Lord Darby (4"RL)

hi saved hours and hours of grinding my wife done most of the parts for me in the kichen but it did make the kichen sink go a strange coulor and we dryed or the parts on the radiator or round the house so when we came to paint just a quick key up   

Just seen that my iphone was in clever dick mode and changed swarf to dwarf!

Hey ho

Hi folks just a quick update. If any of you are about to fit or have fitted the rear axle to the axle tube, make sure the bushes are Loctite in. After easing out the bearings to let the axle rotate by hand I discovered the oil holes didn’t line up.   A gentle tap on each bush from inside both came out very easily. A quick clean and application of some bearing retainer soon fixed the problem.   Make sure the oil holes line up or just drill a new 5mm hole if it doesn’t. 

Make sure you grind a shallow cross groove from the hole to help spread the oil across the bearing too!

Thanks for the tip. I forgot to mention the groove, managed to remember it being mentioned in the past and grooved both when out on the bench. 

A few photos of my build to date.



Boiler painted and horn plates primed.



Some of the heavy stuff trial fit before painting.



Much more to do, but so far only a few items have required any actual fitting. Very impressed with all the bits and pieces that I have handled. Hoping to get all the kit 10 bits primed soon. We are being blown about by the remains of a tropical cyclone at the moment so no windows and doors can be opened to allow me to spray.

Yes somewhat wet and windy. I check your bridge webcam often.

Hope you have a crane to get the engine off the table?

Looking good.

Yes Lyn, the guys have been very busy at the club over the last couple of months. Shane has been the leading light in pushing things along. This is the first weekend that we haven’t been able to continue the viaduct build.  
I have an engine lift to get the beast of the bench when I get round to finishing the wheels. I prefer to work at a reasonable height when fitting. 

Looking great Phil. Jeez you don't muck around. You'll catch me up in no time. We did install some more cross bracing between the piles on each pier yesterday morning. Had to chuck it in by late morning with wind and precipitation making things a little "uncomfortable". Cheers Shane.

As you can see things are progressing with Lord Darby. I have invested in a chemical blackening and nickel plating equipment and chemicals for my workshop which allows me to finish my small corrosion prone bits and pieces at home as and when required. I have also taken on a paint system using an Isotal Alkyd enamel manufactured here in NZ, not being able to import Craftmaster paints. The paint system seems to be working well in both brush and spray applications, although I tend to gravitate toward brush application for the convenience of not having to cover the whole workshop and mask large areas to prevent overspray and paint dust.
I have added a grease nipple to the perch to ease lubrication of the pivot, including a groove around the pivot to help spread the grease when charging.
I have the rear wheels to assemble and paint so that I can get the rolling chassis onto the floor and create some room for the imminent arrival of the second delivery of kits from STW, another large pallet with the rest of the engine parts, a bowser, and the metalwork for the waggon kit. I believe that the waggon timber will be dispatched later this year.
I would just like to say that all the components that I have had to handle in my build so far have been excellent quality and very easy to fit and finish, and are a credit to the team at plant STW.
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Paint shop looking colourful and busy
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Minor mod adding grease nipple
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Hey Phil, Great photos keep them coming. My word you have been a busy little bee. Love the butter cup yellow. Have you decided on a colour for your wheels yet? Cheers Shane

Kiwiconnection wrote:

Do I spy a Polly 1 on the work bench ?

Hi LiveSteam.

Your nearly right...... its in fact a Polly 3. Not having space to house machinery and models I have taken to kit building, starting with the Polly, which I found to be an excellent kit of very good quality. I would recommend both Polly Model Engineering and Steam Traction Word to any modeller thinking along the kit build route. I almost jumped into a "Feldbahn" kit from Station Road Steam but ended up buying a finished engine in stead, so that I can concentrate on building my 4"RL.

Kiwiconnection wrote:Hi  LiveSteam.

Your nearly right...... its in fact a Polly 3. Not having space to house machinery and models I have taken to kit building, starting with the Polly, which I found to be an excellent kit of very good quality. I would recommend both Polly Model Engineering and Steam Traction Word to any modeller thinking along the kit build route. I almost jumped into a "Feldbahn" kit from Station Road Steam but ended up buying a finished engine in stead, so that I can concentrate on building my 4"RL.

Ahhh Polly 3, couldn't see it fully   

We have the Polly 1 which we built some 15yrs ago, one of the last JGS Clarke ones, to be honest wasn't the best, I think when Polly Model Eng took it on its been improved from what I've seen or we just cos we got one of the last JGS ones it was made up of what was left, we still love it for all its little problems, currently its stripped down again while I fix another little probs and get it re-tested again.

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Well here we go with another quick update.

I have been experimenting with brush painting and have finally found the right combination of brushes, (Daler-Rowney not the cheapest but very good and a good range of sizes from lining to 1 1/2 flat), thinning levels for the paint, and ambient temperatures etc. Because I have all the kits I have the advantage of being able to prepare and paint items with the mechanical fit in mind as well. Having a blackening kit I am also finishing items that are not cosmetic including fixings of help prevent corrosion in the future.


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Finishing of the four wheels at the moment to a level of primer, and all the items required to give me a rolling chassis. I found the following tips might be useful to next generation builders. Correcting the spoke bend angles using body mass rather than hammering nine bells out of items was quite efficient, and gave good control over the amount of bend induced into the spoke.



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An investment in a Tajima large bladed knife worked wonders for removing the excess adhesive on the wheel assemblies. I also found that running a reamer into the spoke holes from each side after countersinking, to remove the burr thrown up, (don’t pass the reamer all the way through the hole from one side thus still retaining enough interference to capture the bolt), helps with assembly in that I didn’t need to drive the rivet bolt home with heavy hammer force, just squeeze force using the M6 nuts provided. Thus preventing the cosmetic filler from cracking or falling out. Just another tip, degrease all your rivet bolts and nut prior to fitting so that the thread lock and primer paint have a good clean surface to bond too.

Hi ho from sunny Scotland. (Something must be wrong!)

Excellent progress on your engine. I bet it must be great to have everything together and can pick and choose what to build. Although it could also be a bit overwhelming seeing all those parts at once.

Yes Lyn your dead right there.....   It does pose a few dilemmas when you know that everything is sitting waiting in boxes, well almost everything, still waiting for my cylinder block which is being machined at the moment.   Having inspected all the kits to check the contents I have made some rearrangement in the build order but generally keeping to the overall sequence. Then the trick is to stack them all in the build order so that being generally lazy I can only work in the correct order without restacking all the kits every time I’m tempted to go off at a tangent.  
Now that you have Crystal up and running are to tempted to embark on another project? 

Yes I would love to. But things are different now. Change of job. LOT less wages and longer working hours. The no space was always an issue as well.

Currently working on Blackbeards wagons.

Hi Phil,Great work and your garage still looks clean! It appears that your build is progressing at a far greater pace than mine . Have you decided on a colour for your wheels yet? Look forward to having our engines on display at our clubs open weekend in November. Keep the photos coming. Hopefully catch up at our play day this coming sat.Cheers Shane.

lynnr wrote:Currently working on Blackbeards wagons.

Yeeeaaaahhhhhhhh!!!

Phil

Nice job your doing there, goof finish on everything and coming together nicely. If you and Shane park next to each other no sunglasses will be enough to stop the glare  .

What is it about yellow in NZ, is there a surplus from the railways (I think one of the railways there had yellow steam locos in the past).

Pity your doing the road loco as there is a yellow showman's engine in the UK you could have copies the colour scheme of, see link below.

http://www.steamscenes.org.uk/pictures/2009/bedfordshire-steam-fayre/size6/2009-09-20_11-24-31_DSC_7353.jpg

Brian, I think I can adequately answer the reason for the yellow. Unlike the UK where the sun is intermittent at best in NZ we have a thing called heaps of sunshine hours(it only rains at nite!).Hence the yellow on our engines replicates the Kiwi ethos of being bright and shiny (but of course extremely modest). We don't do dull except when it comes to our All Blacks who being the world champions don't like to stand out. Cu at Dorset. Hope you have the steam yachts set for the engine mans special. Cheers Shane

You guessed correctly that "Wait and See" is the inspiration for my colour scheme,   although it wont be quite as fancy, being a road loco. And Shane is right that the sun really does shine in NZ, one of the many reasons why I moved here permanently 8 years ago. I am sure Shane will invest in a nice new pair of duty free sunglasses while on his European trip shortly. 

Look forward to seeing Shane at Dorset and on the Steam Yachts. Hope we get some sun then he can experience the Dorset dust rather than the mud bath.

Finger prints worn away, forearms bruised and sore, knuckles battered and grazed……. You guessed it folks I have been assembling “Baldocks Revenge”, namely the belly tank, tender, and water bowser.

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I have been having nightmares with row upon row of marching slot less rivets, (Pink Floyd the Wall album might be partly responsible for that one).  

Apart from the pain all three assemblies have been very satisfying to put together, out of all the fixings involved I have only needed to clear about a dozen holes due to very minor misalignment, well done Steve and the power of 3D modelling. Being a design draughtsman myself it is a great feeling to watch the transition from computer screen to real life with everything falling into place as neatly as you have imagined it in cyber space.

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I have concentrated on getting the tanks as complete as possible so that I can attack all three assemblies at once when it comes to the POR15 sealer. I will then need to have a huge clear up and clean down so that I can make a serious start on painting all these bulky items, and the four wheels. Now that we are heading into spring here the temperature is beginning to favour the painting process, so watch this space for some colourful reports in the near future.