Garden Railway Forum

Safety valve and whistle now drawn (adapted from Schull loco's)
Rik

Very very nice work in TinkerCad there, suitably impressed again

Starting to take shape for sure, and a very good shape at that

The boiler has now been printed, glued to the smokebox and firebox and the whole thing fixed to the running plate. It's beginning to look like a loco....
Rik

Cab now printed and assembled.
The tanks are being printed.

Rik

Meanwhile, I'm getting to the fun fiddly bits
Rik

Tanks now printed but not yet fixed into place until I check I can fit the 18650 li-ion cells into them without having to dismantle. I know there is sufficient space inside, but I just need to be sure the cells will be able to be wiggled in and out again when everything is glued together. The inserts to fill fill the gaps under the tanks are being printed right now .....

Rik

OK.
I've managed to crack on over the past couple of days. Dome, safety valves, chimney, tank fillers, roof and trailing bogie all now done - thought there's still a bit of tidying up needed - but some of that can wait until the first couple of coats of primer have been applied.
Just trying to figure out how to attach the outside frames. I've butchered the motor block so much I can't use the original fixings and I can't fix them to to body as the bracket for the motion is in the way. So, I'm experimenting with finding ways to attach them to the motor block.

Lithium cells have been ordered - I had to tweak the design of the tanks to allow them to be fitted - but nearly ready for the first test run.

Rik
PS - Photography has a lot to answer for - looks like a bit of filler is needed around the boiler fittings!

That's looking fantastic Rik! They've always seemed like rather attractive locos to me, in a chunky sort of way, and you've really captured that.

I was just thinking how good it would look at the head of your sand hoppers, then remembered that the Snailbeach District Railways had a Skylark - perfect!

Cheers,

Andrew.

Very elegantly done — a nice looking loco too, I think.

Not having come to terms with 3D print has had me pacing up and down in frustration, muttering obscenities — to the horror of the old dear next door…

Thanks chaps. Still trying to figure out how to attach the outside frames - and my printer has been playing up so I've had to do a bit of muttering and pacing myself ......

Rik

Outside frames have now been printed and fitted so I thought I'd giver her a test run to make sure they didn't bind on the fly cranks. I think I got away with it



Rik

ge_rik wrote: ↑Wed Oct 13, 2021 6:10 pm I think I got away with it

It looks like it, well done, she runs beautifully!

It may not be possible, or indeed desirable to you, but I wonder whether curving the rear of the frame up and over the pony truck and continuing it as far as the rear buffer beam might balance the back of the loco visually? I think it would mirror prototype practice too. Just a thought - it'll look lovely just as it is!

Andrew.

PS Isn't "Skylark" a lovely name for a class of locomotive??

Lovely little loco Rick, superbly built and runs sweetly too! A little time spent on the surface finish will be time well spent.

Very nice end result from a fast drawing and print job. Just shows the value ofa 3D printer.

I'm in agreement with Andrew though, it does look very empty under the cab, around the trailing axle.

If the frames cannot be extended, perhaps steps would do the trick?

You're right, the back end is a bit sparse. Now I've tested that the trailing bogie behaves itself, I can figure out how to fill some of the space.

The buffer beams have now been extended downwards. I'd like to try lowering the body somehow but that would require major surgery on the motor block so I might have to live with it as is.

Apparently, it's not really a Skylark but this design was based on or inspired by the class.

Rik

ge_rik wrote: ↑Wed Oct 13, 2021 9:07 pm I'd like to try lowering the body somehow but that would require major surgery on the motor block so I might have to live with it as is.

The fundamental problem is that the driving wheels are too large. It's not possible to replace them - there wouldn't be enough clearance under the motor block (and the Bachmann wheels are moulded on to axle stubs) but I think I can lower the running board by hacking a few lumps off it. However. This would leave insufficient room above the cylinders for the Walschaerts valve gear which was used on the actual locos.

The drawing of the proposed MWB loco on which this is partly based shows Joys valve gear which is a bit simpler so I might try squeezing some sort of representation of that in instead.

I can use a fair bit of modellers' licence as, to my knowledge, Kerr Stuart never produced a three foot gauge loco derived from the Skylark design - that's my story and I'm sticking to it .....

Rik

Just had a comment on YouTube from one of the team building a full size replica of the original loco ...... He says he'd like to see my model for real when its finished No pressure then .......

Rik

ge_rik wrote: ↑Thu Oct 14, 2021 10:14 am Just had a comment on YouTube from one of the team building a full size replica of the original loco ...... He says he'd like to see my model for real when its finished No pressure then .......

Thats what happens when you stick your head above the parapet....!

Decided I didn't like the "sit-up and beg" look of the loco and so took razor-saw in hand and attacked the motor block and the body. I've dropped the body by 7mm. It needed to be 8.5mm to match the drawings but that's as far as I can safely go. I think it now looks a lot better.
Rik
PS - Now noticed the boiler seems to be slanted up towards the front. Looks like another tweak needed.