Page 20 - May June 2020

In the making of the side rods I used the smallest drill to create the centres and these were copied between the parts then the holes could be opened out to fit as necessary.
I got some holes wrong and I found that trying to make that poor quality com- ponent work was more difficult than making a new part. So some ‘failed’ parts got thrown away.
The front and rear supporting bogies had to be fashioned from plasticard and bits of brass as no suitable bogies could be sourced.
Leading truck
Trailing truck
Spoked wheels from Jackson were used for both of these bogies.
With an acceptable rolling chassis avail- able, the body was begun by cutting a soleplate form 40 thou plasticard to the dimensions in the data (well before the brass chassis).
Tank, cab and bunker side plates were similarly fashioned from 20 thou plasti- card.Across body bulkheads at the front and rear of the cab, the front of the tank and the rear of the bunker were cut and assembled to the sides. Gussets were employed to stiffen the structure.
Several attempts were made at creating the boiler and smokebox from round plasticard, but they were all unsuccessful. A wooden former was made and heated plasticard was moulded around the shape to give the basic boiler form.
A thin wrapper of plasticard then formed the smokebox.
The assembly containing the Trailing Truck, Driving heels and Leading Truck was attached to the soleplate with suitable gussets added to provide stiffness
The funnel was formed from brass tube, a steel washer and some plastic body filler
air compressor where constructed from nylon bar, brass rod and strips of plasticard.
Side tank filler caps and tank vents were also made from plasticard sheet and strip.
Tank-side, cab and bun- ker end handrails were made from brass wire and some commercial handrail knobs Soleplate footsteps and engine cylinders were fashioned from plastic blocks and plasticard.
The steam dome and safety valve seat were made from brass rod and plate plus body filler.The smokebox door
was cut from 40 thou plasticard and thinned at the edge by hand to give the domed shape typical of an NER door.A ridge was included on the inner face of the door to engage with the previously manufactured boiler wrapper. Hinges and door handles were formed from lesser plasticard thicknesses.
A reversing engine and a single cylinder
I nearly made a big mistake, I forgot to measure the crank pin to axle centre distance. Double that distance equals the crosshead movement and that must equal the cylinder length between the end caps. On this model I had 0.2mm to spare. (Breathes a sigh of relief.)
All of these details where envisaged from the collection of 9 photographs assembled during the research stage.
Eric Belshaw MMR
ROUNDHOUSE - May/June 2020
Initial build with original chassis
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