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Butchering a Billy

Page history last edited by Zoë 14 years, 10 months ago

Zoe Topper


 

One of the biggest headaches facing the realistic garden railway modeler is what to do about the locomotives. We are spoiled for choice compared to what was available not so long ago, but most of the commercial live-steamers still don't really fall into the 'high realism' bracket. So, unless you can run to bespoke motive power, what's to be done? If you are prepared to live with generic models, it is possible to produce something pretty plausible with a basic Roundhouse kit, some fairly starighforward skills and a critical eye.

  

For the longest time, I've wanted to build one of those Roundhouse engine kits. They offer three different kits, Katie, Billy and Lady Anne.  All in three part kits: chassis, boiler and body. Plus a separate R/C kit to allow mounting of the servos, battery pack and receiver.  If you have plans on Radio Controlling your model, I'd strongly suggest you do so from the beginning, or at least, before you paint the model, as it's addition to the model requires some fitting.

 

I thought the NGT could use a little 0-4-0 like Billy, but didn't think it appeared quite right for the Jungle Railway as is (Billy, is in the middle).

 

 

Photo: courtesy Roundhouse

  

Just a little too British, and not up to pushing through the tall grass and punting monkeys off the rails. So, Billy it was to be, but with some much needed 'Junglefication' planned for the little engine.

 

First off, those Buffer Beams had to go... might be my Colonial Up-bringing, but I'd rather see cylinder heads then flat steel. 

 

 

Right-hand end of buffer beam has been removed; left-hand one still to go...

 

Then there are the monkeys..., so two Brandbright Pilots were fitted, one to each end.

  

Since the History of the NGT puts in into German hands during the time when all the power you see now was acquired, a somewhat Teutonic flavor was added by painting the frames a nice red, with everything above the frames, solid black.

 

A small construction note here: Roundhouse suggest painting the frame, once you have it assembled (as I did).  I would add that you should either have the cylinders up, or the area they mount masked off, as the paint may soften once the engine warms up causing the cylinders to come loose and slip down at the rear causing some running issues. 

  

   

The frames, main and connecting rods, and valve gear components were primed with self-etching spray, and finished off with High-temp Ford Engine Red No. DE 1605.  The buffer faces and bearings are coated with Latex.

 

   

It gets very dark in the jungle, all those trees blocking the moon, so lights are important. To this end, two GIANT Darjeeling type head lamps were mounted fore and aft. The front one being on the smokebox top, while the rear is perched on the cab roof, enabling lighting over the tops of vans and loaded wagons.

 

   

Billy, as it was designed, doesn't have much in the way of coal capacity, and this engine, now named Pit Viper, (in keeping with the NGT's practice of naming their engines after snakes), would need more then could be piled on the cab floor or water tank tops. A bunker was needed, and Roundhouse came to the rescue with a bunker etch from their Lady Anne kit.

  

The paint finish alone, and some subtle weathering, transform Billy into a plausible workaday locomotive.

  

With this folded up and soldered to the Billy cab, the body was now painted and the engine assembled. 

 

 

 

Since all these considerations had been made to backing, it seemed only right to provide some protection for the crew while running cab forward.  A tarp was made to cover the open cab rear to keep the frequent Jungle rains from soaking the crew. 

  

  

Break-In was conducted with the engine up on blocks setting on a cloth pad.  Plywood shims were introduced under the wheels to create some resistance and help seat the bearings into their proper places.  You can see the supply of fuel and oils behind the engine. 

 

 

  

Bearing lubrication was alternated between our standard 30 weight Non-Detergent, with a lite machine oil used to help flush out the waste particles.  After some 24 boiler fills, culminating in somewhere near 10 hours of running, forward and backwards combined, the timing was checked for the last time, the eccentric arms drilled and pinned.

  

The Servos were then fitted and set-up using the R/C from my Fowler's tender as control.  Notice the Black cylinder covers are now fitted.

 

 

The headlamp needs power, so a section of brass tubing was selected to form the 'electrical conduit' through which, two 34 AWG stranded wires will be run, back to the Lighting Control Unit inside the Left Water Tank.  The conduit curves down from the back of the headlamp, down to the frames and back, dipping under the reverse gear and into the cab.

 

  

Where the Dimension Engineering  DeLight Controller will change the lighting from forward to reverse, relative to the forward/reverse servo.

 

 

Photo: courtesy Dimension Engineering LLC

 

This controller is calibrated from a Downloaded Program, and transferred to the 'chip' via USB cable and interface.

 

 

Testing and Running in.

 

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I'll continue this report when I have results, more photos and some video of Pit Viper running on the Nairobi and Grand trunk Railway.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Comments (1)

Andrew Coward said

at 6:19 am on Apr 6, 2009

Excellent article !

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