7mm JLTRT Crab

[7mmMick]

Well it’s been a productive few days on the crab. I’ve made good headway on the frames. I’ve used Slaters spring horn guides, which are a doddle to clean and set up. With the use of the hobby holidays jig all went together and was straight forward. I’ve used Laurie Griffin brakes and cords beams, which once cleaned up went together very well, although the front brake hanger bracket had to be omitted as it clashed with the cylinder block. I’ve adapted the motion brackets so all can be removed to assist maintenance and painting, here’s part of it with the front brake cylinder and associated bits;



This and other parts were then added. Also pictured are the axle box springs, these are courtesy of Andrew from Lanky Kits. The hangers are from som LG castings and having discussed with Laurie it looks like he’ll be doing a spring suitable for the crab without having to chop and change with bits here and there;


Once the basic frames were together I made a start on some of the other assemblies. First the cylinder block. I just couldn’t get on with the wrappers supplied. They have etched lined to help forming but these leave witness marks which are difficult to hide. Also o e of the holes was octagonal and over etched so I set about and made some up from 10thou N/S


These were then fitted as were the LG slide bars and cross heads. The piston rod was removed and replaced with 1.8mm N/S bar for ease. I then got onto fitting the WM front and rear but found the profile was very different at the base. I’m not sure what the correct profile is here so I chose to add WM and blend in so the covers looked right;


Next was the pony truck. This came from LG as it’s much nicer than the basic etched version. After some cleaning up I got to this;

Unfortunately it didn’t fit and couldn’t be made to without major modification to the frame stretcher. So I used some of the etched parts in the kit to put together a cut and shut version

And finally some shots of progress;


Next is the valve gear

 

[7mmMick]

A quick update on progress on the valve gear. This loco is all valve gear I’ve had a busy couple of days putting this all together and all now runs smoothly. I started out with the return cranks, probably because I find this tricky so wanted it out of the way! The LG motion kit supplies a cast return crank which is meaty enough to be drilled 3.5 mm with enough depth to accommodate a slaters crankpins bush. The shoulder on the bush is turned down to 3.5mm and tapped 10Ba. Then it’s tightened onto the crank pin, ensuring the crankpin is chemically blackened to prevent any solder causing issues! The crank is then gently heated until you feel the solder melt and the slaters bush drops into place. You then have a return crank set at the correct advanced angle with the fixing hidden;


Next job was the valve rods. I somehow managed to loose one, eaten by the carpet monster Having hunted high and low I could not find the thing so I cracked on and made a couple up from scrap etch. I bottled putting the key in but hopefully no one will notice I ended up making two so they matched. Having measured the valve guides the new valve rods were made wider as the originals are a little skinny.


Once these bits were out of the way I cracked on with cleaning and polishing all valve gear items and fabricating the various frame stretchers and motion brackets into one assembly that can be easily removed in one lump. A lot of work look but well worth it to ease painting/servicing etc. I again followed @Dikitriki build here. At the beginning of the build I split the ash pan sides from the firebox and now was the time to knock up a quick ash pan floor with the sides to represent the ash pan;

And the two assemblies together ;

And now to get the footplate/cab assembly to fit the footplate