Leek & Manifold Kitson 2-6-4T

[tedp]

Thanks, Frank - glad you like this project. It is a little complicated, but some of the difficulty is due to the use of parts from various sources. A complete Backwoods kit, although no beginner's project, would go together much easier as all the parts fit together a lot better.

[Tigger]

Well done Ted - she looks to be a smooth running machine!

If I ever get around to it I'll be building the Roger Christian 8-coupled version, mainly because I've the chassis to do it.

[tedp]

Thanks, David - a 2-8-2 would be an easier route to follow and the model would be easier to balance as well with the longer wheelbase.

[tedp]

Progress at last!

Yesterday evening, after having put off the work due to various other commitments, I decided to have a go at fitting the gearbox and motor of the Kitson. Here is a step by step description of what I have done.

First I assembled the gearbox included with the Backwoods chassis. The bearing holes were reamed out to accept the brass bearings, turning a rat-tail file in the hole:



Then I fitted the bearings and soldered them with a tiny bit of solder, by flooding the bearing with flux and placing a tiny snippet of solder next to it. Touching with an iron was enough to fix the bearing in the hole. Then the inside faces were filed flat as shown below.



Here is the gearbox seen from the outside before folding up:



Then the gear had to be fitted. Instead of being an interference fit on the shaft it proved to be loose, so I had quite a job to fix it with a drop of CA glue without locking up the bearings. The best way to do this is oil the bearings, add a little cyano glue to the hole in the gear and quickly push the shaft through. Due to the oil in the bearings it won't stick to them. I had cut the shaft to size using a Roco track saw before doing so, by the way. Foresight is everything... The holes in the gearbox and motor mount still look quite neat, but as the motor screws wouldn't fit through them and I needed a bit of play for the meshing process, they had to be reamed out. Here I found the gearbox back plate was etched a bit too small - I would have liked more 'meat' to enlarge the holes. But in the end I succeeded.



As I wanted a bigger motor than the Mashima 10x15 included in the chassis kit for this heavy loco, I found I needed about 1mm extra clearance over the motor. So I milled some whitemetal out of the tank/boiler top part of the whitemetal body. I did so using a cutting disc in the mini drill, running it at low power to prevent melting the whitemetal:



Here is the result:



And a photo of the clearance over the motor which enables me to press the body on to the footplate so it can be completed as one unit:



Here is the completed transmission, gearbox in place and meshed, and the worm fixed on the motor shaft. Note that the worm on a Backwoods gearbox will engage to one side of the pinion only. This is normal and will function perfectly well.

Fitting the tiny screws through the gearbox back plate and the motor mount, and into the motor end, is a perfect pain. They refuse to go in and jump all over the place. I work above a tray for this, but even then they escape on to the floor. Luckily this isn't carpeted or you would never retrieve them. The meshing was another tricky job, and at first the worm jammed a little on the pinion. So I had to pull the worm, remove the screws, ream out the gearbox holes some more and repeat the process all over again.



Finally, here is the result: a very smooth chassis doing its first trial run blocked up on the workbench:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TScwdf61TSw

You may notice the first and second wheels wobble a little. This is mainly due to bearing play and the cranks forcing them up and down. Once the bearings are loaded it is almost gone.

To be continued!

[gtmspyder]

That's very nice and smooth Ted.

It seems a shame to have to file the gearbox bearings down to the side plates of the gearbox, would it not be possible to fit the bearings the other way round so that the machined part of the bearing is on the outside, from the photo's, it looks as if the clearances outside to the frames, and inside to the gears would accept this, or am I being deceived?

Is this kit still available?  I have never built a loco kit other than an etching from Worsley Works to fit on a Kato Chassis.

Regards,

BrianT.

[tedp]

Thanks, Brian. To answer your question, I pinched the gearbox sides together a little, as they had to be guided away from the wheels. I think your idea would be better, but I just followed instructions with the Backwoods chassis.

I'm not sure if Meridian still produces the Leek & Manifold kit. Note that this comes without a chassis and many people convert it to a 2-8-2 using a Bachmann chassis. Since this is a large loco, it will do quite well as a 2-8-2. I used a Backwoods L&B chassis with an RT models motion etch to replace the Joy valve gear of the Backwoods chassis.

I fitted the pickups and test ran the loco on the layout using a coal train, and it went through all the curves very well. Only the slidebar bracket hit one of the bridge girders which I solved by filing them down a little and by moving the bridge girders 1.5mm down - they fortunately were stuck on with contact glue only.

Here is a video of the Kitson, finally under its own power at Rae Bridge. It is running quite well, but I'm still worried about the leading truck which tends to climb point blades. The gearing and motor are similar to those of 'Atlantic', and at the end of the clip both can be seen moving together.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NmUAXVNU6zA

The pickups were fitted to one side only, as the axles are insulated only on one side. So I connected one motor terminal to the chassis. The puckups are phosphor bronze wire, soldered to a strip of PCB which is superglued under the footplate and supported at the other end by a piece of styrene bar:



When fitting the footplate on to the chassis, the pickup springs have to be fiddled on to the rear of the insulated drivers. This is not as difficult as it sounds as they can easily be reached with a fine screwdriver.





The problem on the bridge in the Glenclachan Gorge can be seen here. The slidebar bracket and combination lever struck the top of the girders.



I was able to remove the girders from the bridge, as they had been attached (30 years ago!) with neoprene glue which came loose without too much trouble. I filed a notch in the bottom of each girder, at each end, and fitted them back on the bridge, but about 1.5mm lower than they were. Also, I ground off a little from the brackets on the loco. If you don't know it you won't see it.

The loco now passes over it without problem.

Time now for (I think) a well-earned dram!   ;)

[Krizzy]

Ted

Superb modelling, you must be very pleased the way this project is turning out. Nice comparison of the two models running together.

Well done, enjoy the wee dram, well deserved.

Roger

[gtmspyder]

Thank you Ted, a very nice piece of modelling.

Regards,

BrianT.

[tedp]

Thanks for your kind remarks.

I'm glad it turned out as it did as it was a long haul getting past all the obstacles. I'm still not quite there, but we are progressing. The smooth and quiet drive, as Roger will agree, is a feature of the Backwoods mechanisms. They really are quite good, despite the trouble of making them work. The parts fit together quite well, and the kits contain all you need to make a working loco - unless you have to modify something like I had to.

I realise this isn't a beginner's project. Anyone wishing to start building N/S or brass kits would do well to choose a simple one before progressing. This one is like a 'kit car' combining parts from at least 5 sources. The wheels and the motion needed to be replaced for obvious reasons.

The funny thing is that despite the uneven weight distribution, with 65% of the weight on the rear wheels, it runs quite well. I wonder if I need to change anything. Choosing the bigger motor was a good idea as I have found the Mashima 10/15 a little weak. At least the loco runs at the same speed as the older 'Atlantic'. So we may double-head a heavy train using both.

What's left now? I need to look into the tracking of the leading truck, and then the superstructure needs to be made with styrene parts to prevent more weight aft. The loco will be available for close inspection at Kegworth, although it may only be in primer.

To be continued...

PS - tonight the last thing I did was improve the tracking of the front truck. The axle proved to be at a tiny slant so the truck wanted to go to the right. I corrected that and added some lead, and now it seems to be all right.

[tedp]

Lighting up

Yes, I know the Leek & Manifold never lit the huge acetylene headlights on their locos, but on the C&DR there are evening trains, and in winter when the snows come to Inverlochan Moor the loco crews like to have the road lit up in case of blockages.

Anyway I looked at the whitemetal castings and decided I would try and fit a LED in the headlight. So I drilled a few tiny holes to pass insulated wires through, I drilled a 3mm hole in the headlight casting, and bent the legs of a warm-white LED so it would go in from the back with the legs close to the rear of the headlight casting.

Here are a few photos showing what it looked like before gluing the body to the footplate. First a side view showing the way the LED is bent so the 'legs' go into the top of the smokebox, with the positive lead insulated as this goes to a resistor connected to the pickup unit between the wheels. The thin black wires coming out of the smokebox front  will be coiled away out of sight.



Here is a close-up of the wiring inside the loco body. Note the 1K resistor needed to protect the LED from the track voltage, and the way the headlight was drilled out, with a 3mm hole and a tapered 4mm recess front and back. The front recess gives an idea of a reflector, and the recess in the back will accept the flange of the LED..



This is what it looks like with the headlight casting installed and the smokebox front glued in. Both the smokebox front and the body have been fitted temporarily using neoprene glue, so I can still access the wiring for possible final adjustments.



The well-known silhouette of a Leek & Manifold loco is starting to appear.



To be continued.

[gtmspyder]

Good morning Ted, may I pose a question?

You keep referring to "Neoprene glue", what is this?

I presume this is a glue that will hold things together, but can fairly easily be pulled apart, and cleaned off the mating surfaces, to accept a more permanent fixing??

Regards,

BrianT.

[Elmgate]

Brian,

I also wondered what Neoprene glue is, so I Googled it! Apparently this is the rubbery glue used to repair, for example, wet suits and paddling pools (I am sure other more important uses as well). We live and learn!

Tim

[Hugh Norwood]

Ted, what do you do to prevent a reverse voltage on the LED when you reverse the loco? (Over 5V applied the wrong way round will usually damage LEDs - or so the data sheets tell us).

[tedp]

Neoprene glue is the kind I think sold in Britain as 'Evo-stik'. It is basically neoprene (a component of rubber) and a solvent, and is used as a contact glue for large surfaces - you coat both surfaces thinly, let it dry for a minute and press the two parts together. I use it without letting it dry first as that isn't practical for small parts. The advantage is you can remove the part without damage, unless it has set very long ago, and you can reinforce the bond by flooding with cyano glue.

The reverse voltage on LEDs? I don't bother and I have had LEDs on my locos for 35 years without any burning out. It cannot be the 1K resistor as the reverse voltage is passed through the resistor without dropping since there is no current.

If you are worried about it, fit a small diode in parallel to the LED, but reverse its polarity.

In some of my locos I have a backup light on the cab which is fed over the same resistor but reversed just like the safety diode. This then takes the reverse voltage instead.

[Hugh Norwood]

That's interesting..  I feel an experiment coming on to see what size reverse voltage is dangerous to LEDs. It's possible they aren't as fragile as the manufacturers would have us believe...