Dougstar Works No.9 "Bitsa" - Mission Accomplished

A very popular starting point for Live Steam. With their low cost comes a number of problems which can be discussed here
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dougrail
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Dougstar Works No.9 "Bitsa" - Mission Accomplished

Post by dougrail » Sun Aug 11, 2013 9:02 pm

Progress has been made in my spares and junkyard regarding the mountain of parts that had grown. Parts from here and there bits which had bene horsetraded, were gathering in my spares box. Something had to be done with them.

The body had already been cleaned, derusted, treated, primed and repainted in satin black as this body kit had acted as the 'control' in the experiment when I upgraded to etch primer, while working on SECOND CHANCE.

Since then, the bodywork and boiler had sat in the works forlornly, awaiting either disposal or a call to action.

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The cabside lined out....

~

Earlier in July, an agreement had been brokered with a budding engineer: he wanted his first Mamod and was willing to buy "the kit of parts" as opposed to a full-on fully-steam-tested restored locomotive. Perfect deal, which was beneficial to both sides. He had however, perturbed the Paint Dept by requesting....Penrhyn style livery.

Penrhyn. Again. Oh God why.

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~

When the negotiations and the contract was drawn up, the red lines had all been lined on, but I had left it a while. I was gearing up for BR style white and ultra-thin sand colour linings. However, when the customer requested Penrhyn, it was doable. So the deal was set. At the time of drawing up the contract I had approxmately two weeks to get the locomotive finished in terms of lining, cleaning, and an inventory of what was and not included.

The lining was a frantic exercise; this involved four nights up til 2am drawing the pesky paint lines. When finished, the Works had approximately two days left before the gentleman was due to collect:

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I also ended up snapping the stylus on the very last line done - thankfully since a replacement has been sourced from Peter Spooerer....:oops:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Meanwhile, the inventory was being carried out. For the whole part, the loco spares bin had almost everything save for the steampipes: dome to rev block, and rev block to chimney. That was all that was missing. The rev block received new o-rings, and the port faces were all lapped, cleaned and washed in spirit, as well as the o-rings in the cylinders being tested.

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The hunt for missing bits like the cabroof clip and the handrails continued until the very last hour before the gentleman was due to arrive at 9pm of the 2nd!!

At approximately 20:16 that evening, this is what all the parts and spares made up as a whole:

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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The loco was still being sold as a "kit of parts". I didn't have the steampipes, but I had all the interior dome fittings, boiler fittings, a fully backclad boiler, a meths burner, working wheels, rods, a deadleg lubricator and upgraded cylinders plus reverser. There were some 6BA nuts and bolts and o-rings and washers supplied in a spares bag, as well as a spare cab handrail - the last of these wasn't found until 8pm that evening!!

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The bufferbeams were the mamod casting etch primed and repainted in Revell enamell, same as the Roundhouse centre buffer coupling fitted.

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The cylinders I cannot remember where they came from; they would have been fitted to the Industrial long with the lubricator but this was deemed not necessary.

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As seen, the tanks and cab back received attention. But the cab front was finished that morning [compare with the first pics where it is incomplete:-

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Comparisons were made with the other residents of the shed:-

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~~~~~~~~~~~~

Also part of the deal was some other spare loco parts [a cab set for one] and two TR coaches going for sale as they had been replaced by two Perfect World kit equivalents....

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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The buyer of "Bitsa" willingly bought these coaches which helped with the finances situation. So it ws quite a bundle that left the Works that Friday evening as the sun set.

Never steamed, but almost complete, but these 'bits' have become a complete locomotive with its own essence which has happily found a new home where hopefully, it will be steamed, steam properly and due to the purchaser being a budding engineer, it will also act as his "Familiar" as he would like to get into making Mamod/MSS/IP/PPS/RWM accessories such as cabside/tankside overlays, cylinder covers, detailing parts and so forth. I have already assigned him to make some bodywork/armour for me to replace the bodywork set which was good but was not perfect.

So...vaya con dios, number 9, "Bitsa". :)

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DolwyddelanLightRail
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Post by DolwyddelanLightRail » Sun Aug 11, 2013 9:09 pm

Not a bad job, nice one!

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dougrail
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Post by dougrail » Sun Aug 11, 2013 9:13 pm

heers - I will admit it's not my super-golden-best job, but the buyer was happy and the outcome showered me in gold - and metal ;)

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Post by LnBmad » Mon Aug 12, 2013 12:46 am

Nice looking mamod
If it can be made full scale it can be made 16mm

My line: http://gardenrails.myfreeforum.org/about7200.html

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Post by Lner fan Sam » Tue Aug 13, 2013 10:16 pm

Very nice work doug. Never know, pioneers bodywork might be sent to you one day to be lined out...

Do you do quotes? :D
my first live steam engine build thread:
http://gardenrails.myfreeforum.org/about6685.html

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Post by dougrail » Wed Aug 14, 2013 5:41 pm

Thanks LnB - the strain was worth it. :)

Sam - I'd consider it chap. I'd need to know what exactly you're after first ;)

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Post by Lner fan Sam » Wed Aug 14, 2013 6:09 pm

The same sort of red and white lining first applied to swordbeaker but the same thickness as the lining here?
my first live steam engine build thread:
http://gardenrails.myfreeforum.org/about6685.html

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dougrail
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Post by dougrail » Wed Aug 14, 2013 6:13 pm

So two-line, inside red [.25mm] and outside white [.5mm], three panels of side tanks, cabsides and the cab-piece side plus a cab back, no front of tanks or front of cab, so total 7 panels?

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Post by Lner fan Sam » Wed Aug 14, 2013 7:01 pm

Including the front of the cab.
my first live steam engine build thread:
http://gardenrails.myfreeforum.org/about6685.html

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Post by dougrail » Wed Aug 14, 2013 7:07 pm

Hit me up on FB and I'm happy to discuss your requirements :)

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Post by Lner fan Sam » Wed Aug 14, 2013 8:03 pm

Copy that. ;)
my first live steam engine build thread:
http://gardenrails.myfreeforum.org/about6685.html

Sam Wake

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