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Thanks for all the useful suggestions and I like a bit of lateral thinking - never heard of nichrome before. You learn a little every day. Bob

Thanks Steamchick and Mark. The barrel doesn't need to be functional. I was thinking of making a solid former rather than three discs. Then glue the tapered planks to that. My biggest worry is getting the taper on the planks correct. I can do the maths, and make a former so that they are all the...

Thanks chaps for your kind words. Need some help. Starting to think about the tender and in particular the water barrel. How on earth am I going to model the tapered planks? Can’t think for a simple way. Bob

Nice progress with the wheels. First I made the rims and hubs. Each had 12 slots milled radially to take the spokes. I made a fixture to hold the rim and hub concentric. A ring was added to the rim to hold the spokes in place. It is not clear from the photos, but the spokes on the driving wheels...

Thanks Steve. Next progress report will be more interesting; the wheels are coming on nicely. Bob

Well it’s been a while since I reported any progress. That’s because we were due to move house so I packed away all my tools and machinery. Then, would you believe it, our purchasers pulled out (b******ards). So we are not moving. So I’m back in business once I can find which packing case has...

Hi Richard. Thanks for your kind comments. I still consider myself a beginner (as witnessed by my scrap bin), especially when I see the work of many accomplished members of this forum. But I do appreciate the hints and tips that they give. My next problem is the wheels. I haven't a clue as to...

Got the crossheads made now. I tilted the milling head at 45 degrees to make the guide slots. The two halfs were machined from a single piece of brass to make sure that the grooves would line up truly. I then cut the material in two. When the piston, crossheads and the guides were assembled I...

Hi Rich. Cracked it. Done a bit of digging and found out that there were several arrangements of the crosshead assembly, as Stephenson made various modifications and improvements. So, here is the version that Glithero photographed on the NRM original. From that I have produced a version that I...

Ah, but … the free plans are very low resolution and if you look, they are barely legible; certainly no use for modelling from. So, I’m afraid there is no choice but to pay for them. See the snippets I have shown in earlier posts. I have been talking with a very helpful young man (he/him) at the...

Thanks Rich. I was also thinking about making it in two parts. Machine the grooves and profile first an the solder on a boss. I don’t really see what that big vertical hole is for. There should be a slot for the Conrod and a hole for the piston rod in line with the grooves. Anyway, I am on...

Yes, it’s the crosshead that is puzzling me. If you look closely there is a hole with a label for a pump plunger. I am thinking of tilting the head of my mill at 45deg to cut the grooves and then machining the guide rails to fit. I was wondering about screwing the upper and lower parts to a...

Hi Rich. Here are the drawings. I know what it is supposed to achieve, but it's very hard to interpret how it looks. And what on earth is the pump plunger ?!? Bob

Another major milestone reached today. Got the whole valve mechanism built. Very fiddly and I spent ages getting all the links working correctly. Had to remake a few parts because they were a sloppy fit. When you look at the number of moving parts, you can see that all the clearances stack up...

Hello Samet. That's a very interesting question. I am using the plans from Julius de Waal which are not fully complete, and he says it is designed to be built in wood! He has omitted the valve gear, so I obtained further drawings from the National Rail Museum, here in York. This is a very...

Having finally got my head round the drawings, started on building the bits. Here are the eccentrics complete with reversing mechanism. Also the shafts and linkages for the lower half of the assembly. I have tried to follow the design as near as possible. However the drawings show some very...

Finally sussed out how it all works. Like all good engineering the beauty is the elegance and simplicity (once you get your head round the drawings!). Here's my current understanding: The eccentrics are mounted 90 degrees apart on the sliding sleeve. The left eccentric drives the left cylinder...

Still trying to work out how the levers work. On all the videos I have seen both of the valve levers are cycling up and down. So there must be a way to drive the main shaft from only one of them. But I’m darned if I can figure out how?!? Bob

Hi Basil. You are indeed correct, insofar as the shaft is made from two pieces. It appears to me however that they are keyed together. There has to be some means to only allow one gab rod at a time to drive the left and right crank levers. This why I think that one of the gabs has to be...

Splashed out and bought the drawing from the NRM which covered the valve gear and eccentrics. The detail was perfect and legible. After much head scratching and reading Bailey and Glithero's book, I finally manged to work out how it all was put together. I wanted to animate the assembly in Solid...