New build 5" Gauge 15xx class loco "Speedy"

[34053]

Thanks for the Update, Dougs; keep 'em coming!

(Look forward to seeing any pics you may have of your 'practice running' yesterday).

PW

[Dougs]

At last progress the cylinders are back and machined


Time to get back at it been making lots and lots of plans and getting new parts so I have a lot of work building up

[34053]

It's looking good, Dougs.

PW

[Dougs]

Quite a bit of progress to report,
After the cylinders arrived back I wanted to get the front of the loco fixed up so it will be ready for the valve gear etc. so I built up the smoke box saddle that's the bracket that supports the front of the boiler and the big bit with the door at the front.

It needed brazing together and machining to size

Fitted to the front


Then I got on to the brake hangers they hold the brake blocks and require a lot of maching I have got them half completed


More to come soon

[34053]

Thank you for your latest Report, Dougs. Progress is looking good.

PW

[Minty4371]

Nice report on progress.

[Dougs]

Quite a lot of progress which has included getting a lot of materials ordered for new jobs
The pipes bent and ready to make the blast pipe(exhaust)

And the valve sleeves

That lot will keep me occupied for a while yet
Anyway on with the brakes
The brake hanger trial fit

And then on to machining them again they are quite complex and have taken a lot of machining

And in progress

And complete at last two of them have been bead blasted I liked the look of the as it removed the machining marks so I have now blasted all of them

Then onto the brake shoes, drilling the bracket that holds them

And all cut up ready to be final machined

That's all for now thanks for looking

[Spitfire]

God I'm so jealous - I love what you are doing and only wish I had half quarter eighth sixteenth 32nd of the skill/patience/tools/machinery you have

It looks absorbing and I'm fascinated ...

[Dougs]

God I'm so jealous - I love what you are doing and only wish I had half quarter eighth sixteenth 32nd of the skill/patience/tools/machinery you have

It looks absorbing and I'm fascinated ...

now i wish i had more of that. The hangers have taken a couple of weeks to machine and TBH i was getting very bored doing them. However now i see them finished, it all feels like it was worth the effort. The biggest thing building one of these is having the patience to do the job right, its so easy just to say that is good enough, or rush the job to try and see the end result. Taking time over the parts is without doubt the right thing to do and with careful planning you dont end up running out of skill before you run out of metal.

[Dougs]

Bit of progress today got a full day machining the brakes and the result is 5 out of 6 got five of the brakes finished

And the finished product

[34053]

You have certainly been busy whilst I've been away, Dougs! Thanks for your latest Update. Brilliant stuff Really looking good.

PW

[Dougs]

Ok things have been changing a bit on the train front, I have hit my stride and not been rushing about, just doing bits when I feel like it. I have stopped the train driving as it's taking up too much time and causing me to do a lot of maintenance on butch which again has been slowing down my speedy build "o the irony of the name" anyway after building the brakes which took me two weeks of time consuming machining I decided to update my machines a bit, after all it's only a bit of handwheel turning and it's far too boring to be taking up my time so I decided I am going to build a CNC machine for the non engineering types that's a computer controlled milling machine, this will allow me to build parts much quicker as I can set it off and go do something else while it cuts the metal for me. A good example of this is the brakes I just made that took two weeks could be made in a day or two. So I am converting my little miller, the first job is to move it onto a better stand (it will be a lot more messy so can't be left on my work bench)
The area all cleared ready

And a simple metal stand for it to sit on

I welded a couple of support bars on the top

I got a bit of a nasty shock off the welder it's an old oil filled one and the oil is no longer any good so I have another job to do and fix it,I recon it's from the 50/60's and as good a welder as you could get.

Anyway a trial fit of the base of the miller

And the miller completely moved and drip tray added

I have a lot of bits on order for building it all up it will slow my train build down an awful lot but it will be so worth it in the end and I can make lots of bits I could not even dream of making before like gears and fancy 3D milled parts etc.

[34053]

Thank you for the Update and Report, Dougs. Yes, it will definitely be an advantage in the end to make the components quicker. Oh the wonders of 'modern technology'.

PW

[Dougs]

ok a bit of an update
i have been very very busy finishing off hte CNC machine and getting speedy parts built so what have i been doing?
building the CNC machine

just about complete

and the head all finished up

i then tried a bit of cnc engraving for my dad's old boat

with the machine built and a test completed i got on with making parts
first job was a simple pair of flanges for the exhaust

then someone mentioned it would be a good idea to use orings so back on the CNC it went and i cut the grooves

i then silver soldered it all together

i then made an adapter for the "blast pipe" which is a nozzle that blows the steam up the chimney

and finally all bolted up

it was then back on the lathe to make the vavle sleeves for the cylinders

this was not tottaly sucsessful as my lathe lacks power which this job needed lots of
so i finished the holes off on my grandads lathe which is much bigger

i then finished off the detail turning on my lathe so now i just need to mill them to finish them off

i now have most of the metal i need on order so once i get it all in i should be able to finish off the cylinders,having a CNC machine now meens i can do the detail work i want to on the loco so it will end up looking alot better for it. i will be remaking quite alot of parts in the comming months to make it even better than it already was so i am quite excited at whats now possible.

[34053]

Many thanks for the Update, Dougs. Wondered what you had been 'up to' since your last Report. Very impressive!

PW

[Dougs]

Exciting times although i took a good amount of "time out" to build my CNC its paying off now as the parts are getting made quicker than i could ever have imagined, I have machined both rear cylinder end caps (these were going to be very tricky before i got my CNC machine) they took about 6 hours on the machine but only about half an hour from me checking on them.



in just a few hours I will have them compleated and i can get the pistons made, this will lead quickly to assembly and a running chassis as almost all the other parts are already made. so depending on my spare time availibility i should be able to get it running this year as i had hoped.
just for those that dont know what this part is;

[34053]

Thanks Dougs. You are getting on really well. Very impressive!

PW

[Dougs]

quite a bit of progress but i am taking my time as this bit is very tricky and there are lots of errors in the drawings so i am having to be a bit prototypical and do my own thing.
a plan for making a seal for the piston rod this is the mk3 version and has been revised again since.

drilling and tapping the cylinders has been a bit of a pain as there are lots of holes all have to be acurate to less than 0.5mm and bolts made to suit.

worth it in the end for the result; the cylinder covers are all on now

and the piston rods and links are almost ready to go in here is a mockup to check clearances etc

wont be too much longer (a month or two) and i will get to see it moving under power

[34053]

That's a another major 'milestone' reached with the completion of the cylinders, Dougs. All coming together nicely now

PW

[Dougs]

That's a another major 'milestone' reached with the completion of the cylinders, Dougs. All coming together nicely now

PW

yes its getting quite near to getting moving under power and alot of fun to build as well, i am in awe of the power this loco will have the cylinders are the same size as fitted to alot of the bigger loco's like the GWR mannor class and the Castle class loco's, so in scale this is also true it is only held back be a poor valve system which is a design error that is well known about on this model. however i doubt it will be significant enough to notice.
i can see why some guys get to building alot of these things as once you know what to do its great fun. I will definately build another one, i wanted to build a big loco like the converted merchant navy class (sir keith park) etc. however there is as far as i can see only one sorce of plans and parts its called Ariel and is in 5" scale this is unfortunately too big for my machines (speedy has been a big step too far in scale) i cant afford to buy bigger kit about £5k worth for what i would need+ tooling so thats out of the qurestion. but I can go down in size to 3.5" and the options there are really good, Black 5, V2, Britania, Castle class, P2 and even the mighty 9F the good thing about this size is it fits the equipment i have and the parts are significantly cheaper (although now i have a CNC machine i dont need to buy many/any castings)
I am getting more and more hooked on details as well so once i have Speedy built (defined by having it running on a track) i will probably spend a year or two of adding details like(toolboxes, lamps, scale steamfittings hooks and eye bolts etc.) as a hobby there are just no boundries really it is only held back by what you can imagine once you have the right machines.
two years ago i would not have been able to tell you one end of a loco from another now i can identify alot of them from just little parts funny i never had myself down as an anorack wearing train spotter
you never know one day i might even get to build a scale plane. now thats one thing i would love to build.... dare i say it a Spitfire.

[34053]

Yes, you've done extremely well Dougs, and learned a lot along the way as well, I'm sure. All good experience. Would be fantastic if you did take on the construction of a 'Bulleid' Pacific (similar to 34053 'Sir Keith Park'). Now that really would be something!

PW

[Dougs]

Yes, you've done extremely well Dougs, and learned a lot along the way as well, I'm sure. All good experience. Would be fantastic if you did take on the construction of a 'Bulleid' Pacific (similar to 34053 'Sir Keith Park'). Now that really would be something!

PW

wow there is some movement on that front i have discovered theat there are plans for a 3.5" Bullied
it is going to be a task to track down but i am getting determined to find it and build it. i have a couple of years to get the plans together for it so its now looking doable. what i have found so far,
"Pamela - Freelance version of a rebuilt M.N. - 3.5" gauge A freelance version of a Southern Pacific described in Model Engineer desiged by LBSC published by M.A.P. ? 1950"
and;
"Pamela (L.O. 73), 3.5 in gauge 4-6-2 locomotive and tender of free-lance design. (Vols102-104). Has outside piston-valve cylinders and Walschaert valve gear. The boiler is of the wide-firebox type. 11 sheets of plans"

[34053]

Sounds like a Plan, Dougs.

PW

[Dougs]

Yes it's super rare LBSC or "Curly Laurence" is very famious in the model loco world and designed Speedy he designed a lot of loco's and most are very popular however the 3.5" converted merchant navy class (he named the model Pamela) seems to have dropped down the back of the sofa so to speak. I can see the details I posted above but you can't buy the plans any more which seems very odd considering they usually sell for about £60 not bad for ten mins work on the photocopier this does make me more convinced I should track a set down and I can have a look at my grandfathers collection of model engineer magazines see what the serialisation of the build is like I may not need the drawings. Obviously there are no castings either but this may not be a problem as the castings might well be common to other loco's and I can CNC parts from solid now as well.

[Dougs]

Getting quite a lot done on my loco I have got the first piston completed

It is definitely getting there
No whistle yet tho I am afraid