Live steam Bagnall loco and other railway stuff

[michael mott]

I have been absent from the forum for a little while because I have been caught up with summer model railway stuff. I have to squeeze past the boat models as i go back and forth to the bench. The garden railway needed some maintenance and well you all know where that leads. I have also needed to spend time in the house with Judy so took up a kitchen table work spot to work on a couple of sculpy figures for the 1/8th scale Montague's Carriage .

Carriage and railway.

 

Which led to trying the live steam loco for the first time, it ran very fast and so i needed to build an inertial wagon to give it something to work against which led to a load of work.

This was the final version of the gear train. and then it needed to be tested.

 

It worked very well and so then needed to be dressed up a bit.

 

Here is a Mars on a test run

So even though I have not been active here I have been busy with model work all the same.

 

Michael

 

Edited June 5, 2019 by michael mott
broken links

[druxey]

Looks like an Emmett locomotive creation invaded by Statler and Waldorf from Sesame Street! What fun.

[michael mott]

Hi Druxey the locomotive is actually modeled after Sipat this an 18 inch gauge loco by Bagnall like these

 

Michael

[popeye the sailor]

very neat little loco Michael    love the video.......showed it to the admiral.    is this a scratch build or from a kit?   your figures are neat too...very life like!

[michael mott]

Hi Dennis, I purchased the loco from Accucraft and then modified it to a larger scale  from 7/8th scale  to 1/10scale

 

Michael

[Jack12477]

Fantastic layout Michael. Loved the video as did my wife.  Beautiful garden. 

[mtaylor]

Beautiful,  I love it.   This is at the "new" place right?   I daresay you have been busy.

[michael mott]

Hi Mark, Yes it is the new place in the city, building the planter and fence last spring was a great deal of work.

 

Michael

[Bob Cleek]

I love live steam ever since I restored an old contemporary model of a Victorian steam yacht. There's so much more available for live steam fans in the railroad stuff than in boat models. I envy the guys with the live steam locomotives. The full-size "Sipet" model loco is really neat. It's prototype was for hauling cane in cane fields and the like, I presume. It must be great fun to run the model around the garden. Thanks for the video!

 

[michael mott]

Hi everyone I am still in railway mode..... it will pass eventually and I will be back at the boats. working on a new live steam boiler at the moment.

Shaping the base of the steam dome with some 220 stuck to the same diameter copper tube 2.875" diameter

 

 

next picture shows the smokebox and boiler in line the flanged front tube plate will act as a register for the smokebox.

 

here is a line drawing of the boiler

 

 

And the running gear

 

 

 

This is the locomotive

 

Michael

 

[michael mott]

I did a second video with the loco pulling Lord Montague's luxury coach

 

Michael

[druxey]

What fun! I like your landscaping as well. Looked like the Hand of God helping the loco to make the grade there! I hope you are having a great summer, Michael.

[michael mott]

Hi Druxey,

Yes overall it is being good, weather could improve it has been cool and wet. Well the Hand of God need to get in there sometimes.

 

Some health challenges in the family but things are improving on that front.

 

Michael

[popeye the sailor]

looks like you have some pruning to do!      wonderful video.  it will be fun to watch you build another....a very cool looking piece  

[michael mott]

Hello everyone, Yes I am still in model engineering mode, I have also had a very busy non modeling summer. The model is like all of the work I do, well  it seems that a good deal of it, is make things for replenishing the scrap box. I have been working on the frames cylinders and valves which included making a few tools along the way to achieve what I wanted. Afew pictures to show that I was not just sitting around drinking Pina Coladas😀

A rebuild of the boiler

 Silver soldering the fire tubes to the smokebox plate and the firebox plate

 

Mr Brown checking the progress on the frames

 

The hornblocks for the wheel bearings

 

 

The wheel bearings as per the originals are split so as to facilitate removal because the wheel will be fixed to the steel axles. the brass ones are just temporary keepers.

 

 

Beginning work on the cylinders these eventually graced the scrap box

 

 

A new set of cylinders was begun from some blanks of 2 inch diameter bronze faced to thickness then rough shaped on the bandsaw.

 

 

The assemblies of the cylinders with the first set of front cylinder covers, more fodder for the box.

 

Making steel hex 1x72 machine screws

 

 

 

Fitting the cylinder guide bars, it was at this point that I decided to remake the front cylinder covers to better reflect the actual cylinders. the next set follows.

 

 

Now a new cutter was needed to make curved recesses

 

After shaping the teeth and hardening the cutter then touching up the cutting edges a test to see how it worked

 

Next the new covers were addressed with the new cutter

 

after a lot of fettling with some rat tail files and slips of emery stuck to thin strips of brass I am happy with the result

 

The top of the cylinders will get a joining plate that will include the inlet and exhaust pipes the valve chamber is common to both cylinders, the motion for the valves is Allen straight valve gear. that is in the future.

 

 

 

 

 I will get back to the Bristol Cutter when my fingers get tired of metal I promise.

 

Michael

 

 

 

 

 

Edited September 28, 2019 by michael mott
editing text

[druxey]

Superb machine work, Michael! However, I thought that that was Mr. Woods in the photo, not Mr. Brown. They do look alike though...

[michael mott]

Ah Yes Druxey, they are first cousins so they would, wouldn't they...

 

Michael

[mtaylor]

It's great to see you back, Michael.  And your project just boggles my mind.   

[GrandpaPhil]

Simply amazing!

[Jim Lad]

Nice to see you posting, Michael - and that's some very nice looking model engineering!

 

John

[michael mott]

A lot of changes since the last entry. A complete rework of the cylinders to better reflect the way the casting looked on the full size loco. this entailed rethinking the whole procedure. First some more flat plate needed to be prepped I used the big bandsaw as this cuts through the brass and bronze like butter.

After the plates were roughed out then the various internal elements were shaped and dry fitted, I wanted to get away from having the front gland bosses removable which of course meant having them fixed to the front plate with solder. I reworked the ones from the other set.

 

Next the top and bottom plates that create the central common steam chamber were shaped because there are a number of large and small masses to be assembles and I am going to be using low pressure  only 35psi I have decided to use a high temp soft solder (Worthington 97/3) it has a melting point of 229c or 444f and I will only be using saturated and not super-heated steam which at 35psi is 142c at the boiler (which will be completely silver soldered)

So I did a test to see how well the Worthington solder flowed and also how it reacted to successive bits being added because I need to solder things together in a definite sequence.  First i soldered the cylinder tube the front plate and the valve block together. The flux for the Worthington is the nicest cleanest flux I have ever used it is like the color and consistency of yogurt and is water soluble the solder capillaried beautifully and after popping the warm not hot block into clean water the part was clean and ready for the next addition. I added the front piston gland boss after cleaning that off I added the two side plates. I made the a bit heavier than the ones that will be on the actual cylinders. at first I put a clamp on the plates to ensure that they didn't move. The clamp fell of as soon as I started to heat up the assembly. Rather than fiddling with putting the clamp back on I proceeded to continue heating I had fluxed all the surfaces that were mating and put a small piece of solder into the corner where the plates and cylinder tube met one on each side. and one piece on each side at the top. As soon as the melt temperature was reached the solder flowed like water and capillaried through the new joints. I needed to replicate the same sequence that i will be using on the large assembly.

 

This is a shot of the main components that form the new cylinder set. The c shaped flange plates do a nice job of holding the lot together while i have been making the various parts. 

 

All of the components to date including the exhaust flange and the steam inlet flange. which are tilted to the vertical by 6.108 degrees 

 

How it will look when the boiler is fitted  but I cannot make the holes through to the smokebox until the cylinders are soldered together and the boiler support flange plates are fitted to the frames.

 

Michael

[druxey]

Sweet engineering, Michael!

[GrandpaPhil]

Incredible!

[Kurt Johnson]

You are the consummate master craftsmen.  I can’t decide which I enjoy more, your models or the tools you create to make them with. I guess there’s no reason to choose is there? Just to enjoy it all. Thanks Michael.

 

Kurt

[michael mott]

Phil, Kurt, that is very kind of you. The interesting thing is that I also make the most unthinking colossal mistakes occasionally and yesterday was one of those days Because of the nature of this part (cylinders) is complex i have been worried about the assembly procedure and the fact that I need the parts to hold pressure in order for the thing to actually work....I haven't even got to the valve timing yet.

So on Monday evening after I had posted my last pictures I went out to the shop to do some shaping of the bottoms of the plates I shaped the bottom curve on the front plate first because I had planned on soldering that first.

 

 

If you look carefully you can see that there is a couple of wedges of bronze silver soldered to the top of the assembly the inside edges need to be filed down to match the cut out yet, I was really pleased with the fix and had spent about an hour preparing for the next set of elements to be soldered to the block. setting up and soldering this had taken the better part of the morning. The first part was to shape the curve onto the bottom because I had the night before put the curve on the top instead of the bottom. I was annoyed with myself for the silly mistake and so fixed it first thing and because the rest was going to be done with the high temp soft solder I decided to silver solder the wedges on. This next picture shows it more clearly

 

It was close to lunch time and Judy came in and I was showing her how it all fitted together because she wanted to know where it fit on the model as I began putting the rest of the parts together holding ithe assembly to slide the flanges on which hols the plates together I realized I had completely screwed up the next picture shows the problem in A the wedges are highlighted, BUT it is upside down!!! B shows that I had not only filed the new shape on the bottom but then filed off the correct curves and rebuilt it to be square  leaving the first error intact. I said a few words loudly that cannot be repeated, and felt absolutely stupid.... how could i have made such a mistake again? Lunch was not spoiled however I was quiet Judy bless her said "you will sort it out" and added "Perhaps because there are so many parts you should put a mark to show up on the different bits"  Good advice for sure. 

 

 

In C you can see where the red lines are that in order to save this work I needed to actually now use this assembled group upside down because I had also soldered the valve block in facing the wrong up side. the block had to be machined to remove the material outlined by the red lines.

 

A bit of fiddling with packing pieces and the deed was accomplished.

 

 

Next I was able to add the top and bottom plates to enclose the steam chamber. I began fitting and checking 3 times before doing any more soldering. The next picture shows the assembly now becoming a substantial block.

 

Before the back plate can be soldered to the assembly I need to make and fit the valve cover plate. I used the rear plate as a guide for drilling the holes in the cover after shaping and fitting the cove into the hole I tacked them together with ACC glue then spotted through all the holes. The holes in the cover will need to be opened up to slide over the studs which will be threaded into the rear plate of the cylinder assembly.

 

I'm getting there! slowly.

 

 

You will notice the felt marker T on the valve cover plate. it is always advisable to follow good advice I think. the next task will be to make and fit the 12 1x72 studs before soldering the plate to the cylinder assembly tapping through holes is so much easier than tapping blind ones.

 

Michael 

 

 

 

 

[michael mott]

I finished the studs they are a bit fiddly to make but I am getting the hang of it. I have also finished the 2 cylinder covers, I glued them into place with some CA glue in order to spot through for the tap drill, first lining up the hole with the clearance drill then changing to the tap drill after spotting the plate.

 

 

finally all the studs are set to the main body and the covers fitted.

 

Had to deal with cleaning up the yard from the cutting down of an old Crab apple tree I kept a couple of large chunks to billet up and dry slowly but the rest I gave to my friend who helped me cut the tree down. I was so busy I did not take any pictures.

 

so popped the cylinder set into the chassis for safekeeping till the yard is cleaned up of all the rotten squashed crab apples and the trimmings.

 

 

That's it for today

 

Michael

 

 

[Kevin]

what a lovely fantastic project

[Kurt Johnson]

Mike, 

When I was very young (1950’s) I used to devour my father’s Mechanic’s Illustrated and Popular Science magazines over and over until they fell apart. Reading all your threads brings back those moments. Thanks. I always take great pleasure in anyone doing something that they are really a master at. I always think of the bazillion small steps it required to get there. The main problem with you is you are the Master at so many things! Thanks again for sharing all of your talents with us. 
 

Kurt

[druxey]

It's like the articles I used to see in Model Engineer when I was a kid! Nice save and beautiful machine work.

[Mike Y]

Fantastic project! And the garden