Introduction. PDF version
Originally returned to its owner to complete this
one has returned to my workshops for completion. The
Finney kit for the 3232 Class 2-4-0 is the basis
for this, much modified, model.
It comes in a box that will not hold the completed model, as does the associated tender. A "proper" box is therefore essential to protect the finished engine; good thing too.
The instructions come as A5, unbound, booklets and are quite comprehensive. There is an excellent drawing for an early and a late period engine and exploded diagrams for the chassis. Had there been similar diagrams for the body, I think it would have made the job a little easier. Finney kits are considered by some as "fussy" or over complex. However, I would rather have a "fussy" kit that goes together and fits than an unfussy one that requires lots of extra work to make it fit. So far all the parts have fitted very well and the design has proved to be good, once one has got used to how the designer thinks. A good many modifications were made to this kit so it cannot be seen truly as a review of the kit but of how it was altered to suit my client's requirements.
The Build.
Not having
built a Finney kit before, it is proving to be an
interesting journey. This engine, No: 3235, is being
built as the motive power for a complete GWR train
for a friend. The chassis, shewn here part
completed, goes together well. I had already
turned up the
Harris wheels and here they are
temporarily fitted in to get the ride height right I
intend to modify the chassis so that the driving
wheels can be dropped out and avoid using telescopic
axles, though the front carrying wheels has one.
If the kit were built as designed, I do not think
that the wheels would be removable.
For
notes on turning cast iron wheels go to
Wheel Turning.
The footplate goes together nicely
but do read the instructions carefully, particularly
if contemplating not following the given order.
Later, the central section will be cut out to allow
the chassis to fit.
The lamp irons are interesting. The two behind the buffer plank are part of the sub base for the footplate. However, the ones over the buffer plank need to be fitted as separate items (part 80). The instructions call for them being fitted very late in the order of construction. There are slots in the overlay but they do not match in size the corresponding holes in the sub base. Fitting them after the buffer plank is soldered in would, I think, be difficult. I did not notice this until I had soldered up the sub base and overlay or would have cut out spaces for them. Back to Top
I used a
piecing saw, very carefully, to open the holes in
the sub base, soldered in parts 80 and then filed
back the overlap where the buffers plank will go, as
in this picture.
The instructions suggest fitting
the small splashers first and then fitting the
tops. I found it easier to bend the tops to shape
and, after having filed the cusps off solder them to
the fronts. If the splasher front is held down
firmly a small block of wood suffices to hold the
top in place while soldering with the RSU probe
from behind. This picture shews two complete and two
still to finish.
A very similar procedure can be
followed for the large splashers as shewn below.
The difference between the two is that there is a
piece of scrap etch under the splasher front to
raise it so that the beading overlaps the front.
These things are matters of personal preference of
course. After all this 
careful work I discovered
that I had soldered the tops of the splashers on the
wrong way round as can be seen in the picture
below. Check and dry run and check again as I ought
to have done.
The
smoke box is built around an inverted, open top box.
I added a piece of carefully measured
scrap at the top to ensure it stayed square while
fitting the wrapper. The completed smoke box
together, with the chimney, was then temporarily
bolted in place on the footplate.
The instructions
suggest building the cab up in-situ on the
footplate. I opted instead to build it as a
separate item using a steel square, magnets and the
steel base plate of the RSU to ensure it was square.
One shot shewing the completed footplate
assembled, and the other with the smoke box bolted
in place.
The excellent copper chimney was fitted
early while it was easy to get it lined up
correctly.
The boiler, once carefully rolled, fits
around a couple of formers. Some modification will
be required to ensure it fits over the splashers
neatly.
The boiler and smoke box are meant to be bolted together and to the footplate but soldered to the cab. This strikes me as a little odd and I shall try to modify it so that it is all bolted to make painting easier. I have also yet to come up with a method of retaining the driving wheels so that I can use solid axles instead of the telescopic type. In the meantime work continued. Back to Top
The safety
valve needs to be removable so that it can be
polished. After clearing out the hole of burnt wax
I used a piece of brass rod turned down
to just fit.
Drilled and tapped it 6BA and then soldered the plug into the hole in the safety valve. A couple of washers soldered on to the bolt ensured that when tightened, the unit would be a tight fit on the curve of the boiler.
The dome needs similar
treatment but this time a piece of nickel
silver was
cut and filed to shape to fit, drilled and tapped
6BA and a washer soldered on to the bolt. It
similarly holds the unit tight against the curve of
the boiler.
Both the safety valve and dome bases were
carefully shaped by rubbing against 240 grit paper
wrapped round a piece of suitable diameter rod.
Here are the parts bolted in place. Both parts
required a deal of work to rub out imperfections and
mold marks before they could be polished.
The drive
problem was solved by changing the drive to the
front drivers, bending up a bracket cut from the
frame spacer and soldering
an 8BA nut to it. It was
then a simple matter of filing up some brass rod to
fit across and hold both axles in place. It should
be I hope fairly self-explanatory from these two
pictures. It has the advantage that the
compensation pivot did not have to be disturbed.
The top of the frame spacer was ground down to a
convex shape to allow the motor to lie flat inside
the boiler. Having got the motor fitted
the time had come to test it out on the rolling
road.
Back to Top
The under hung springs for the front drivers will now also need to be fitted to this keeper plate. They were soldered to a cross bar of brass strip thus:
And so when the keeper plate is bolted in place, it holds the underhung springs in the correct position.
Now attention could be focused on arranging for the boiler/firebox, smoke box assembly to be separate components capable of being taken apart for painting and maintenance.
I utilized the mounting holes for constructing the Belpair firebox as a guide, drilled through the firebox end plate and soldered in a couple of 6BA nuts. You can see how it goes together in this picture. The shaft extending from the back of the motor will also need to be shortened to prevent it fouling the cab front.
With the cab finally soldered in place the boiler, smoke box, dome and safety valve cover were all bolted together to check for correct fit. All this work had to be taken apart once it was realized that the splashers inside the cab were far too wide. Even so, the floor needs to be made narrower.
So the cab was carefully
removed and the splashers filed down to a more
appropriate width. It is all a compromise unless
one is building and engine to S7 standards or one
that never needs to go round typical 0 Gauge
curves. I have not yet completely solved the
problem but will probably make the inside splasher
sides from plastic to prevent shorting.
Back to Top
There
are some well made white metal springs and dampers
provided to be fitted to the front of the footplate.
However, the spigots are also cast in. I find
such things rather fragile and so cut them all off,
drilled out the part and replaced the spigots with
1mm brass rod. Here are the parts ready for
assembly but on reflection, it may have been easier
to have fitted the hangers and rods to the spring
and offered up the dampers from underneath.
The
spring hangers fitted to the ends.
The body is now just about finished waiting only for backhead.
Since the wheels and motor/gearbox are removable, it is essential that
the brakes are to or, due to the design and my
modifications, they will be
trapped in place. To begin I modified the frames so
that the brake hangers could be bolted in with 14BA
bolts tapping through the frames holes and soldering
a nut on the outside. Similar to the methods
used on the
Armstrong.
The engine brake components partially assembled
ready to be fitted to the frames. The brake shoes
are held apart by small pieces of tubing at top and
bottom; more tubing will be used to space the brake
blocks out from the frames. The castings for
the steam brake cylinders are well made but the
spigots do not line with the holes in the frames.
Since I intended to drill through each cylinder to
allow a 14BA bolt to hold the brake rods in place, I
think it will need a stronger mounting anyway so I
obtained a set of lost wax cylinders from
MOK, which will make a stronger unit.
Never-the-less, it's necessary to try them for fit.
The brakes proved to be more difficult that at first imagined. They are designed to be soldered in place but, of course, I needed them to be removable. Once the parts were assembled I bolted them to the frames. The idea being that bolts would hold the two brake hangers in place and the pull rods clip onto the brake cylinders. The original cylinders did not fit well, the holes were out of alignment and the white metal would not allow of clipping the pull rods, drilling them for 14BA bolts had been ruled out as impractical. This proved not to be possible as the rear brake hanger bolt then fouled the rods. After some thought the rear hanger was soldered in place and its connection to the pull rods removed. The front hanger is bolted in place and the pull rods clipped to the brake cylinder and can be removed to drop the wheels out of the frames.
The floor needed modifying to raise it to the level of the tender and at the same time I made it removable and fixed the drop plate to it. It is fitted in with a small piece of blue tack.
The Tender.
While I normally build the tender first (to get it out of the way) this time I had elected to start with the locomotive but the time has come to get on with this part too. It is a separate kit and comes in its own box, which quite rightly will not hold the finished vehicle.
The etches are dated 1988 so it has been around a while and it appears to have been hand drawn not CAD as most of today's output from reputable manufacturers is but, like the engine, the draughtsmanship is of a high order. The instructions are quite comprehensive but it is necessary to read them through a couple of times to get a feel for how the designer thinks, especially if one has built other variations of this type of tender from different manufacturers.
Each designer has his or her own way of doing things and it makes sense to figure out their individual methods before launching out with the solder. Having the read the instructions I promptly decided to go my own way as usual. I used to think that this sort of behaviour from reviewers was simply arrogance but once one has built a number of different kits one recognizes that, provided the basics are followed, the instructions are really a guide to "doing it my way" (provided one is prepared to own-up to any cock-ups of course).
I began as I often do by using the
trusty Leaky press to push out all the rivets and
bolt heads in the parts I would be using, during a
local club night. This kit makes at least six
different versions of the 3000 gallon tender so one
must be sure one knows which version to build so
that the right parts are chosen, there are a lot of
them. Martin has done considerable research but the
builder still needs to do some work here.
I next began to fold up some of the major parts: Here they are: from left to right, the three parts of the chassis, the footplate and the main body foundation. So far, nothing has been soldered, simply checked and folded up in readiness. Back to Top
The chassis is very different to anything I have built before. The two outer halves are temporarily bolted to the well tank so that the wheels can be aligned. For this one needs special axles with 2mm extensions to fit the holes for which bearings are provided. It rather looks as though, once the wheels are fitted, they cannot be removed because those side pieces need to be soldered together and the bolts removed.
If, like me, one is using the "American" method of pick-up, make sure all the work necessary has been completed before taking this irrevocable step. In this case, the backs of the wheels on one side have been painted with Electrolube to short them out. The wheelbase for this tender is compensated but, does not appear to be designed to throw its weight on the back of the engine.
This is the compensation
beam fitted to the brass tube that revolves around
the fulcrum. Each opening has been chemically
blackened so that, when the brass rod fulcrum it
swivels on is soldered into the well tank sides, it
does not seize up. Once fitted the ends of the
pivot rod are filed down smooth. This needs to be
carefully done because there is a line of rivets
close by that can be easily damaged.
The body has
now been temporarily fitted to the base and the
etched top soldered on and trimmed to size, the
water scoop fountain cover built and the early type
of rod tensioners fitted on the axle box mounting
plates.
Next job is to bend the flared sides to shape and fit around the body, followed by organizing a running chassis, when the proper axles arrive from Slater's. The flared sides were simple enough; I took the precaution of annealing the tender side sheets before starting work. The fingers at the corners will be filled with solder and filed to shape later. Back to Top
Slater's excellent service soon provided the
correct wheels and axles and so the chassis was
bolted together with the wheels fitted on their 2mm
extension axles. The next stage is to solder the
two sides and well tank together before removing the
bolts.
Once done, removing the wheels would be a
major undertaking, so getting the chassis right at
this stage is critically important. It runs well
and is level so the next thing is to modify it so
that I can take it apart for painting and
maintenance. This was achieved by drilling six
holes at 10BA, soldering nuts in place underneath
the chassis and bolting the sides to the well tank
using countersunk bolts. Now it is possible to
remove the wheels should the necessity arise.
Well, it was, unfortunately the fittings for
the brakes would have needed very extensive
modification to allow the parts to be taken apart so
all that work really went for nothing. Both
ends also needed shortening to allow for the extra
strengthening I had used in constructing the
tender
footplate.
The
time had come to begin fitting all the bits that
give character. The rear two steps were
offered up to their slots only to find that there is
no matching slot in the underlying body frame so
fitting them was not at all easy. The steam
heat fitting is supposed to be fixed to the buffer
beam but I elected instead to drill it out and solder it to the end of the steam pipe, the vacuum
stanchion though was fitted to the beam.
Here are the parts for the brakes in process of being assembled before fitting to the frames.
The
buffers shanks are designed to be fixed in place
with a soldered on washer. However, they are
threaded 14BA so I used nuts instead.
Finally the tender is finished as these three pictures shew. The pictures of course always shew up the odd problem, like the bent brake standard and spring hanger.
Completed at last and ready for the paint shop.
Had I built it as per the directions it would have been a relatively easy build. Instead, it has been an interesting challenge.