Building a Barry Railway B class from a David Andrews A class kit

The Prototype Half a century before Dai Woodham’s famous scrapyard at Barry in South Wales was full of engines at the end of steam, the Barry Railway was in its ascendancy. It hauled millions of tons of coal from the Welsh Valleys down to its own purpose built docks. To help move all of this tonnage, the company ordered locomotives to its own specification from outside locomotive builders.

Between 1888 and 1890, some twenty five locomotives of the B class were ordered from Sharp, Stewart & Co to work this mineral traffic. These engines were side tank locos of the 0-6-2 wheel arrangement, much favoured in South Wales, and were a direct development of the smaller A class 0-6-0 engines which preceded them. Many railway companies were forced to resort to enlargement of an existing design because of the traffic demands placed upon them and also to standardise upon parts where possible.

We are fortunate as modellers that the Barry engines were well documented and photographed and the results are published by Oakwood Press and Regional Publications, Bristol. Further details are at the end of this article. By comparing weight diagram drawings of the A class and B class, I could see that it would be possible to extend the 0-6-0 kit by scratch-building the new cab and bunker, and lengthening the frames to take the radial truck.

The model David Andrews produced a very nice kit of the smaller Barry A class 0-6-0 loco, which I believe is also still available from Gladiator Models. Most of the parts are useable as supplied, but as the cab and bunker is larger on the 0-6-2, new sides, roof and extensions to floor and valences are needed. Apart from making an extension to the frame to take the trailing axle, a decision had to be taken about where to make cuts in the kit parts to lengthen the footplate and modify the tank sides which, in the A class, incorporate the cab and bunker.

Chassis alterations Below the footplate, an extension to the chassis was made by splicing in an insert which had hornguides fashioned to carry a radial truck for the pony wheelsPhoto 2 This was produced quite easily by using a piece of 3/16 in bore brass tube, soldered to a similar length of brass channel which slides in the opening of the frames, with a keeper plate underneath Photo 3 Although the hornguides should be angled to match rubbing plates on the box which contains the trailing axle, it does mimic the function very well.

The frames were stitched together by using a soldered lap joint which bridged both the mainframe and the rearward section. It is necessary to support any item which is raised up, during soldering, by inserting a packing piece of the same thickness as that which is lying on the bench. Additionally, a straight edge needs to be placed along the top edge to make sure that the surface is horizontal when fixed. All of this applies to any similar job, be it metal or plastic. The elastic band avoids burnt fingers. Photo 4

The outer ends of the frames were waisted by tapering in towards the rear buffer beam, to allow maximum clearance for the trailing wheels when negotiating curved track. The rear chassis to body mounting hole was kept in that part of the frame that had been separated earlier and was modified to suit the frames, and also to clear the spring of the rear coupling hook Photo 5

Springing The rear driving axle is rigid in the frames and current is collected by phosphorbronze wires on the tyres of all six drivers. I fitted torque rods to spring the leading axle and the centre driver. These extend from the frame to each bearing Photo 6 . An additional single leaf spring of phosphor-bronze strip, fixed to the inside cylinder block also provides downward pressure on the centre of the leading axle.

This helps to balance the loco about the rear driving axle. This has worked well in practice and can be seen later in photo 23. The trailing axle has a light spring bearing upon its centre, to maintain contact with the rail and also to guide the chassis in reverse. The completed chassis can be seen in photo 7. Photo 7 .

Bodywork The whole superstructure was made in units to assist in painting the elaborate Barry livery, which is Ruby red-brown with black borders to tanks and cabsides and ends, with a lined rectangle within the tank sides. All of these units, boiler barrel and smokebox, tanks, cab and bunker, cab floor and backhead, are secured to the footplate, with mostly 10BA screws into tapped holes, which are hidden inside each component.

Screw fitting of parts is quite easy to do if planned in advance. It only needs a solder tack or two, to hold the part in place, so that tapping size holes can be drilled through both the tank bottom for example and the footplate. The footplate holes are then opened up to clearance size and the holes in the tank bottom are tapped the appropriate size. Short cheesehead screws are then fed in from under the footplate, to secure the component. If you are unable to tap screw holes, then use a nut soldered on the inside. Screw the nut tightly in place before soldering so that you don’t solder both up together. You should now be able to remove the screw. Try this out first on some spare etch.

Alterations to the bodywork To preserve the fixing holes of the bodywork in register with those of the lengthened chassis, an extension of the footplate was introduced under the cab floor Photo 8. At the same time, in order to make the superstructure in separate units, the spectacle plate was cut level with the tank tops, so that the window section became part of the cab, and the lower part, which is fixed to the footplate, could perform its function of supporting the firebox. Photo 9 The rectangles with rounded ends in photo 9 are the balance pipes, which lie behind the footsteps and in real life, connect the bunker water to the main tanks. The bunker tank would be below the diagonal line of rivets on the bunker sides.

Incidentally, I always make a practice of attaching a diagonal stirrup from footstep to underside of the footplate to avoid accidental bending of the steps. These may just be discernible in the photo.

Side tanks The tanks are about a foot further to the rear on a B class, compared with the smaller A class. The kit provides the sides of the tanks, cab and bunker sides all in one unit. A decision had to be made to remove the cab from the tops of the tanks, together with the cab and bunker sides. Photo 10 New, larger cab and bunker sides are needed. The rear spectacle plate, coal plate and bunker back, left flat, can be used as supplied.

The kit is supplied with interiors to the side tanks, which is very helpful when you are modelling them as separate items. As the tanks are relocated by 12 inches to the rear, the interior cut-outs needed revision to clear the tops of the wheels, where they coincide with the wheel spaces in the footplate (photos 9 & 10).

Three fixing blocks of 1.6mm brass were made for each side to attach the tanks to the footplate Photo 11. This means that the tanks can lie flat on the bench, when being lined out. The fixing blocks and their locations are shown in Photo 12

New components required for cab and bunker Making the new cab and bunker sides was done by the time honoured method of soldering two pieces of material together and cutting out with a piercing saw and a new M3 blade. For this job, I have a saw table made from a small piece of 9mm ply about 6 x 4in with a v-shaped aperture in the front, the whole being screwed to a piece of 2 x 1in which is tightened up in the vice.

A template was made by photocopying the drawing and cutting out the outline of the part needed, with scissors. This was glued on to the blanks of two pieces of 0.9mm brass sheet, which were tacksoldered together Photo 13. This was going back to the basics of cratchbuilding, and makes one appreciate all of the hard work which has been removed by the design and etching process which we enjoy today. The waste was carefully sawn out, to leave the last cut as the one up the front edge of the bunker, to avoid bending the top of the cab opening Photo 14. The parts were then separated over a low gas cooker flame Photo 15.

After riveting all of the parts needed, and using the supplied bunker back in its flat form, the bunker, cab and front spectacle plate were all united. Mounting blocks to line up with the footplate were also added. Etched holes in the centre of the spectacle plate and the firebox/boiler back were used to align and join the cab and boiler unit Photo 16. A new cab roof was made to size and is fixed to the cab with two brass plates underneath at the back and two phosphor-bronze tabs at the front which spring the roof into the cab space and locate in the corners to keep everything square Photo 17. This allows access for assembly of the cab, the floor and backhead, firebox and boiler and the tank tops which are kept vertical by two spigots which are located under the cab cills.

The kit comes with beautiful lost wax backhead components and these are placed on a cast white-metal firebox back, the base of which is fixed to the cab floor Photo 18. This unit is located by two blocks fixed on the bunker coal front plate, and a brass bezel around the top of the firebox, fixed to the inside of the spectacle plate.

Having a removable cab floor and backhead makes for easy painting and also allow the placing of a crew. To keep the crew dry from driving Welsh rain and wind, sidescreens are provided in the A class kit and can be made easily movable by fitting lengths of 1 x 1mm channel to the cabsides at the top and bottom of the openings. Solder a stop in the outer end so that you don’t lose them.

Boiler Photo 199 shows how the blocks are soldered into the base of the steam chest under the smokebox, with clearance holes coming up through the floor of the footplate. Squares of 1.6mm or 1/16 in brass are quite adequate for screw blocks.

It is useful to have chimney and dome screwed in place so that you can adjust them on the centre line and also to assist in painting. Drill the chimney base to clear a 6BA screw. Drill and tap the top of the smokebox or solder a 6BA nut on the inside of the smokebox before adding the smokebox door. The dome is fitted by soldering a nut inside the dome, with a clearance hole in the boiler Photo 20. Getting the screw into the 17 base of the dome may be at first difficult, but if you drill a hole in the bottom of the boiler, immediately below the centre of the dome, you can fix the screw onto your screwdriver with a blob of Blutack, and once you have started the thread, via the opening for the motor, pull out the screwdriver, remove the Blutack and then you can finish the tightening through the bottom hole.

Final fitting There is a rod and crank for the working of the brake, which comes down from the cab floor. In practice, this needs to be modified to clear the back of the pony wheels, when converted to 0-6-2 wheel arrangement. The same bracket also carries the rear sand pipes, which, like the guard irons, need to clear the wheels and the rail head Photo 21.

As there is a fair amount of space between the frames and under the front of the boiler, the motion bracket, valve rods and cylinder front can be modelled. It is only representational, but makes a big difference Photo 22. The leading end of the steam chest and cylinder covers is made, utilising driving axle washers, which just show under the front buffer beam Photo 23.

The rear axle is a lot less complicated than it looks. The final arrangement of the radial can be seen without the nearside wheel in photo 24Photo 24.

Conclusion The method of cut and shut manufacture is reminiscent of those far off days when we used to modify 4mm scale Kitmaster plastic coaches into all sorts of permutations of British Railways coaching stock and is currently the method used by Ian Kirk for his coach kits. The outcome has generated a lot of interest, not only among modellers of Welsh prototypes, but also those who are interested in other companies and model a similar period.

The research is as interesting an exercise as the resultant building. Have a go and see what you can do.

References The following may be of help if you are modelling the Barry Railway:

Rails to prosperity by Bernard Miller, Regional Publications Bristol Ltd, ISBN 0 906570 17 4 which is copiously illustrated with photos of locomotives, stock and buildings in Barry Railway days as well as the British Railways era.

The Barry Railway by Eric Mountford, Oakwood Press, ISBN 0 85361 355 9 This book contains many line drawings of locos and rolling stock.

The Welsh Railways Research Circle website www.WRRC.org.uk contains lots of archive detail online.