"It" comes to life again

That "little diesel" was in fact a steam engine Dean

They were very economical to run and one man could drive and fire them - but still quite powerful enough for shunting purposes...

Take a rest (but keep feeding the dogs) and we'll look forward to your next update when you are ready to give one..

Regards,

IanT

Back to work for me or the beatings shall resume I'm afraid, so I picked up where I left off, with the super heater.

I've heard of these things before, full sized locomotives and live steamers out side of the US use them, but until recently they have remained shrouded in mystery to me.

I would be lying if I said that the drawings have been very helpful for this locomotive, because they haven't. There are errors aplenty in the actual drawings that were ran in the magazine. Little stupid things here and there which are contradicted or otherwise out right wrong.



Now, there is something else- since most of my focus will be on 2.5" gauge, I am VERY curious about this:


I went full spam/anorak/foamer/gunzel the moment a friend of mine in the UK sent me this picture.
There is hope I guess for actually trying to make drawings for Curly's opus it seems like!

Until next time, best regards,
-Dean da Silva

PS: I do need to slow down a little bit on my drafting I am afraid, mostly because I have been stupid enough to spend so much time at it I am hardly sleeping. It started to catch up to me a little!

Tugboat Annie.

Oh, something I forgot to mention: the boiler is more of a rough draft at this point. Hence why the missing stay bolts, etc.

Hi Dean,

I have been watching progress with much interest.

Yes, 'Tugboat Annie' in your above pic with the special unique Holcroft valve gear. I am not so sure if 'Curly' considered it his 'magnum opus' - I think his 3.5"g 'Grosvenor' was his favourite. No published plans for either but Carl Jones has done an excellent job of re-creating 'Grosvenor' in 3.5"g.

'Grosvenor' was also Stroudley's favourite loco and arguably his masterpiece, so a working miniature example in 3.5"g would have had a special place with 'Curly'.

Holcroft was a regular visitor to LBSC's home in Purley. Holcroft was a valve gear expert as well as an ex GWR draughtsman who knew Churchward and was given the job of designing the GWR 43XX class. Later on with the SECR and SR he developed the 3 cylinder locos with conjugated valve gear under Maunsell.

Cheers,

Julian

Julian,

I should say rather that Tugboat Annie is the opus of design for him, either way I would love to draft it.
Grosvernor was certainly his favorite locomotive, if I could find a set of castings for one of those beasts I would love to build one for myself- when ever it is that I have time for such a thing. I have so many drafts to tend to these days I think that I might end up having to trade drafting for a completed locomotive.

I take it as a huge compliment from you sir, I remember meeting you when I first started exploring the British side of model engineering when I found the clearing house forum.

Best regards,
-Dean

I admit, sometimes I stall out when I am drafting and need to take a break. This locomotive has been unusual for me to say the very least- particularly the boiler. Normally, I really enjoy drafting boilers. This time I would have rather put a fork into my eye. However, I did really enjoy drafting the back head fittings for once, which is unusual for me.



While I still have to go through this beast when I am done with her and retouch a lot of the work I have done (the boiler especially) I can honestly say that I have never been prouder of a locomotive I have drafted. Granted, my clients are soon about to challenge that, as I will have something of a larger variety to deal with.

All the same, I have grown rather fond of Ivy Hall.

In other news, I have completely succumbed to my growing tin plate attraction....



I know, I should be ashamed of myself, but I rather do enjoy vintage toy trains too, there is something about their toy like nature appeals to me- despite the fact that I still love the absolute opposite of that as well.

Ivy Hall is roughly 60% complete now, I am starting to get this strange feeling that I would end up building this locomotive. Granted, I think that my friend who builds boilers would probably want to shoot me when I show him the boiler drawings.

If anyone has a copy of the Lucy Anna articles from the past that on PDF that they would send me I would greatly appreciate it, I have this urge all of the sudden to draft an American locomotive.

Take care and best regards,
-Dean da Silva

It's truly a beautiful locomotive, I wonder how it would look if I were to use some of the Lifford Hall elements on it, such as the frame, splashers et al.

It's truly a beautiful locomotive, I wonder how it would look if I were to use some of the Lifford Hall elements on it, such as the frame, splashers et al.

The steam piping is almost done, I apologize for being sort of a slacker on posting up here, but at the same time there is a lot with this thing that has to be done that isn't all that obvious.
The back head is nearly complete, it just needs to be piped in.

I'm afraid that I will also end up having to redo the boiler partially, which still makes me a little bit irate when I think about it. The good news is that the worst is over, the boiler is done, I don't think that I will have one that will test my sanity this much in the future really.

The bad news is that I am going to end up reassembling it, which is easier said than done.

Until next time! Best regards,
-Dean da Silva

I had to kill off the stay bolts. Now they are just little silvery coloured bits sticking out of the side of the fire box. It makes life a lot easier on my computer- which doesn't have to compute the location of all those individual components in favor of just one weirdly shaped one.

To say the very least I am not all that keen on how this boiler is turning out. There are just too many little silly conflicts between the digital model I have made and the other parts that I have ran into.
Like the cab front, etc.

I have a feeling that I did something wrong with the firebox wrapper, or perhaps the throatsheet and back head, time will tell. I don't think that I did, however, in true fashion, Curly does often surprise me.

I'm really looking forward to something simple again.

Until next time, best regards,
-Dean da Silva

I'm back again! The good news is that I have officially hit the 2/3rds completion mark!



I really am starting to enjoy doing pipe work a great deal more, which is a good thing.
Part of the reason that this locomotive has taken so long is that I cannot reuse a lot of parts on it like I have with past locomotives. Once the time comes for me to start in on the 2.5" gauge fair again, it will go by a lot faster since there are a lot more shared parts with those locomotives.

Until next time, best regards,
-Dean da Silva

For reasons I cannot explain, the locomotive has finally birthed a tender.


Also, here's a better mock up (from earlier, pre-tender) of the locomotive with the running boards and what not on, in the new form I have given her.



I was also over taken by some temptation to do a size comparison between Ivy and Myrtle.



Until next time, best regards,

-Dean da Silva

Once again, back at it.

I was pleasantly surprised by how smoothly the tender is coming together- then again tenders, locomotive frames and boilers with the exception of this one are usually my favorite pieces to do.

Here's the most complete mock up Ivy to date:


I've debated adding elephant ears akin to the ones found on Evening Star or Britannia, but I'm not sure that it would be fitting of this locomotive, it might look over done I think, although I had toyed with the notion of making it appear to be an express engine of sorts, adding a LNER four axle tender and the ears- but I think it would be a bit much.

Speaking of tenders...



I haven't done a rendering of the locomotive with the tender this complete yet, I think that I would hold off on that bit until I have the fiddly bits and what not all completed.

The boring parts are next, brakes, plumbing, the injector, tender fittings etc.

Even with 16gb of memory, a newer i7 processor my computer is on the verge of ritual suicide at this point. Poor machine, the part count is north of 700 though. I really hope to have Ivy done by the end of the month.

Until next time, best regards,

-Dean da Silva

I've got some good news, some bad news I am afraid.

The good news:
-I have more 2.5" gauge and smaller designs coming to me soon.
-I literally am in the last leg of this project, the brakes, injector, odds and end plumbing, tender fittings and what not are all that remains.
-It's actually going very smoothly to say the least.

The bad news:
-My computer cannot handle it. Ergo, Ivy, Minx, and Sister Dora are going to likely have to wait.
-I am quite possibly going insane from drafting this locomotive. In fact, I am certain of it. It would be one thing to build this locomotive- but its another drawing it in CAD. There is faaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaar less reward for that.
-The parts on Ivy Hall are really not common for the lost designs that Curly did- at least I don't think.

So for now, I am just going to put this locomotive down for a while and work on something much smaller that will go by much faster. Curiously, this is a locomotive that I have elected to use as a guinea pig of sorts for a little experiment that could make building LBSC locomotives and designs similar to his go by A LOT faster. 

Until next time, best regards,
-Dean da Silva

Edited By Dean da Silva on 09/03/2018 20:36:25

It took roughly 5 to ten minutes for the castings on the tender to update on the master assembly, but when they did, it looked outstanding. I honestly cannot believe something as simple as running boards done by a complete tyro of an American like myself that has never even seen a British Locomotive in person  would make such a difference. I think it looks magnificent. 

I knew I had done something right when a friend of mine quipped that had I done this before he started on his Hielan Lassie project that he would have ended up with a Hall like this one.

Going forward the locomotive and tender will have to be done separated until the very last rendering is done.

Until next time, best regards, 
-Dean da Silva

Edited By Dean da Silva on 10/03/2018 19:37:31

Hi Dean, it's been a bit quiet since your last post, trust the need to earn an income has not taken over, or worse still that your computer has decided to call it quits permanently. I presume Ivy Hall has reached an acceptable stage of completion and that your desire to move on to something simple has become a reality. Look forward to hearing about it in due course. Problem with this forum is that so much traffic comes through, and interesting projects like yours soon get shuffled back 10 or 12 pages and so become lost or forgotten.

Just want you to know there are many keenly interested in seeing the next stage of your ongoing quest, but not at the expense of your sanity . Regards, Geoff P.

I wish I could get my boilers to look that good - excellent work and fascinating progress Dean.

You know what?
I do need to work on this one again. I was nearly complete with it and then sort of let it fall off the wagon.

I confess that I have been rather occupied with a lot of other work that has been thrown my way, I even started to dally around with a Martin Evans design a little bit- which combined with another set of prints has morphed into a rather unusual beast of its own, or two.

I'll have something up later today (for me, time zone differences) starting with giving this locomotive some colour, which I discovered made the process of drafting this monster go by a lot more pleasantly. 

Edited By Dean da Silva on 02/06/2018 18:02:02