THE HARBOUR BRANCH LOCOMOTIVES



 

Building the new Hunslet No.1
 building the Backwoods Hunslet using the new Roco outside frame chassis

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Austro/Anglo hybrid


Glenthorne Harbour Authority No 1

I first met Russell when he lived behind the Buildings at Wharf Station of the Tal-y-llyn. He was painted pea- green and was squat and ugly after the pointless attentions of the Festiniog Railway. I made a number of models of this loco over the years.


a butchered Russell at Towyn (Ron Fisher)

In the 1970s I built yet another version. In many ways, it was the best of my efforts at that time, having had the benefit of the experience gained in building the others. It ran extremely well, having been built with an inside frame retained by a keeper plate and outside frames with slotted axle boxes. This made maintenance very easy. We share our home with two neurotic oriental cats. Lenny is the cat that can't help himself from attacking moving 009 trains, and on this one occasion had managed to get into the room unnoticed. Russell was pulling a track cleaning wagon when he pounced. Russell was swiped with a hooked southpaw and swept at 32ft per second squared onto hard tile step and was pronounced dead at the scene (the loco, that is). It is so badly damaged that we can't even use it in the scrap siding. This is the reason we have just built it all over again.

  
1970s model of Russell R.I.P.

In pursuit of first class running, I decided to graft an outside frame Roco chassis into a Backwoods Miniature model of Russell.

One might wonder 'why go to all of this trouble'? Simply because I am not clever enough to get the Backwoods chassis to work well! I have seen some Backwoods chassis running perfectly, but I cannot say I have the skills to achieve this despite feeling that I am a relatively experienced modeller. I have had my L&B chassis built by a really good professional, but the cost is 150% more than the Roco donor loco which fits Russell perfectly.

The Backwoods kit is supplied with two frets. The valve gear and cylinders are on the 'body' fret, and a heavier etch in nickel silver is supplied for chassis parts. Building the valve gear is relatively straight forward with care.  If you have tried to build the Backwoods chassis and failed, the following article is a way to get yourself out of trouble.

The Roco chassis is completely demountable and parts can be ordered from International Models, who are very helpful in this regard.

 

drawing of Russell


click for full size image


approximate dimensions of Roco chassis (click to enlarge)


the Roco as delivered


the valve gear is not perfect but better than most


the whole assembly mostly pulls apart.


the nub of the matter....the motor is retained by the boiler casting which is very bulky.


chassis comparison

First things first....

Remove the locating pin shown in the photo above. The front and centre cranks have to have the counter balance weights removed.  The extended axles and cranks are made in plastic and are a push fit into to wheel centres. The excess material was easily cut off with a small sprue cutter and cleaned round to the axles diameter with a sharp craft knife.

The connecting rod pin will easily pull away with a small pull with tweezers. Take great care not to lose the 2 tiny brass bushes.

 

Remove keeper plate by unclipping the rear from the chassis and by the 2 screws.

The keeper plate is cut just ahead of the front fixing screw. Likewise, the Backwoods chassis is cut flush rear of cylinders. The pony truck tab is cut away as is the bottom cross brace.

  

Remove the wheels from the Roco chassis and then sand off the exterior detail with a Dremel tool. The Backwoods front buffer beam will now slide onto the Roco chassis. Its exact position will be fixed once the Russell body has been built. Remove most of the metal chassis.

    

The rear part of the Backwoods chassis is now cut at the red line and much of the cross member removed.

I elected not to utilise the Roco valve gear, good though it is as it is not very accurate as far as the Hunslet is concerned. There would be no problem in using it provided that the Roco cylinders are used instead of the Backwoods ones. No doubt it would be possible to doctor the Roco cylinders to resemble the Hunslet model. The problem is that the Roco valve gear operates on a single slide bar....ideal for the 2-6-2 Alco though.

  

The only Roco valve gear components to be reused are the return cranks and of course the coupling rods. The hole needs to be opened out to accommodate the Backwoods rivets. This is another gripe...the Backwoods rivets seem to be supplied in steel. Life would be so much easier if the rivets were made in copper. They could just be given a gentle squeeze instead of going through all the soldering...and Bob's your uncle.

 
the valve gear fitted and tested satisfactorily

Assemble valve rods and counter balance weights for reversing lever. This should be soldered to give further strength to the slides and epoxied to the Roco chassis.

The metal cradle holding the motor has to be removed as does the back of the keeper plate. Once one is happy with the running of the chassis, glue on the motor.

     

     

The body is then completed. I understand that Russell was one of the early models. There are a number of points worth considering when building this kit. The etched tank/cab sides are extremely thin and easily dented. If I was doing it again, I would sweat in another sheet of brass on the inside, leaving .5mm  of the etched sheet unsupported and therefore easier to solder.

The front of Russell is actually flush. Unless one is careful, there will be small variations between the ends of the tanks and the smokebox assembly. The front end of Russell should have been etched in one. I did in the end manage to get the front flush by filling with solder, but lost the rivet detail on the smokebox in doing so.

When soldering the tanks and cab, some solder will flow onto the rivet detail. It is easy to remove using a wire brush in a Dremel.

Great care is needed to get the whole body nice and square. Check twice before soldering. Once finished, I filled the body with lead shot and epoxy mix wherever possible.

        

The body is completed and primed.

   

Final details are added and the loco is ready for top coat

   

The spare crank arrived and the chassis re-assembled. I am pleased to announce that Russell runs a dream on County Gate and at scale speeds.

The body is sprayed with 'scab red' an acrylic war game paint!