|
The loco is now almost complete, but it is rather light in weight; the original Bachmann 4 6 0 was much heavier! To do this, and hidden in the boiler there is a rather large and very heavy piece of iron – it weights about 1Kilogram (2.2lbs). I made some careful checks and found that this weight is just capable of being fitted inside the boiler and in front of the firebox, furthermore it could be slid in from the rear. Here are a couple of photos of my weight after modification to it for this purpose
The two photos show the weight, with an added taper (grind it off) to give some added clearance inside the boiler. I have added some bits of lead (seen at the back of the weight in the first photo)to the opposite side of the old fixing holes to balance it the entire unit - it tended to roll on its curved base (see the second photo). To keep it still on the 1/8th inch thick aluminum carrier it is both glued and wired to it with some garden wire. Also I have glued some captive nuts at each end, one can be seen on the left hand end, they have both been surrounded with plastic card to further support them. These hold it inside the boiler. They do not need to be tight, they are more of a locating pair; gravity does the rest! The location of the fixing is further described below.
The second (underside) view shows the semicircular formers that the entire unit sits on inside the boiler, these are made from a couple of layers of 1.5mm plasticard . To further spread the imposed load I have added some bits of wood, and also some strengthening and supporting pieces are each side of the formers.
The firebox end (which is to the right in the photo) has a different former that locates the unit at the front end of the slot in the underside of the boiler. On the extreme end of the aluminum is the rear fixing bolt hole, the front one can just be seen between the two pieces of wood at the other end of the weight. The fixing wires have been covered in glue as well.
The weight finishes inside the smokebox(just!), and slides inside from the firebox end (the stiffening for the smokestack gets in the way for front loading), when it drops the rear support into position the rear bolt can be fitted to keep it in position. The front bolt is fitted up through the hole drilled in the underside for the sand dome. This front screw position can be determined from using a pencil theough the hole to mark the aluminum, the drill thew hole, and fix he captive bolt above it. The weight virtually totally fills the boiler, with very little clearance. The only other item inside the boiler is the pair of wires from the front headlight en route to the battery, tape these to the side of the boiler to keep them out of the way. They will be routed down into the base of the chassis en route to one of the plugs fitted at the back of the chassis underneath the cab.
The front end of the weight (it having been slid in when necessary (at the end of building everything together)rests against the inner edge of the cross strut in the smokebox. At the firebox end it drops over the front edge of cross piece of the stepboard, and a small bolt fits up from the base through a new drilled hole, the position is not critical, the nut for this bolt one of the captive nuts mentioned above. Glue the bolt to the nut, with a smear of glue so it could be removed if necessary.
When you have the weight location worked out, remove it till the assembly of all the bits is started.
|
