7 1/4 Gauge 08 Shunter build.

[barks]

My workbench currently.
I’ll keep a current pic here so you don’t have to look through the thread if you’ve already done that.

Cheers
Barks

[Dad-1]

That IS a big beast !!
When I was doing my welding exams back in the 70's I was quite
envious of the guys who came in and were making their own steam
traction engines.
Mind you I was a fish out of water, a distribution warehouse manager
with no real engineering background - Just fitting. In other words
working on my rally cars, building engines & suspensions isn't real
engineering.

Geoff T.

[barks]

Yes Geoff it’s starting to take shape now.
I recon 3 days and ut should be ready for paint.

Cheers
Barks

[Bigmet]

That's model engineering alright. As my career developed, I found myself in charge of a prototyping shop, and one of the incumbents was busy about a Gresley V2 (his father had driven these out of KX) for 5" gauge. This was no problem as such, (use of the business' facilities after hours was positively welcomed, myself, I made use of a very high grade photographic darkroom) but he had just made the discovery that mechanical assistance was going to be required to lift it, on the day that a mucker with a Land Rover pitched up to transport it to his home.

[barks]

Hehe. Yeah it’s getting heavy.
I’ve made it so the whole body lifts off I can just manage the chassis on my own.
If there’s interest I’ll turn this into a build thread.

Cheers barks

[Bigmet]

The only way to find out if there is significant interest is to try a few posts of progress and see what response that gets.

[Phred]

barks wrote:
If there’s interest I’ll turn this into a build thread.

Yes please.
I'd be very interested to see that.

[aleopardstail]

Hehe. Yeah it’s getting heavy.
I’ve made it so the whole body lifts off I can just manage the chassis on my own.
If there’s interest I’ll turn this into a build thread.

Cheers barks

count me interested, and flabbergasted

[barks]

Thanks all.
It will be nice having a natter with like minded folk again as no one around me is really interested.

Build thread it is.

Cheers
Barks

[barks]

I needed a loco as cheep as possible.
I couldn’t spend 3 to 5k on a new kit build so I had to find another way.
It had to be battery electric. Be able to pull 6 adults. Negotiate tight radius bends and look like something recognisable.

So after searching everywhere for ages I found someone with most of the parts for the body and chassis front back and sides cheep. I was weary as it was cut from drawings which expect you to have everything made to size which would have cost thousands. I had to find a way to use off the shelf bits. Mainly axels. Wheels and wheel bearings.

Here’s what I bought.

It came with a box of small plates for the sides.

Well it’s a start.
The chassis was only 5mm thick which worried me.
Looking at all the available bearings which took a lot of time I decided to go with standard uptake bearings which meant I had to open up the slots in the side and also increase the thickness of the chassis as the slots in the side of the bearings were 12mm.

There was a spare side piece thankfully as trying to cut it neatly with a grinder and cutting disk went wrong.
I ended up using a friends plasma cutter which worked fine but having never done it before needed cleaning up.

I originally intended on narrow gauge wheels and axels but for 9 axels and 18 wheels with bearings would have been around £1100. At the last minute I found wheel seconds for £8 each but they were standard gauge which meant they were smaller as are the axels shorter.
It would just work so bought them saving about £800.

Here’s the chassis sides placed over the axels wheels and take up bearings.

Excuse the pic quality I had to resize some to upload.
You can see I had to open the slots quite a bit.
Most importantly the axel with bearings fit into the sides and the front and rear don’t have to be modded.

So now I’ve welded the sides. Front and rear together with the bottom.

I hate welding because whatever welder I use seams to stop being nice after about 30 mins so don’t be too harsh.

Now because of the tight radius curves in my garden I expected to have to remove the flanges on the center wheels.
Testing day

although it did manage 1 tight curve it didn’t like going one way then the other. After I removed the center axel it ran real smooth. I did widen the gauge about 5mm on the curves which has helped.
All in all I was very pleased with the test even more so because I had laid about 40m of track and hadn’t checked it with anything except a gauge I made.

Next to sort the bearings and chassis thickness.

Cheers
Barks

[barks]

Ok so I wanted to keep as much chassis metal above the bearing as possible for strength so I had an idea to cut the bearing housing part that holds the spring to save space.
I would then weld a washer above and hold the spring in place.

Bearings cut down.

I then cut and welded in 12 pieces of 5mm steel to thicken the chassis and hold all the bearings square.

All done.
I then welded a washer above the 25mm springs I chose and drilled and tapped for a bolt to keep the springs just under load and stop everything falling out when picked up.

So suspension works and bearing housings are square and true.

I’ve been given some 10mm thick steel I can use for wagon front and rears but also to strengthen the loco chassis.
But for now I needed to start the body.


Cheers
Barks

[Phred]

b

arks wrote:
Excuse the pic quality I had to resize some to upload.

The quality looks great to me, especially after I learned that clicking on the pics brings them up in a larger size!
Fantastic engineering BTW.

[barks]

Thanks bud.

So here’s some body panels just sitting in place.

Welding all the doors to the side panels.

Outer panels welded in place.

Made a front grill from flat bar and welded in place

I’ve seen models before and to me they look a bit flat so added 10mm flat bar to resess the doors I just made.
Added a handle and some grab rails

Next tackle the roof

[Dad-1]

I dread to think about lifting that down from your bench.
How much will it weigh ??

That is awesome, as this has been the move from 'N' what next ?
Full 1 : 1 restoration ?

Geoff T.

[barks]

Thanks bud.
I recon fully together with battery’s in about 150kg


If I win the lottery that sounds like fun.


Cheers
Barks