Over 10 years ago I was sent a rather battered Backwoods 0-4-0 Barclay by Charles Lynch, a young narrow gauge modeller from Northern Ireland whom I corresponded with at the time. He asked me if I could get it going again. I managed to get it moving, of sorts. The loco had obviously fallen on its roof, and the mechanism kept binding. I straightened it out and returned it in a better state, although I thought it probably needed new wheels.
After a few months the correspondence lagged as he went to university and obviously had other interests. Then, years later, the same loco turned up in the mail with an explanatory note and half another Backwoods kit. Charles wrote that he was switching to 00n3 and wanted it to have a good home. Later he sent me some photos of a beautiful Lough Swilly fish van he was building. Then again, he dropped out of view and regrettably I lost touch. And his little loco sat in the drawer, waiting for attention.
Today I took it out of its drawer, set the wheels to a correct back-to-back and re-set the quartering which needed some force. I replaced the cab roof and painted it. The loco must have been professionally painted and lined - it is absolutely beautiful. It still needs some touching up, but at least it looks and runs far better. I'll put it to work on Nixnie.
If anyone on this forum knows Charles Lynch, please tell him his loco runs again - if he wants it back he should contact me.
The loco with its battered roof taken off:
(https://forum.009society.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.009dutch.nl%2Farchive%2F2014%2Fgallery58%2Fimages%2FIMG_6606.jpg&hash=abd342576b086c8b6736a565e8e77b30603783c6)
The new roof was made up from thin brass sheet and two pieces of N/S brake rodding left over from another project. I took the rear beam from the old roof and fitted it under the new one.
(https://forum.009society.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.009dutch.nl%2Farchive%2F2014%2Fgallery58%2Fimages%2FIMG_6611.jpg&hash=4b1f9ee3cd86520e5977ee63649ff964f427d699)
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The new roof was soldered on using low melt solder, to prevent further damage to the paintwork.
(https://forum.009society.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.009dutch.nl%2Farchive%2F2014%2Fgallery58%2Fimages%2FIMG_6615.jpg&hash=4b7fcd02dc360c17feb959b42ed8776f34aab1e6)
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For the moment it is completed, but the paint needs restoring. I think it is either Southern or LNER apple green, with a dark red footplate.
(https://forum.009society.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.009dutch.nl%2Farchive%2F2014%2Fgallery58%2Fimages%2FIMG_6622.jpg&hash=78ff3498253df8627025f2482454586bf2de3faf)
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Finally, I took a little video, showing it runs all right, but with a slight limp. Anyway it's better than it used to be!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8iYamsxOcD4 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8iYamsxOcD4)
Although I patched up the loco externally, and I even found a driver for it, later the running deteriorated and when I tried to tweak the quartering again, one crank/balance weight came off. I repaired it, but subsequently I found a front crankpin was loose, which must have been the underlying cause. The amount of play was such that it cannot be induced to run as it should, so I it had to come apart again.
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The main cause of the trouble was the excessive play in the axle bearings and the fact the crankpins are fitted to an etch that is glued to the face of the wheel. This is centred on the wheel boss, but how accurate the resulting crank throw is was impossible to say. Also, there was that loose crankpin that had to be re-soldered.
Yesterday I had the crank overlays off the wheels due to a loose crankpin which moved about a little. In addition, I noticed a short circuit on one side of the rods, probably due to one crank overlay (the one which I had re-glued to the wheel) touching the wheel boss on the insulated side. I soldered everything tight on the overlays, cleaned them up and glued them back on. I fitted the rods after fitting an insulated bush to the big end on the insulated wheel side, which made the shorts a thing of the past.
On re-assembly I found that the rods still pinched the wheels, moving them back and forth in the axle bearing slots even though they are correctly quartered. No amount of tweaking the quartering would eliminate this entirely. Worse, the crankpin I fixed worked loose again, though didn't fall out. To my mind this means the rods are too short.
Normally you would ream out the holes in the rods, keeping the axle bearings tight, but here the axle bearings are very loose.
The loco ran of sorts, about the same way it did in the first video. I ran it in for an hour each way and it improved slightly, but not enough. I took the coupling rods from the rear crankpins and reamed them out a little. It ran slightly better now but still had that rolling gait. Also the axle bearings were slamming back and forth in the frame slots, and I had to superglue a loose crosshead guide that caused the crosshead to slam up and down. No wonder the chassis was knocking. At least it is smooth now, apart from the wobbling. Also, the paintwork is patched up.
One of the forward crankpins is still moving a little, and in the side view you will see how the wheels are pinched by the rods. But it ran for hours yesterday and all seems to hold.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yfnjRYQkZvs (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yfnjRYQkZvs)
I found I didn't bring this report up to date last winter. Here are some views of the Barclay at work at the distillery. I rather like the picture the Barclay makes in the industrial setting of the distillery yard. The battery loco is kept as a reserve in case the Barclay is away for overhaul.
(https://forum.009society.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.009dutch.nl%2Farchive%2F2014%2Fgallery58%2Fimages%2FIMG_6635.jpg&hash=7411e38b6ddf4406c8df0459ac841b252e5f59df)
(https://forum.009society.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.009dutch.nl%2Farchive%2F2014%2Fgallery58%2Fimages%2FIMG_6642.jpg&hash=bbaa5259cea4b5f8866427ab73566fe0bb161229)
I did more work on the little loco yesterday, completing the details still lacking.
(https://forum.009society.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.009dutch.nl%2Farchive%2F2014%2Fgallery58%2Fimages%2FIMG_8551.jpg&hash=62cc0cc7c88e287375bc176ff04f89fdb12a6d7e)
Even though the wheel problem hasn't yet been sorted out, it does run and is reliable. So I decided to complete it at least cosmetically. The front end has been detailed with a sand bucket and an oil can. A piece of loose chain (not visible) has been dropped behind the dumb buffers.
(https://forum.009society.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.009dutch.nl%2Farchive%2F2014%2Fgallery58%2Fimages%2FIMG_8556.jpg&hash=10f9943876d400c133cf0881fac3db82cdff489c)
I added plastic dumb buffers to the rear end, since the originals have gone missing. The bolt heads are dots of PVA glue put on before painting. The backhead has been superficially detailed. Gauge glasses, and something suggesting a steam manifold, made up of N gauge buffers and a headlight off an N gauge loco which makes a good pressure gauge. There is a short shovel resting against the firebox. In addition I fitted a brake handle and spindle, and two roof supports.
(https://forum.009society.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.009dutch.nl%2Farchive%2F2014%2Fgallery58%2Fimages%2FIMG_8562.jpg&hash=b0c5a1b03a17d40249488c0296df4bc71af69bfb)
Finally, a view of two very dissimilar Barclays!
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Chassis problem finally solved!
You may remember the tiny Backwoods Barclay that was given to me, the subject of this topic about 18 months ago? It was little used and started to run progressively worse even then. This was only to be expected because of the terrible state the chassis was in.
I inspected it tonight and found one crankpin was loose again in the counterweight etch on a front wheel. I fitted a new one from a 1968 Minitrains chassis, fixing it with superglue from behind, between the spokes of the wheel. I even considered fitting new 8mm wheels to get rid of the problem, or even building a new chassis - the wheels on the 3ft gauge prototype are 1ft 10 ins, so even smaller than 8mm in 009. But the gear on the front axle is too big for 8mm wheels. No deal.
Then, since I was determined to replace the chassis anyway, I decided to do an experiment to get rid of the slack in the bearings where they slot into the chassis. If you remember my solution to the excessive play in the bearings of the Minitrix dock tank chassis - adding solder fillets to the keeper plate - I decided this might close up the bearings in the chassis of the Barclay. So I did a little work on the keeper plate. It's not very neat since the sculpted fillet on one side of the front wheels (top right) is a little deformed:
(https://forum.009society.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.009dutch.nl%2Farchive%2F2014%2Fgallery58%2Fimages%2FIMG_9999.jpg&hash=47f5ce64316e1fb8e2758570205e56950388a249)
The idea was to fix the bearings that normally rattle around and give the wheels that peculiar fore-and-aft movement, and the loco that awfull limping motion. The fillets on the keeper plate press the bearings down in the chassis slots. The only thing to watch for is that you don't pinch the gears by pressing the keeper plate down too much. So I inserted two thin shims fore and aft near the screw holes, just visible in the photo.
The loco now runs almost true, with only a very slight binding spot that may well disappear over time - see this video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hcjmBum3GuE (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hcjmBum3GuE)
I hope this will help anyone who contemplates building a similar Backwoods kit. Either fix the bearings this way, or solder them into the chassis slots.