The Chief
This page details the modifications made to No.4, The Chief.
These were all been carried out one at a time as experience with the engine grew and after visiting shows where other engines were seen running. The first of the alterations was simply to apply the number and name plates, then the tank side lettering and lining. The steam whistle was next and the operating lamp followed quickly. A very nice simple addition was the brass safety valve cover which just sits over the existing safety valve. Loco running lamps (as opposed to the searchlight) were bought and hooked onto the supplied brackets on the bunker, a bracket was added to the front footplate for that lamp. The front buffer beam and water filler are the latest additions.
Name and Numbers
Numerically, this loco was always going to be number four, since it was the fourth on the line. That makes sense, and the name came easily too, since the funds to purchase the Lady Anne came from my fathers legacy; he was a Chief Engineer with BP Shipping until he retired. The name and number plates were ordered from MDC via Brandbright, and are really good quality, although you may have to wait a while for delivery. They have been attached using Cynoacrylate (Superglue) in very sparing amounts, great care been taken to ensure they are straight since in this application the glue will set immediately.
Lining
One or two attempts have been made at lining the loco. The first were using a
bow pen and enamel paints, but the lines were far too broad and removed
immediately. The next attempt was using Trimline, a self adhesive lining tape
used in the model r/c car industry for their products. Using the Trimline, I
managed a black-on-yellow line quite successfully and The Chief ran for a good
while in this guise.
The lines however, began to creep, and handling the loco
whilst warm made matters worse. Eventually, the tape was removed, the sticky
marks coming straight off with a little meths on a cloth.
The last attempt was
to use waterslide transfers from Fox. These are simple gold lines and corners
which are cut and placed using a little water as a carrier, dabbed with a tissue
to remove most of the water, then set aside to dry. This gave excellent results
but the transfers are very vulnerable to damage and need to be protected with a
varnish. At present, the damaged parts on The Chief need to be replaced and the
whole set of lines protected in this way.
Steam Whistle
This was the first major addition to the loco which involved dismantling. The kit of parts I assembled before starting was as follows:-
- Whistle - Clay Cellars
- Steam line - copper pipe of the same dimensions as R/H pipe work
- Soldered brass tee
- Whistle Valve - a ball cock valve giving 90deg operation
- Additional radio servo and associated horns/linkage.
Removal of the bodywork was simple, two bolts under the leading edge of the side tanks and two nuts under the rear of the cab. Once clear, I could determine where the whistle would sit and how to mount the servo. The location of the valve was then apparent from the servo linkage and the stiffness of the pipe work meant that no other mount was needed.
I removed the lubricator and pipe work from the loco and cut the pipe between the regulator and lubricator. The tee was soldered into place here and a short length of new pipe run from there to the whistle valve. I then fixed the lubricator back in place and fitted the whistle into the left side tank alongside the reverser servo. The whistle exhausts downover, to prevent it filling with condensate.
Next the servo was fitted on an L bracket to the floor of the cab and the servo horn connected to the whistle valve. The third channel on the radio was used for the whistle servo at first, then I swapped it for channel one, since the reverser is usually held in full gear either way, the spring on the stick being redundant. I have since added a two way centre off switch to channel three so that I can select forward or reverse easily.
Searchlight
The working headlamp was bought at a show and has a 12v incandescent bulb
fitted. Running from a 9v PP3 battery, this gives a good oily glow. The lamp is
fitted to the smokebox top with a single self tapping screw in a hole drilled
just forward of the chimney. The power is fed to the lamp via a 1/16" copper
tube with a single PTFE coated wire core. The tube itself is the -ve supply, the
wire +ve. The battery is mounted in the right-hand tank above the radio receiver
and a spare radio power switch is used to turn the lamp on and off.
Drop-Links
A simple but effective accessory from R/H were these dummy Walschearts drop links. They look wonderful when the engine is moving slowly past. Added by removing a screw and a bolt, then replacing with the new bolt and screw provided by R/H.
Buffer Beam
A
new addition to The Chief is a front buffer beam, L&B style, with a low guard
arrangement. This is a GRS whitemetal casting
that replaces the original beam with the D-Coupler refitted as before. The
casting as supplied needed some serious modification before it would fit nicely,
from the rear mostly, to remove the cast webs as these fouled the Roundhouse
frames. The resulting buffer beam has been sprayed with car paints - oxide
undercoat and Nissan Red. No modifications were needed to the frames themselves.
Water Filler
With
help from the Milton Loco Works, a quick
fill valve has been fitted to the usual water filling plug. This enables the
boiler water to be topped up whilst in steam, allowing longer runs. The gas can
be topped up at any time by simply turning off the burner and filling the tank,
this leaving only the lubricator to need filling. The lubricator usually
lasts more than two complete gas fills, so with the water filler the loco can be
kept in steam for over an hour at a time (the lubricator could be filled whilst
in steam, but the loco is very hot and it would be a tricky operation to
complete without burnt fingers!). The water is forced into the pressurised
boiler using a garden sprayer fitted with a 4mm plastic pipe. This plugs into
the top of the filler valve and a few squirts delivers the water.
Spektrum and a Clean
After around eight years of sterling service, the arrival at the CSLR of a Spektrum radio control set prompted a bit of a clean and polish of The Chief whilst replacing the radio receiver. As with such exploits, the strip down was used for a couple of other changes too.
First
of all, the lamp on the smokebox was prone to loosening, so the self tapping
screw was replaced with a bolt in a tapped hole on the 'box top. Then the copper
pipe carrying the cable was trapped behind the additional boiler band, behind
the side tank and so out of view. This makes the whole assembly more rigid.
Taking advantage of the additional channels on the radio, a second matching lamp
was fitted to the rear cab sheet, controlled via 'BattleSwitch', an r/c operated
relay from Dimension Engineering.
The
power for the two lamps will now be taken from the r/c battery, which has been
replaced by a rechargeable 5 cell 1400mAh pack in the side tank where the old
receiver used to be. This pack was built using 2/3A cells from
Model Power. The new unit is fitted
inside the cab on the back sheet using a sticky pad, thus removing the
problematic battery holder from the roof. The Spektrum aerials are just tucked
out of the way, no special connections or plates needed.
At some time during travels, the plate to which the smokebox is mounted had become distorted, so it was necessary to remove the boiler, 'box and this plate in order to flatten it. With the loco stripped this far down, an extensive degrease, de-gunk and de-muck was in order, reaching those parts that you usually cannot reach.
On
reassembly, I took the time to remove the Roundhouse cab steps and replace with
whitemetal castings, two bolts did the trick here, through the floorplate. These
have been painted to match the rest of the loco. Pipework has been added to the
Westinghouse pump using 1.5mm copper cable from a piece of UK mains wire and
real coal has replaced that in the three bunkers. I've added a coal iron to the
lamp hangers across the back bunker. Driver Ted has a new(ly painted) jacket and
cap.
September 2007.
A pronounced clanking at a recent show turned out to be worn big-ends. To fix this is not a simple job as the return cranks need to come off, and these are pinned in place during manufacture to ensure the timing stays put.
However, in order to make the job 'a good un', I've replaced the axles and their bushes (since they too showed considerable wear) and a set of replacement coupling and connecting rods, complete with crankpins sits before me on the workbench.....
October
2007.
The replacement rods have been fitted successfully, the smoothness of operation is returning as The Chief is run in once more. The Warley Show returned a succession of 35 minute runs with ease, only topping the water to compensate for the amount of whistle blowing! The Chief also now sports Accucraft chopper couplings front an rear, giving a more prototypical appearance. Needs a little red paint on the front buffer beam now.