Reinforcements

A short update for you today.

Himself has had to make some alterations to the Backwoods kit for the new Garratt as a consequence of adapting it to represent 138.

Shortening the length of the rear unit bunker has exposed a weakness in the frame where, when constructed as intended, the tank should be attached with some screws.

So he has added some strengthening pieces under the frame where it tended to bend a little.

I anticipate a more significant update on this project later this week.

Water Tank & Wiggly Bits

So, it appears the secret is out.

Our latest NGG16 will be a model of 138 as running around on the WHR currently in lined red livery, coal-fired with the big single headlamps.

An eagle-eyed reader noticed the filenames of the photographs on the last blog post on this model and blurted it out on the Bron Hebog Facebook page. (Have you 'liked' it yet?)

In the meantime Himself has begun work on the front end, building up the frame for the power unit and altering the water tank which has had to have its rivets filed off.

Here's the back view.

He's also begun tackling one of the trickiest bits of the kit - assembling the Walschaerts valve gear.

This picture shows one of the four sets joined together and, by way of illustration, the parts required laid out next to it.

What is does not show, as Himself pointed out to me in his email, is the patience required to put it together.

Indeed!

Superstition

Do you ever get the feeling that some models are fated?  I'm coming to believe that there's some kind of curse on my Super Barns.

If you've read this blog from the beginning then you may recall on the first one I made - a styrene model of 103 - I discovered late on the build that the drawings I was using bore no relation to the actual carriage. All the window pillars were in the wrong place.

I had to conduct a surgical operation to remove the carriage sides and graft on a replacement pair with the correct dimensions.

Well, blow me if it hasn't happened again on my resin Super Barn production line.

I was working away steadily on the fourth of these carriages (being built for clients) gluing the struts for the truss rods in place on the underframe when I noticed the brackets along one side of the frame were in a different place to those one of the other carriages I was using as a guide.

These brackets are all in line with the window pillars.

I was flummoxed. I could not understand what was going on. Then it began to dawn on me that I'd made a very silly mistake in casting and assembling the parts for this carriage.

The thing about the Super Barns is the two sides are not symmetrical - they are a mirror image of each other -  there is a left hand casting and a right hand casting.

 (Or a Clock and an Engine side casting in Boston Lodge parlance.)

Eventually I realised that I had made this one up with two of the same type of casting instead of one of each.

And it gets worse.

"No problem", I thought.

 I had a couple of extra sides sitting on the shelf  because I've still got a 5th one to make, so I thought I could just borrow one of those,

I wasted another 15 minutes clearing the flash out from the windows until I discovered that this was the same type as the faulty one I'd just removed, and so was the other spare on the shelf.

It turns out I somehow managed to produce 4 from the same mould in my last casting session instead of two pairs.

So progress has been halted for a day or so while I cast another two replacements from the opposite mould, and I have triple checked it's the right one this time.

Bunker Shots

Himself has started on the bodywork of our new Garratt and the first task has been some modifications to the rear tank / bunker which has needed to be shortened at the front and the cut-outs at the back have had to be elongated.

Much to the disgust of the designer of the Backwoods kit, no doubt, the rivets have had to be filed off as this locomotive now has welded tanks fore and aft.

Because the front of the tank is shorter, the screws and lugs which attach it to the running plate can't be used so they have just been bent round to clip under the plate. This is to stop the front of the tank lifting up. The rear attachment is still the same.

The front tank will also require the rivets to be taken off and the cut out altered.

Here you can see it sitting on the rolling chassis with the connecting rod temporarily in place.

It's very exciting to see this 3rd NGG16 taking shape and I hope you're going to enjoy this detailed account of building one of these magnificent kits.

Readers Letters

It's always nice to read the comments you leave on the blog.

No, really, it is. We've been doing this for a couple of years now and haven't yet been attacked by any narrow gauge trolls (if such things exist) although web crawlers and bots are another matter..

Anyhow, the purpose of this post is to reply to a comment left by Metroman a few days ago who asked whether our latest Backwoods NGG16 kit is one of the current ones with plastic crank bushes.

I have received word back from Himself who tells me it is, and has supplied photographic evidence to prove the point.

However, he tells me that he has tinkered with the kit because he's not happy with the security of the cranks on the axle ends, so has reverted to soldering them into place on one side as he has done with our existing pair of Garratts.

He does point out that once you have reamed out the cranks to accept plastic bushes you lose the option of soldering them on unless you ask Pete very, very nicely, for some new cranks.

I trust that answers Metroman's question adequately.

Peckett Preview

You'll have to forgive the background to the picture - Himself had been nibbling at his brandy-laced Xmas cake when he took the snap a few weeks ago - but here's a shot showing progress with painting the Peckett 'Harrogate'.

Himself says he's getting quite fond of this wee beastie and it might end up seeing a lot more action on Bron Hebog that it has on the real WHR.

Patience Is A Virtue

Once a year my long-term project to build a second model of the WHR's KMX Tamper takes a big leap forward before gathering dust again for the next 11 months.

This is not entirely my fault. For most of the last year I've been waiting on Himself to bend and solder a few bits of brass together into the shape of a roof.

Finally the nagging has paid off...

As you can see our existing KMX has been used as a template and Himself has managed a very good copy of the original.

When I get the tamper back the remaining jobs will be to add the external details onto the bogies such as the outboard disc brakes.

It is just possible that it might even be finished and delivered to the client this year.