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Building Selsey from an Agenoria Kit

Bought second hand and built by Allen Morgan

http://www.ragstonemodels.co.uk/agenoria.html

It all started at Guildex 2014. On the Members’ Sales Stand was a part-built Agenoria kit for the HMST 2-4-2 Peckett tank locomotive. It was complete with motor, gears and wheels. As this was an ideal loco for the Colonel Stephens type line I am building, the Wilden & Enville Lt Railway (W.E.Lt.R.), I had to have it and so parted with money. Except for the partially completed construction, the frets were intact and etches were easy to identify. Some of the castings had been removed from the sprues and identification was quite difficult for a number of the smaller parts. However, as the loco is in the original long side tank form, most were not needed.

The body

The boiler is fitted ready for the beading, opening up various holes, final clean-up and the addition of the fittings

When I obtained it, the footplate, cab (without roof) and side tank assembly was complete except for some finishing, in the original long side tank form. All the cast brass and fabricated fittings had been installed in the cab. Everything was square and the soldering very neat. I completed the cab/tanks by soldering on the handrails and beading. To get the handrails vertical I soldered wire though the holes in the footplate and the top edge of the cab, soldered to the ends of the beading, then cut away the excess. I curved the roof, soldering the central joint strip and whistle. To retain the roof I cut a piece of 1/16 in brass to fit inside the top edge of the cab and soldered it to the underside of the roof, the weight keeps everything in place. The tank filler castings were rather poor so I turned two new ones with spigots, soldered on the handles and fixed them to the tank with super glue.

The castings for buffer bodies were soldered to the beam and the turned steel heads pushed through and soldered inside the beam. I did consider springing but there was very little space, and as it was possible to get only about 1/32 in of movement, I didn’t bother.

Photos seem to indicate that originally the loco had screw couplings and safety chains. It spent virtually all its life with only the coupling hooks and lost the safety chains sometime after 1912. My model omits the chains and couplings. The cab and bunker was cut back to the later square shape and the tanks shortened, almost certainly in 1908, when the boiler was removed for repair.

The body as received with the boiler in place plus all the rest of the contents

The boiler

There were two boilers in the box, one was the etched and rolled original while the second was plain tube, I assume because of the problem I will describe. The problem with the original was that it was rolled in a spiral, the boiler band etch lines did not line up at the joint and the ends were not flat. A small gas blow-lamp reduced the wrapper, spacers and front plate to component parts. By putting one edge of the wrapper lengthways in the vice and a bit of pulling with pliers I managed to correct it. I had to make a filler strip from a bit of scrap to go between the boiler and smoke box outer as this was missing from the box. With all the brass and old solder rubbed down with a glass fibre stick everything was re- assembled, the boiler bands added and the holes opened up to suit the dome (more about this later), chimney and smoke box door. After a good clean, this assembly was soldered to the cab and foot plate using the tabs and slots for positioning.


Fitting the hand rails, showing how I got them vertical

Boiler fittings

The dome is hollow so, because I wanted to keep it polished, I made and fitted a ‘mushroom’ with the head turned to fit inside and soldered in, the stalk threaded 6BA to protrude into the boiler. The top edge was also carefully measured and drilled for the safety valve columns. The dome is held in position by a very long nut accessed from the underside after painting. The handrail knobs were soldered in and the wire inserted. The chimney and smokebox door needed a little cleaning up and were fixed with super glue just before painting.

The modification to the dome and new fixing screw.

Extra weight

There was about ¾in of space in the cut away section of the boiler above the driving wheels. I soldered in an extra spacer in front of the motor position then filled this with bits of lead from some old gas pipe, soldering it as each layer was added.

The lead infill, the front cutaway is for the dome screw, the rear for the motor

The chassis

This is the first time I have built an etched loco chassis. First I studied the assembly drawings alongside the instructions and identified all the required parts. As they were found, each one was cleaned with a glass fibre stick, cut out, folded and holes opened up if necessary and then its identification number marked on with a felt pen. This was a help as time went on, since several parts looked similar but were not interchangeable.

The screw holds the dome in place

After checking, each part was fitted to the next with just enough solder to hold it together. When completely assembled and checked for squareness, a solder fillet was run into all the joints. Nuts were soldered on for the bogie screws, and axle bushes, 1/8 in for the recommended Slaters wheels, were fitted. I found it necessary to file off all the locating tags after soldering as they protruded quite some way out through the chassis sides.

To aid fixing the guard irons in the correct position, I put lengths of wire right across the frames, soldered up and the cut off the excess. After some correspondence on the GOG Members Forum, I made up the brake gear as a unit that is sprung into place.

The bogies were initially built in accordance with the instructions including a piece of lead in the top. However I had to cut away the arms to allow enough clearance for my 3ft radius curves so I thickened them up with some scrap fret. I also opened up the mounting hole to fit over a 1/8 in axle bush on the 6BA screws.

Lining up the guard irons

The cylinders, according to the instruction, have castings to represent the piston rod glands, however I could not find/identify these in the contents so I soldered in a length of tube for the rod to slide in and used a bit of scrap fret to form the support. The rest of the assembly was as per the instructions. The crossheads needed careful straightening and a little filing of the rods to make them round. Not mentioned in the instructions, the slidebars needed tapering at the wheel end to clear the connecting rods. This can be seen in photos of the real loco. I did not fix the slidebars to the motion bracket.


The brake gear assembly

The completed chassis. The collectors and motor restraint are clearly seen

The drain cocks are actually hand rail knobs. The photos of the real loco shows that they are simple cocks with a ‘handle’ through the cock and pointing up and back about 45 degrees. The operating rod then pushes them forward to open. I put a bit of wire through the knob and soldered the push rod behind.

This is where I found the only error on the frets and a look at photos of the actual loco will make it clear. The chassis construction includes a wire across the frames in front of and below the cylinders. This is to transfer the drain cock operation to the LHS from the RHS push/pull rod. This rod is too short if fitted as the instructions. Fortunately there is a spare on the fret. First cut the vertical/horizontal rear end to a point just level with the rear of the cylinder, now take the second and line it up with the cross rod and cut to suit at the rear of the cylinder and solder together. The spare front bit lines up with the cross rod and back to the cocks on the LHS. This is missing from the instruction.

Right Hand side, the modified slide bars, drain cocks and modified operating rod, the joint can be seen in front & below the motion plate

The Slater’s wheels Slaters were drilled and tapped 10BA and Markits Romford crank pins fitted, the type associated with their 00/EM wheels. These are plenty big enough for such a small loco. The connecting and coupling rods are 2 layers of fret soldered together.

Left Hand side, modified slide bars and the missing drain cock operating rod

The motor is held in place by the collector in front and a bit of etch scrap soldered on to the rear. A turn of insulation tape was wrapped round the motor to prevent any chance of shorting on the collectors. I had to have the motor shaft cut off at the top and there is no room for a flywheel. I also added some heat shrink tube over the terminals as they are very close to the inside of the boiler.

Collectors

These are conventional wire pickups on the top of the wheels. However the construction may be of interest. The etch was cut out where marked but a little wider and deeper. A strip of single sided PCB (a bit of sleeper in my case) was soldered between the frames copper side down and just, importantly, the top edge just a little higher than the frame cut out and low enough for the collector wire to lie below just below the top of the frames.. This was drilled on the centre line and an 8BA screw soldered in pointing up.

The collector proper is cut from double sided PCB. On the underside slot the copper each side and close to the mounting screw. On the top the copper is cut inboard of the underside of the body and again before the mounting screw. Now, towards the centre drill through, insert a bit of wire and solder top and bottom to join the tracks, and solder on 2 motor leads. Add the pickup wires to the outer ends and secure on the screw with a nut.

Painting

The chassis and bogies were brush painted with satin black enamel as the build progressed. The body was given a scrub then primed with Halfords metal primer in a rattle can, building up with thin coats. 24 hours later the body was sprayed with Halfords satin black, again using several light coats. After a couple of days the inside top of the cab was painted cream and the controls picked out in red. The roof, smokebox and tank tops were given a coat of matt varnish, all brushed.
On shed between running in duties

Personal comments

The castings that I used needed very little cleaning up, but see earlier comments through the text. The etchings were superb and fitted very well, again with just the comments mentioned regarding the drain cock rods. There is a general arrangement drawing by Les Darbyshire originally published in Model Railway News, November 1970 issue, together with notes on both the original long tank and later short tank rebuild. There are also assembly drawings for the cab and footplate, the boiler and the chassis. I did find the chassis drawing in the kit a little difficult to follow as the frames, spacers, cylinders and bogies are all on one sheet. It would help if the bogies and cylinders were separate as with the boiler/cab. This is my only comment that might prevent it being suitable for someone without some experience of etched chassis construction.

The spare tanks, dumped in the best colonel Stephens manner

As for photos, there are several in Branch Line to Selsey by V Mitchell and K Smith (Middleton Press), all of the rebuilt version. The only photo of the original that I know of is in The Hundred of Manhood and Selsey Tramway written and published by Edward Griffith, B.A.
I would have preferred the rebuilt version as it would fit my 1925 period better, but the assembly too far advanced and too well done to try and start again. I may repaint it HMST blue in the future but give it a fictitious name as if Peckett had built a second of the class. I am, however, very pleased with the outcome.