Tender frames - An alternative

I travelled to Woking yesterday for the G1MRA annual meeting and enjoyed wandering around the hall and seeing the layoyts and locos running. Even the smell of meths in the hall was oddly appealing!



The trade stands were also excellent, I picked up a number of bits for the both the Dee and Britannia, mostly things like 90 degree pipe unions for the tender, Dee buffers and dome, coupling hooks, etc. I also saw Malcolm and his Britannia there on the Model Engineers Laser stand. Malcolm has a well-progressed chassis with all the cylinders, motion etc complete and a cab and smokebox also. Looks great and inspiration to get a move on with my one! Interestingly, he also had a new kit for the tender chassis, a slot-together and soft-solder one for a very reasonable 17 quid. Now, I already have a tender chassis, but for 17 quid it would have been silly not to buy one in case i end up wrecking my one again. I think I have spent around 30 hours on my chassis already. Pic below is of the MEL one slotted together and held with bolts at this stage... it took less than one hour to separate the bits, file the little tabs smooth and slot together. Not soldered yet but shows how much time these kits can save!



Not sure if I will use it yet. I would need to make new bearings for the wheels as the holes are slightly larger on the tender sides on the kit. I may butcher it and take the part that holds the tubes (water/gas) under the tender and also two of the stretchers and use those with my current chassis.

I also met Dick Moger, who was one of the pioneers of the Dee design I mentioned in an earlier post. I have made some progress with the Dee and learnt a lot along the way that will help me immensely in putting the Britannia together. Piccy of some of the parts follows:

Tender frames

So, managed to drill and tap four holes without wrecking the new buffer beam. Still need to add rivet detail to the buffer beam, mill away the unwanted material on the back and drill and mill the slot for the coupling hook.



I have also started to drill holes in the tender frames to add rivet detail. The tender tank had over 200 rivets to add, I think the frames have around 50 per side. I drilled 10 earlier (after taking the pic above) and am convinced enough to do the rest... I also discovered that 'Wagon & Carriage Works' were happy to sell whitemetal castings for the tender water seives which is great news as it will save time trying to mill them myself from solid.