my stuff

[DennisM]

Another quick trip to my mates place to visit Mlle Guillotine to cut the bottom plate and the swinging doors for the Ash pan, and I had also marked out some 1/16" thick steel for the brake rigging on the 8 wheel tender

the steel rigging plates have to have a 1/8" wide slot milled in them in 2 places, so I guess I will be making a jig to hold them while that job is tasked.
Anyway moving along as I do, it was very warm in the shed, another day with my shirt off LOL, it was fun using the lathe turning down a hardened steel punch so it would fit into a small space to set brass rivets, all bits of brass that make up the Ash pan had been marked left/right/up/down sideways etc, so after double checking I got out a selection of brass angle (90deg) and chose the 1/4" wide brass angle, lined it up and attached 2 x small engineers clamps to hold it while a 1/16" dia drill was used to make the holes for the rivets

I had to ask my T/A aka wife LOL, for assistance as I couldn't hold the job and the hammer/punch while seating the job over the punch, she did help but wasn't keen as it was hot in the shed even with the fan going (did you see the stuff up in the last image, last Wednesday after pushing a lawn mower for 2.5 hours in the heat @ the model train track, I was a bit be muddled and drilled a hole in both plates, which had to be repaired, so it was turn down some brass bar fit it to the hole peen it over, file it flat, if you closely you can see the file marks near the radius) anyway it was check and recheck again before I went on to the next part of the job

then set it up on the upturned boiler to double check again

the plates are now riveted in place with the exception of the upper floor, I will attempt to bend it up in the morning and rivet in the brass angle to support it


well that's been most of my day, cheers Dennis 

[Marlin]

You may rate yourself as an amateur Dennis, but your a skilled amateur and a very clever man. I very much enjoy seeing your work.

Jon

[DennisM]

Moving right along as you do  , it was very warm & humid in the shed again today, another shirt off day and the ceiling fan going flat out, I had a sleepless night, turned on the A/C @ 0030hrs still wide awake and thinking about how I can fit the firebox grate without having a hole through the chassis, as that would be a nightmare trying to calculate where the hole would have to be drilled to pick up the holes in the Ash pan, no thanks,

Check check and check again the idea I had worked out in my head I'm fairly confident that it will work, it does require yet another slight modification to the firebox grate and will be attached to the drop plate on the bottom of the Ash pan.
But as usual something always gets in the way, the first problem I encountered was that the firebox wall stays 1/4" dia copper bar, the lower 5 on each side are way too long on the inside of the firebox, so I reduced their height by 3/16" of an inch

 it took me almost 1 hour of careful use of a hacksaw blade to get the job done, those 10 wall stays were just too long, now the firebox grate does move freely within the space, which now gives me the confidence with brain's truss that was going on in my mind overnight, my brain just goes like a slideshow, it hasn't done so since I finished the Series 1, but over the past 17 years it has given me a bloody workout at night LOL, tomorrow I will draw up a rough drawing of what I think will work other than drilling a hole through the chassis.
After completing that task, I set about working out how I could bend the 1mm brass that I had to make fit as part of the Ash pan upper floor over the swinging door, so out with the 'mapp gas' torch to anneal the brass, quench it, mark it, bend it in the vice, I could have taken another 70k round trip to my mate Tim's place to use his bender, but I knew I was capable of doing it with what limited resources I have to bend plate here, to shorten a long story I was able to do so without any issues,a quick check to make sure it didn't foul anything and it lined up as good as a amatuer can do, so I set about drilling a series of holes for the rivets

and again I had to ask my T/A (wife) to hold the job while I set the rivets

tomorrow I have to attend a car club run, so it will be well after midday before I can make a start on anything, cheers Dennis 
ps I will have to make a rough sketch of the front mount idea I have for the firebox grate and share it,,.

[DennisM]

Only half a day's play today (car club meeting/runday) and the same tomorrow (work), but I'll make the best of it.
This afternoon I managed to mark out/cut/bend the removable floor for the Ashpan and make the drop pin

it still has to have the bent tab shaped, the pin is Stainless steel  with a brass knurled knob

the other end has 1/16"dia hole for a 'R' clip, to secure it, and it has a 8deg taper to help ease it through the holes

I have drawn what I think will work to hold the firebox grate in position, rarther than drill a hole through the chassis, it will be fixed to the drop plate, but loose on the grate

anyway that has been my afternoon, cheers Dennis 

[STDDIVER]

Well done Dennis - "as good as an amateur can do'? this sells you far short of your ability!!!!    - Your work is first rate!

I love the thread

Frank   

[DennisM]

A few hours here n there, a few steps forward slowly, I have been doing other things as well today, but did manage some hours on the tools, here are the 2 x 5/16"ME x 32 tpi nuts being made

and the vertical brass hex bar/nuts x 2

I had a slight change from the rough drawing and decided I needed a brass pinch bolt, so I made one from 1/4" brass hex

The vertical brass hex (7/16") was set up in the mill after being marked out, a series of holes were needed, all were spot drilled with a No1 center drill, then using a 9/64" drill (tapping size for 3/16" Whitworth) then taken 1/3 through with a 3/16" dia drill to allow the bolt to pass through, the other end was cross drilled in a similar manner but only with a 1/16" dia drill, for a 1/16" split pin, just for safety sake

then after the 5/16"ME x 32 tpi thread was cut on the end, then using a 'V' block to hold the brass bar, and using a small length of brass as a tapping guide (to keep the tap @ right angles to the job) here it is in the vice

I marked out the rectangular bar that will connect the two items to the fire box grate
it was also drilled 3/16" dia a radius applied to the end to allow me to move it through a range so as to get the correct angle and nip it up (and possibly Silver Solder it as well) I'm sure if you have looked at the rough drawing you will get the idea


anyway that's been part of my day, cheers Dennis 

[DennisM]

A few hours in the shed (after helping my T/A wife her project succulents!!! LOL) anyway I shouldn't whinge but time is wasted wot's not spent in the shed.
I did some checking and re checking
 
then decided on a number and marked it out and drilled it, no turning back now

this is the drop door off the Ash pan, it has been drilled to accept the support bar for the firebox grate

I had to remove the peened over edge first on both sides of the grate, then remove the middle spacer, work out where the support bar had to be, mark it drill it n cut it, refit to the firebox grate

it all fitted like the proverbial finger in a dog's rear end

the grate sits about 3mm lower than the plan, but I don't think I will lose any sleep over it, and from just holding it in my hand you can remove the pin and take out the grate in one easy operation, I just hope it's the same when I try it in the chassis of the locomotive.
The next task was to offer up the Ash pan to the lower half of the boiler, I had to make 2 small notch marks in what is the inner firebox wrapper to allow the 3/16" diameter stainless steel bar that supports the grate at the rear, then roughly mark out where I'm going to drill through the Ash Pan into that inner wrapper to hold the Ash pan in place
 
The next dilemma is to work out how many bolts I think I might need to hold the Ash pan insitu, as the plan doesn't say nor mention how to hold the Ash pan in place, so after much umming n arring I decided 5BA would be strong enough to hold it in place, now will 4 be enough (2 each side) or should I go for 6, I decided on 6, 3 each side, but the next issue was I don't have any Brass 5BA bolts, no problem really, just make them

they are very small and fiddly I had made 3 but somehow I dropped one on the floor and didn't realise I had, so *&^% knows where that is

 so I made another before calling it a day, maybe after helping my nieghbour fix his mower in the morning, I will make the others, and drill n tap the holes, wish me luck, cheers Dennis 

[DennisM]

A few more hours wiled away in the shed again, this morning I sat down and looked at the drawing for the swing door for the Ash pan, took some time thinking about how to go about without stuffing it up, anyway the brass I cut recently for the job was marked out and cut, ready to have the ends bent over using my custom made 4" folding press LOL aka steel vice

it was a tight fit and needed to be fiddled with somewhat to get it near enough, I had to apply force to the upper floor plate to increase the bend angle to clear the top of the swing door and it was still a tight fit, so I set it up and milled the surfaces

this allowed it to fit, but it was still very close, so a little more fiddling I suppose

It was time to work out the spacing for the 5BA brass bolts that I made a few days ago, they were spaced fairly evenly, then the Ash pan was drilled both sides on the drill press with a tapping size drill for 5BA (No39), the Ash pan was secured to the boiler, tapped firmly into place and using the No 39 drill 3 holes were drilled through the plate, then tapped using a intermediate tap, and being very gentle as Copper will gall up and you could end up with a broken tap, thankfully that didn't happen, I lubed the tap with wd40, making a start and backing off repeat/repeat /repeat until it was right through, then I cleared the flutes of any debris before taking the tap back into the copper whilst removing it, here it is with the right hand side & 3 bolts in place

Then I had to move a but of gear, collect 2 saw horses, lift the boiler down off the bench and place it upside down, while I double checked again

the three holes were drilled into the copper, the Ash pan was removed so the holes could be enlarged to a clearing size which for 5BA is a No 30 drill, then the holes were tapped very carefully, so as not to bugger up the job at this late stage

the brass bar has a 9/64" dia hole which is just large enough to allow the 5BA tap through, this helps keep the tap vertical and at right angles to the job.
The next small task was to put a small bend on the bottom edge of the swing door,

that didn't take too long, I should have gone to the local speed shop and got a few small circlips, then I could have made the bar that the door pivots on, it will have be circlips as there is really no room for any protrusions I think, the next big test will be to see if it all fits inside the frame/axleboxes, gee I hope it does or I'm going to be shattered, anyway fingers XXX'd cheers Dennis

[DennisM]

Well another day another set of problems, mainly caused by myself LOL, I had the assistance of my T/A aka wife, she helped me get the locomotive stand out from behind the milling machine where it has stood for more than 25 years, it was a difficult task make even more so by the proximity of the Workshop trailer and other things, but it was retrieved without any drama's, it is currently sitting outside just in case I will need it's services again, probably sooner than later LOL.
Again with my assistant assisting, I lifted the boiler off the bench and placed it on saw horses out on the lawn (because if it fell it would dent the grass/lawn, if over concrete well I hate to think), and again with my assistant assisting we lifted the locomotive frame down from it's turntable over the bench, to the rail outside, I must admit that there's no way I could have managed without her help, crikey it's getting heavy

Before moving the locomotive frame I measured between the horn cheeks on the rear axle and the Ash pan was 0.016" wider (that's about 5 pubic hairs laid side by side), anyway the boiler sat on the horn cheeks but with just a gentle bump it fell down into position, I was pleased with that outcome, but another problem just sprang up

the Ash pan drop floor sits directly over a brake drag beam, which I suppose could be an issue, but the bigger issue is I cannot remove the drop pin as it fouls the brake gear

So to say I was dis-heartened is an under statement, so I sat down next to it and pondered my next move, I can see now why on the plan it has a drop pin through the locomotive frames, but I still do not want to go down that path, I have decided to turn up a pin from mild steel 3/16" dia, and again with help from my T/A put the locomotive back on the rail and refit the boiler with a plain pin, to see if it can be withdrawn from either side, when the connecting rods are at their lowest point, fingers XXXX'd.
The boiler sits squarely on the frame, which was one good point in the mornings exercise

and from the side it all appears to be A1

and just for interest sake, the loco over the front buffers is 995mm in length and damn heavy to boot, I took some other images checking clearance along the sides of the boiler barrel

just checking to make sure


but this will annoy me and send my mind into a frenzy especially if I wake during the night, I will not be able to stop the slide show that will be going on in my mind's eye

? is there just enough clearance to allow a 3/16" dia pin to exit through one side of the frame without colliding with something, time will tell, cheers Dennis 

[303Gunner]

Before moving the locomotive frame I measured between the horn cheeks on the rear axle and the Ash pan was 0.016" wider (that's about 5 pubic hairs laid side by side),

It's always good to have another "Rule of Thumb" to judge clearances, but I couldn't get this one to work to verify it. Do you lay them straight first, or are your verniers curved??

[DennisM]

It has been some time since I last posted in here, but I have been busy with other things as well as doing small jobs on locomotive parts, the biggest time waster over a period was my older lathe.
It had developed an annoying rattle in the idler pulley system, so I hadn't used it in some time I decided to look into the matter, and as it turns out there is always more to the story than you imagined in the first instance, after surveying the situation, I couldn't budge the shaft that the Yoke pivoted on, the shaft at the bottom of image

crikey I must be getting weak as in my older age LOL, anyway after thinking about a solution I came up with an idea for a puller, a 5/16" dia bolt and a Land Rover one at that (one of the 3 that go through the chassis holding the bulkhead in an upright position, anyway I had to run the thread down the bolt to make it serviceable, a short piece of water pipe, and a machined collar for the bolt/nut puller to work off

then find the center of the shaft, center dot it, drill it out until the tapping size for 5/16"UNF, then tap the hole

thinking to self whilst doing this, break a drill or a tap in here pack up n go home LOL, anyway that didn't happen and in no time I had the shaft dislodged


in no time I had the Yoke out and on the bench, the problem soon became apparent

At some time long before I owned the machine, some nincompoop (aka Numpty but not our 'NUMPTY' who frequents this site LOL) made a new shaft for some reason or another, but when they made it they didn't allow enough length for the bearing at 12.5mm wide, so the pulley was unsupported on the outer edge which incidentally is the Hi-speed side from the electric motor and with wear etc it began to flop about.
So I took myself to Maitland to a steel merchant and purchased various sizes in BMS round that I couldn't buy here at home, in no time I had measured up and made a new shaft with the extra length needed to support the pulley

next task was to mill a 3/16" wide keyway but alas I didn't have a 3/16" end mill, nor did I have a 3/16" key cutter, anyway a mate owns a very big 'engineering works' locally so for a carton of alcohol he cut the keyway, but I had to wait a bit over a week for the job, stilll cheaper than me buying the tools LOL.
While this was happening I continued working slowly on my project I currently have a good dose of Bronchitis which has slowed me a tad, I set up the brake rigging plates and milled the 1/8" wide slots in them one @ 1/2" in length the other @ 11/16"

it ended up being 0.009" (9thou) too short LOL

the plans for the rigging plate on the tender

it didn't take too long to set up the opposite side and mill the slot @ 11/16" in length

the boiler has been sitting on the bench for a period of time as well, I was waiting on some tools to arrive from O/sea's when they did eventually turn up, I got into reducing the height of all the copper wall stays on the 'Belpaire' they are all now down under the boiler cladding

but I'm waiting on a wooden former that a friend is making so I can form the cladding over, so that job has hit the wall again LOL.
Meanwhile earlier this week I had made arrangements to take my S2A Gunbuggy to Dungog, to have them look at the carburettor (Solex), I had the throttle spindle body rebuilt about 6 months or so back and as I've said before I can pull them apart and put them back together without looking at a book, but I can't tune them, anyway I had the Solex to pieces last week and blew it out with compressed air @ 120psi off my 42CFM compressor, to me it seemed to be running OK but I still wanted them to do something with it.
Early Tuesday morning last I was up early 0600hrs and on the road by 0640hrs, I was dressed for the occassion with a military 'Japara' coat on (wet weather gear) I had only traveled about 2 miles when it started to sprinkle rain but before too long it was raining then it bucketed down all the way to Dungog, I was drenched, here is the little wet truck in the wksp

the image was taken after about 1 hour standing there, but water droplets can be seen on the aero screens, I wasn't looking forward to the 54 mile drive home, and yes I did get wet again, the story with the Solex is that they seem to think the choke assembly is worn out, so I don't what to do about it as yet.
Meanwhile the shaft with it's keyway arrived, so a few thoughts on how to re-assemble it on the bench, using a small amount of 'Loctite' on the bearings and the shaft, I had made the shaft an interference fit but I didn't want it to come loose at some time in the future, anyway it all went together without any fuss

I forgot to mention that I had to cut the drive belt from the head stock to the yoke pulleys, as I didn't want to remove the head stock, I did replace oil seals in there about 20 years ago, and I remembered how heavy it was, so I was on the net looking for 'Brammer' belting, I did find a company in Victoria, they had in stock 'B' size Brammer belting so I paid for 1 meter of it, it duly arrived a few days later, the yoke assembly was offered up into place and went in fairly easy, I had also replaced the pivot shaft that the Yoke was supported on

I started up the lathe and it was quiet, but after releasing the tension on the belt a few times, I noticed that the Yoke was able to move sideways about 3mm or so, so I found a suitable size of Bronze bar, drilled a pilot hole then bored the center to a whisker over 20mm, then parted it off at 3mm, this was then placed between the Yoke and where the pivot shaft came up against it's mount, this now has given the Idler pulley (which was the root cause of the issue) about 4mm clearance from the side of the lathe body

it is now good to know that I have 2 lathes that are at my disposal for any task that might come up in the not too distant future, well at least I know how to cut Imperial threads on my old lathe anyway that's been a peek into the last few weeks, cheers Dennis   

[R704]

Looking fantastic mate.
Just a quick thought on the ash pan door, what if you were to hinge it at the rear. then have a flat bar with a pin off the lower end come up to the cab floor in such an angle that when pulled rearwards would lift the door closed and to drop you push forward?
I'm guessing there would be a similar linkage set up to the rear damper. 
Another important thing to think about is your fire irons and how you intend on cleaning out the ash pan. On the big engines we hose them out. which you could do through the rear damper or even firebox door with the right bend and flatten in a copper pipe on the garden hose.

[DennisM]

Where does the time go, I haven't posted in here for almost 5 weeks, but I do have a legitimate excuse, very busy with all manner of things Steam driven and petrol powered LOL.
April was a big month for all manner of things, Steamfest 2017 in Maitland New South Wales where I went to secondary school (high school) back then I travelled everyday by train the 18 mile journey to and 18 miles home then on my bicycle for the 2 miles home from the railway station, rain cold weather, or stinking hot, boy they were the daze not.,.
Anyway back to the present (well a month ago) up early on the Saturday of Steamfest and off to Maitland by road in my 1984 110 County

I always park about half a mile away and walk down a quiet lane that runs alongside the rail line, it's impossible to get a parking space otherwise, earlier during the weeks leading up to this event I treid to get permission from the organisers to have my Series 1 on display with some other of the other older cars and the odd Land Rover, but I gave up after getting the run around

as I said I was there early and quite a few of the traction/stationery engines were still in the process of getting a head of steam, there were some exhibits from the N.S.W Powerhouse museum in Sydney, they have been restored top notch

and this stationery engine a 'Roby' later in the morning it was running several steam powered items but I wasn't near enough to catch any of the action

there were locomotives taking passengers to various destinations but I didn't bother I just wandered about the site, here is 3642 headed for Paterson

and the 'Tin Hares' powered by AEC diesel engines

steam was everywhere in full size and in scale size as well




a barn find this old jalopy I think it was a Willies 'OverLander' the tyres were replaced 40 years ago
and were still inflated, the chap who bought it is not going to restore it he said, and not even going
 to attempt to start it, which I thought was a bit odd, but I suppose that's what makes the world go around
but I reckon a hour would see it running

my late Dad did his apprenticeship with Albion Motors in Glasgow before WW2, I have always liked british trucks especially
the AEC Matador's 4 x 4,

There was a large photographic display as well, they sorta frowned on people taking images, but I
managed to sneak this one, it shows a Robinson R.O.D pulling a 'mixed goods' away from Cessnock
in about 1962, these locomotives were used by the British Army during WW1 in France, several of them were
purchased by the coal company J.A.Brown and used on the Richmond Railway system here in the Hunter Valley of NSW

it is rumoured that one of the loco's that he bought here to Oz hauled the peace train to sign the treaty of Versaille, but
their is no hard proof of that, all but 3 now survive in varying states of decay, and I forgot to add that on the Wednesday before Steamfest I helped out with the clubs (Lake Macquarie Live Steamers) set up the portable track in the fairground, it took some time to set it up on the ground lots of helping hands make light work.
The following weekend over the Easter break the Lake Macquarie live steam held the 2017 Convention at their track in Edgeworth , I hadn't attended a convention since 1988, but I wasn't disappointed plenty of locomotives from all over Australia, I didn't camp overnight as I'm only 35 minutes away but some club members stayed in their caravans onsite and they lived locally LOL, anyway some images of what was there, here are some in the shunting yard

and here is the 7.25" unloading steaming bay

there were 5 Black Fives in attendance all of them looked fantastic

and I think there was a Green black five as well LOL, I liked this NSWGR 13class loco in 7.25"

this truck was a very neat example of a 'Foden' the present owner didn't build it he bought it off the builder
who was getting on in years and couldn't get on n off it without some difficulty so sadly he sold it

here is a freelance 32class engine, I haven't clue as the what valve gear it was running, it still had some features of the 32
but not many, too each his own I suspect

The next week was a blur for me as the 25th was approaching fast and I had spent too much time doing other
things, I really needed to be checking all the fleet for the 25th, it was full on for my one man band, cleaning checking fluids/oil levels etc, buying fuel and make sure that I put fuel in all of them, I didn't want a repeat of last year where 1 Land Rover ran out of petrol during the parade, very embarrassing to say the least, all vehicles were road tested and made look
very smart for the morning of, so it was up very early for me 0530hrs to move things about here aka "Op Rubic's Cube" my eldest daughter drove up from Sydney the night before, so she wouldn't get held up by city traffic etc, it all went well here they all are lined up waiting for the parade to start

this year I wanted not to be at the service and after the service, sick n tired of people just climbing in n out like they own them and adults unable to control their children who seem to think that they are toys to be climbed on, so I had made arrangements with a mate who has a few acres and I wanted to park them all in a line and shoot them from one of my 2 drones, here are the images from the paddock shoot but first a trial run with 112-501 prior to the day LOL just to be sure

and the line up

and from the ground


Well all that went without a hitch, thanks to my dedicated group of drivers and I can say that I was pleased that it went off without any issues, so it was time to get down n dirty again in the shed, I walked into the area where the loco is on it's stand and walked through a fine spiders web, it doesn't take long for them to reclaim the area.
I had been waiting on a delivery from Chronos model engineering supplies in England, the Imperial sized steel arrived and I set about making the brake rigging for the tender, I have gone as far as I can on the boiler lagging but I'm waiting for a wooden former that my mate Allan is making but he works for himself so it's on the sideline, so not to waste too much time
I have gone into the tender area, what a can of worms LOL

and the bitz

did you notice the 2 small grains of AR2206 powder in the shot LOL, there are so many different brake bits to be made
that I set up my older lathe with a small 4 jaw chuck in the 8" 3 jaw

this was used so I could drill n tap 5BA into the 1/4" square BMS and or turn it down to 0.126" dia to cut 5BA thread on

then use a die to apply the 5BA thread

It was a time consuming task using 3 different machines, thank goodness I fixed the older lathe as it would have taken me a lot longer, here is a 5C collet chuck with a length of material being slotted by a 1/8" slitting saw, it is being held by the shaft with the 5BA thread on it, I can tell you it was slow n steady wins the race and he did,

it can be slow between jobs as things need to be set up using a dial indicator and with my eyesight I need all the help I can get

there were many individual parts to be made such as clevis forks, this one and a few others made from 5/16" square bar

but it was only 1/4" on the opposite side

a myriad of bits to make up the brake rigging, I don't know why I'm doing it as it will not stop the loco anyway, but hopefully it will look bloody 1st class, as at the convention I saw some things that I thought were 2nd rate

all up it took me about a week to make all the items, some had to be silver soldered into place but all in all I'm
happy with the end result

I was getting too many small parts that needed to be put together so out with my 'Bromix' gas torch (cheaper than Oxy/acetylene which I do have 2 full cylinders) this is fine for quick small jobs, like fitting the ends of the bake drag beam

like this

and make them look like this

that way instead of having 12 parts I now only had 4 and couldn't misplace the small ends LOL.
I lifted the tender body off it's frame covered in 20+ years of dust etc although it still looks the part

I like the rows of rivets and still more to be fitted before it will be watertight

but that's not what I focusing on atm, I need to be able to fix the inner frame to the external frame, I went about making a
rivet squeezer, but after many hours it bent on the first rivet, so I had to devise another way of doing this, I still had many 1/16" dia holes to drill, luckily I had marked them out some 30 years ago LOL and I could still see the tiny center dots
here is a shot of the tender frames

and the frames themselves separated n ready for work

drilled using a hand drill with a No 1 center drill

and the rivets fitted but not peened over as yet

the 8 wheel axle set will require setting up in the lathe and cleaning up as they are a tad rusty

I have made the first of the 'horn stays' using the steel from the UK

and this is how they fit to the bogie frame

but they will have to wait until a few other tasks have been performed.
Two weeks ago the garden railway group held a show in Mayfield it was great to see so many models on the elevated track
some good gear there like this $18,000.00 AD60 Garrat in gauge 1 (45mm)

I particularly liked this set up

also on display was a 45mm NSWGR 32class a miniature version of my 5" gauge

 Monday 8th May I worked my last shift as a Registered Nurse
I retired @ 1400hrs on that day after being in the profession for 50 years, so now I can play all day every day in the shed
how ever I want to manage my time with no restraints, well help the good wife with some things as I'm going to need her assistance to help rivet the tender frames LOL, these images were yesterdays efforts

and fitting these 6 x 4BA bolts was no mean feat what a PIA they were

and fitted

anyway that's a brief overview of the last 5 weeks cheers Dennis

[303Gunner]

I had made arrangements with a mate who has a few acres and I wanted to park them all in a line and shoot them from one of my 2 drones, here are the images from the paddock shoot but first a trial run with 112-501 prior to the day LOL just to be sure

and the line up


Two weeks ago the garden railway group held a show in Mayfield.
I particularly liked this set up

They often say scale models "look so lifelike", but your drone shots make the Landies look so Model-like that you could just pick that 88 up and put it on a flatcar behind the Model Series 1!
Great work and another fascinating post. Congrats on your retirement!

[DennisM]

Well, the old saying "time flies when your having fun" it's true, the daze seem to blur into one another,  between working in my shed and a few trips  away up North shooting, where has the time gone.
My 5" gauge engine/tender take all my spare time, I took about half of one day to realise that I need to concentrate on the tender chassis, as it has a plethora of small things that need to be done, so on with the thinking cap and come up with a few solutions, one of them was how to attach rivets when I couldn't swing a hammer, well a rough sketch then I drew it up proper

it took some time to mark it out and make it from scratch, but it works well

the inner frame rails had to have 2 items made and riveted in place, then the inside rails had to be attached to the outside frames, this is where the tool came into it's own and was well worth the effort to make it.
The rear drawbar needed to be finished off to accommodate the hook which I had to make as well, the hole needed to be made 3/8" square and a
5/16" dia hole in the stretcher behind it to take the draw hook

then fabricate the hook

I used what I had at my disposal and found the material needed, here is the bar being cut using a slitting saw in the jaw

part of the way through the job

and I needed 1/2" hex to make a 5/16" UNF nut, I didn't have any, so I cut the hex head off a 5/16" bolt and used that

and the almost finished draw hook just needs to have a spring made, that will happen when I have to make other springs

The chassis had to be relieved at the front draw bar to accommodate the steps up onto the footplate, so it was mounted/clamped on the milling table for this operation, in this image you can see that a small section has to be relieved

on the table to be relieved on the edges

I also had to relieve about 3/32" off the angle frames as well to allow the steps to seat correctly

but all's well that ends well (so to speak LOL) the steps fit like a finger in a glove

I have lots more to upload and I will do so later today, cheers Dennis