Frederick SRL(S)

Thought it was about time I posted some pictures of my engine 'Frederick'
Engine hoist being used to lower horn plates onto boiler.


Red stuff on floor is not blood



Front end lining based on 'Philadelphia'. Name ring lettering thinned down to make cleaning easier.



Unladen weight taken from Ex-Mayor



Crank in place: alignment was straightforward



Tender in place. Stainless steel dome-headed nuts on tender access hatch (these will also be used on the belly tanks rather than the small brass ones that are supplied). Lining is with gold leaf. I'll post details of lining technique another time.



View onto the man stand. Not apparent in the photo, but the firebox door handle was reinforced and stiffened with silver soldered gussets in right angle bends: for when gorillas try and move the doors when they become stiff. Also not visible, is the presence of 20mm diameter small copper pipe reservoirs silver soldered into the oils boxes surrounding each oil feeder pipe (these are pipe fittings available from a plumbers). Otherwise, there will be huge oil wastage and mess, with total loss lubrication onto the garage / trailer / van floor, unless the wicks are lifted when not in use.

Tim

Hi Tim,
Very pleased to see more pictures of another showmans build.
Looks like an exceptional job your doing. Gold lining, wow!! You gotter give more information about that & possibly how to do it!!!
I'd love to do that on my wheels spokes, which I keep putting off doing!!
Regards,
Tony

Hi Tim

Looks great, and the gold leaf and lining out looks First class.

Hi Tim

Great job, really like the writing on the perch bracket, how did you get that old style font? The gold leaf really lifts the Crimson lake colour.

Steve:
I copied Philadelphia. The white is bone white, i.e. cream., by modern standards.
I used tape top and bottom to keep a straight line and then sketched in the text with a chinagraph pencil. This was painted over with a thin skinny line to start with and the letter shapes then built up where appropriate and the serifs added.

Tim

The full showman’s lining is quite complex (dimensions given on another thread) and the use of gold leaf sets it off very well.

It is important to put the lining on in the right order, the gold leaf being applied almost last. I will describe the tender lining, as this is the most complex.

Initial lining
1. Mark out centre of gold line with wax/chinagraph pencil (if needed).
2. Lay down 6 mm wide tape for position of gold (near an edge, use a 3mm 3M tape to gauge the distance of the 6 mm tape from the edge: it will remain afterwards, as there will be no outer red line).
3. Place Finesse 3-3-3 mm tape either side of this 6 mm tape (this will give the red lines).
4. Place Finesse 3-0.8-3 mm tape on the inside to give the yellow line 6 mm from the inner red line.
5. Use 3M 3 mm flexible blue tape where corners are needed, or there are obstructions – setting the distances to match the Finesse tape.
6. Remove original 6 mm tape.
7. Remove spacing tapes for the 3 mm red and 0.8 mm yellow lines from the Finesse tapes
8. Paint false gold (similar colour to your real gold), red and yellow lines in one go: use signwriting enamels. May need to put two coats on in quick succession to ensure good coverage.
9. Immediately peel off tapes at a very acute angle and clean up any paint seepage with a white spirit–soaked cocktail stick: should not be an issue if tapes are well burnished down.
10. Let paint dry completely.
11. Wipe over all of the lining area with degreaser to remove any adhesive residues from the tapes.

Applying gold leaf
12. Pounce (dust) all the lining area and any nearby paintwork with fine French chalk (a cotton mop with chalk inside it). This stops the gold leaf from sticking to unwanted paint surfaces.
13. Paint gold size (a slow-drying varnish) over the gold line: go slightly over the edge of the initially painted gold.
14. Leave to dry until tacky. Drying time will depend upon the size specification. 3-hour size gives plenty of time to paint all the lines and will be ready to gild in three hours – depending on ambient temperature. Check that it is dry by feeling with ‘tug’ on the hairs on the back of your hand: don’t check with fingertips, otherwise your fingerprint will show through the gold. The size will stay ‘open’ for many hours.
15. Take the gold leaf and apply to the line. I use lightly pressed, 23.5 ct roll-format gold leaf that is, say, 9 mm wide for use on a 6+mm painted line. The gold roll is held between the thumb and first finger of the left hand and the loose leaf end pressed onto the beginning of the line with the index finger of the right hand through the paper backing. It is then unrolled along the line. Useful to have a cotton glove on the right hand to avoid touching and contaminating the gold. If the gold breaks, re-apply BUT DO NOT TOUCH THE SIZED SURFACE WITH YOUR GLOVE/HAND. Any defects will be made good with the second application. Gently press down the paper backing. The gold will stick to the size.
16. Next day, remove the skewings (excess gold) from the un-sized areas with a soft brush. If there are defects in the gold leaf than repeat the process. Double leafing will give a deeper finish to the gold.
17. Gently wash off any French chalk from the painted surfaces.
18. Varnish the lining to at least the inner edge of the red lines, with a good clear, non-yellowing, varnish. Two coats of varnish are a good idea to ensure complete coverage.

Completing the lining
19. Place any width tape on the edge of the red line at the border where the black lines are located.
20. Paint the 3 mm black line in the space between the red and the gold. The only edge that requires to be placed carefully is next to the gold leaf: you will probably be painting over the slightly irregular edge of the gold to neaten it up and it may need to be covered twice. Tape cannot be put on the gold to mask it, as there is a very strong chance that you will peel it off when trying to remove it. With practice the tape on the red isn’t really required, as the paint edge gives an easy margin to work to.
21. Re-varnish all the lining.

Suppliers
I have sourced my gold leaf from ‘Gold leaf Supplies’ http://www.goldleafsupplies.co.uk/

They do a starter kit that gives you some of the bits to work with and a technique guide. Transfer leaf is more highly pressed gold, (i.e. more strongly fixed to a paper backing) presented in little books, which is a bit more robust to handle. This will be useful for the canopy lettering, but I consider that the rolls are better suited to lining, even though it is almost loose leaf. They come in different widths, but don’t think that a 6 mm roll will be suitable for a 6 mm line: you need a little bit of extra gold width to give you excess and allow for wandering.

Finesse and 3M tapes are available from Frost’s Automotive supplies. The lining paints should be of the sign-writers type.

Tim

Tim,

Wow was my first reaction when seeing the gold leaf on your pictures. Your instructions on how it was done leave me gob smacked at the effort you have put into making a stunning finish to you engine. Having seen General Gough earlier this year the effect is fantastic so is your engine. I am glad I opted to do the road loco as I could not compete with your efforts .

Many thanks for posting your pictures

Ian

Hi Tim

Looking good. Nice gloss on the paintwork. I did think about gold leaf but thought. Well looks very nice but would break my heart if it got scratched. So I did not.

looking good

Thanks Tim for your words above, I had thought the gold leaf came first and then build up from there, reading your notes I can see this would have been the wrong place to start.

Tim

It took you a while to post some pictures but it was worth the wait, super job. Glad I am only doing a simple road loco with no lining, just black and brass. I look forward to seeing your's at Old Warden next year.

Brian

Hi Tim,

How is the engine coming along, I have not seen any photos for a while and the last time I looked your wheels were top class.

Cheers Dwain

Good progress being made, thanks Dwain. Quiet between New Year and Easter because I was working on model railway stuff (Copenhagen Fields for the York Model Railway Exhibition). About to start a major painting and lining session, with components sent yesterday for grit blasting and priming.

Have just recently been working on a different design of oiler top that avoids lubricant coming out of the cap on the high speed part of the engine and making a mess everywhere. It's based looseley on a Burrell design. Will post some pictures when I've finished the eccentric oilers. Also working with Melvin Brigginshaw to develop some sight feed drip lubricators for the low speed end: slidebars etc. - similar to the ones I have on 'Madeline'.

Tim

Finally got belly tank lined out. I now use brass metallic paint under the gold leaf when putting on the first lines (along with the red and yellow). The paint looks good enough, but the gold tends to 'disappear' in certain lighting / viewing conditions because of its reflective properties - the metallic paint has a specular reflection from all angles and is therefore easier to photograph. Just needs a final coat of varnish over the lining to protect it. The fixings on the inspection panels have been replaced with slightly larger stainless steel nuts: easier to keep clean than brass and more commonly seen on the real thing. I have yet to design a monogram to go on the cover.

With all the bad weather and cancelled rallies, Frederick has had more work done on her than expected. Hopefully, will have a decent spraying session this weekend.

Tim

With all the recent wet weather and cancelled rallies I have been doing the last spraying of the bits at the front end of the engine.

Primer, two undercoats two top coats and a final top coat with 50% varnish to finish off last night. Only trouble was it came out a bit mixed in finish ~ semi-matt. So today I put another coat of paint on without the varnish. So what did I do? Put on another undercoat. The semi-matt finish from the previous evening would have arisen because of mixing varnish with the undercoat.

At this rate, Frederick will soon have structural paint!

Tim

Taken just before my holiday in Cornwall, a quick snap that makes the engine looks a bit like a rowing blazer! The colour of the crimson lake and the yellow lining is much too bright because of the flash on the iPhone. I'll get some better pictures with natural light when possible.



Tim

WOW!!
You gotta post more pics of that!!
Tony

Frederick's a bobby dazzler alright!!! ........... should look fantastic lit up under it's own steam at night

Quite a few showman's engines have an eyebolt on the top of the dynamo, so that it can be lifted off the front bracket with a block and tackle or crane. Having lifted the individual bits of our dynamo around for painting, I considered that when fully assembled, especially with the armature etc inside it would be exceedingly heavy.

So I sourced an 8mm stainless steel eyebolt from the ships chandlery part of Macsalvors in Redruth (http://www.macsalvors.com/contact_us.asp). After a little bit of modification in the lathe and drilling and tapping the casting we now have a Teletubbie:



When its job is done it will be painted black

Tim

Assembled the bits today that were lined out in Cornwall. Next fitting job will be the water pump & drive, then re-assemble the valve gear etc. Will also get on with the wheel lining over the next few days.





I really need to get some better pictures with a proper camera.

Tim

I think you just went to the top of the class with that paint job, the lining is stunning. Really looks the dogs!!
Regards,
Tony

Yes I agree with Tony, the bar has been set very high and is getting higher by the month. Very well done Tim, will be a pleasure to see on the rally field.

looking grate

I will bring a decent camera with me next time I come up Tim.

Mike

One of the problems with oilers with a vent hole is that they tend to splatter oil when running fast. I have made a modification to the STW design, based on a Burrell drawing from the MERL at Reading.

The new design uses the original STW lid, but turned flat on the top. The original oil hole is used to act as a bearing for a short length of brass studding which is silver soldered into the centre of a new brass cap. This sits on top of the oiler as can be seen in the picture. The rotatable cap is held down with a compression spring beneath the original STW lid, locked into place with an appropriate (Loctited) nut, which also adjusts the compression on the spring.



The oil access hole is drilled off centre in the new cap and at the same time as an equivalent hole drilled into the STW lid: as can be seen on the outside eccentric oiler which is in the open position. I use a Rheilang (?) oiler with the end turned down to a finer tip to deliver oil to my pots. The inner eccentric oiler shows the cap turned through 180 degrees in the closed position. In order to stop the lid from rotating, a piece of brass rod is placed in an equivalent hole at 180 degrees to the oil hole in the STW lid and then silver soldered into place. This is then ground down to make a low, rounded, brass bump to locate the oil access hole in the new cap. To open the oiler, the lid is lifted slightly against the compression spring (hence the little lip on the outside) and rotated to line up the two open holes for oiling

The crank shaft oiler shows a similar design, only bigger.

The STW lid can still be removed as previously, but hopefully this design will keep the moving parts a bit cleaner. The idea is simple when you see it, but tricky to describe. It took me a day and a half to make the modification and six oiler caps.

Tim