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David Andrews
20 Hillside Gardens	01242 672744
Woodmancote
Cheltenham	Email: davidandrews@locomotivekits.com
Gloucestershire	Web: http://www.locomotivekits.com
GL52 9QF

John Cockcroft
Photos by the author

Part one - picking up where I left off…

go to Part 2

BACK IN 2003 I WORKED IN NOTTINGHAM and walked into town from the Meadows area that was redeveloped in the 1970’s. Prior to then the landscape had been covered with railway tracks where the Great Central main line headed south for Leicester, Rugby and London. As I plodded towards town, I derived some slight comfort from the fact that the empty air above me was once cut by 130t Great Central Railway locomotives pulling teak coaches. Passengers could settle down with their newspapers or eat breakfast to the muffled rumble of carriage wheels, whereas I skipped over a brown smeared fast food tray that bounced past my feet in the wind. On such bleak mornings the idea of building a model of a B3 took hold.

But sometimes I find that I start a modelling project and then for various reasons I put it aside for a while and then after some time get back to it. Well this is a bit of an extreme example – but I bet there are those out there who can beat me? I got this kit when it first came out in around 2003 and told Dave Andrews I would review it. I started it and got the tender built and was working on the loco when a domestic rearrangement caused a slight interruption of about ten years, followed by another six or so years building other models. During this time the B3 sat in a box. Dave has a long memory and kept mentioning the B3 which made me feel a bit guilty.

So late in 2019 I pulled the poor thing out of its various boxes and after a review of the instructions and a clean-up of the tarnished brass, got back to work. Dave has changed the way he produces and markets his kits over the last few years and now generally only produces them on demand – requiring around half a dozen interested parties before he does a run of any kit. Even if you can’t get a B3 there is a smaller-wheeled cousin, the B7, with similar slide bars and multi-level footplate, so this article may help you with that loco.

The B3 class 4-6-0s comprised only six engines named after heroes of the Great War – well most of them were rich old buffers of various sorts, either in or out of uniform but two had claim to the title. No. 1165 Valour was the Great Central Railway’s war memorial locomotive, and No.1164 Earl Beattie was named after the commander of the British battle cruiser squadron at Jutland. Beattie, with his hat at a slightly jaunty angle, stood on the bridge of HMS Lion while one-ton blocks of steel-encased high explosives rained on and around his ship. Well he at least put his life where his mouth was and so this had to be the engine I modelled.

The most obvious difference within the class as built was that three had side window cabs, and three had more old-fashioned cabs with a rear cut-out. Fortunately, Earl Beattie had the cut-out version, which I prefer. Both cabs are included in the kit.

The B3s were superb-looking locomotives but were never brilliant in the way that the GWR Stars and Saints proved. Some of them were subject to some quite ugly rebuilding in the LNER period – but in my model railway world they will always be as originally built, because they look so good. Even so, there were a number of variations during the 1920s, including the substitution of a wider self-trimming tender behind some of them including Earl Beattie. Both types of tender were available from Dave Andrews and I got the right one for my model. There were a number of detail alterations and the best books are the RCTS Locomotives of the LNER Part 2B and Yeadon’s Register of LNER Locomotives Vol 22.

The kit is to the usual high standard that I have come to expect from Dave. The instructions are divided into paragraphs to indicate a suggested sequence of construction. I deviated from that from time to time, mainly by fitting detail at a point where it was easiest to get at rather than when all the big bits are assembled. Clear diagrams show all the stages of construction and all parts are numbered making identification easier. Don’t take parts out of the etch until you have to, as the number is etched next to them on the fret.

The sequence of construction I usually use on tender locos is to do the tender first so that I have a finished model when the loco is complete. In this case I completed the tender years ago, and though I took photos they are on film and I can’t find them after all this time, so you only get finished model photos with this article.

I commenced construction with the tender sub frame. Before assembling the frames I elongated the middle bearing holes on each side, as provided for by half-etched areas. I lightly sprung the middle bearings by soldering a two inch length of 0.7mm wire to the top of the bearing and the other end to the inside of the frames. I then assembled the frames and fitted the brakes and other underframe details as per the instructions.

I built the tender sixteen years before I finished the model. You can see the damage I caused by bending the tender coping, but I filled the dent with solder and rubbed it down.

I moved onto the tender body, but though I followed individual paragraphs in the instructions, I have a preference for starting under the footplate with the frames and buffer beam and building the upper parts after. Commencing with the footplate I worked inwards as far as possible because you can then easily do the soldering from the inside. So I started with the valances, the buffer beam and the drag beam. Next I shaped and then fitted the step backing plates to the valances. Before soldering the outside frames under the footplate I added the spring hanger backing plates and other overlay detail. With the footplate nice and flat on the work surface I also took the opportunity to add brackets, footsteps, pipes and brake operating lever to the area at the side of the frames.

Above the footplate there are a few moderately tricky areas of construction and I tackled the first one immediately. This is the forming of the curved coping which on this kit is etched separately from the tender sides and end. I opted to form them while separate rather than after soldering them to the tops of the sides first. To do this I squeezed the coping in a vice between some ½ in. brass rod and a strip of ¼ in. balsa. By exerting considerable pressure the brass rod pushed the strip into the balsa and after a few squeezes forced it into shape. I was very pleased with this, and with an elegant flourish caught one end of a strip with my finger end, bending it into a right angle. Here is a tip: don’t do this! It is hard enough to straighten a flat piece of brass, but a channel is very very difficult and always leaves a bruise. If you can see this on my model it is authentic wear and tear, you understand: authentic OK! If you take your time, the coping can be soldered onto the half etched rebate on the top of the sides and end very smoothly, I used full temperature (i.e. normal multicore) solder for this so that it was unlikely to come unsoldered during later construction. Dave helpfully provides a template for this curve that helps to get all sides nice and equal. Before fitting the tender rear to the footplate, I soldered onto it the three lower lamp irons, the two grab rails and the horizontal handrail, again I used full temperature solder. Then I assembled the rear, then the sides and found them all wonderfully accurate with only a tiny amount of filing required to the flares at the corners to make an invisible join. I make it policy to only file or adjust the rear flare so that it fits between the sides – then tidy up any over length on the side flares after.

If you take your time, the forming and assembly of the coal space, tender top and front etches presents no problems. Don’t forget to fit the U-shaped support that fits inside the tender tank at the rear to hold up the top at the correct height. The tender top and front unit required no filing or fitting. It dropped into place and was invisibly soldered without a single problem of any kind. This is almost uniquely perfect, and I have quite often had hours of ‘pleasure’ adjusting, solder filling and generally developing my vocabulary with tender tops.

I had a somewhat messy session with the upper side extensions, which are laminated to provide internal detail. As is always the case, they have to be fitted by eye on the top of the flares and some adjustment proved necessary, resulting in a lot of tacky cleaning up of surplus solder using a glass fibre brush. I don’t like messy soldering, burned fingers and undoing and redoing but sometimes that is what happens, and this was one of those occasions. There is a lot of detail to be fitted around the tender top and front bulkhead but with some patience and the diagrams in the instructions I managed them without major incident.

Generally I like to build up a basic chassis first, only adding detail that is most easily fitted early on in construction. I get it to run and then move onto the main bits of the body so that I know everything will fit together and some of the hassles can be dealt with without damaging delicate detail. Then I complete the chassis and finally the body.

The basic chassis with the bearings in place. The middle bearing is sprung using a length of 0.7mm wire. On this chassis the four outside bearings are fixed

As is usual I started with the frames. These are etched well and have representations of the springs below the drivers. There are two additional laminates to build up the springs to their full thickness, but I settled for one. It took two hours to file off all the etch cusp on the springs but it is time is well spent. Next I opened out the centre bearing holes in the frames in a vertical direction only. To establish the layout of the motor and pick-ups, I did some experiments with the frame spacers, motor and a PSF plunger pick up. I omitted the spacer behind the centre axle and soldered a length of 2mm wire to the frames to act as a spring on the centre axle and prevent the bearing from rotating. I then assembled the frames with the spacers, ensuring everything was square, I dry fitted the two outer bearings with axles and drivers so I could make sure they are level when placed on a sheet of glass. A slight twist to the frames ensured they were.

This is how the model looked after its sixteen years in a box. The footplate and cab are assembled and the model is sat on the card platform to ensure that everything stays square and level during further construction.

I use some extended axles fitted through the coupling rods in order to locate the bearings accurately, so I next assembled the laminated coupling rods. When they were all clean and lovely I used them with the extended axles and soldered the front and rear bearings rigid and the centre bearing to the 2mm wire I fitted earlier. I trial-fitted the driving wheels and coupling rods to test that they rolled OK then tried them with the motor/gearbox using jump leads onto the terminals. The bearings in the rods needed a kiss with a reamer to get them completely free. When I was happy that the basic bits worked I moved onto the body. Nowadays I usually fit the pick-ups at this stage and temporarily wire to the motor so I can ensure the model will pick up from the track – but this was 18 years ago and I fitted the pick-ups later on this model. Another thing that the photos show is that I painted and lined the wheels at an early stage as it is much harder to paint wheels on the chassis than when they are separate.

The shape of the footplate is complex; not only does it curve down under the cab but rises and falls over the cylinders, and furthermore the valances joggle inwards just before they curve up to the cylinders. Dave Andrews is an excellent designer and I can imagine the joy of the challenge he experienced at working out the length of both the main footplate component and the joggled valances. Let me say now that if you find you have metal to spare or something is not long enough, it is you who have got it wrong; because if you build everything as designed then everything fits – perfectly. Of course all the designing in the world is not going to make what is a multiple set of bends easy to form but Dave does what is possible and the parts were surprisingly tolerant of my manipulation of the curves.

As is often the case with my more complex models I decided to make a card footplate platform on which I would build the rest of the body to ensure that it remained square and level. So before I assembled the footplate I used the valances to establish a series of horizontal levels on the card for each element of the footplate. You don’t need to bother about the curves provided the platform comes inside the valances, buffer and drag beams. I then cut out two identical sides for the platform making them each two inches deep to a base line and checking them to be identical. I then cut spacers and assembled the unit with a hot glue gun onto a rectangle of MDF.

The footplate is in four sections, a curved down platform for the cab, the long part over the driving wheels, the flat part over the cylinders and the curved front platform. Starting with the long part I used formers to shape the curve up to the raised part over the cylinders. Next I used this as a pattern to form the valances where they bend inwards just before the cylinders. The valances were now the right length. The curve down under the cab is assisted by both a witness mark and half etched grooves under the footplate, so I formed that with rods and my fingers. I checked it on the platform I had made and then started assembly by soldering the valances to the flat part above the cylinders. Next I carefully soldered the longer rear part to the valances making sure the curved front end of the footplate met the flat part exactly. The curve down at the front is a matter of patience and trial and error. It has quite a subtle sweeping look and is most elegant. Finally, I attached the cab footplate. There are strengthening panels across the footplate that I left in place until they had to be removed and, from then on, I constantly tested the unit on my platform as it is so easy to get it twisted during subsequent combat. Now that the footplate was complete, I fitted the buffer and drag beams.

The instructions recommend that you next fit the cab. I had a simpler job because I fitted the cab without side windows. None the less, I fitted the cut-out beading and cab side handrail while the cab sides were in the flat. Had I been building the side window version, I would also have fitted the window detail. The cab roof on these locos is a strange creature because the cab front extends above the roof line as a front rib with a riveted inner face. The front is a two-part laminate that must be soldered together with great accuracy. Holes in the middle of the etches enable the two layers to be soldered together accurately. I dry-fitted the cab sides to the front, and carefully formed the curved bottom where the cab front flares out to meet the footplate. Once I was happy with the fit of the sides against the front I used a square to hold each cab side at right angles while I tack-soldered them. I then checked both the right angle and closeness of fit before running a seam of solder down the inside of the cab front. With the footplate on my card platform it took a minute to solder the cab in place – and my B3 was beginning to take shape.

Moving onto the boiler and firebox unit, I was in a dilemma whether it would fit onto or between the splashers. So I made both as separate assemblies in order to hedge my bets. However, I then decided that the splashers should be fitted to the footplate first and any filing of the splasher tops to clear the boiler be carried out in place at the time when the boiler was being fitted. I had no problems with the splashers, though I was careful to file the part where the top meets the footplate so that there was a smooth join. Ensure that both the top is square to the sides and the sides are absolutely vertical to the footplate when you solder them in place.

The smokebox wrapper and front after soldering on the wrapper using the front as a pattern.

Next I built up the firebox which uses David Andrews’s usual method of locating the front and the rear bulkheads by using removable turned rods held in place with screws passed through holes in the bulkheads, resulting in an accurate and strong basis for the wrapper. I formed the wrapper to shape using the ends as a pattern, then soldered it tight round them. I put a substantial fillet of solder inside the front top corners of the unit so that I could file and smooth off the front into a representation of the radiused shape of the prototype using photos as a guide. The boiler tube was a typical David Andrews perfect etch in which the pre-rolled wrapper was supported by superbly accurate etched bulkheads that fit into etched grooves just inside the front and rear of the wrapper. I used a thick cloth to hold the wrapper tight to the bulkheads while I soldered it.

The smokebox is a single laminate round the boiler tube to build up thickness, followed by a boiler front and saddle etch and finally by an outer wrapper to represent the flare down to the footplate. I used some copper wire looped round the front and rear of the inner laminate then twisted to hold it tightly in place while I blasted it with a blow torch and applied solder generously with the soldering iron to build up a good fillet both front and back. At this point I left the model for sixteen years – that is not recommended in the instructions – just “Events, dear boy … events!”

Here the firebox and boiler have been fitted onto the footplate unit. The platform is vital at this stage as it is very easy to distort the footplate during fitting and filing to get the boiler located. I took great care to get the boiler level and in line with the footplate.

Older but … just older, I exhumed the boiler from its cobweb festooned corner and cleaned it and all the rest of the parts with Viakal and Cif cleaner and after reading the draft of the above script continued as if time had not passed. So I next fitted the smokebox front etch that is bent under and also forms the smokebox saddle under the boiler – don’t forget the fixing nut soldered inside the base plate. Smokebox wrappers are a bit fiddly and after forming the main curve it is a matter of using the front and back of the smokebox as a template to get the reverse curves at the sides in just the right place with the right radius. Then, forcing the wrapper onto the boiler, I locate the top centre with a scribe mark and tack solder it at intervals down each side, front and back; ensuring it is both tight and not twisted, until each side is complete to the base of the smokebox saddle. Then I set to with the blow torch and flood the joints with solder to make a tight and clean seam. Don’t get too enthusiastic but let the solder set where you are not working, so you avoid the manic scrabble if the wrapper pings away and immediately goes solid. In fact avoiding this is not difficult on such a large component, and make sure any unsightly gaps are filled with solder as you go along and then at the end. I now had all the big bits completed and the next stage was to put them together. I wanted to use the holes in the bulkheads to align the boiler and firebox during assembly, but I also wanted to remove a rectangle from the middle of both of them after assembly, so as to clear the motor and get access to put weight in the boiler. Using a cutting disc in a mini drill, I cut a horizontal slot in the bulkheads and another slot halfway down the sides so that after they were joined I could more easily cut the remaining lower part away removing a rectangle of metal. The photos may make that clearer.

There are steps and valve chest covers to fit onto the front footplate area. Some have to be soldered to lines you have to mark yourself so this photo will help locate them.

The front of the firebox and rear of the boiler showing the holes in the bulkheads that are used to align them using rods or tube to engage in the holes. You can also see that I cut out a rectangle except for the last few millimetres, so that when the unit is assembled I could remove the centre of the bulkheads to clear the motor and get weight into the model.

I next fitted the firebox onto the body and took my time to get a good fit between the splasher tops and the cab front. Location was assisted with holes in the cab front and firebox bulkhead that enable them to be dry bolted together and then soldered. The smokebox sits between the raised part of the footplate and was much easier to get level and vertical than I feared. This is where the card platform comes into its own because the boiler is very rigid and the footplate unit very flexible. So I was careful about filing and fitting and constantly checked that the footplate was in contact with the platform before first tack soldering then securing the boiler at both ends. The firebox end was located with bolts through holes in the bulkheads prior to removing the section referred to above. So now I had a basic B3 and I used that to check all fitting and clearances when I moved back to the chassis.