4.3 Detailing the boiler cradle assembly (continued)

Instructions [294] to [325], page 25-27 of the rewritten instruction manual

After a full year's pause I took up work on the AD60 again. Now my meticulous work on the instruction manual and accurate accounting of a small details paid off: I could simply restart after some close reading. No need of memory grinding to reconstruct where I might have left off.

My first job after a full year's pause. At last.

I drilled two 0.3 mm holes in the boiler regulator fitting (75, in the middle of the above photo). I added the right hand 0.3 wire and soldered it with 180C solder. Normally I use brass wire but 0.3 mm is vulnerable and on the boiler it is very exposed. As much handling of the boiler will be needed until completion I opted for 0.3 mm spring steel. It springs back into place when deformed.

I placed the boiler regulator fitting and soldered it with 70C solder. while inserting the other end of the wire through the front of the cab.

Likewise I drilled the smoke box regulator fitting (74), added steel spring wire, slid the other end of the wire through the bottom hole of the boiler regulator fitting and fixed it in place.

I did not solder the smoke box regulator fitting as it is placed in a recess. Trying to solder that would result in flooding this recess, so I sufficed with a tiny spot of epoxy glue.

Note: in hindsight I should have mounted the feed water pipe first. This would made fitting and bending of that pipe much easier

[297].

Working on the pipe fitting (81) proved to be a pain. The manual is very unclear as to how and where to fit it. So I extensively researched the internet and my available books to determine its position and orientation.

And then the part is terribly tiny. I left it on a piece of sprue while working on it. It needed drilling one hole of 0.3 (yellow) and two holes of 0.4 mm (red)! Take a close look at the throat of the pipe connection at the yellow arrow, compare it to the calliper scale and you'll realise that drilling a hole even as small as 0.3 mm is a challenge.

Beforelong though the whole assembly was soldered together. The manual suggest that you mount all castings first and later add all wires. Yeah sure! And did the misters of DJH come up with handsome ideas to insert all that wiring in the holes?

So I stuck to my own method of drilling holes, adding wires, bending the wires as required and than add it all in one time. It needs some leafing in the manual.

The result is shown below

The high art of bending. 11 bends in total, two of them in two dimensions.

Don't forget to add this tube though, BEFORE mounting the pipe fitting (81), that's what I mean with leafing ahead to the section about adding the piping.

At last the pipe fitting is in place

I fed the pipe at the far right end through a pre-drilled hole in the cab front (yellow arrow) and soldered the wire at the far left end in a hole in the foot plate frame (red arrow). The pipe fitting itself stood out a little so I fixed it in place with a tiny drop of epoxy.

The next instruction is easy enough but at first I was completely mystified as to which part is the elbow, no 85. Once I got that sorted out I simply put it in place.

WRONG again Mr. Garrattfan!! You should have checked if nos 86  fit on 85 as THEY DON'T! I will work that out later. You my dear reader should add these instructions to your personal manual:

[288.5] Before soldering the elbow in their designated holes trim their ends so they can take up  the large pipe connections (86) later.

Adding the sound pipes as per [301]-[305] is very much a repetition of the work already done on the front unit, so it did not pose many problems.

Just as I thought this build was actually easy, maybe I was becoming a bit complacent, disaster struck! My soldering iron was too hot and scorched two pools of metal in the footplate while mounting the hopper supports. Burning one hole in your footplate is an accident. Burning two is stupid. Fortunately the soldering iron wasn't overly hot so damage was limited.

[308]-[313] describes the work remaining on the back side of the cab. It is tiny work but not overly difficult. A few remarks though.

The dimples that indicate the holes are habitually in the right place in DJH kits but NOT SO on the back side of the cab.

Take a look at the conduit junctions. Counting from the foot plate upwards, the third junction is visibly too high causing the conduit to slant upwards relative to the window beading. Likewise the fifth junction is a tad too low. I forgot to check in advance. You may learn from my mistake.

Likewise the dimple for the rear spectacle fitting (66) was too big and far off.

A few words on the junctions and conduits. It is impossible to put all junctions and conduits in place and then solder the lot. I found that building it up in pieces is the easiest way.

• Predill all junction as required.
• I soldered the conduit just atop the footplate first.
• Then I soldered 0.4 mm wire in the second junction with 180C solder.
• I bent the wire and cut it to length to make the connection with junction 1.
• Once content I slid the wire into junction 1 and soldered junction 2 in place with 70C solder. No need to fix the other end of the conduit as it is fixed in the hole of junction 1.
• The same way I worked up step by step until junction 5.

As I may have remarked before, I drilled all holes as deep as possible in the brass and white metal castings to get an optimum fixation of the wires. The dimples on the casting do not provide enough grip to solder the wire directly let alone glue it. Accurate drilling is paramount. I use my drill stand with cross table for that.

The injector will be mounted on the inside of the frame. There is no hole or mounting tab provided. I found the location of the injector on photos of the prototype.

I left the end of the casting sprue on and filed it flat so the part would be substantial enough to solder it. I drilled three 0.7mm holes...

After some bending.

As locomotive kit building is a dying trade, chances are that I will be The Last Pipebender ;-)

Then followed the injector [314]

Getting the curly pipe (water supply towards the injector) right was not easy. The other pipes:

• the long one to the left is the water supply from the injector into the boiler;
• the short one to the right under the steps is the waste pipe
• a fourth pipe behind the frame plate goes vertically up into the cab (not modelled) and provides fresh steam to power the injector

The stanchions for the hand rails. I always enjoy seeing them on a string of wire, I couldn't resist to make a photo of them.

Chamfer the holes in the stanchion's head lightly with a 1.0 mm drill. The wire will slip in all the more easily.

The hand rail after fitting [324]

Wonder how I got this photo sharp from front to back?

Read about increasing Depth of Field

I omitted the ladder, which is supposed to be attached to the handrails. I had a look at the ladder and at photos of the prototype. Not all locomotives have two ladders, one at each side. The captive photo on Blog 6029 does not show one on the left side. Other photos do show one at the right side, but oh boy, that ladder is thin. Nowhere anything near the bulky lot that is contained in my kit! So I prefer to have no ladder at all than one which is so obviously oversized.

[315] The steam turret valves (92) posed a problem. The sprue is on the side. Photos of these valves clearly show it positioned "flat" on the boiler with the handle pointing skyward. So I cut off the sprue end and added a new pin with which it could be attached to the boiler.

First I drilled two 1.0 mm holes at each end to take up the pipes to the steam turret. Next drilled a 0.7 mm hole in the back to take up a mounting pin. I soldered this mounting pin with 240C in the body of the valve.

Note that the steam turret valves are handed!

The steam turret valve and its bulky pipes in place.

Looking at this photo I realise that the extra mounting pin was deemed unnecessary by DJH. If you solder the two 1.0 mm pipes in the valve and bend them correctly they are strong enough to support the turret valve. But I still think this extra mounting pin is useful for various reasons

1. it immobilises the pipe completely;
2. the valve is also very thin and after drilling prone to breaking;
3. the valve was put in the boiler hole loosely to help bend the pipes. The valve worked as a datum to get both pipes correct

Next followed the fresh water feed pipe to the clack valves. The manual does not explicitly state how to route this pipe but it should have a visual connection with the lower portion of the pipe leading from the injector below the footplate.

Note that this pipe crosses under an operating rod and the handrail. This impeded fitting while bending very much. It would have been better to mount this pipe before anything else.

I used a split pin as a holder for the pipe, near the middle. I followed the manual's advise to squeeze it to fit the pipe's diameter [318].

To give it a more creditable look I filed it flat.

The handrails on the cab added. [316] and [319]

Remember to use a short knob on the top of the cab door handrails.

Somehow my cab door has come out a tad more forward then designed so I had to file out one etched recess in the footplate.