TVT - Mt Delusion O&K
Posted: Wed Apr 28, 2021 10:07 am
This latest steam loco project started during our second shutdown last year. During the first shutdown I had purchased a Roundhouse Billy/Katy chassis kit from Argyle so there would be something in stock to keep me occupied if things turned to crap, as they did.
I had got very tired of long fights with recalcitrant machinery needed to get my most recent loco builds to steam properly. These all had small cylinders and boilers, so were more likely to be dodgy steamers and this proved the case.
I wasn't in the mood for another fight with a small steam loco, so I decided to go down the Roundhouse route which pretty much guarantees good performance and dug into my library to see what Australian timber tram locos could be built around the Roundhouse 0-4-0 chassis.
First thoughts were a Hudswell Clarke saddle tank loco, but while there were some attractive candidates they were all inside valve gear. HC didn't start using Walschaert's vg on their industrial locos until well after the Kaiser's War and even then it was rare on the saddle tank locos.
Somehow the thought of an O&K came to mind for some reason, but my inner scale modeller rebelled at just bolting a Billy kit together and I eventually settled on a 15mm/ft model of a O&K 50 hp well tank. A couple of these worked on a timber tram in South Gippsland and the 0-6-0WT version appealed. An order went off to Walsall for some suitable driving wheel castings and after a few smaller projects were completed and the workbench was clear, work on the project finally started about the time we came out of our second shutdown.
As usual with me, project drift had converted the initial idea of a British outside frame 0-4-0T saddle tank into a German 0-6-0WT well tank........
Model story
As it turned out, by this stage the only Roundhouse parts in the model were the cylinders, valve gear and burner, but the construction generally follows their design principles. A rule of thumb with O&K standard industrial designs is that locos with well tanks had inside frames and the short supplementary tanks on the front of the cab. Locos with outside frames had no well tanks and were fitted with large side tanks. For anyone wondering, a Roundhouse Billy isn't a typical O&K as it has outside frames and only small supplementary water tanks. It's basically the bodywork and boiler of a standard O&K 50hp industrial loco that has been fitted to the chassis of a fairly typical British saddle or sidetank loco. to come up with a generic continental loco.
That wasn't what I was building, so the model has a new scratchbuilt chassis, which was as usual fretted out of 1/16" steel sheet with a piercing saw, using a paper pattern glued to the steel as a guide. It is a simple plate frame, so fabrication didn't take long. The wheel sets are fitted into axle boxes that can be easily removed from the frame for servicing if it becomes necessary.
At this point I discovered the hard way that a short wheelbase 0-6-0WT chassis and Roundhouse valve gear are incompatible, as the centre driving wheels co-incide with the mounting bush for the expansion link. At this point the project converted rapidly from a 50hp O&K 0-6-0WT into a 50hp O&K 0-4-0WT. Both variants had the same rigid wheelbase, so all that was needed was to remove the opening in the sideframe for the centre axle. The axle box openings in the sideframes were milled using a DRO and no adjustments were necessary to get the chassis to roll freely. At this point it took it's first trip on the track when it was pushed through the turnouts to make sure the wheelsets were compatible with the turnouts.
The main visual marker of a well tank is the tank top, which was fabricated from 0.8mm mild steel sheet with the rivets punched into it and angle soldered along the sides for the valance. The tank top is why O&K built the locos with outside steam pipes. On the model the pipes are dummies and the steam pipe is routed out of sight under the tank top. I didn't fancy making the external exhaust pipes work, so the usual Roundhouse arrangements meant a small opening in the tank top, which should be less visible when that area is painted black.
With the rolling chassis assembled, the cylinders and valve gear were fitted and as usual with Roundhouse parts this took only a couple of workshop sessions to assemble and set the valves. It ran on air for the first time about 3 weeks after work on the model started.
Next job was fitting the cab floor, headstocks and detailing the tank top with fabricated springs, water fillers and boiler supports. O&K used a simple casting as a smokebox saddle so this was fabricated mostly by milling it out of solid brass then silver soldering the last parts to complete it. The smokebox was rolled out of steel sheet and a working smokebox door fabricated and fitted.
Next up was building a boiler. The model has been built to a scale of 15mm/ft (1:20.3) and a Roundhouse Billy boiler was a little too long to fit. I've built a few gas fired boilers by now and this one is a simple design with similar proportions to a Roundhouse type 2 boiler. Once this passed it's hydrostatic test it was fitted with the cleading and boiler bands and fitted to the chassis.
The boiler is fitted with a Roundhouse burner, but the gas tank and gas valve were fabricated, as there wasn't sufficient space in the cab to fit a Roundhouse gas tank. The gas tank is my usual build using square brass tube silver soldered together and pressure tested.
The loco could have been steamed at this point, but I now wait until a model is painted before steaming it, as it it difficult to remove oil residues, especially steam oil, before painting.
By this time it was early February and it took another month or so to add the cab structure and complete all the necessary detailing.
There was a 'La Nina' event in the southern hemisphere this summer, so it was cool and wet by local standards. We escaped the floods that northern parts of the country suffered and I was able to put in more time in the workshop on most days and work went quickly.
The two following photos show it in the brass sitting in early autumn sunshine to have it's portrait taken.
........ and there progress stopped.
I haven't work up the enthusiasm to paint it and I went back to spending most of my time reading for a while. The model paint brands I use are currently in short supply I'm told, but I did an audit a while back and I have enough paint in stock. I just can't be bothered at present to go through the usual fight to get a decent result with modern paints.
The model will probably be assigned to the Mt. Delusion Timber Co. who paint their locos green, so the following photo shows the model standing in the TVT exchange sidings along with the Timber Co's. Krauss. The Krauss is in the same shade of green that the O&K will probably use, so the photo is a placeholder until I find the right size 'round tuit' and finally paint the model.
There's an unopened tin of Humbrol dating back before Hornby screwed up Humbrol paint formulations and colours, but I still need to find an etch primer that gives a smoother finish than I've been getting lately.
I'm not a great fan of the aesthetics of german steam locos, but the O&K has grown on me while it sit's on the bench waiting to be painted. It has a certain upright and hardworking look to it, compared to the squat and somewhat untidy look of the Krauss sitting behind it in the yard.
Prototype Story
Krauss and O&K had a good market for their small industrial locos in Australia in the early 1900's, largely in the mining industry, but a few found their way into the sugar and timber industries. Then the Kaiser's War came and Krauss never sold another steam loco in Australia, while O&K only sold one more and that wasn't until the late '30s.
The model was originally intended to be based on the 50hp O&K 0-6-0WT named 'Lily' which ran on a firewood line on the WA goldfields at Beria, until it was transferred to run on the same company's timber tram at Port Albert in Victoria before WW1. It was converted in the 1920's into a locally built cross between a Climax and a Heisler and ran out it's time on a timber tram in the hills near Melbourne.
As mentioned above, the idea of the 0-6-0WT didn't pan out and the frame was converted to the 0-4-0WT version.
Most 50hp O&K steam locos were built with outside Allen valve gear, but this changed to outside Walschaerts gear in the last years before WW1. Only one of the 50hp O&K locos that came to Aust. was fitted with Walschaerts gear and this was builders no. 6805 which was delivered to Millaquin Mill at Bundaberg, arriving just after the outbreak of war. It was named 'Germany' and still exists. It spent some years rusting in a park, but was restored and now runs on the Australian Sugar Cane Railway in the Bundaberg Botanical Gardens, although not in original condition.
The model is based on Millaquin Mill's 'Germany' more or less as built, although I draw the line at the colour scheme it carried when in cane tram service. Bright green with a red chassis definitely doesn't float my boat.
Regards,
Graeme
I had got very tired of long fights with recalcitrant machinery needed to get my most recent loco builds to steam properly. These all had small cylinders and boilers, so were more likely to be dodgy steamers and this proved the case.
I wasn't in the mood for another fight with a small steam loco, so I decided to go down the Roundhouse route which pretty much guarantees good performance and dug into my library to see what Australian timber tram locos could be built around the Roundhouse 0-4-0 chassis.
First thoughts were a Hudswell Clarke saddle tank loco, but while there were some attractive candidates they were all inside valve gear. HC didn't start using Walschaert's vg on their industrial locos until well after the Kaiser's War and even then it was rare on the saddle tank locos.
Somehow the thought of an O&K came to mind for some reason, but my inner scale modeller rebelled at just bolting a Billy kit together and I eventually settled on a 15mm/ft model of a O&K 50 hp well tank. A couple of these worked on a timber tram in South Gippsland and the 0-6-0WT version appealed. An order went off to Walsall for some suitable driving wheel castings and after a few smaller projects were completed and the workbench was clear, work on the project finally started about the time we came out of our second shutdown.
As usual with me, project drift had converted the initial idea of a British outside frame 0-4-0T saddle tank into a German 0-6-0WT well tank........
Model story
As it turned out, by this stage the only Roundhouse parts in the model were the cylinders, valve gear and burner, but the construction generally follows their design principles. A rule of thumb with O&K standard industrial designs is that locos with well tanks had inside frames and the short supplementary tanks on the front of the cab. Locos with outside frames had no well tanks and were fitted with large side tanks. For anyone wondering, a Roundhouse Billy isn't a typical O&K as it has outside frames and only small supplementary water tanks. It's basically the bodywork and boiler of a standard O&K 50hp industrial loco that has been fitted to the chassis of a fairly typical British saddle or sidetank loco. to come up with a generic continental loco.
That wasn't what I was building, so the model has a new scratchbuilt chassis, which was as usual fretted out of 1/16" steel sheet with a piercing saw, using a paper pattern glued to the steel as a guide. It is a simple plate frame, so fabrication didn't take long. The wheel sets are fitted into axle boxes that can be easily removed from the frame for servicing if it becomes necessary.
At this point I discovered the hard way that a short wheelbase 0-6-0WT chassis and Roundhouse valve gear are incompatible, as the centre driving wheels co-incide with the mounting bush for the expansion link. At this point the project converted rapidly from a 50hp O&K 0-6-0WT into a 50hp O&K 0-4-0WT. Both variants had the same rigid wheelbase, so all that was needed was to remove the opening in the sideframe for the centre axle. The axle box openings in the sideframes were milled using a DRO and no adjustments were necessary to get the chassis to roll freely. At this point it took it's first trip on the track when it was pushed through the turnouts to make sure the wheelsets were compatible with the turnouts.
The main visual marker of a well tank is the tank top, which was fabricated from 0.8mm mild steel sheet with the rivets punched into it and angle soldered along the sides for the valance. The tank top is why O&K built the locos with outside steam pipes. On the model the pipes are dummies and the steam pipe is routed out of sight under the tank top. I didn't fancy making the external exhaust pipes work, so the usual Roundhouse arrangements meant a small opening in the tank top, which should be less visible when that area is painted black.
With the rolling chassis assembled, the cylinders and valve gear were fitted and as usual with Roundhouse parts this took only a couple of workshop sessions to assemble and set the valves. It ran on air for the first time about 3 weeks after work on the model started.
Next job was fitting the cab floor, headstocks and detailing the tank top with fabricated springs, water fillers and boiler supports. O&K used a simple casting as a smokebox saddle so this was fabricated mostly by milling it out of solid brass then silver soldering the last parts to complete it. The smokebox was rolled out of steel sheet and a working smokebox door fabricated and fitted.
Next up was building a boiler. The model has been built to a scale of 15mm/ft (1:20.3) and a Roundhouse Billy boiler was a little too long to fit. I've built a few gas fired boilers by now and this one is a simple design with similar proportions to a Roundhouse type 2 boiler. Once this passed it's hydrostatic test it was fitted with the cleading and boiler bands and fitted to the chassis.
The boiler is fitted with a Roundhouse burner, but the gas tank and gas valve were fabricated, as there wasn't sufficient space in the cab to fit a Roundhouse gas tank. The gas tank is my usual build using square brass tube silver soldered together and pressure tested.
The loco could have been steamed at this point, but I now wait until a model is painted before steaming it, as it it difficult to remove oil residues, especially steam oil, before painting.
By this time it was early February and it took another month or so to add the cab structure and complete all the necessary detailing.
There was a 'La Nina' event in the southern hemisphere this summer, so it was cool and wet by local standards. We escaped the floods that northern parts of the country suffered and I was able to put in more time in the workshop on most days and work went quickly.
The two following photos show it in the brass sitting in early autumn sunshine to have it's portrait taken.
........ and there progress stopped.
I haven't work up the enthusiasm to paint it and I went back to spending most of my time reading for a while. The model paint brands I use are currently in short supply I'm told, but I did an audit a while back and I have enough paint in stock. I just can't be bothered at present to go through the usual fight to get a decent result with modern paints.
The model will probably be assigned to the Mt. Delusion Timber Co. who paint their locos green, so the following photo shows the model standing in the TVT exchange sidings along with the Timber Co's. Krauss. The Krauss is in the same shade of green that the O&K will probably use, so the photo is a placeholder until I find the right size 'round tuit' and finally paint the model.
There's an unopened tin of Humbrol dating back before Hornby screwed up Humbrol paint formulations and colours, but I still need to find an etch primer that gives a smoother finish than I've been getting lately.
I'm not a great fan of the aesthetics of german steam locos, but the O&K has grown on me while it sit's on the bench waiting to be painted. It has a certain upright and hardworking look to it, compared to the squat and somewhat untidy look of the Krauss sitting behind it in the yard.
Prototype Story
Krauss and O&K had a good market for their small industrial locos in Australia in the early 1900's, largely in the mining industry, but a few found their way into the sugar and timber industries. Then the Kaiser's War came and Krauss never sold another steam loco in Australia, while O&K only sold one more and that wasn't until the late '30s.
The model was originally intended to be based on the 50hp O&K 0-6-0WT named 'Lily' which ran on a firewood line on the WA goldfields at Beria, until it was transferred to run on the same company's timber tram at Port Albert in Victoria before WW1. It was converted in the 1920's into a locally built cross between a Climax and a Heisler and ran out it's time on a timber tram in the hills near Melbourne.
As mentioned above, the idea of the 0-6-0WT didn't pan out and the frame was converted to the 0-4-0WT version.
Most 50hp O&K steam locos were built with outside Allen valve gear, but this changed to outside Walschaerts gear in the last years before WW1. Only one of the 50hp O&K locos that came to Aust. was fitted with Walschaerts gear and this was builders no. 6805 which was delivered to Millaquin Mill at Bundaberg, arriving just after the outbreak of war. It was named 'Germany' and still exists. It spent some years rusting in a park, but was restored and now runs on the Australian Sugar Cane Railway in the Bundaberg Botanical Gardens, although not in original condition.
The model is based on Millaquin Mill's 'Germany' more or less as built, although I draw the line at the colour scheme it carried when in cane tram service. Bright green with a red chassis definitely doesn't float my boat.
Regards,
Graeme