Tender Truck
The tender trucks were the first dawning I did in 2000 and have been through innumerable iterations. Generally to try and reduce the cost due the their lack of symmetry. 2013 saw yet another go at getting a cost effective solution design, helped in no small part by Phil Monsborough who was able to 3D model the truck and generally from that we were able to come up with what I hope will be the last visit to this drawing board.
Phil's 3D model of the tender truck
The truck is also under way and in 2014 I will decide who will be making the pattern. I have had the end sills which create the lack of symmetry done as an RP This means that hopefully the pattern will only need to model one side which can be duplicated for the other side. Although their might be a bit of water to flow under the bridge before I can land that one.
RP for end sills
The end sills due to some clever work by Phil have been joined together into one pattern for lost wax casting. The above photograph is the RP in nylon, I have then had a rubber mould made and the wax tooling has been produced from it. I am waiting for a price to produce in ether CI or bronze as this is written December 2013
The ends have been cast and look great just what i was after now just got to get the rest of the trucks cast.
In June of 2016 Terry Davis completed the last pattern i needed for the locomotive. This was and is quite a milestone . As its the end of traditional pattern making for the locomotive. Terry has produced all the patterns for the locomotive bar two. He did the cylinder block, cradle, front buffer all the wheels, front, trailing and tender trucks.
The Tender front and rear sills were produced by Eric Hales using a CNC router then cast in aluminum. The rest of the castings are in CI. Currently the patterns are in N Yorkshire and are 5 months in to what is usually about a 12 month delivery. I am not in a rush and fitting them in when they are quiet is more cost effective than I want everything now.
As the pattern is symmetrical Terry did a lot of work on producing as much as possible that worked for both sides
Looking from underneath the truck
Up to now this is about the only bit I recognize and will be familiar to most who know the 25NC tender .
You will see there are lots of wing nuts and screws in the patterns, as it is a one piece casting its important that the draft is in the right places and wont detract from the finished casting. So generally after ramming up, the pattern box is disassembled to remove the sand then the parts are glued together so you end up with the outside faces being square not having a non scale draft angle imposed on them.