Member postings for julian atkins

Just my own personal observation but all the 3.5"g miniature loco boilers I have come across have been 3/32" or 2.5mm outer wrapper and outer firebox. A joggled joint on the barrel was quite common years ago but is now frowned upon and as Jason says a seperate outside butt strap on same, but there are many miniature locos running around without this feature.

As others have said, check first with your club boiler inspector.

Cheers,

Julian

Edited By julian atkins on 09/05/2017 00:01:39

As stated previously I believe what you have is a box of odds and ends.

I am quite sure in the light of the further pics posted that the cylinders are Clackson/Jackson castings for the 3.5"g SR Lord Nelson. This design is extrememly rare.

The wheel castings - some might be for the above for the tender and front bogie, but not the driving wheels.

I have a 4 cylindered Jackson 3.5"g GWR King. The drawings are very very difficult. I would not recommend any of the Jackson/Clarkson designs unless you are a masochist or know a great deal about the fullsize example being attempted in miniature.

The abscence of the middle inside cylinder block for the Lord Nelson again suggests this is a box of odds and ends.

Cheers,

Julian

Hi Dennis,

The wheels wont be correct for GWR Castles as again the number of spokes are incorrect on the driving wheels, and the crank webs on the wheels would be greater due to the large 'throw' of the GWR Castles.

The cylinders are also the wrong shape for a GWR Castle loco.

I think what you have is perhaps a box of bits that may not be connected and just odds and ends.

Sizes of the piston valve cylinders might help a bit more.

Cheers,

Julian

Hi Dennis,

My first guess was that your castings are for the old Clarkson/Jackson 3.5"g SR Lord Nelson. The cylinder casting would be right, but the driving wheels on a Lord Nelson have 21 spokes so that rules that out.

I cannot find any Reeves driving wheel castings that fit your size and number of spokes.

Cheers,

Julian

Hi Vic,

Obtain some larger and longer section copper, then anneal, then roll in rollers. Most ME clubs have a large set of rollers.

You might need a few anneals and passes on the rollers. Silver solder the joint with high melting point silverflo 24 and Thessco F or Tenacity 4 after trimming the ends. Then maching to final size.

Or else get a slab of copper and machine the ring out of it. Ok very expensive but I know of many model engineers who have thick slabs of copper ( My 5"g terrier copper cap for the chimney was done this was by the very generous help of one model engineer providing an offcut of 3/4" copper slab).

What ever you do get it passed first by your club boiler inspector.

Cheers,

Julian

I also dont know what this part is for, but I reckon I could have filed that brass concave surface in less than 5 minutes very accurately.

Cheers,

Julian

I think the tenor of Neil's reply is correct, These were very basic model locos. The garden fraternity of model locos has come on quite significantly in the last 75 or so years, and I dont think anyone these days would consider building Owl other than as an historical example of what was done in WW2. I think I have all the construction series in ME for same as I have most of the 1940s MEs in my collection.

Cheers,

Julian

Hi Mick,

Yes, excellent results with the ceramic balls on check valves. Am sure they would be just as good in a safety valve apllication..

Cheers,

Julian

I think the old paraffin blowlamp is hugely underated these days.

I did all my silver soldering with a brass half pint paraffin blowlamp for 2 years due to being skint as a schoolboy/student, and an ex WD 1 gallon paraffin blowlamp to do the first few joints on my first miniature loco boiler. That beast could be a real flame thrower when starting up!

Then I shelled out on a secondhand seivert propane set that is still in use.

The half pint blow lamp was the same my Dad used to thaw out pipes in the winter of 1962/3.

I grew up with Dad's primus camping stove in it's tin in the back of the car, and paraffin lamps when very young during the power cuts in the early 1970s.

We also had a paraffin heater on the upstairs landing when I was a kid. A sort of slender pyramid affair that was as tall as me as a kid and a mica covered opening on the door.

Cheers,

Julian

John Stevenson advocated the benefits of the original vice, but I think John might also accept it's limitations. The very shallow depth of engagement on the shallow jaws is useful for small jobs. But for bigger jobs a bigger proper machine vice is needed.

The Dore Westbury has a long X axis, but this is negated by the original vice for lots of common operations.

So you want to do forked ends on an eccentric rod (sorry John for mentioning miniature steam locos). You clamp the rod in the original vice, and there is then insufficient Z movement to do the milling.

Most cylinder blocks for miniature locos require great ingenuity to mill the port faces and ports using the original vice.

In most cases a proper machine vice would resolve all these problems.

I havent found the moving jaw to be particularly 'precision' in operation - but perhaps mine is worn after 35 plus years. I have to add a bit of shim under the moving tongue underneath the static jaw.

On the bed is a nice slot, and it would have been a nice feature of the vice to have a tongue to engage in same for parallel work without having to DTI up the vice if removed for using angle plates etc.

My old late friend Albert North had a Dore Westbury which he used extensively for milling on miniature loco parts including 2 5"g Brits, a 5"g 9F, a 5"g Pansy, and a 5"g Firefly, and much else besides. He had a proper machine vice on his. The raised height required on the column caused no problems.

Cheers,

Julian

To get back to Derek's original request my Dore Westbury vice is as per Robbo's drawing.

In retrospect a proper machine vice would be of far more benefit. As Robbo comments the original design has very low jaws and profile.

Cheers,

Julian

Apologies, but I am getting a little confused here!

Is 'Nipper' Steve Addy of the aforementioned ME article? Or is 'Nipper' someone else?

Cheers,

Julian

Hi Howard,

If you PM me your details I will send you an example made commercially.

Hope the 9F and GWR King are coming along ok.

Cheers,

Julian

Edited By julian atkins on 07/04/2017 22:55:48

Hi Steve,

Your detailed comments plus excellent pics will I am sure be very much appreciated.

You have made an excellent example of a 3.5"g Rob Roy.

I was very pleased that you showed A B Macleod's rare book. He was a senior manager in the SR and later BR, and a great railway enthusiast both for miniature railways and fullsize especially for the Isle of Wight Steam Railway.

I met him once at Havenstreet when he was quite an elderly gentleman, and very dapper.

Cheers,

Julian

Well, I posted my take on all this on 26th March, and no one has commented subsequently on what I posted.

One youngster I taught how to drive one of my miniature locos is now building his own in his late teens some 15 years on and is now employed fulltime on a preserved railway on the loco department side with a proper engineering apprenticeship. He is also now on the committee of his ME club, where I was once secretary for many years.

Cheers,

Julian

Hi Duncan,

Not sure if I have understood the question posed, but chime bars are a cheap and nasty version and produce a far from pleasant tone with no or dissonant harmonics. Other alternatives are far more pleasant to the ear but far more expensive, but can be made in the workshop.

Those of us who have maintained fullsize rings of Church bells with clock mechanisms for chiming the big Church bells aspire to something more refined at home on the hours and quarters on a domestic clock.

I have restored quite a few sets of 'handbells' made by various makes over the years for change ringing.

For superior clock chiming you have to go down the late Claude B Reeve route via the Whitechapel Bellfoundry.

Just my own personal opinion of course.

Cheers,

Julian

Edited By julian atkins on 31/03/2017 23:33:51

Hi Roger,

I would suggest silver soldering the parts.

There are specific grades of silver solder used for stainless to copper particularly for radiant superheater elements to copper tails, though I think J-M silverflo 55 would do especially in your application.

All my vacuum pipe runs have been silver soldered on miniature locos.

Cheers,

Julian

If the steam supply were taken off the turret/manifold then fed through a hollow stay through the boiler to the smokebox then to the pump, I think you would find the pump will work. This, of course, wont be possible with a boiler without a spare hollow longitudinal stay, though you could swap the blower feed for same if it goes through a longitudinal hollow stay. The blower could be run off the manifold outside the boiler though you will get water up the chimney when first turned on.

The 14" long steam supply to the pump outside will definitely cause the steam side of the pump to be water logged due to condensation. This is the cause of the problem commented upon by others previously.

I doubt if lagging the steam supply pipe will help.

Cheers,

Julian

Exactly which drawings /design have you used?

It works ok on air with the water side not connected to a pressure valve/pressurised vessel?

It works ok on steam with the water side as above?

It doesnt work on steam when water side connected to the loco boiler?

Where is the pump situated on the loco, and how long is the steam pipe to same and from where on the loco?

What is the bore of the steam side cylinder compared to the bore of water side cylinder?

What does the steam exhaust look like when running on steam on the loco?

Cheers,

Julian

Just an aside,

I visited the new Royal Mint Museum at Llantrisant last October and a great day out had.

The new £1 coins were in production. For a small charge I minted my own 2016 'old' £1 coin... all those in circulation are 2015 and before.

The details of the new £1 coin were explained.

The Beatrix Potter 50p coins were of great interest, and how they were designed.

I can thoroughly recommend a visit to the Llantrisant Royal Mint.

I have managed to find from coins in circulation 3 sets of Beatrix Potter 50p coins. The Squirrel Nutkin 50p pieces are rather hard to find.

Cheers,

Julian