Pendle Princess Steam Traction Engine

[Ian T]

6 hours ago, bentwaters81tfw said:

All good work. I have seen real engines in worse condition than that.

Yes, that’s true for sure, thanks for the support.

[Kingswear1]

I had one of these many years ago, but sold it on without touching it!

[Alan R]

I still have this in the stash. Hoping to start on this in the next few months.

[Ian T]

20 hours ago, Kingswear1 said:

I had one of these many years ago, but sold it on without touching it!

Hi Kingswear, is that a reference to Kingswear, Devon or something else? I did some work on the railway there many years ago.  Originally I’m from Plymouth but banished to Australia for nearly 25 years.

 

As for the Pendle Princess, selling it on may have been a wise move depending on your skill level, I’ve struggled a bit with this one along with my problems with the very old decals. But I’m still reasonably pleased with the overall results so far. Thanks for looking.

Regards Ian

 

 

[Ian T]

2 hours ago, Alan R said:

I still have this in the stash. Hoping to start on this in the next few months.

Hi Alan, I look forward so seeing that build, it’s a challenging, but rewarding kit. Nothing fits or lines up, there are sink holes on the plastic and flash everywhere, but I find that quite interesting after Tamiya kits being at such a high quality finish.

 

If I can suggest something, when doing the decals (assuming that they are in better condition than mine), try and trim off as much of the carrier film as possible. The carrier is huge and really spoils the end effect with a milky, opaque film.

 

Regards Ian

 

PS, just realised that you’re in Bristol, my brother lives in Nailsea so I’ve been there many times. I love the M Shed museum and also SS Great Britain is wonderful. I enjoyed a lovely lunch beside the river in a pub near the Great Britain on my last visit.

[Ian T]

Just a quick update picture following today’s work.

 

 

The cylinder block is only dry fitted at the moment as all of the other bits shown need to be fitted to the block first. Also complete are the water tank and the front boiler with the front axle/wheels and smoke stack. So it’s getting there bit by bit.

[Kallisti]

Blimey I just had a flashback to masking and painting mine, has it mentally scarred me that much???

[Ian T]

3 hours ago, Kallisti said:

Blimey I just had a flashback to masking and painting mine, has it mentally scarred me that much???

So have I got these nightmares still to come??

[Alan R]

On ‎4‎/‎20‎/‎2019 at 12:57 AM, Ian T said:

just realised that you’re in Bristol, my brother lives in Nailsea so I’ve been there many times. I love the M Shed museum and also SS Great Britain is wonderful.

Hi Ian,

 

Yes, I have lived in Bristol all my adult life. Started here in 1976 working at Rolls-Royce, and although I have changed jobs several times, I have continued to live here all that time.

I haven't been to the S.S. Great Britain for many years, but the social life down by the harbour side has improved immensely in the last few years.

The M Shed museum is now called "We the curious", but is still the same.

 

When you are next in Bristol you must visit the Bristol Aerospace museum in Filton. It has the last ever Concorde to fly. (I witnessed it coming into Filton on it's last flight … A sad day), and loads of other aviation (and transport) related stuff.

The BBC transmitted an episode of the "Antiques Road Show" from there last week.

 

Cheers, Alan.

 

[Alan R]

On ‎4‎/‎20‎/‎2019 at 12:57 AM, Ian T said:

If I can suggest something, when doing the decals (assuming that they are in better condition than mine), try and trim off as much of the carrier film as possible

Hi Ian,

I'll do that. I am not sure what state they are in as it's been languishing in the attic for a long time...

 

All the best, Alan.

 

P.S. Great looking build going on there...

 

[Ian T]

6 hours ago, Alan R said:

When you are next in Bristol you must visit the Bristol Aerospace museum in Filton. It has the last ever Concorde to fly. (I witnessed it coming into Filton on it's last flight … A sad day), and loads of other aviation (and transport) related stuff.

The BBC transmitted an episode of the "Antiques Road Show" from there last week.

 

Thanks for the tip Alan, I’m in the UK in June/July so I’ll see if I can get to Filton. I’ve got quite a bit to do helping my elderly Mother-in-law in Plymouth, but I’ll see if my brother fancies a day out at Filton. We have to wait some time for the tramp steamer to reach the penal colony down under, so I won’t hold my breath for the Antiques Roadshow episode, but I do enjoy watching it, so I’ll keep an eye out for that episode. 

[kpnuts]

It's all looking very good.

[Ian T]

It’s been a couple of weeks since I last updated this thread, but it’s been busy. I’ve been working on the crank assemblies that are supposed to slide, rotate and generally move. So far everything that should move, does move, but whether they still will when it’s all assembled and positioned in the cylinders etc. who knows, but I’m very hopeful. A couple of bits did get glued but it was quite easily rectified with a bit more glue to melt the joint, clean it up and try again, so all in all very satisfying progress.

 

Here is a picture of the bits that go to make up the crank assembly and a couple of the latest pictures of the main model assembly.

 

 

 

 

[Kallisti]

The sink marks on the cranks was very annoying! Good luck getting and keeping it working, mine worked for a long time but eventually one of the joints in the crank broke and I'v enever bothered repairing it.

[Ian T]

12 hours ago, Kallisti said:

The sink marks on the cranks was very annoying! Good luck getting and keeping it working, mine worked for a long time but eventually one of the joints in the crank broke and I'v enever bothered repairing it.

I’m not sure that I’ve got all of the sink marks now, but the assembly isn’t very visible on the completed model. I doubt that I would bother to try and repair anything once the model is complete, I think it’s only for my personal satisfaction that I want to see it work. I’ve been using a very small amount of silicone lubricant for the moving parts, at the moment everything is really free, I expect that there will be some alignment issues when I start to put it together, and that will probably tighten things up a bit!!

[Ian T]

I tried dry fitting the crank assembly and it went into place first time, so I’ve left it where it is!! The retaining brackets still have to be fitted to hold the drive shafts (is that a suitable name?) in place. But other than that I’m going to leave well alone, it does rotate reasonably freely, so I’m more than happy with that.

 

 

 

[JeroenS]

That's coming together rather well.

[Ian T]

14 hours ago, JeroenS said:

That's coming together rather well.

Thanks Jeroen, I’m very pleased with the results so far. It’s not “museum” quality but I’m happy and in the end that’s what matters.

[cherry268]

Lovely to see these being built
I have this and the road roller to be done and I'll save this for reference

Very nice work

 

[Ian T]

15 hours ago, cherry268 said:

Lovely to see these being built
I have this and the road roller to be done and I'll save this for reference

Very nice work

 

Hi Cherry268, thanks for your kind comments, there is another of these traction engines available on the forum, just click the link above. I’ve been using Kallisti’s excellent build as a reference, so you can have two references!!

Let me know if you have any questions when you start your build.

Regards Ian

[Cooper645]

Great work on this build. 

 

I was at a steam rally the other day and was going through some pictures I took.  There was a garret showman's engine there named Katrina. 

Next time I see it I will do a full walk around for people if they wish for some reference photos.  I will also keep my eye open for the Garret road roller.

 

Here's the one decent photo I took.

 

[Ian T]

19 hours ago, Cooper645 said:

Great work on this build. 

 

I was at a steam rally the other day and was going through some pictures I took.  There was a garret showman's engine there named Katrina. 

Next time I see it I will do a full walk around for people if they wish for some reference photos.  I will also keep my eye open for the Garret road roller.

 

Here's the one decent photo I took.

 

 

Hi Cooper645, thanks for this, the photo is great and I’d like to see some more at some time if you can arrange it. But it’s all good if you don’t manage to get any. I’m OK with building the kit with the photos available on the internet, but I just love mechanical engineering, so any detail photos would be good.

Regards Ian

 

[Ian T]

OK, back to it, I’ve been away sorting a few things for an elderly relative. It’s good to be back home and back to modelling, so the Pendle Princess came out of the box and ..... eeeek!! A stuff-up by me, before I went away I put all of the bits of the decal sheets into an envelope for safe keeping. I had intended to put tissue paper between each bit, but somehow forgot. So most of the decals had stuck to each other. I managed to gently separate most of them but I fear that together with the age and previous condition of the decals they may now be beyond help. I won’t know until I try some later, but that was a disappointing start.

 

Next, I separated the required components from the spruces, and generally fettled them ready for painting, which went OK as shown in the first picture here.

 

 

I was quite pleased until I looked at towing hitch assembly (second component from top, centre, above) and it had been attacked by the fingerprint monster, so out came the polishing compound to sort that out. Anyway enough gloom and doom, most of the these bits have now been fitted to the main assembly as shown below.

 

 

And a couple of close-ups.

 

 

 

 

 

So that’s it for now, overall I’m still pleased with the progress, I look forward to hearing any comments.

[dnl42]

 

This is looking fine!

[Cooper645]

@Ian T just a suggestion, if when you try the decals next they do go wrong, you may be able to save them with a light coat of clear coat over the decal sheet. It’s only a suggestion, as that’s how you seal the ink on homemade decal sheets, so it may add a bit of strength to them.  I believe it’s a fine art as a thick layer will make your decals thick and hard to conform.  Hopefully others will comment and advise for or against this to help but it’s something I would try if the decals started going weak.