12" Barclay - Swanscombe

Well, it took longer than I expected but I've finally finished the Barclay Steam Locomotive, a model of "Swanscombe". In the metal, it looks really nice and the colours, copied from the prototype sit very well.

As a project, well it was more effort than expected but hugely enjoyable. The only parts from the 14" Mercian kit that didn't need modification were the front buffer beam and cab roof. Having said this, it was still a lot easier to start with the kit than to scratchbuild the model from raw metal. Looping off a few mm from the side of the tank or centre of the cab front is much simpler than trying to mark out the curves and cut them accurately.

The photographic name plates are surprisingly effective too. OK so etched ones would be a little better but if these weren't an option I could live with them so perhaps I will for a future model.

In the cab, the owner poses holding the regulator. The bunkers are filled with welsh steam coal and things are pretty spic and span for a mucky little loco. But then this is a well loved machine with no dirty to been seen anywhere. Perhaps for a layout some gentle weathering would be nice but a loco with a strong colour doesn't demand this IMHO than a black one.

All in all a nice little engine.

Nameplates

Nameplates
Originally uploaded by Phil_Parker

The Barclay needs name plates. Many steam locomotives do and there is a huge (in model railway terms) industry producing them Go to many railway exhibitions and there will be a stand or two where the keen modeller can spend hours leafing through boxes full of tiny bits of etched brass trying to locate the details for a particular engine.

Sadly, when you build something unusual like an industrial engine, none of these boxes are going to have the name you want in there unless you are very lucky. I am not very lucky.

Lead time for producing custom etched plates is, I am told, about 9 months. That's about 8 1/2 months more than I had to produce the model, so an innovative solution was needed. In the past I've made up the odd nameplate using very small plastic letters. That's OK'ish but not really good enough for this model. Chatting about the problem in my local model shop someone suggested making them up on the computer.

Well I suppose I could do something from scratch but replicating the colour of the brass seemed difficult. Then it struck me - I had photos of the prototype plates, what would these look like reprinted to the correct size ?

The first problem was that the pictures weren't taken at right angles to the plates. Paintshop Pro enabled me to use some geometric manipulation to adjust the perspective and "flatten" the image. The results were then pasted into a DTP package (PagePlus) and re sized as required. I knocked these out in several variations and then printed the results on some semi-matt paper.

This looked OK so using, as they say in the magazines, a sharp scalpel blade I chopped out the plates from the sheet. The edges were blackened with a permanent pen and stuck in place with PVA.

Eventually a proper, etched set of plates will arrive but in the meantime these look pretty good.

Chassis completion

Gearbox
Originally uploaded by Phil_Parker

Hooray for Branchlines ! One phone call and the next day I had a shiny new gearbox suitable for the Barclay locomotive chassis. It's nice to deal with a trader who knows his stuff - you can't just plonk anything you like in a model such as this. The main problem is that the wheels are so small that many final drives are larger than them. We ruled out anything with Romford gears on this basis straight away. A two-stage 'box would have been nice but the space in the saddle tank wouldn't allow this. Finally the width of the frames knocked out one of the other options. So for a tenner I had a little packet with a cradle, bearings and gears.

The 'box was quickly made up and slotted in the chassis but to be honest I still wasn't happy. After an hours tinkering I simply couldn't get things working to my satisfaction. It was no good, I had to take the plunge and start again. Everything that could be unscrewed, was. The slide bars came off to release the cross heads, the cylinders were unsoldered and finally the spacers came off the frames.While there didn't seem to be a problem I discarded the bearings too - if you are going to do a job, do it properly.

Out came the chassis jig and the whole process began again. One change was to use long (high top hat if you prefer) bearings point out at the front end. I could file these back to save using spacer washers. Anything to make reassembly easier !

I honestly can't see what I did differently this time but it must have been something as the MK II chassis was freer than before. OK, so I checked running at every stage but the result is much nicer.

Brakes for this model are a bit of a fudge. I think they are Gibson 03 diesel ones but it's difficult to see in the photos what the differences are and the shoes and hangers certainly look the part. I had to sacrifice the brake roding as it was this or electrical pickups - and I think the later are a bit more important !

Finally, painting. The rods, crossheads and slide bars are all red on the prototype with a bit of black trimming. This looks fine on the model but does gum up some of the joints a touch. Plenty of running in will wear the surfaces just right and a thrash on the rolling road seemed to help. Hopefully the new owner will exercise the model a bit, this is one where running in will pay dividends. I'm sure this won't be a hardship !

Painting progress

Satin painted Barclay
Originally uploaded by Phil_Parker

Jobs done:
Handrails - black
Footplate - black
Springs - black
Clack valves and pipework - black
Safety valve - black with red detailing
Spectacle rims - cleaned back to brass
Lamp irons - white
Buffer beams - red (4 coats !)

Finally, the whole thing received a coat of satin varnish. With relief I noted that the blue paintwork now looks a whole lot less toy-like. In fact this model locomotive is looking pretty nice. I rarely paint a steam engine blue as they often look awful but perhaps because of the industrial prototype, this looks really nice. Mind you, it's a much brighter blue than I would have ever dared to use. If there hadn't been a photograph to guide me I suspect I'd have gone for a much darker shade.

Next up is the painting of anything that should have a matt finish - chimney, smokebox, cab interior and buffers for example.

Barclay in primer and paint

Barclay in primer
Originally uploaded by Phil_Parker

With work on the gearbox stalled attention shifts back to the body. One thing I am confident in is that the mechanism will go in here - so with no more work required, I can lay on some paint. This is a long process anyway as there is a lot of waiting for things to dry. Either that or lots of fixing things because you should have waited for them to dry and now have finger marks !

A coat of Eastwoods etching primer unified the model and allowed me to look objectively at it. There were a couple of minor areas to be touched up especially on the back bufferbeam which needed a touch of filler. Mostly though I think I get away with it. Sharp eyed readers will notice I haven't masked the slide bars or rods very well - that's not laziness on my part, the prototype has red paint on these parts.

Painting threw up another challenge. The real steam engine is blue. A blue described as "Oxford" but sadly not the same colour as the Oxford blue in the Humbrol range. The colour appears to fall somewhere between numbers 14 and 15 with more 14. Of course in the photos light effects make it difficult to get an exact match and even if I could, this probably wouldn't look right in miniature due to the effects of atmosphere on our vision. Generally colours have to be a shade or two lighter when shrunk. There is science to work this sort of thing out properly but I have neither the time nor brainpower to understand it properly, and am not convinced it would make a big difference if I could.

So a mix of the two colours was made up and compared to the pictures. When happy I sprayed a coat all over the model. After a dust free overnight drying session, I think I might get away with it. The gloss finish is horrible (and always is on models as millions of diecast cars attest) but some satin varnish once the bufferbeams are painted will fix this. I also forgot to paint the sandboxes (they are seperate to make under boiler painting easier) but will do these with a brush later today.

Of course I'm not discounting the possibility that once varnished this locomotive isn't going in the paint stripper so I can have a second go. Having missed the deadline I will use the extra time to get a better finish. Or go mad in the attempt.

Chewed Gear

Chewed Gear
Originally uploaded by Phil_Parker

Sods law strikes again. I am trying to build this locomotive in a hurry and just when I think everything is finally going swimmingly I encounter a fundamental but rare problem. Model railway gearboxes have been around since the 1990's and by now are usually pretty good. Of course the gears themselves have existed since the beginning of time - archaeologists have unearthed many examples of "Romfordsauras", dinosaurs 72 times smaller than others with brass teeth and worm tails - and while there have been may of indifferent quality, modern manufacturing means a mesh is generally achievable with care.

I think these gears are from Ultrascale and they seemed OK when first installed. Thinking no more of it I pressed on and added the wheels and rods.

What followed were many hours of fiddling to try and get some decent running. Oil and grease on the various running surfaces seemed to help but only for a short while. I also noticed that the centre of the steel worm gear was discolouring - a strip appeared across it that first looked like rust but on inspection was brass swarf. Initially this was put down to normal bedding in but as you can see from the photo this was worse than I thought.

Checking where the tight spot was I wondered if I was experiencing a rare problem mentioned in Rice's chassis book - the grub screw on the axle was making the brass gear slightly oval. In desperation I whipped out the axle (not for the first time, practise was making me good at this unfortunately) and filled a flat in it so the screw could act as a "key".

At first I thought I'd fixed the problem but as the day progressed it became obvious that I hadn't. The gears seemed to be fine when run on their own but put a load on, such as the wheels, and they wouldn't self start. I could get things running by tweaking the wheels with my fingers but as soon as the power was reversed I had to tweak again. That's not what you want on a layout !

So, I need a new set of gears. My impression is that I had a set with duff, soft brass or a poor tooth profile. Time to hit the phone and see how quick I can get something delivered.

Chassis with waggly bits

Chassis with waggly bits
Originally uploaded by Phil_Parker

Yesterday I got some goodies in the post - the proper wheels for the Barclay steam locomotive. OK, I had a set of wheels already and they were the right size but the number of spokes was wrong apparently. Since the person this model is destined for will know about these things I'd better get this right.

Barclay loco wheels are unusual, the spokes have a flat face and look very different from the delicate thin ones found on most engines. Apparently there is a shortage of the model versions at present so I assume that a lot of you out there have Barclays on your own workbench - if that's the case I hope these notes are helping you !

Anyway, the wheels went in easily enough as did the motion bracket after laminating and a little filing where it passes through the chassis, much easier than opening up the slots.

Too allow for prototype variations the kit includes two sets of cylinders, 3 sets of con rods (although I couldn't tell the difference between them) and 3 sets of slide bars. I also had 3 sets of cross heads to work with - this choice was easy as the cast nickel ones are the nearest to the right colour.

Having picked the nearest cylinder etch and decided it didn't seem to matter a jot which slide bars I went for, construction started. The cylinder folds up and the bars are doubled and fitted making sure the crosshead slides all the way (I've been caught out with this bit before) without falling out. Mating the unit up with the bracket showed that the cylinder needs to be packed 1.5mm from the chassis side - unsurprising as this is a OO model, EM gaugers wouldn't need to do this although where they would get the clearance behind the crosshead is a mystery to me.

At this point I found an old problem reared it's ugly head - Romford crank throws. The scale rods are fine if you have scale throw. On these wheels the crossheads try to exit through the bracket. Normally (engineers and finescale modellers look away now) I just open the hole at the driving wheel end up a bit to allow some slop but here I think I'll do the job properly and use up some of the spare rods and make new ones.

More detailing

Detailed locomotive body
Originally uploaded by Phil_Parker

Another big step - soldering finished, now it's time for superglue !

No goes the smokebox door complete with it's nice brass dart. The casting, as usual, took a bit of flattening down on the rear face just to make sure it fitted properly. No whitmetal casting will sit perfectly without this, but a big file, some emery paper and a few seconds work are all that is required.

The chimney sits OK in it's newly drilled hole. The half-etched metal needed treating with care as it bend easily. The locating spigot was pretty chubby too - so fat that with the limited depth available I could get a reamer of suitable size in and had to revert to needle files. The gap filling properties of the glue tided up the slightly ragged bottom flange as much as required.

2mm plasticard wasn't quite thick enough for the dumb buffers but a couple of layers look about right. The same material provided the wooden backs to the beams.

This is one really detailed model. Inside the cab I've cobbled together enough to look OK. Again the castings are larger than I'd like but building a perfect representation would take a couple of days that I don't have and to be honest the improvement would be marginal and not worth it.

Detailing starts

Detailing starts
Originally uploaded by Phil_Parker

Since the last post I've built a cab back from scratch, the supplied one has a hole in it whereas this prototype doesn't, and fitted the roof in position. So far apart from the buffer beams, every single bit of the 14" Barclay locomotive kit has had to be altered to make the 12" version. More work than I had expected but it's actually quite fun.

Detailing kicks off with the handrails. The worst of these are the ones on the saddle tank sides. I marked a centre line along the tank and then guestimated the position of the first handrail using the photos. A scrap of paper was then marked up with the distance from centre to handrail and used to transfer the dimensions to all points that required them. A ruler wouldn't work here as you would have to wrap it around the curve.

Unsurprisingly the supplied safety valve is a couple of mm too tall but being cast brass proved reasonably easy to modify. The top part was cut from the base and shortened. The base itself lost some height too as well as an extra fitting not seen in the photos. Then the base was soldered to the tank followed by the to, all using a resistance soldering unit for a neat finish. One thing that surprised me was how long these tiny casting held heat - ow !

The tank filler is a spares box leftover suitably modified. This marks a special moment, I'm soldering whitemetal and not brass which means the end is in sight for the body at least.

Finally the cab steps. For some reason this isn't my favorite job on any loco but I get to do something different here. I don't know what was going on when these were fitted in real life, possibly extra step was required for a shunter to stand on while travelling, but this steam loco didn't leave the factory with anything like this. Some strips of nickel silver did the job here with dimensions gleaned from photos. It was only after the first one went on I realised that I'd made it too long as there is a lump of wood at the back of these buffers. Oops.

Barclay Cabside

Barclay Cabside
Originally uploaded by Phil_Parker

With the main sub-assemblies soldered together I get to make this beast look a bit more like a steam locomotive.

The cab sides needed 1mm taking off the bottom but otherwise were ready to use. Sadly it seems that Barclay didn't see fit to rivet the sides of 14" locos so I had to mark the positions for this detail as best I could and try to keep the lines straight while punching rather than folloowing a nice set of half etched markers as is normally the case. Then I removed a couple and solder ed on the flat strip that is half etched with rivets for cab beading.

To make the job manageable the two vertical lines of rivets by the handrails have been reduced to one - I'm not convinced the metal would have take the two rows so close together (1mm separation) without distortion. As it was I ended up tweaking everything flat after the session in the punch.

And the bits above the cab to support the roof - each had a bit of scrap etch fitted to the back otherwise there is no way I'd have kept them, this straight !

Springs

Springs
Originally uploaded by Phil_Parker

The Barclay locomotive springs are mounted above the footplate and as such make a big contribution to the "look" of the model. As supplied the rather nice lost wax casting are a bit chunky (the 14" loco obviously weighs more than the 12" so it has bigger springs) but I don't have time to find replacements or make a master and cast some resin ones. Some judicious filing helps quite a bit however so I think I'll get away with them.

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.

Motor in chassis

Motor in chassis
Originally uploaded by Phil_Parker

Since the model is supposed to work I decided that I'd better work out a way of cramming a motor into this tiny steam locomotive. A Mashima is supplied but when I tried it in the chassis it turned out to be too tubby to fit between the frames. In some locos this wouldn't be a problem, either you trim a little of the frames or better still, fit a two-stage gearbox to raise it up above them. With such a tiny model neither looked that promising - motors appearing in cabs are bad enough, poking out of the top of the tank is definitely a no-no !

Rooting around in my stock of bits I found a smaller motor (1015 I think) which seems much more appropriate. A quick look with it sat on the plan seemed to indicate that I could mount it vertically to be as hidden as possible. Best of all it had the same shaft as it's corpulent cousin so the gears and box could still be used.

With the 'box made up and fitted in place another check with the plan showed my initial impression was correct. The saddle tank fitted and with the correct gap between footplate and tank bottom there even appears to be a little space above the cut-off shaft.

Talking of the footplate, this is another part that has been slimmed down. 2 millimetres along the centre line. The body retaining nuts and buffer beams strengthen this up. I supposed it might have been better to make a new piece up here but I enjoy the challenge of re-working the kit parts.

Barclay saddle tank construction

Tank former
Originally uploaded by Phil_Parker

A 12" Barclay steam locomotive is smaller in all directions than it's 14" brother. It seems I'll be altering quite a lot of the parts supplied in the kit !

The saddle tank is about 2mm narrower (in 4mm scale) and slightly shorter and lower. I had a couple of options to achieve this. First Trevor has sent me a cast whitemetal tank which should be reasonably easy to modify - the height is right at the sides but sadly the top is curved very differently.

This returns me to the etched version. Consistency is the key so the three inner formers were tack soldered together and then narrowed as required. Then the curved corners were reinstated with a file. That done the parts were separated again with a gas torch and burnt finger (Ow !)

The baseplate needed to be reduced in length slightly then with some snips and then the centre line marked clearly. All the formers have this too so I hoped to keep them in line and make things easier for myself. The centre former needed to have a gap made so it could straddle the base. Finally the formers were all soldered in checking things were all square. Checking by eye, I'll be honest I wasn't convinced but the try-square said all was well so I pressed ahead.

Two tank covers were available and I went for the half-etched brass version in preference to the harder nickel silver. Again this had to be shortened and then marked up. Attachment started at the top and the gentle curve went very well. Bending against a flat piece of the wood put the top sharp corners in - pushing with a piece of wood along the length of the tank should give a ripple free result. Al soldering was carried out inside the tank.

Putting the bottom "tuck under" in was trickier. I couldn't get the iron in to attach the wrapper to the middle former so I seam soldered it along the bottom with lots of poking and warmed up fingers. Holding the tank was a nightmare as gripping it too tightly would put a dent it and the shape was more conducive to the thing slipping out of my wooden pincers. These come from a kitchen supplies shop and are invaluable when soldering.

The final closing up needed a couple of goes on one side and I ended up part bending with flat pliers. The result looks good and matches the plan. I just hope I can fit the motor in there !

A little jig

A little jig
Originally uploaded by Phil_Parker

Time for something more conventional today after my trip to the machine shop.

The chassis sides were shortened to match the locomotive plan by snipping off the excess at the front and flexing the rear to it broke on the convenient half etched line that occured just where I wanted it. Then everything was jigged up on my Hobby Holidays chassis jig for assembly.

The parts were nearly put together as intended except that at the front end the cut out for the spacer was lopped in half as part of the process of sorting the length. Rather than mess around with the slot, the locating lugs were removed from the spacer and I just soldered it in place.

Thanks to the jig everything seems square - I don't like relying on the ends being accurate once I've ham-fistedly hacked away at them but I am sure the more important axles are parallel to each other and perpendicular to the sides.

Barclay chimney

Original chimney
Originally uploaded by Phil_Parker

This Barclay construction starts in an unusual place - the top. Due to the deadline for delivery of this model it needs to be built in a different order to normal to allow for some contracted out work to be scheduled if required. The first and most important part of this is the chimney.

On a steam engine the chimney performs the vital task of letting the mucky stuff out and thereby providing a draught to pull the fire through the boiler tubes. Visually it's also a focal point for the locomotive. Model railway enthusiasts agonise for hours over the exact proportions of this part. No longer can you just stick a tube with a ridge on it on a model and expect people to be happy.

Barclay locomotives have a rather elegant (to my eye) chimney. Nicely proportioned with a cap on top that speaks of a well made machine designed to be used for many years. The one in the photo is a nice 4mm scale representation of it, albeit with a slight mould mis-alignment exaggerated by the camera and easily dealt with using a small file.

Unfortunately the locomotive being modelled doesn't have a chimney like this - it has an unusual but not unattractive stove pipe with a thin ridge near the top. This wouldn't be an issue except no one makes a casting for one of these. Therefore my first task was to try and create the part or admit defeat quickly so a proper pattern maker could be employed to do the job and make a suitable part for the future kit.

I fancied that all I had to do to convert the casting I had to the shape I wanted was stick it in a drill, file the cap off by holding to rotating part against a file and then fit a ridge around the top. Easy. Well, it is if you say it quickly...

The cap removal went well. A few minutes against the file resulted in a reasonable stovepipe. It looked a bit thin at the top without enough taper for the version in the photos so I built this up with 100 degree solder and "turned" it to the right shape.

Once I came to add the ridge using fuse wire everything went pear shaped. The built up solder started to melt, the wire wouldn't solder despite being tinned copper and the resulting blobby mess looked terrible. I could have repeated the exercise but very disheartened decided that perhaps this was a job for someone with the requisite skills rather than me.

A break for lunch before calling for help gave time to come up with a plan B. The hardest part to make on any boiler fitting is the flared base. The whitemetal one I had was OK, all I needed to do was fix the top. Perhaps I could use the flare and make a new bit to stick on to it.

Years ago I bought a Unimat 1 lathe tool. It's not a proper lathe and engineers laugh at it (It's a modular tool and so accuracy, especially in the tail stock isn't much to right home about. The standard motor is a bit weedy too) but it didn't cost me much and I fancied dipping my toe into the machining waters. That was a long while ago and apart from watching a demo on a trade stand once and feeling enthused to have a go myself, it's lain in it's box ever since.

Set up on the bench the Unimat does look OK. I dug out some round, high quality plastic normally used as a knitting needle and had a play. With a bit of practise I turned some groves and finished the end of the rod. Both the proper tools, files and emery paper were tried. My technique combines elements of metal worker and wood turner but it seemed to work. Once I'd had a bit of practice the chimney proper was started.

All I wanted to produce was a tapered part with a grove to accept the ridge. A coarse file did the first bit and the cutting tool the second. The top was flatted and then drilled out - first with a 2mm bit all the way through and then a 5mm one as deep as I dared. Finally I parted off using a X-acto saw held on the base of the chimney.

The top of the flange area was cleaned off in the lathe to give a nice flat, smooth area. I also drilled this with the 2mm bit so I could peg the parts together for extra strength.

For the ridge, very thin wire normally used for in-loco electrics stuck in place with superglue located in the grove neatly. Then I glued the base and top together. A quick spray of primer showed a touch of work still do do for perfection but at least I have this vital part the right size and shape for the model. No need for panicky calls to pattern makers. Today anyway.

12 inch Barclay

Barclay Kit bits
Originally uploaded by Phil_Parker

I've been asked to build a Barclay steam locomotive on 4mm scale, OO gauge. This isn't much to shout about normally but just to make things more interesting, it's the 12 inch version that is required. And no one makes a kit for this version.

The nearest kit is Mercian's 14 inch Barclay. One for the smaller prototype (the 12 inch refers to the cylinder diameter by the way) is in preparation but as is the way with these things, the gestation period is long and the deadline short.

Fortunately Barclay were keen on standardisation so I'm hoping that many of the 14" parts can be used so I'm sitting looking at the parts supplied for this model along with a few extra bits Trevor chucked in to help out with the obvious detail differences. With photos and plans to hand my job is to produce as close a replica as I can.

Looking at the chassis first it seems I'm in luck. The wheelbase is exactly the same but the frames need to be shortened a bit. The cylinders to be used will be those in the kit as the difference is a fraction of a millimetre. Some of the body parts might give me more trouble but we'll see.