Saddle tank and boiler

Saddle tank and boiler
Originally uploaded by Phil_Parker

I seem to be coming at this locomotive from all directions at present. Normally I'll get the chassis running and then do the body. This time the project has to advance on all fronts simultaneously so I can check that everything goes together. This is turning into a scratch rather than kit build so there are no guarantees.

Anyway, as the footplate is ready, I can try and support the saddle tank in the right place. First I made up a piece for the smokebox. This is nearly as wide as the tank and has curved sides. Soldering this to the bottom of the tank carefully left no visible join. The smokebox door will mostly cover this area anyway.

At the back a temporary support went. Actually I had meant to leave it in position to give the all-important tiny gap between the tank and cab front. This would have been fine except that the hole in the front of the can is bigger than the spacer I made !

Anyway, it did the job and everything looked promising. I had to grind a little out of the tank bottom to slip the motor in but nothing major.

The cab front is of course wider than required, but if I took 2mm out of the middle this solved the problem with the added benefit of moving the spectacle plate into as near the correct position as made not difference. Inside the cab the join is braced with a bit of wire that I kid myself looks a bit like the internal framing of the real thing. If I file it flat it will anyway...

The boiler comes courtesy of K&S Metals - a suitable bit of tube chopped (OK, carefully split with the piercing saw, I've only broken two blades so far on this model which I think is a record) into half length ways and then a chunk taken out of the bottom to get the motor in. If I'd had the lathe set up still I might have tried turning the tube before alteration to put some boiler bands in - I'll stick some plastic strip ones on instead. You can barely see it under there anyway.

I think this concludes the most difficult part of the build. With this unit made up I'm confident this model will work and all I have to do is finish the cab, add some detail, make the rest of the chassis up, build the cylinders, paint the thing, and work out how to do the nameplates.