Thread: GNR Stirling Locomotive

Hi All,

The last week I have been working on the brake system on the tender.

For the brake shoes I thicknessed down some 19mm pine to 14mm to suit the width of the running wheel "tyre" that sits on the track. I then cut the slot in the shoes by centering the cut down pine and running through the table saw. I drew up one brake shoe and then did 5 copies and the glued the drawing onto the timber. Cut out using scroll saw and the sanded smooth. The hangers were cut out of 3mm plate aluminium.

The hangers needed 10mm spacers sit proud of the chasis and to align the shoe onto the wheels.

The connecting rod is 4mm mild steel rod. The joiners (couplings) I made out of 6.3mm aluminium bored each end to suit the 4mm rod. These are joined to the bottom of each hanger by drilling the coupling with a 3mm hole and then securing with a 3mm setscrew and nut with a 7mm long aluminium spacer for each hanger.

The biggest hassle was getting the hangers and shoe in the correct position so that the connecting rod looks straight along the whole length of the tender.

Kevin - or some-one else may be able to answer a question I have (haven't been able to find out). Do you know why the brakes on the main locomotive are on the leading side of the wheel - whilst the tender has the brakes on the trailing side of the wheels ? Intriguing !!!

Regards

Keith

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So nice mate. The detail is wonderful. You're really nailing the proportions

Keith, the shoes are probably positioned depending on where the cylinder or hand brake pillar is so the rods are in tension. If the rods are compressed they might bend.
The brakes on the tender could well be hand operated with the hand brake pillar on the front of the tender, so it just works that the shoes are on the trailing side with the engine going forward. The brakes on the engine portion could well be steam or vacuum operated and it will depend on where the cylinder and rigging is.
At Puffing Billy, the NA engines have the shoes on the front side of the drivers, the brake cylinder being under the cab on the left side. The engines travel an equal amount in forward and reverse, so half the time the shoe is on the leading side, the other half the trailing side.

Thanks for passing on your excellent knowledge Kevin - most appreciated

Regards

Keith

The tender running gear is taking shape a treat keith

Hi All,

It's been slow work working on the tender.

I made up the cabin access steps using MDF as the backing and 10mm Aluminium angle as the steps. I reversed the angle at the top to give a connection point to the sub base of the tender chasis. The steps are secured with 5 minute araldite and then riveted with cutoff spiral nails. These nails are then araldited into position as well.

The tender sides are 6mm MDF and the stand out centre is 3mm MDF. Again the rivets are cut down spiral nails. The hand rail access to the cabin is made from 4mm mild steel rod.
The tender is internally framed using 19mm thick pine that I have cut to 10mm wide.
The framing will not be seen as this is where the coal bunker and water tank will be fabricated.

Still need to fill some of the joins with bodyfiller and then another coat of primer.

I am going to use quad around the top of the tender to give the curved aspect of the top. This will be a bit testing as there needs to be a fair bit of hand planing and shaping to get it correct.

Slow work but pretty happy how its looking.

Regards

Keith

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It just gets BETTER and BETTER and, no doubt, HEAVIER and HEAVIER!
You'll soon need to organise a forum get together to move it inside?
fabulous work, fletty

Fletty,

Thanks mate

Not that heavy (there is a lot of hot air inside it from my cursing) The good thing is the tender and loco are separate entities (unlike the Tank loco I made that was really heavy)

Should be able to move it around - fingers crossed

Regards

Keith

Hi All,

Continuing to work on the tender.

I have made up the retainer wall for the access to the coal. The wall was made out of MDF. All the angle iron stays are made of aluminium angle and there are heaps of rivets in this tender. All are spiral nail heads.

I have made the water tank frame out of Tassie Oak and Radiata Pine.

The water filler and cap I cheated a bit - I used an old Goldfish flakes container for the main body and made the flange out of 3mm MDF. The flange is glued to a pine insert I made and then the join has been smoothed off using bodyfiller.

All the "steel" sheeting of the tank is made from 3mm MDF. As I said lots of rivets in this part of the tender.

The top of the tender is removable from the tender chasis. This is so I can paint it at a later stage. To do this I had to make up 6 studs in the top section of the tender. I used bodyfiller to cement these in. It is not only a simple task of removing 6 nuts to disconnect the top of the tender from the tender sub frame.

Next will be some metal turning to make up the tender manual brake assembly control lever at the front of the tender.

Regards

Keith

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I thought there might be something fishy with this build.
While I do not like to criticize, the baffles in the water tank do not look right.
This build is riveting and your work looks first class as always.

Hi Kevin,

Thanks for your comments.

Based on what I could find (and that is very little on the tender - some photos and a few line drawings. Also found some details on 5 inch Live Steam models ) this is what I could come up with. Very interested in what you can suggest improvements as I would change accordingly. - or are you talking about the internal framework and the outside "steelwork" and shape looks OK ???

Regards

Keith

Looks so good mate. Really taking shape. Do you plan on putting a load of coal onboard?

Steve,

Thanks for your comments.

Will most definitely have a load of coal. In previous builds of locos I have found that if I soak scoria (need to pick out the correct sizes for the scale of loco being built ) in black acrylic paint watered down to 50% paint 50% water and left to soak for a week (agitated daily so the paint stays in solution) , it really gets into the scoria and looks like black coal - although it takes quite a few days to dry. This will again be what I am doing for this locomotive.

All the Best mate

Regards

Keith

Originally Posted by Keith_1

Hi Kevin,

Thanks for your comments.

Based on what I could find (and that is very little on the tender - some photos and a few line drawings. Also found some details on 5 inch Live Steam models ) this is what I could come up with. Very interested in what you can suggest improvements as I would change accordingly. - or are you talking about the internal framework and the outside "steelwork" and shape looks OK ???

Regards

Keith

The baffles are part of the frame work in the water tank so will not be seen when completed. The comment was completely tongue in cheek as your frame work would be for end result, not on the actual prototype.