Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Boiler Cradle


Boiler Cradle
Originally uploaded by Phil_Parker.

First up, thanks to Andrew Sturmey for setting me right on Garratt nomenclature. I now know that the part I've just built is the boiler cradle. It's always nice to understand what you are working on !

Anyway, dropping the boiler in is easy enough. Once it had been soldered to the firebox, the resulting part sat slightly too low in the frames - until I assembled the smokebox saddle. This is a bit fiddly as you are fixing little bits of metal to big ones making the solder a bit less cooperative than normal. In the end I build the saddle up as a unit, tacked it in place and then heated things to make the joints nice and neat - when the previously assembled parts separated again !

A bit of fiddling soon sorted this. The only other problem was that the pivot had to be filled down to allow the flat plate in front of the smokebox, location of which is assisted by a series of half etched lines, to sit in place.

The firebox was soldered through the cab front - a large hole is provided for this. A touch at the top made doubly sure nothing would move.

Finally the grate and ashpan was fitted to the bottom. This means the unit no longer sits down and has to be supported by a couple of boxes until the power units are ready. The chimney and dome are currently sat in place as it give me childlike pleasure to see them there. Fixing can't be that far away though.

Update: Apparently this bit should now be called the boiler unit. It's only the cradle before the boiler is fitted. Jargon - you've got to love it !

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