The last few months have been busy at work, and we also had a bathroom refurbishment at home. The former bathroom cabinets could be used in the workshop, creating a bit more space on the workbench, which is now well-organized and sorted again.
I finally got around to turning the tender wheel castings. The spokes of these wheels are very thin, so I used a special clamping ring to ensure the machining forces do not act on the spokes themselves during the turning of the wheel rims.
A start was also made with detailing the running boards and steps. Additionally, time was spent completing more of the Solidworks drawing. The photos I took in 2022 at the North Norfolk Railway have been very helpful.
The reverser is a design that I have not seen on other locomotives. The many photos of this reverser and some design sketches I made on paper finally gave me insight into how it was constructed.
The former bathroom cabinets getting a second life in the workshop. Great to have some extra storage space.
A machining leaflet was provided with the castings.
Starting with facing the back side to get a reference plane.
With some inserts on the jaws of the chuck, the outer rim could be cleaned up.
Drilling and reaming.
An aluminium disk with a steel pivot was used as a backing plate.
Another disk was fixed with three M6 bolts, which in this way clamps the wheel only on the outer rim.
The cross slide is set under 18 degrees, for cutting the flange.
The completed wheels.
From a 1 mm plate, a set of backing angle profiles is made, that will support the valance, that is mounted under the running board.
Bending your own angle profile is cheaper than buying these steel miniature profiles.
With a soldering iron, a tack was made. This way the profiles are located in the correct position on the running board.
With the running boards still mounted on the loco, only a small tack was made. The rest was soldered on the workbench when they were taken of the loco.
Two hefty soldering irons were used. One of 200 Watt and one of 300 Watt. This way the heat and flow of solder can by nicely controlled.
After cleaning up the surplus solder with a chisel and sandpaper, the entire part is washed under a hot water tap using a scouring pad to remove all traces of the soldering flux.
If traces of the soldering flux are left on the steel, rust would soon set in.
The back plates of the steps on the loco are cut and filed from a 1.5 mm plate.
The steps are riveted with copper nails.
The steps for the tender are the same design as the loco, but directly mounted to the frames.
The radius was simply bent, by putting back the fingers of the bending machine for 3 mm.
This gives a nice radius.
The reverser has a design where the handwheel drives a bronze bush that rotates inside the reverser housing. In this bronze bush, a screw thread is cut, which acts as the nut. The spindle therefore moves in- or outwards. At the end of the spindle, the reverser rod is connected. A guide on the outside prevents the spindle from rotating.
The reverser in Solidworks. With special mates, the complete assembly can be tested by rotating the handwheel. The indicator slides along on top, showing inside the cab in what position the valve gear is set. A part of the reverser sticks outside the cab. Only locomotives with a Westinghouse pump installed received a protective box cover on the cab outside for the reversing rod.
A lot of useful information about this locomotive class is found in the book "Yeadon Register of LNER locomotives". Many captions by the photos in this book explain the changes these locomotives underwent during their long lifetime. The first were built in 1883 and the last were condemned in September 1962. With 289 locomotives built, it was the largest class of the former Great Eastern Railway. It is a good book, but alas no drawings are included.
Detailing the drawing with many small parts: The lid on the tank filler, small profiles around the splashers, redesign of the smokebox, axle boxes of the tender, brake gear on the tender, etc.
