Lord Darby (4"RL)

Great photos Phil.My word you have been busy.looking forward to seeing the results of your painting.Have Fun sealing the tanks.Did you receive my PM?Keep the photos coming.Cheers Shane.

Looking very good. Yes Steve's revenge. Also I am still very impressed with the line up of all the holes in the components.

Been at it for a year now, and to me progress has seemed a bit on the slow side. I have reached the point of no return with regard to the painting, which to say the least is not my strong point. Watching Showman Shane painting Starlight Express I think has taught me that I should keep things as simple as possible. I tried some spraying with varied results, and brush with varied results, although brush painting seems to come more natural to me.

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As you can see from the photo’s I have invested in a plastic greenhouse to use as a paint shop. This really helps in keeping the dust at bay and to a certain extent keeping the temperature steady. The tent is very light and can be moved very easily around the workshop when needed. I use a 500W halogen free standing lamp, outside the tent, reflected off the ceiling which I find good when the ambient light is fading. So I now have a log jam of larger sub-assemblies to paint over the coming weeks, including all the wheels.
I managed to seal all three tanks with POR15 over a three day weekend, marine clean day one, metal prep day two, and then finally sealer on day three. I used a sealer kit which included a 1 litre tin of sealer and was surprised at just how little was actually required to finish all three. I think I only used 1/3 of a tin in total.
Lots of little bits are being either chemically blackened or zinc plated as I go. Most of which I do myself, although some of the much larger items will have to be finished professionally.
I am still waiting for my cylinder block to be delivered from STW. I believe that Steve and Dean have had a bit of a nightmare with the DCC casting of late. So when that arrives I can get the cladding fitted and into the paint shop. Then I can get back to the engineering side of the build again.

Hi Phil,
Your build seems to be progressing nicely. Love the combination of yellow with the black. Exciting times with hopefully your engine rolling on its wheels in the not to distant future.

We now have the 12 month countdown for our engines to be completed for the national model engineering convention in early Jan 2016.Any builders in the UK who are interested in visiting down under should PM Phil or myself for details and perhaps we could arrange some accommodation.

Cheers ,Shane

Hi all you STW followers, time for an update regarding my build.

After a great Saturday with Showman Shane and “Starlight Express” on her first movement under her own steam, I have been getting a second wind with regard to my build. Well done Shane, she ran like a well-oiled sewing machine.

I have finally decided to brush paint the under and finish coats after spraying the primer. Although painting the finish has had to be postponed because of the weather here in NZ. We have been very lucky in having a very warm settled summer this year with the average daytime temperature of 25°c. This has proved to be too warm for the paint that I have chosen, so I need to wait until later in the year to final coat. The paint dries too quickly even when thinned, leaving brush marks. When the temperature is right the paint almost resembles a sprayed finish, so patience on my part is required.

In the meantime because I have all my kits I have been ploughing on with some of the heavier transmission components. Starting with the crankshaft all the way through to fitting the wheels to the main axle. The majority of this work has taken place on my steel welding bench, to save my knees and back from too much stress. Now the whole thing has migrated to the workshop floor so that I can finally align all the shafts etc. with all the weight of the engine on its wheels. Now I can lock the horn plates into their final position.





Lord Darby taking a flying lesson....

All my gears I have chemically blackened, with the exception of the large final drive gear which I will paint. Everything has fitted very well with the exception of the universal joint cover which I discovered was machined slightly eccentric with regards to the second shaft. After a couple of emails to Steve and a bit of mechanical magic I finally had a good final fit without too much hassle. After this fitting exercise much of the currently applied paint has suffered some form of damage so I’m glad that I hadn’t spent a great deal of time on a finish coat. I will still need to disassemble certain parts in the future, but a least it is a reassembly not fitting exercise afterwards. All the transmission parts and wheels are bloody heavy, I managed to loose about 4kg in weight over the last couple of weeks, so can’t complain too much.



Wheel fitting....



Finally on all fours....

All the tender fittings and the steering and belly tank are the next fitting exercise, then hopefully I will be able to paint everything that has been assembled to a finish level before continuing with the cylinders, (when they finally arrive from STW), and the motion gear. I just need the weather to turn cooler by about 5-6° so that I can continue with the painting.

Again I would like to say that with the exception the weight of the components that make up the three shaft drive it’s been a pleasure fitting and assembling these large lumps of metal. Well done STW, again.

Coming on nicely

This did make me smile though, something you just wouldnt hear over here......

Kiwiconnection wrote: I just need the weather to turn cooler by about 5-6° so that I can continue with the painting..

Normally over here its the other way round

Another step in the right direction, with the fitting of the transmission components from the crankshaft to the road wheels. All in all a very satisfying fitting exercise. Apart from a few minor misalignments at the universal joint due to some eccentric machining, which Steve and I had sorted very quickly, everything else fitted like a glove. For anyone not reached this stage yet you need to be bloody fit because most of the components would exercise the most ardent gym bunny.















Not fitting the tender or front spectacle plate at this stage has certainly made life very much easier lifting and fitting the heavier items. As you can see the cylinder block is still missing, it will be arriving in Auckland on the 17th on May. I will then be able to finish fitting all the motion gear before sending it all off for electroplating.

Once I get to that stage it will be time for a big workshop clean-up and erection of paint tent, so that I can apply all the finish coats of paint, not my favourite pastime.

Phil

I am strangely looking forward to seeing all the yellow bits fitted. I can see the tender and belly tank in the background already painted.

I hopefully will be seeing his lordship in the flesh so to speak.

He is looking very bright.

The photographs are not a good colour rendition. The flash appears to make it look dark and the mixture of sunlight and fluorescent lighting seems to wash it out.

Believe me I am just as interested as to how it will look when finally assembled. Most people who have seen it in the flesh have so far been very complementary about the scheme. Not everyone’s choice I know, and not Burrell prototypical, but hey why not stand out from the crowd, especially when road running.

Most kiwi drivers seem to be quite blind to other road users so something out of the ordinary will hopefully attract there attention.

I think we should all "Wait and See".*

Tim

* a well-known yellow Burrell Showman's RL.

Forging on with the build, with plenty still to do but now running on compressed air. The majority of the painting, with the exception of the wheels, has been achieved. Belly and bunker tanks to be plumbed and fitted then I can see if everything is ready for a first steaming.









A very busy workshop


Lord Darby's mobile mansion

Looking bright Phil, good job your all wearing sunglasses. Interesting locomotive on the stand too.

Thanks Brian. Bright colours suit New Zealand well, because of the great climate and weather. The loco is a SRS "Feldbahn" 0-4-0, that I have steamed a few times here, a good strong people puller.

As you can see from the videos, I finally have fire in the hole. Plenty of minor leaks and dribbles from less than tight fittings and fixings, most cured with the exception of an annoying dribble from the water gauge drain cock.
Everything tested seemed to work ok, injector, water lifter, cylinder drains, starting valve, blower, cylinder oiler, etc.
Two minor rectification jobs to be accomplished before the next steaming, the regulator requires further lapping in as it leaks slightly. The big end bearings, as can be heard on the video require some attention also. Otherwise I’m well pleased with this first try.
It took approximately 55 mins to show signs of movement on the pressure gauge and the engine and injector where quite happy to tick over and operate at the 60psi mark. I only took the pressure to 100psi at this stage.

Congratulations Phil-what a wonderful sight and a great achievement .Looking forward to all your compliance issues being sorted and our getting out and about on our engines. Kind regards Shane

I agree, congratulations, so good to see another engine coming to life! Wonderful videos, thanks for putting them on the forum!

Regards,
Tony

Well done Phil, this is the milestone we all look forward too, lighting a fire in our engines but not all the cleaning afterwards. As this is your first steaming did Shane give you a tow around at your recent club open day?

Excellent news. Your snag list is not too long.

Congratulations on a wonderful build.

Happy steaming.

Excellent not too long a snag list, it is a momentous occasion setting the first fire and seeing all your effort come to life.
Well done
Ian

Ready to rock and roll.....



The boss setting fire to my pride and joy......



Fire in the hole for the first time.......



Nearly ready for the second firing after some very minor adjustments, it shouldn’t sound like a bag of nails this time round. Most of the snag list just turned out to be items working loose due to the heat or being silly and not applying enough sealer. Otherwise so far so good, even the boss likes the aroma emanating from the garage, bonus.
The final hurdle is to get the boiler inspector to complete an accumulation test and general operations observation of water gauge checking and two methods of filling the boiler and I will be good to go. Then I just need to register the engine for the road. Lots more painting to complete, mainly the wheels, then a set of lamps to assemble and fit.
I then have a bowser and wagon to build, so no rest for the wicked.

Thanks to you all that have commented it’s been a great journey so far.

It's a very striking engine, are you going to line it out & if so what colours will you use with yellow? It's difficult with photo's to know what the actual shade of colour is. Is it an acidic/eggy/soft yellow? Look forward to seeing it finished, it's a great relief to see it running after so many hours toiling away!

Congratulations! What a wonderfull moment - erverthing worked out well.

Please do not stop give comments/post pictures on your construction progress

Greetings from accross the world..

Marco

First full steaming and road run today. With the exception of the starting valve which has been a little uncooperative in sealing, and has been temporally removed and the ports blanked off, the engine performed very well.
The engine travelled approximately 1km up and down my street, attracting many residence and passing motorists, must get my registration completed.
Now for the bad news. The differential ran fairly well in the beginning then started to become very notchy as time passed by. The main axle assembly has been fitted in accordance to the instructions and drawings. The whole axle assembly had an end float of approx. 5mm so I added a single 2.5 – 3mm spacer to reduce this movement, between the LH diff/wheel assembly and the bearing tube. This aligned the final drive gears correctly.
At first I became aware that things seemed to be not to be quite right when turning in both directions, then it came to a point when turning with ½ to ¾ RH and LH lock the engine was being forced in a straight line on a tarmac surface road, not good. I know a few of you have had some dealings with the differential in the past, so do any off you have any suggestions/ideas regarding this unfortunate problem.    

I had similar problems with my diff not working well, which was primarily down to the pinions not being well matched to the bevels. This can be improved by taking metal off the outer side of the pinions and bushing them out on the spindle (in other words making use of the smaller diameter of the pinions) and tightening up the tolerances on the diff which can jump and be notchy. This has worked well enough last season (including a 100Km run), but I haven't checked out this part of the engine this winter.

I believe that the second batch of pinions has a sweeter relationship with the bevels (i have some, but haven't fitted them yet) so might be easier to ask STW to supply you a new set.

Tim