Semi-scale BR: The Modernisation Plan

[BertieB]

I was just about to comment on yours: terrific, of course. Steves’s done a very nice NG16 too. We all get round to them eventually I believe…

[ge_rik]

Steady on chaps, you're setting the bar far too high for we mere mortals.
Though I have to admit an articulated loco is very tempting.


Rik

[dudeface]

Never thought I'd see an 0-4-2-0T...

[Old Man Aaron]

Never thought I'd see an 0-4-2-0T...

Look closer, it's an 0-4-4-0T. Looks like a Decauville? Would be well at home on your line, Rik.

And I thought your Leader was huge, Bertie.

[dudeface]

Ah, I see. I thought it was a modified 0-4-2T.

[drewzero1]

Look again, there's another drive wheel hiding behind the rear cylinder! All those rods and levers make me a little dizzy.

[GTB]

Steady on chaps, you're setting the bar far too high for we mere mortals.
Though I have to admit an articulated loco is very tempting.

Bendy locos are no more difficult to build than any other type. It's just that they have twice as many bits to make and bolt together. So it takes twice as long to build one........

There were probably more ways of bending steam locos tried over the years than there were patent valve gears, which is saying a lot. A good read on the subject is 'Articulated Locomotives' by Lionel Wiener. The '70s Kalmbach reprint is easy to find and fairly cheap.

Graeme

[drewzero1]

Bendy locos are no more difficult to build than any other type. It's just that they have twice as many bits to make and bolt together. So it takes twice as long to build one........

There were probably more ways of bending steam locos tried over the years than there were patent valve gears, which is saying a lot. A good read on the subject is 'Articulated Locomotives' by Lionel Wiener. The '70s Kalmbach reprint is easy to find and fairly cheap.

Graeme

My favorite locomotive bending method is the Klein-Lindner axle mechanism. To all outward appearances it looks like a typical rigid outside-frame construction, but the front- and rearmost axles have a sleeve and guide that allow them to pivot and still carry power. I'd love to model it someday, if only to grasp the concept, but I'm not quite there yet.

[philipy]

if only to grasp the concept, but I'm not quite there yet.

I think that in this case the KISS principle should apply!!!

[ge_rik]

My favorite locomotive bending method is the Klein-Lindner axle mechanism. To all outward appearances it looks like a typical rigid outside-frame construction, but the front- and rearmost axles have a sleeve and guide that allow them to pivot and still carry power. I'd love to model it someday, if only to grasp the concept, but I'm not quite there yet.

That put me in mind of Arthur Heywood's radiating axle system, then I noticed your article included a link to it

http://www.douglas-self.com/MUSEUM/LOCO ... eywood.htm

Rik

[Sylvian Tennant]

Wow...I look forward to seeing this unfold.

[BertieB]

Garratt_3375_800.jpg (457.59 KiB) Viewed 9663 times

The whimsical ‘Light Garratt’: still missing leading and trailing axles at both ends

It’s progressed a little further. I’ll admit I’d hoped to manage something with more (and more obvious) BR Standard ‘style cues’. And the central, boiler section doesn’t sit above the driving units as it really should (the protruding motors got in the way). But nonetheless, I like to think it’s turning out to be quite a satisfyingly chunky ensemble. I don’t imagine I’ll be building anything bigger.

It’s largely plasticard, with Bachmann motorblocks, additional wheels from Tenmille (though not yet fitted in these snaps) and metal fittings mainly from Walsall. Batteries and weights will be in the tenders, Micron R/C stuff under the boiler. And there are a few more bits to add.

Garratt_3333_800.jpg (444.58 KiB) Viewed 9663 times

Garratt_3315_800.jpg (459.93 KiB) Viewed 9663 times

[philipy]

Superb build Bertie. Garretts everywhere atm.!

[Andrew]

Lovely! And plenty of BR Standard features, I reckon.

Lined black?

[Old Man Aaron]

A set of clacks straddling the boiler top, along with suitable firebox-top pipework and stubby boiler fittings, might lend a little further "BR-Standardism" to it, but I'm really grasping at straws - you've made a fine job already.

[Peter Butler]

It looks wonderful to my eyes, another masterful Semi-scale interpretation.

[ge_rik]

What a beauty!! Marvellous work!

Rik

[BertieB]

Thanks for all the generous comments!

"Lined black?"

It certainly ought to be — but I'm afraid I’ve been toying with an alternative, I'll have to do some tests.

'...clacks straddling the boiler top, along with suitable firebox-top pipework..."

I’m treading on thin ice here, because (likely obviously) I really don’t understand much of this stuff. I did wonder about representing (what I assume were) clack valves on the top, front of the boiler — like on the LNER big Garratt. Later versions of the LMS Garratt, on the other hand, seemed to have had theirs removed! Huh?

Fortunately though, unlike Beyer’s many export designs, neither the 1920s LMS or LNER versions seem to have been festooned with external boiler or firebox pipework at all. So I’m pretending that a late 40s BR version wouldn’t either. Trouble is, as you imply, some BR Standards displayed quite a lot of firebox spaghetti…

This one's just a bit of fun though. My usual excuse.

[Peter Butler]

'...clacks straddling the boiler top, along with suitable firebox-top pipework..."

I’m treading on thin ice here, because (likely obviously) I really don’t understand much of this stuff.

This one's just a bit of fun though. My usual excuse.

You have no idea how much better I feel after hearing that. I've been saying for ages how little I know about steam engines, and I'm not the only one!

[GTB]

I’m treading on thin ice here, because (likely obviously) I really don’t understand much of this stuff.

If you want to know what a BR Beyer-Garratt would have looked like, there's a drawing of the 1948 proposal for a mixed traffic Garratt, for use on the Highland line, in 'Locomotive Panorama Vol.1' by E. S. Cox. It is on page 95 in my copy of the '74 paperback edition. There was also a 1949 proposal to replace the LMS Garratts on the Midland coal trains with something more reliable. Both of the proposed BR designs were fairly standard post-war Beyer-Peacock designs, there'd have been nothing much noticeably BR about them.

The LMS Garratt was also a fairly standard '20s Garratt in appearance, it was the mechanical details insisted on by the Midland mafia that were it's problem.......

There used to be a good website devoted to the Garratt locomotive, which had photos of every Garratt design built. The original site disappeared a while back, but seems to live on in the Wayback Machine archive. The photos of post-WW2 Garratts might be useful for detailing a BR period Garratt.

https://web.archive.org/web/20220125191 ... ource.html

The photos may be useful in detailing a model.

Regards,
Graeme