Things start to look a lot more waggoney these days so pictures of bits of cast steel begin to make more sense. Let's start with a first fit of the rear hubs and brake drums. When we last saw these they were in the lathe being turned. This is what they look like when they come out of the lathe. Note lifting strops. You do not lift these by hand.
And this is what they look like when they are fitted for the first time to make sure all the measurements were somewhere near right. You will also see that there is a bit of chain held in place with some rope. This was to let us count up what chain we needed to buy.
And from the front. It should now be clear how it works and why the crankshaft needed to have so many gears in it. Also in shot is the alternator which takes a chain drive off the back of the main drive sprocket. This is not original but the original set up looked shit, didn't work and you couldn't spin the dynamos of the day fast enough to get any meaningful output from them. This set up will let us spin the alternator fast enough to be able to drive round with full beam on at night.
This is actually the smaller chain you could specify. If you were knocking seven bells out of the waggon you could opt for 2" pitch chains but these are more than enough for what we are doing. You will also see that everything lines up. Chain is surprisingly cheap these days even for Renold stuff.
The alternator (it is an alternator in a dynamo looking body) so you can see the chain sprockets. Once the body is on you won't see any of this.
Now we have some brake drums that just leaves the brake shoes to sort out. First you need a shaft to work the brakes. This is worked fairly hard so we've gone for EN24. Here is the shaft being turned down and having a thread cut on the end.
And this is the paddle that screws onto the end. The brake arms turn the shaft and the paddle forces the shoes out. Modern wagon drums work in the same way.
And these springs turned up. These hold the brake shoes about where they are meant to be. In the original set up these were the only return springs but on the steam brake modification there is a pair of big springs doing that job so we aren't asking very much of these.
While in turning up mood these arrived too. They are the castings for the body mounting brackets. These bolt to the chassis rails and then mountings that are bolted to the oak bearers mate with these. I think the idea was to try to keep things flexible. For some reason this photo is upside down.
And the S can't go out because the boiler inspector isn't coming out yet because lurgey so a historic wrong is being righted. When the paint was put on in 2008 something went wrong with the sides and we've not bothered to put it right. Here is some paint being subject to some major correction. Fortunately all of the paint which has gold leaf on it is fine. This is a relief.
And at last we come to something that is almost, sort of related to the work of Autoshite. If you jump back to page 1, picture 1 you will see that the dominant feature of the cab are the two oddly shaped plates that fill in the gaps between the windscreens and the front panel which we shall call the cheek plates. Originally these were pressed and then "fitted" into whatever shape each finished waggon took. If you consider the manufacturing techniques, the materials involved and the tolerance between bolts and the holes shown in the drawings there must have been a lot of variation. Anyway, pressing them isn't an option so we'll have to do these by hand. This is a shame because I'm not a tin basher.
What we did do was bought a copy of the DVD from this man here https://metalshapingzone.com/ . Which I would strongly recommend buying. I am sure there are others but this one is very helpful for no other reason than the rather important lesson that if something is going wrong just keep hitting until it goes right. The early stages of shaping something seem to be very disheartening and it was reassuring to see that when someone who knows what they are doing starts a job it also looks like you've driven over it.
Anyway. some bits of 18swg sheet steel cut roughly to the right sort of shape so you have enough metal but not too much. The rotten piece of steel is roughly what we are trying to make. It was pulled from a river bed in Cumbria in the late 1980s so it's had a hard life. If you look carefully at the pattern you'll see felt tip pen markings on it. I came up with a plan to make it in three pieces. and the black lines show roughly what the three pieces will need to look like.
And you need some hammers. We have amassed a fair collection of body hammers, spoons, slappers and dollies. If only we knew what we were doing with them. You can probably make out that the square faced hammer is a shrinking hammer.
And because we are bashing curves then some stakes are a good idea too. A few years ago we found a job lot of stakes which I suspect came out of a school workshop and they come on all sorts of shapes and sizes. This is the one I have found the most useful. What I don't have just now is a picture of the leather sand bag which is also essential for hitting things.
And off we go. I started by taking a best guess at the development of the slightly conical shape is was aiming for and formed it in the folders. I am quite sure those who know what they are doing are laughing already and I'm going to need to spend an age dressing out the fold marks but it was a start. Once the cone shape was there you need to start forming the flange where it fixes to the apron plate (they are rivetted in). Here is the start of the offside one. You can probably see that the flange is pretty tight at the top and then eases as you come along the front apron. The exact curve is difficult to get right but when it is wrong you can see it straight away so you just keep working until it looks right.
And you just keep working it until it goes right. It is painfully slow. You can also see I've been messing around with a slapper dressing out the fold marks. I reckon that it is fitting pretty well here.
And from the side. You will also see that the offside door got made and fitted too. You should be ble to see why the flange has to be stretched and dressed into shape because you are trying to form more than one curve. I am pretty sure that this is why apprenticeships used to be seven years long.
The panels are handed so while we have a pattern for an off side one there isn't anything to copy for the nearside. What I decided to do was to get one bit of the offside done then straight away do the same section on the near side. That way I wouldn't forget how I made the bloody thing and the chances of making things look right from side to side got better. This is the nearside one somewhere near. It is not easy to make out but it should be possible to see where the curves are and why they have taken a lot of stretching and dressing to get the flange right. The piece of angle iron is part ofthe cab. That is what the windscreen sits over.
Then flushed with success I pressed on with the second section of the nearside one. You can't make it out but the apron is curved across the front (about a 12 foot radius) so there was yet another curve to fit this to. It is about this point that the clamp situation became critical so more were ordered.
And from the side. The join between the apron plate and the cheek plates is "hidden" by a D beading that is formed around the top of the apron plate. Note clamps everywhere.
The butt hasn't been fitted properly yet but it is getting there. Once it is in the right place it I'll gas weld it. You see both the inside and the outside of these panels so the welds will need to be good.
And that then leaves the spherical bit to fill in the corner. I only got this started last weekend so it is still a work in progress. Stretched it with a ball pein hammer over the sandbag and then just keep dressing it over the stake until the shape starts to appear.
See? It curves in both directions. Note the elderly Sykes Pickavant body hammer. Nice hammer that.
So this weekend's job is to keep hitting that until it fits and then start tacking things up.
That's tremendous. I didn't even spot it!
I'd like to think he called someone up and they printed them verbatim just out of spite, in full knowledge of the speeling error.
Once again it's Saturday, so that means driving all over the south east being disappointed by the dross for sale.
1) Drive over to Kingston and check out this 2.5T TitX;
https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/202007030808582
2) Have a look at the 2.0D TitX Auto they have there also;
https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/202006029735786
This also takes me near-ish to another 2.5T;
https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/202006120073960
-called about this and the aircon doesn't work, which isn't ideal but I'm getting use to hearing that now.
3) If can be arsed after hours driving and messing around in South east/South London, swing by Maidstone for another 2.0D Tit Auto;
https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/202002237630516
Wildcard; Vectra 1.8 SRI in Upminster;
https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/202006260555852
All assuming people answer their phones....
2.0 dizzle, full test, 80k miles, claims FSH. £2600. Strong money maybe, but nearby and looks clean.
https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/202006270575973
2.5T, Full Test, 91k, claims it's had a belt. £2450. It's a right old trek being in Derbyshire but I'm more inclined to travel for a 2.5T.
https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/202006190290233
In both cases not a fan of the Ghia interior, though wood is fun in a 2.5T.
What this? Nothing to see here, just an oil change. Cough ?
That S8 is gorgeous. You truly are the king of barges. I dare say the days of a sub £1k Audi A8/S8 are long gone. Shame, but I'm kinda glad their time has come(he says through gritted teeth)
https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/20200619029413
Tempting. 2.5T TitX, 116k, Mot till Oct20th. £1400.
https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/202006069870348
2.0TDCi, 86k, CatD, test until dec24th. £2400.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Ford-Mondeo-2-0TDCi-140-2007-5MY-Titanium-X/313091843395
105k, mid October Test, £2200
I've been looking for a Vectra but these have the huge advantage of not being 4 hours away.
https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/202006220404384
Hmm, that looks fairly reasonable and it's not too far away. Let's check the test history on it;
https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/202006220404384
Hmm, that looks fairly reasonable and it's not too far away. Let's check the test history on it;
https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/202006220404384
Hmm, that looks fairly reasonable and it's not too far away. Let's check the test history on it;
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