Saxby Lion in 5 inch

I'm hanging my nose over LBSC's model of Lion and came across references to alterations by Saxby.

Can someone explain anything about these? I am especially interested in the reasons why they were made and what advantages they give.

Brian

couple of pages here

Possibly to do away with the prototypes gab valve gear in favour of stevensons link motion or a similar ? The gab gear was clumsy, the change would result in better valve events ! Noel.

Suggest you google Old Loco Committee, a group devoted to the full size Lion, but they have lots of info on model as well

Many thanks for the useful replies. I now understand that the Saxby modifications relate to changing the valve gear from 'gab' to Stevenson's and that 'gab would have been as per the original loco.

I would prefer not to stray too far from original and so would prefer to retain 'gab'. I'm not too interested in performance, if the engine manages to do a circuit of my club track then that would be fine.

Are there any builders out there who would comment on how well the loco builds and runs?

Brian

I've not built one but do remember there were some articles in ME in the 80's I think by the builder of a very fine example on some of the mod's he had made, I'm sure someone will point you in the right direction to them.

I saw the engine run at Guildford if memory serves and it ran very well, still had the gab gear but modified according to the articles he had written. He may even have entered it in IMLEC, racking my meagre brain to come up with a name. There was certainly an article on an improved lubricator drive, and one on the firebox cleading.

Lovely little engine that steamed and ran very nicely.

Dave

Just remembered the writers and buiders name David Neish ( or maybe Niesh)  and found the lubricator article was in Vol 145 pages 784-787 . This should help track down the other articles that were all around the same time.

I think that rather than IMLEC it was entered in the OLCO competition at Guidford.

Edited By Dave Wootton on 26/11/2021 09:53:45

Edited By Dave Wootton on 26/11/2021 09:56:48

One of the members here has a U tube channel which shows some of the build of a Lion loco just search for " Go Create Hobby Machine Shop " on u tube

The Saxby modifications retained the gab valve gear but modified it to allow it to reverse with the crank in any position which the original design apparently did not.

The model won the Championship Cup at the 1970 ME Exhibition.

As the original Lion used gab gear and LBSC's Titfield Thunderbolt design did too, my personal desire, were I building one, would be to retain it. Modifying it to correct errors is fine but I think a change to Stephensons would be a step too far and anachronistic.

The modifications appear to be quite straightforward and were described with drawings in ME Vol 139 Issue 3479 21 December 1973 pp1222-4

Edited By Nick Clarke 3 on 26/11/2021 11:39:36

Many thanks to Dave, Derek and Nick for the information and clarification. All i need to do now is to track down the relevant ME's and understand what I need to do. I should point out that I am a reasonably experience model engineer with a good workshop and would like to build a reasonably authentic Lion but without striving to get every detail absolutely correct and not to take too long doing it as I'm not getting any younger!

Brian

I've just tracked down a copy of ME Vol 139 Issue 3479 21 December 1973 to go with the 340 copies of ME for 1953 to 1959 that I've bought. That gives me plenty of reading over the Christmas period and means that I have a good excuse (if one were needed), to avoid the abysmal offerings on the TV.

Happy Christmas to you all.

Brian

Collected the 340 copies of .E. today and was surprised to find 3 or 4 copies from 1926/7. The seller also asked if I was interested in another box containing Practical Mechanicals dated in the mid 1950's; naturally I said yes so now I have plenty to read over the holiday period.

A set of drawings would still be nice though!

Brian

Edited By Brian H on 15/12/2021 18:37:37

IF you've been a good boy all year you may have a set of drawings by Christmas ! I'm working on it. Noel

Thanks Noel. I've been VERY good (honest!)

Brian