Garden Railway Forum

Hi,

Yesterday I had a bit of time and decided to finish the body on my BSA Mamod. As the Mamod locomotive as made has a lot of its body held together with 'Pop' rivets which make it a little difficult to work on. So if I am doing major work on a Mamod locomotive I usually drill out the 'Pop' rivets and replace them with 6BA/3mm nuts and bolts. First all the rivets are drilled out using the clearance size drill for the screws to be used 2.9/3.10mm. The smoke box rivets are usually replace by 5BA screws the smoke box being tapped for the screws and the hole in the boiler made larger to accommodate the screws, sometimes 6BA is used with a shouldered nut soldered inside the end of the boiler . As this boiler is a new hard soldered copper one the fixing points have been tapped 6BA. Regard the rest of the body just nuts and bolts are needed to attach the cab front to the foot plate. The four awkward ones are those that attach the cab front to the side tanks and the flame guard. For this bit it is helpful if you have access to a lathe to shoulder the nuts but I have used plain nuts soldered or glued in place. If shouldered nuts are being used the holes where they will fit are made larger I used a 4mm drill. The shouldered nuts are soft soldered in place if the model is to be repainted or glued (Standard Araldite) in place. I think I would always solder the nuts in the flame guard I used ordinary B&Q's plumbers solder and flux.

I hope the photographs show the process of fitting the nuts.















Regards Tony.

That looks rather stylish - it smacks of the "Gentleman's Sporting Loco" which Brian Clarke used to make (but his was battery electric).

Very good.

Well done! Finally, a Mamod that I do not hate the look of on sight.

Cheers,
Peter in AZ

Hi Brian,

That looks rather stylish - it smacks of the "Gentleman's Sporting Loco" which Brian Clarke used to make (but his was battery electric).

I was thinking more of a 7/8" scale Gas Works locomotive?

Regards Tony.

Looks great, I'm curious though. If you're going through all this trouble, why not use (presumably far more common and easily attainable) M3 hardware rather than 6BA?

Hi Ted,

I'm curious though. If you're going through all this trouble, why not use (presumably far more common and easily attainable) M3 hardware rather than 6BA?

The reason for using 6 BA rather than M3 is that certainly the older Mamod locomotives and maybe the later ones use 6 BA. In this case as the model is being made from bits and pieces that I have has no existing screws. I could have used M3 but the buffer beams would have had to be tapped M3 or accept the use of different threads for the same size on the model.

Regards Tony.

Hi,

A bit more progress. The frames have been painted, the reversing block sealed in place and insulated buffer beams fitted.






Trunnions for the cylinders have to be made so the chassis can be tested on air.

Regards Tony.

Hi,

The cylinders have been fitted to the chassis so it might get a run on air today.







Regards Tony.

Hi,

Ran the chassis on air today.



Video.



Regards Tony.

Hi,

I haven't done any work on this Mamod locomotive since the middle of December! When the chassis was run on air.

I started back on it yesterday When it looked like this.



The cab bits have been painted, a regulator has been part made, the steam and exhaust pipes have been fitted, a driver has been found and all the screws needed were cut to size and finished. So at end of play today the model looked like this.






To complete the model the regulator has to be finished, a lubricator made and fitted and a burner made.

Regards Tony.

That's looking very nice! Incidentally, when you were testing the chassis, where was the orchestra?

Like!

Lovely and neat - the cut off chimbley really makes the lines of this loco.

Hi Brian,

Incidentally, when you were testing the chassis, where was the orchestra?

As I was holding the camera I had only one hand to conduct and it was a little tight for the rest of the musicians in my shed! See you at the AGM.

Regards Tony.

That looks rather good Tony.