Sign my
GuestBook

NS class 5000

Superstructure of the locomotive

Now the chassis and the gearbox have been joined succesfully a heap of parts remain the box that need to be assembled. The "manual" of DJH of the locomotive proper consists of just two pages with exploded views. The numbering on these views is virtually useless because the parts themselves have no recognisable identification. So I will have to make my own manual, derived from the parts available, from the experience I have with the AD60 and a touch of common sense.

First I laid out all parts and started to group them in logical building groups. After some to and fro I ended up with just three main groups

  • everything under the running board: the chassis;
  • the running board itself;
  • and everything above the running board; the superstructure.

A fourth group  contained the few parts I could not identify in the eploded view. Maybe it will be become clear were these two have to go.

I identified all parts and laid them out on a logical place and devised an assembly sequence if necessary. Assembly order of most parts is rather inconsequential or so logical that it will need no further explanation. The following parts are provided in the kit but will be replaced with a more suiteable part:
Chassis

61, replaced by a Dutch version

62, replaced by brass or NS examples from e.g. Markits

68, will be replaced by a make of my own

69, will be replaced by a make of my own

72, will be replaced by a make of my own
Running Board

23, will be replaced by sprung buffers from Philotrain

28, will be replaced by lost wax brass examples from Philotrain

33, will be replaced by lost wax brass examples from Philotrain
Superstructure 22, will be replaced by lost wax brass examples from Philotrain

Handrails

 Will be discarded wholesale and replaced by nickel silver wire made to fit with Markits knobs.

Cab
Now let's go to work
The cab is cleaned up from etch cusps and fret bridges, then rolled flat,
and finally folded and soldered.

Two? No, the same but photographed from two angles and then photoshopped together. Nice innit?

Boiler

The kit was showing its age with all the muck on the boiler
A kind of papery fibery thingy muck

It went off with a fibre glass pencil. Effective but very laborious.

One and a half hour later: done!

A test spray with base coat, which betrays every corner I forgot.
After a second test spray the boiler came out clean

Attaching the boiler

Now attention turned to fastening the boiler to the running board. The kit as provided forsaw a narrow motor inclined in the firebox. This setup would allow the boiler to be soldered to the running board and the cab. But in my altered setup the motor is wider then the slot provided and it also protrudes forward into the boiler. So I could no longer simply solder the boiler in place.

So I made two brass brackets, each having a nut soldered to it and suitably milled to match the width available on the inside of the firebox.
The brackets were soldered inside the firebox with as much brass sheet as I could get into it. It strengthened the thin firebox sides and it also reduces the risk of the brackets coming loose when stress is put on it.
I cut the oversizes bolts and retained the outer end which gave a pointy end When screwed into the nuts they provide a nice marker ....

...to indicate where the holes must be drilled
The nut for the frame - running plate connection was a bit too thick so I milled it down a few tenths of a mm. I cut the bolt exactly to match the surface of the nut and no more.

Another fiddly job well done.

Some detailing

  
Sand pots and oil drips
Boiler back head
Regulator lever
Buffer beam
Attaching the reach rod to the rocker arm needed a trick. The rod is 1.0 mm thick so drilling in the almost equally thick rocker arm was asking for trouble. Instead of solid rod I took a tube and soldered a 0.5 mm nickelsilver rod in it. Drilling a 0.5 mm hole in the rocker was easy and I could also easily solder it.

The rocker bar with the lifting arms soldered in place

and the reach rod installed.
The reach rod is on the left side, contrary to Dutch practise, as the driver's place was never converted to the right side.

Now it occurred to me that there was a sizeable gap between the firebox and the cab on the left side, much less so on the the right side, but nevertheless visible.

I measured the squareness and to my dismay I found it off.

So I dunked the back end in boiling water and started over again. This one of the few advantaged of white metal and 80C solder.
After reassembly, now carefully monitored and measured, I eliminated the gap..
I took the opportunity to solder the tender plate with 180C solder
The cab was put in place again and the interior was added.
Now it is time to start the final detailing of the model