Metalworking

This is the part I’ve really been dreading. I want to keep the platform because it gives the model a nice, rigid base and has some useful detail I can make use of. On the other hand, diecast metal is a horrible material to work with. The stuff is hard, brittle and unforgiving. Cuts are final, scratches are difficult to remove and pieces snap off easily never to be reinstated securely. So, understandably modifying this part is something I’ve been holding off, meanwhile measuring carefully and then measuring again.

Remarkably, my little Y9 shunter is actually bigger than FR 20 in almost every respect, not least its length. I have already decided to retain its original wheelbase despite being 2mm, or a scale 6 inches, longer than FR 20. So the plan is to leave the centre section untouched and consequently the springs in the right places relative to the wheels. That means any length adjustments will be restricted to the area between the wheel centres and the buffer beams. I intend to make those distances accurate meaning that the overall length will be plus 2mm due to the wheelbase.

To help make accurate, square cuts, I made myself a dedicated 00 scale cutting jig. It simply comprises three pieces of wood screwed together in a U shape and with some accurate guide slots cut across it. The last part was the big challenge. I know all about a bad workman blaming his tools and all that but I had made two neatly curving saw cuts before I realized that my tennon saw naturally cuts curves. In the end I managed a straight cut using a hacksaw.

At the rear, the mod was easy enough. When measured, the cut line fell neatly along the mould line denoting the front of the buffer beam. I cut upwards from underneath and using my jig achieved a nice square cleave. It also conveniently took the rear rail off with it; which was a bonus. Obviously FR 20 is a tender loco, so will not need buffers at the rear but more of that later.

With the cut made, the exposed surface revealed just how horrible these castings are. Granted, this was one of the thickest parts of the casting, but it revealed huge great voids in the metal. A lesson for the future when working with these parts is not to assume they are homogenous.

Packaging problem

FR 20 approaches Mytholmes tunnel
[image courtesy of Furness Railway Trust]

Perhaps this project’s biggest challenge is squeezing a standard-sized motor into a boiler slim enough to look plausible. As you can see from the pictures, FR 20 has a boiler that is much narrower than the engine making it very hard to find somewhere to put the motor. In contrast, the Y9 has a generous amount of space inside its ample water tank to accommodate the power unit.

For my project I don’t expect to be able stick to the dimensions of FR 20 down to the millimetre, but the closer I can get to them, the more convincing the model will look. Nothing will spoil the illusion more than an incongruously large boiler. In fact, thanks to the size of my intended smokebox, which I’ll come to later, the largest diameter I can take the boiler out to is 19mm. However, the width of the motor is 20mm and simply will not fit.

What are the alternatives? A smaller motor is a possibility if I can find one that delivers similar power from a more compact package. However, before I set off trawling the internet for a possible candidate, I wanted to try another strategy.

The end profile of the motor is circular with flats on the top and bottom slimming the height down 16mm. If I could turn the motor through 90 degrees, it would effectively narrow the width of the motor and the top half would fit into the boiler while the rest could be buried out of sight in the chassis. But would it work?

I tried measuring the clearances, between the wheels and under the intended line of boiler top but couldn’t be sure. This is a game where half a millimeter counts and the only way to be certain is to try it and see.

I chamfered the sides of the chassis to find a little more space, but the big adjustment needed was going to be the mounting block. I had to file 2.5mm off the deck the motor sits on and hope for the best. Working slowly, measuring and test fitting again and again I eventually gained enough space for the motor to sit on its side.

But would it fit in the chassis, stay clear of the wheels and not sit too high? I assembled it all with trembling fingers wondering whether I had made a big step forward or just written off a previously operational loco. And the result? Success! It not only cleared the wheels by a good half mill, but it also will only raise the boiler height by one millimeter over the scale height of real thing. Phew!

The cutting begins

The tank loco is quite old and it turns out the ends of the more recent Y9’s axles are smaller. So a straightforward swap of the wheels is not possible. However, the main axles are the same diameter on both engines and as long as I use the whole assembly from the older loco, they will fit into the Y9’s bearing.

The bigger wheels do foul the Y9 chassis in a couple of places, though, most notably the brake blocks. But with a bit of work with a modeling knife they are dispensed with and the wheels fit snuggly up against the chassis.

I also plan to reuse the platform as it comes with several benefits. Cast in metal it’s solid and heavy which will aid traction. Plus it comes with some nice detail like the springs that are in the right place for FR 20. But when added to the chassis with its new wheels they foul. Fortunately, the interference is very small and hopefully a little grinding should create the necessary clearance.

Is it close?

Pausing at Lakeside on its home railway 
[image courtesy of Furness Railway Trust]

Starting with the basic Y9 saddle tanker, the first step was to see how much of the original model I could keep. Comparing the wheelbase, FR20 is 7ft 9ins or 31mm at 4mm to the foot compared to the Y9’s 33mm or 8ft 3ins. That’s 2mm difference but, for the purpose of this exercise, good enough. I could relocate one axle to get it spot on but I would have to tweak so much else it would make the job much bigger and may never get finished.

Next, there are the wheels. The Y9’s are 16.5mm, equivalent to 4ft 1.5ins while FR20’s are bigger at 4ft 9ins equating to 19mm. Fortunately I already had some the right size on a Hornby 0-6-0 tank loco. The question is, can they be made to fit the Y9? The only way to find out is to strip them both and try and mix and match the parts.

Choosing a donor

Shopping around, Hornby seems to have done two 0-4-0 locos over the years, a saddle tanker and a side tanker. Because of FR20’s history I opted for the saddle tanker and started watching a few on Ebay. I couldn’t be sure that one would be a good basis for FR 20 but they were not too dear and I decided to take a chance. Eventually I bought one in Caledonian Railways livery that was in good condition for not a lot of money.

 The model is actually a reasonable representation of the Drummond Y9 shunters introduced in 1882, so I had, in fact, already bought a Victorian loco. They enjoyed very long working lives and even did some main line work with a coal truck to extend their range. However, that was not why I bought one and I had bigger plans for the little engine.

Finding my way

Eventually I decided I wanted to indulge my new-found enthusiasm by creating my own mid-Victorian train to run on 00 layouts. I didn’t want to attempt anything too ambitious or spend a fortune. I just wanted to put together rolling stock of a Hornby-level of detail that evokes this lost era. A modest enough ambition I thought; apparently not. There is virtually nothing available in 00 from any major manufacturer that represents this period.

Some models have touched on very late Victorian examples like Triang and then Hornby’s Lord of the Isles. With its big single driving wheels it looks a lot older than it is. In reality these Achillies class locos date from the 1890s.

I then started considering the possibility of modifying something to give a look of the era of locos I was trying to capture. Perhaps I could modify the Lord of the Isles to recreate a LNWR Problem class, the distant ancestor of the Dean Single and possibly the cause of my wife’s ancestor’s demise.

I could remove the cab and do other bits of detailing. Closer inspection showed it would be tricky, particularly as the Problems had outside cylinders with all the linkage that the Lord of the Isle model lacks. Also, the Isles model is not so cheap these days and I didn’t have the confidence to attack one with a hacksaw.

Then I thought of Furness railway’s FR 20. It made sense on a number of fronts. I was brought up in Furness and even remember seeing FR 20s sister loco at Stone Cross school in the 1970s. So there was an emotional attachment. Also, it occurred to me that as it spent much of its life as an 0-4-0 saddle tanker, could I turn a mass produced model of one into a reasonable FR 20. Chances are they would be cheap to buy so I worried less about putting one under the blade.

The clincher was the Furness Railway produces an excellent publication by Tim Owen called The Great Survivor. Not only does it have a history of FR 20 from construction to restoration, it also includes a good set of plans in 7mm scale. That decided it. Furness Railway’s FR 20 was my best chance of creating a loco for my Victorian train.

How it all started

Furness Railway's FR 20 during a filming assignment
[image courtesy of the Furness Railway Trust]

So why try and model the Furness Railway’s FR20? Well, it was all sparked off by family history research. Looking into my wife’s genealogy, I discovered her great, great grandfather met a grisly death under the wheels of a steam locomotive at Preston station in 1868. Strangely, this got me interested in mid-Victorian railways and rolling stock.

I had always had a passing interest in trains but always found them out-innovated and out-performed by other forms of transport. Looking back, I realize that almost the entire body of enthusiasm for steam engines seems to focus on 20^th century examples. However, by then, they were yesterday’s technology and yes, they were being outperformed by cars, planes and, before the end of their life, even rockets.

However, go back to the 19^th century, specifically 1830 to 1870 and they were the fastest things on the planet. Let me make that point clearer, they were not the fastest steam engines, fastest trains or fastest land speed. They were the fastest man made transport on the planet bar none.

Back in 1851 the outright speed record was 81mph and held by a steam locomotive and this was at a time when the only competition was a horse; maximum speed 38mph. Just imagine the impact on the average Victorian from any walk of life. This was an unbelievable technical revolution. Steam locomotives were the equivalent of racing cars in the Edwardian period, aeroplanes in the ’30s, jet aircraft in the ’50s or space rockets in ’60s.

Not only that, but nobody knew for sure how to build them. Stephenson’s rocket had pooled a number of useful ideas to create a reasonable pattern for the future but nobody really knew if that was right or wrong. Consequently designs went off in all sorts of different directions. Many turned out to be blind alleys while some were not adopted for all the wrong reasons like broadgauge. It was a fascinating time when most of our national rail network was built and all the real advances were made.

By comparison the 20^th century witnessed a rail network in decline and the locomotive were mostly iterative refinements of established practice. Even the A1 class Pacifics of 57 years later could only manage 27mph more than that 1851 record.

However, with my enthusiasm fired, I struggled to find any worthwhile information on that exciting era of development. Most histories of railways pay lip service to the Rocket then skip to the end of the century. The preservation movement focuses mainly on locomotives that are still operating and they are mostly date from the 1920s to 1950s. There are seriously few Victorian locos at all still steaming and virtually none prior to 1871.

It soon became something of a quest as I searched for information. One exciting glimpse came via the late W M Whitcombe’s superb book of his paintings recreating many of those lost engines. Called After Rocket: the Forgotton Years 1830-1870, it gives a tantalizing glimpse into the fantastic diversity at the time.