A Part Assembled Clayton Locomotive

Having built some O14 track ready for the Clayton battery loco I thought I should make a start on assembling it. Due to the rather large wheels it sports I decided it would be easier to paint it before assembly, we'll see how successful an idea this was at some point but for now this is the current state of play.

While all of the photos I've seen of the loco in use (just two if you remember) show it painted orange I understand that when it was originally delivered it was finished in Clayton's standard yellow colour. As this is the first prototype I've built and I had a can of yellow paint, this one will be painted yellow.

As well as painting I've assembled the layshaft, which slides into place pre-assembled, I've cut the OO gauge axles down to the right length, and I've sorted out most of the electrical side. The motor is actually rated at 12V so in theory could be wired directly to the pickups, but I'm going to try and fit working lights, so the little PCB holds a resistor and capacitor ready for wiring in the lights.

I'll probably leave the paint a day or so to fully harden, given past experience of spraying this Humbrol acrylic (while it feels dry it's possible to leave fingerprints in the surface for a day or so after painting), and then will assemble and test the mechanical parts before adding the working lights.

Clayton #5843: Now With Wheels

While the parts on their own looked good I thought it was worth showing you how the loco looks roughly assembled with wheels fitted.

Obviously the axles need cutting down in length, but they were just fitted to test that the bearings were nicely aligned and that the chassis would roll freely. Unfortunately I found that the holes for the bearings were slightly too small. I'd intended brass bearings to be a push fit into the print but I had to ream out the holes slightly for the bearings to fit. This was easy enough to do for the wheels, but the holes for the layshaft bearings are harder to access so they will need to be made slightly bigger on the next print to make life easier.

First Prototype of Clayton #5843

I had a Shapeways order arrive yesterday which should give me even more things to blog about so you don't get bored with my bridge building experiments. There were parts for quite a few new models in the order but I'll start with showing the parts for the Clayton battery electric locomotive I described back at the end of May.

From an initial look at the parts they have printed quite well with only a few places that might need smoothing down before painting. I have, however, discovered two issues. Firstly with the print as I designed it I can't actually fit the motor, and the fixing between the top and bottom isn't perfect.

As the motor I'm using doesn't have any fixing holes built in I designed the mount to hold it in place with a friction fit. Unfortunately I didn't leave enough space to angle the motor down through the front part of the mount. Fortunately I think I'll be able to file down part of the mount to fit the motor, and then update the digital model when I know if that works or not.

While the top and bottom parts fir together well, the upper part is ever so slightly bowed. While only slight pressure is required to flatten it this isn't possible once the parts are fitted, and the mounting screw holes are at the wrong end to make any difference. Fortunately I think a slight redesign of the motor mount to provide a slightly tighter fit of the two parts would cure this so again not a real problem.

So even with those issues the model looks promising. I'll clean up the print and then start trying to build up the model. The bottom part will actually need painting before assembly (no way of painting behind those wheels among other things) but painting the top part will have to wait until the etched parts arrive. Anyway there is no rush as long as I'm enjoying myself.

Clayton Battery Electric Locomotive No. 5843

While work is still ongoing to turn the Hudson-Hunslet into a kit I've already started work on designing another model. As with the Hudson-Hunslet I've picked something with local interest; this time to where I live now rather than where I grew up.

As I've mentioned a number of times before the Penistone line from Hudersfield to Sheffield runs along the bottom of our garden. Until 1981 the line also formed part of the Woodhead route between Sheffield and Manchester. The line to Manchester branched from the current line at Penistone and climbed into the Peak District where it entered a tunnel at Dunford Bridge before reappearing at Woodhead and continuing to Glossop and on to Manchester. Since the line originally opened in 1845 there have been three parallel tunnels built. The original tunnel was joined by a second one in 1853 and a new tunnel replaced both of these in 1953 when the line was electrified. When the new tunnel opened in 1954 the two Victorian tunnels were closed and the track lifted and they remained unused until 1966.

In 1963 the Central Electricity Generating Board (CEGB), now known as the National Grid, announced that they wanted to construct an overhead power line linking Thorpe Marsh power station in Yorkshire with Staylbridge in Cheshire. There was significant public objections, however, to allowing pylons to be built within the Peak District and eventually the CEGB decided to route the cables through the old Victorian railway tunnels. As part of this work a 2 foot gauge railway was installed within the northern of the two tunnels to ease access. A number of locomotives have worked this line but my interest has been caught by Clayton battery electric locomotive works number 5843 which was a one off variant of a standard Clayton design using larger wheels to give a higher top speed.

The locomotive was delivered new in 1971 and withdrawn, I believe, sometime during the 1990's. It's now owned by the Moseley Railway Trust who purchased it in 2000. Amazingly these two photos are the only colour images I've been able to find of it in use prior to preservation (there is a black and white photo in issue 77 of the Industrial Railway Society journal). It's not just photos of the locomotive that are hard to find though. Given how much interest there is in the standard gauge Woodhead route I can find almost no published accounts of the 2 foot gauge railway that replaced it. I'm guessing this is mostly due to only short sections at either end of the tunnel being visible to the public and both of these are in fairly out of the way places. If you happen to know of any more details on the line, the locos or the rolling stock I'd appreciate it if you could leave a comment.

Fortunately, while details of it in active use might be scarce I already had a set of drawings done by Jeremy Tilston in 2005 and these have allowed me to make a start on a model. Currently progress is only virtual as I'm again intending to 3D print the majority of the model.

There are still a few details to add before I order a print but the render on the left seems to be a good representation. My plan is to print it in two halves; a chassis (in orange) to which all the mechanical parts will be fitted and then an upper body (in yellow) which will slide over the motor and be secured by two screws. What you can't tell from the images is that this model is in a new scale for me.

I really wanted to produce a model of this locomotive in OO9, the same scale as the Hudson-Hunslet, unfortunately it just wasn't possible. On the Hudson-Hunslet the motor just fitted within the bodywork, unfortunately on this locomotive there isn't enough space in OO9 to fit even a 6mm x 10mm motor horizontally within the body and if fitted vertically the driveshaft would be almost touching the rail and two low to drive the layshaft. This means I've had to move up a scale and this model is designed for O14. For those not familiar with this scale it models narrow gauge in O scale (7mm to the foot) using 14mm gauge track. This has the advantage of being an accurate representation of 2 foot gauge railways. Even in this larger scale the model is very small and in fact won't be much bigger than the OO9 Hudson-Hunslet!

Of course having never modelled in O14, or any scale larger than 4mm to the foot, I'm going to have to see what modelling skills work in a larger scale and which need some more thought. I'm also going to need to build some 14mm gauge track to test it on. I can see months of fun ahead!