony. As Roundhouse run their factory-assembled chassis for 8 hours in either direction, I figured I ought to do the same. Unfortunately, I don't have a rolling road, nor the time to build one, or money to buy. So I've set up the Newqida track to continue running the loco in, whatever the weather.

I need to get this time-consuming job out of the way, because I'm planning an event for the beginning of December 2018, to commemorate 15 years since the closure of Moreton Sugar Mill in Nambour.

This will require the cane bins, and the Baguley diesel (still in the works) to pull them, 60 yards of handlaid track I'm in the process of building, A full day or two of site preparation, my wholestick trucks, and both of my live steam locos.The house move really didn't help.
As such, multitasking and more importantly, putting all my free time into these projects, is the only way I'm gonna get it all done in time.

The cut up towels under the track are to catch any oil from the loco, so the floor boards aren't stained. It's not a huge issue with a Roundhouse, though. They don't slather everything in spent steam oil like Accucrap locos do..

12/10/18
Doing double-duty again, running in the stiff axleboxes of the near-finished cane bins, in addition to the loco. On the tight 2ft radius curves, Victoria can only pull seven of the ten bins. This is no problem, as the bins' stiffness will ease up, and I don't intend to use 2ft curves for anything other than testing ever again.

One thing I've noticed, is that my chuffer seems to be completely silent. Not sure where I've screwed up. Annoying, I'll have for fork out another $40 for a real one, and hope it arrives in time..

13/10/18

Running in the rain has reminded me that the light switch in the tender is not shielded from water.
A small "roof" was fashioned from a piece of five thou (0.13mm) styrene, carefully glued in place, and the back edge sealed.

The mounting point for the tender handbrake needed the paint removed, and some cross hatch scratches made in the surface.

The shaft was held upright for painting, by sticking it in a blob of blu-tac on a piece of wood. The bottom of the shaft will be touched up later. JB Weld was used, as usual. I'll need to be careful when running the loco, to keep my hands away from this. I don't want to be constantly gluing this thing back on.

Mounting area cleaned, and the generator fitted, again with JB Weld. I just hope it also stays put.

 14/10/18

Now, I'd lost the original brass hook, when it fell out of the the front coupling, so a replacement was made from a picture hook, and blackened using the usual "heat to red and dunk in old engine oil" method. This was done while I was making some short coupling links for the cane bins.

 17/10/18
The tap water at this new place is crap. Full of calcium, or lime or whatever it is. This, along with the usual heat from many hours of running in, very quickly caused a lot of discolouration in the brightwork, which now needs a lot of fiddly work with brasso and cotton swabs. And I'll need to get some decent water for these engines to use in future..

Which reminds me, all my boilers are about due for a washout with hot vinegar.
Christ, what with all the coffee I drink, I should probably do myself while I'm at it..

After about 9 hours running in either direction, the loco runs well. Once the proper chuffer is fitted, I'll have to fine-tune the valve timing so it sounds as close to perfect as I can get it.

For now, the loco was sprayed with automotive degreaser, and washed down with hot water in my shower. This left even more water deposits than expected, all over the loco. Irritatingly, this all had to be manually cleaned from every nook and cranny before I could begin final paint touch up.

The paint is just sprayed into the can's lid, and applied with a small brush.
Everything needing touching up was first done with etch primer, and left for a day to cure, before having the topcoat applied.

 The lubricator's steam pipe needed some minor adjustment at some point, which as expected, caused the brittle superglue the lagging was soaked in, to crack. I've removed the lubricator, re-superglued, and repainted the lagging. The whole assembly needed touching up anyway.


A method I found useful for the periphery of the green/cream paint on the cab, was to use a length of Tamiya masking tape, removing after the paint dried overnight.

The tender bogeys needed so many bits touched up, that after touching in with etch primer, it was quicker and easier to respray the bogeys entirely. Here, the paint is being removed from the treads and flanges of the wheels, using enamel thinners applied with cotton swabs.

18/10/18
The front coupling needed a steady hand to paint properly. I've yet to add a grimy effect to the shiny silver shank.

I was about to glue the front headlight lense on, when I realised I'd be trapping the air inside the headlight when I seal it up. The heat of the loco, coupled with the relatively cool air outside the headlight, will inevitably cause the moisture in the air, trapped behind the lense to condense behind it, which of course would look fucking awful.

So I had to drill a small breather hole with the pin vice, through the "plug" of glue I originally sealed the wires in with, being very careful to keep the drill from damaging the wires to the bulb. The lense was then glued in.

"Victoria" is now all but complete, posing for the obligatory ex-works portrait. Now that I think of it, a "proper" workshops scene and background would be good for these "completed" shots..


 20/10/18
Ready for it's first "real" run, at the open day at AMRA Zillmere, Brisbane. The newly-completed cane bins were also on "proper" test. While there, the boiler was witnessed in steam, and a boiler ticket issued.

Despite her lack of a chuffer, and consequent silent exhaust, "Victoria" ran as they say "Like a Roundhouse" - perfectly.



The build has taken 2½ years, and about $2,500 over that time. I'm very grateful to all those who helped out, particularly regarding the boiler's construction, testing and certification.

There's still a few things I'd like to do with her, such as adding a crew, fire irons on the tender, weathering, and modifying the headlights so they're brighter, but this'll do for now.

***

At the time of writing, the Summerlands chuffer has been fitted and sounds excellent. As far as I can work out, my homemade chuffer's only problem was that it was just too low in the chimney. If I extend the connecting tube for it, it should work fine. I'll likely do this and fit it to the next loco build I have in mind..

Additionally at this time, the aforementioned Moreton commemoration event in December has just passed. I busted my arse to have this loco ready in time for it, and would you believe I simply didn't bother to run "Victoria" there anyway, as I was too tired. Funny how things work out..