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A Shiny Evening Star - Dapol 9f 2-10-0


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Hi

 

I do a fair amount of modelling of planes, tanks and ships, but my foray into 00 gauge loco building is unusual.  I had the Dapol generation of the 2-10-0 9F in my stash for so long that the reason it was there has escaped me.  When the random kit selector picked the loco I had some trepidation because I had no idea whether the kit would be buildable into something satisfying.  

 

I did some research and found that the scale and lines of the kit were considered excellent but of course the 1961 vintage meant the detail was coarse and in places dire.  I was such a novice at loco building that I did not realise the full range of aftermarket detailing that was available.  I therefore made my challenge worse than it might have been by self building some details I could have bought.  Soon after starting the build I realised that my sons Hornby Britannia Class 4-6-2 was the passenger loco variant of the 9F.  That helped a lot to guide me on many details.

 

All moulded pipework from the boiler and smokebox were removed and the cab gutted.  The same for the tender.

 

Aftermarket items I bought were

 

Fox Transfers various Evening Star and BR decals

Silver Tay Evening Star nameplate etc

Wizard CWSBD handwheels

Wizard MT175 loco brakes 

Wizard MT186 brake rigging

Peter’s Spares PS20 snifter valves

 

I also bought various running loco parts including

 

Hornby wheel-set

Hornby main con rod (and screws)

Hornby pony truck

Hornby front wheels

 

The Dapol era kit came in a plastic bag and the main “chassis” was already snapped in two.   Airfix during their tenure of the dies put the kit in a box which looks far more attractive,  The plastic was very brittle, but was not an insurmountable problem.

 

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Part build and trial fit before removing moulded boiler pipework.  The wheels are from Dapol, but were discarded later

 

Having built the basic kit I set to work adding the running gear.  This was scratch made from steel rod and aluminium sheet, with some parts from plastic card.  I actually achieved a moving Walschaerts slider, but that became solid when fixed to the pistons. I tried hard to incorporate all detail and I was pleased with how it looked.  

 

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Walschaerts slider in construction

 

After trying to use the purchased Hornby con rod, I gave up and reverted to the Dapol version.  After a bit of work I made it realistic and it actually drove the ten wheels (after a fashion!).  The Hornby con rod obviously works on a running loco but it looks nothing like the prototype, so with more foresight I could have saved a few pounds.  

 

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Running Gear Finished (but not a good photo..)

 

The fun really started when I attacked the steam and water pipes.  I bought four different gauges of copper wire and added various brass wires/rods.   It was very time consuming bending the pipes to fit.   Creating a 3d pipe to fit between two fixed ends is very very hard.  Every little tweak seems to make it fit worse!   For the insulated pipes I wrapped thin strips of plumbers ptfe tape and painted them grey.   The brake fittings were a must because they are so visible, but finding a way to fix them to the chassis was awkward.   The handrail was one area where I discovered after the fact that I could have bought stanchions; my solution was steel wire sticking out of the body, with an araldite blob to represent the eye. 

 

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Copper work and mixture of brass and plastic sprayed with Alclad valves etc.   Glazed forward looking window fitted.

 

I used Wizard gauges and handwheels in the cab, with various steel pins for levers.   The toughest job of all were the cab forward windows.   I wanted to fit glazing and have a reasonable wood effect frame.  I bent very fine plastic rod into the shape of the window to create the frame, but needed many many attempts to get it right.    Side to side they ended up not very similar in shape, but each one looks okay on its own.

 

I used Railmatch BR loco green paint which sprayed well.   I found it hard to determine the painting, finishing, decaling sequence.   There were so many copper pipes criss-crossing the boiler and fire-box that I ended up with so many spraying sessions I lost count.   There were various shades of Alclad brass, copper and steel used where necessary.   The Fox decals were super fine, but the most delicate I have used.   I admit to having to buy a second set (not cheap) to recover from a mess up.   I was pleased with the high gloss paint finish, and the cheat lines.   I’m sure many will point out that the 2-10-0’s had an astonishingly filthy real-life finish.  Keeping the goods trains spic and span was not on daily orders.   Others might say that the real Evening Star is wearing a different green to that I chose.   My decisions were entirely deliberate and I was creating an idealistic Evening Star that would have been a lovely sight in loco green.   I chose not to give her any weathering except on the buffers and in the cab.

 

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Tender part way through build and finishing.   The ladder and handrails from steel wire were satisfying to build.

 

It was only later in the build did I recall the issue of track on 00 gauge.  It would have been hardly any trouble to spread the wheels and build the running gear further outboard.   However, the photos look reasonable and I think we have become used to seeing 00 gauge stock on its narrow track.  I managed to forget to photograph the cab, and the loco is now in the hard to reach Hornby display case.

 

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This was an enjoyable build because there were new subjects for me to research and new challenges in the pipework.   Some models are more photogenic than others, but I was lucky with this one.   The building shots were taken with an iPhone XR.  The finished shots with a Canon EOS on 10 second exposure, using the iPhone as a wandering light source.   I’m not sure there are many people who will follow me on this particular project, but I would commend the “real” copperwork as a way to add to sparkle to home built or modified locos.

 

Oh well, back to the jets now.   My subsequent build was an EE Lightning.

 

Phil

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Hi Phil

 

Nice to someone else having a go at scratchbuilding a few pieces for a loco.   Lovely job you've made of it I must say and I like the fact that you've just done your own thing with colours and fit and finish.   I remember seeing these very rarely as a lad in Scotland and always thought they were a strange looking beast with that boiler set so  high above the wheels and, yes they were usually the worst maintained of the engines I saw.   You've given her a reason to be proud of herself and she looks smashing.

 

Frank

 

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  • 4 weeks later...

Fabulous work on a "not-very-new" kit - you've produced a superb result to be proud of, if I may say so!

 

BR Standards are a bit "new" for me, but this is inspiring work that tempts me to have a go myself.

 

Cheers,

Mark

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A nice job on an ageing but still basically sound kit.   Love the effort you have put into converting the valve gear from toy to scale model standards.  The new lining and nameplates really look superb.  I don't think Evening Star ever did enough work to get dirty.  She was the only one finished in BR Express Passenger livery: you used Railmatch BR Loco Green so I don't see why you need to defend the colour of the green.

 

Some time back I acquired off the very lovely @Pete in Lincs an original Airfix 9F which had enclosed a rather crude whitemetal conversion to a Crosti-boilered version.  I collected the drawings and references but ran into several of the problems you have.  Like you I only do (or, more exactly, think about doing) locos as a distraction from other stuff so there was a lot of research into a whole new world of potential suppliers of bits that needed replacing (handrail split pins, couplings, vacuum pipes, brake gear).  You have given me several useful additional leads to follow up.  Eventually I put it back onto the "too difficult" shelf.  Just one question.  A distinguishing feature of the Standards' tenders was the ladder with arched top on the rear.  I couldn't find anyone who did one of these in any medium: how did you solve the problem please?

 

Again, great job and thank you for sharing.

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Thanks all for the encouraging comments.  It’s nice when my efforts inspire others to re-attack a deferred project.   Seahawk asked about the tender ladder.   Apart from the snifters, all the parts I added to the Dapol plastic items were scratch built.  I cant recall if the ladder was made of brass or nickel steel rod, but it was simply hand bent rod around a paint brush handle.  Achieving two near identical curves was tricky, so I had a few attempts.  I have not ventured into soldering for this type of construction; instead I used superglue to fix the ladder rungs.  Phil

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  • 1 month later...

This looks flippin awesome, what a cracking job.  I do like the BR standard locos .  There are motorising kits available for some of the Airfix kits from a small company called Branchlines, 

Great work 

Chris

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  • 5 months later...

That looks absolutely fabulous Phil! Marvellous work, thank you so much for posting this and some of your sources for bits and pieces.

 

A friend gave me a half built Evening Star from her departed fathers stash, and it caught my interest. I have intentions of doing something like you have but having visited the real thing have to admit to being some what intimidated! Your build is most inspiring though and its great to have some leads on getting updates for the kit. I have bought some small beads to help with the railing joints, but a lot more to check out now. 

 

Well done on your build there, and your persistence.

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Okay, a couple of questions if I may please (I am a complete newby to this 🥴 ).

 

First, what is the issue with OO Track that Phil refers to? Too narrow?

 

Second, are there any good references for Evening Star?

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The track "wheel separation" on 00 gauge is a smaller distance than the 1/76 scale distance.   Hence all 00 gauge stock looks rather top heavy.   I'm sure others can explain why this came about back in distant history, but I recall it may be due to having model train stock negotiate curves.   Clearly model railways have track radii way smaller than real life so that sensible layouts can be built.   Reducing the difference in radii between the inner and outer rail (by spacing them closer together) will ease the progression of a "straight" piece of stock around a curved track.   Perhaps there is also some throwback to the HO gauge (1/87) as well.   This would have created a track geometry which when reused for 00 gauge would allow 1/76 stock to run only if they had reduced wheel separation.   I believe it is possible to buy track of the correct 1/76 dimension, but not from the well known model train producers.  Of course you would need all parts of your train to be built to true 1/76 scale to allow them to sit on a track for display.

 

I did my build of Evening Star without using any print references.   This is a departure for me because normally buying a few good books on the subject is part of the hobby.   I didn't do that for Evening Star because I found copious photos on the net that gave me all I wanted.   I also found any number of much larger scale running steam model photos that show brilliant detail.

 

Hope your project goes really well.

 

 

 

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On 11/27/2022 at 7:57 PM, Peter Roberts said:

I do have good photo coverage so will run with that.

 

So you may have these.  Most have some specific coverage of Evening Star but only the nameplates and paint scheme differentiated her from (most of) her sisters

  • Riddles Class 9F 2-10-0 by David Clarke (Ian Allen Locomotives In Detail 7).  Pick of the crop for my money.  Lots of good-sized photos, many colour close-ups of detail features.  Goes into a lot of the detail modellers need to know like the tender differences and the minor differences between engines in the same class. OO-scale 4-view drawings by Ian Beattie of a double-chimney 9F with BR1B tender and a Crosti loco.
  • The British Railways Standard 9F 2-10-0 by Philip Atkins.  Lots of photos, both during build and service. Shed allocations.
  • BR Standard Class 9F Ed G Weekes.  One of the old Bradford Barton books.  Photographic coverage of in-service locos though sometimes too distant for modelling purposes.

Then sections in other books on the Standards more generally eg

  • BR Standard Steam In Close-up by Tony Fairclough and Alan Will.  Bradford Barton again.  Good coverage of the Crostis.  Coverage of 5 other Standard classes as well.
  • BR Standard Steam Locomotives by Brian Stephenson.  Ian Allen.  Edited selection of photos and info from the old Locomotive Illustrated magazines.  19 pages on the 9Fs, Good large photos though not modelling-focussed.
  • A Pictorial Record of British Railways Standard Steam Locomotives by Edward Talbot (OPC).  18 pages on the 9Fs.  Large format photos and some useful detail photos.

If you go for just one of the titles, get the Locomotives In Detail: I think you'd regret buiding a model of a 9F without it.  The colour photos of preserved examples are especially useful.

 

HTH

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I do literally only have photos so that review of references is brilliant! Thank you so much.

 

I’ll take your tip regards the first one and do a search on ABE. 

 

Very much appreciated. 🙏

 

Edit - found one locally! And ordered. Thanks again

Edited by Peter Roberts
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2 hours ago, Seahawk said:

Most have some specific coverage of Evening Star but only the nameplates and paint scheme differentiated her from (most of) her sisters

 

That's a rather sweeping statement. Evening Start was the only green 9F, all the others were black. 53 were built at Swindon and 198 at Crewe. Sme did not have smoke deflectors and the Crosti-boilered 9Fs were strikingly different.

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On 11/29/2022 at 8:19 AM, Seahawk said:

 

So you may have these.  Most have some specific coverage of Evening Star but only the nameplates and paint scheme differentiated her from (most of) her sisters

  • Riddles Class 9F 2-10-0 by David Clarke (Ian Allen Locomotives In Detail 7).  Pick of the crop for my money.  Lots of good-sized photos, many colour close-ups of detail features.  Goes into a lot of the detail modellers need to know like the tender differences and the minor differences between engines in the same class. OO-scale 4-view drawings by Ian Beattie of a double-chimney 9F with BR1B tender and a Crosti loco.
  • The British Railways Standard 9F 2-10-0 by Philip Atkins.  Lots of photos, both during build and service. Shed allocations.
  • BR Standard Class 9F Ed G Weekes.  One of the old Bradford Barton books.  Photographic coverage of in-service locos though sometimes too distant for modelling purposes.

Then sections in other books on the Standards more generally eg

  • BR Standard Steam In Close-up by Tony Fairclough and Alan Will.  Bradford Barton again.  Good coverage of the Crostis.  Coverage of 5 other Standard classes as well.
  • BR Standard Steam Locomotives by Brian Stephenson.  Ian Allen.  Edited selection of photos and info from the old Locomotive Illustrated magazines.  19 pages on the 9Fs, Good large photos though not modelling-focussed.
  • A Pictorial Record of British Railways Standard Steam Locomotives by Edward Talbot (OPC).  18 pages on the 9Fs.  Large format photos and some useful detail photos.

If you go for just one of the titles, get the Locomotives In Detail: I think you'd regret buiding a model of a 9F without it.  The colour photos of preserved examples are especially useful.

 

HTH

 

Just now received the David Clarke book - wonderful! Just what the dr ordered, thank you for the tip and guidance.

 

Now to see if I can get something like Phil 🥺 well, one can but try….

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Peter, I’m sure your preparation and thoughtful approach will pay off.  One tip I didn’t share before, and it does not just apply to loco modelling, is to buy materials like copper and brass from jewellery hobbiest suppliers.  The range of products is huge and the prices are a fraction of what we pay in our hobby.  I guess there are many more people making jewellery than plastic models in the evenings.  Good luck, Phil

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1 hour ago, kitchentable said:

Peter, I’m sure your preparation and thoughtful approach will pay off.  One tip I didn’t share before, and it does not just apply to loco modelling, is to buy materials like copper and brass from jewellery hobbiest suppliers.  The range of products is huge and the prices are a fraction of what we pay in our hobby.  I guess there are many more people making jewellery than plastic models in the evenings.  Good luck, Phil

 Yes, great tip. We have a Bead Shop nearby which has been a great source of wire, not sure how price compares to our hobby.

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  • 3 weeks later...
On 11/26/2022 at 9:26 PM, Peter Roberts said:

Okay, a couple of questions if I may please (I am a complete newby to this 🥴 ).

 

First, what is the issue with OO Track that Phil refers to? Too narrow?

 

 

 

OO track has a gauge of 16.5mm which works out to about 4' 1" in real life whereas on the real railway the track is 4' 8.5" apart.  The sleepers are also far too close together.

 

In 4mm to the foot scale (which is the scale used for OO gauge models) the track should be 18.83mm apart.  Some modellers, such as I, model to this gauge (called P4) and hand build track.  The photo below shows a comparison of P4 track (on the left) and standard OO gauge track on the right, as you can see there is a significant difference between the two...

 

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One of the advantages of hand building track is that you can make formations like this:

 

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John

 

 

 

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On 11/29/2022 at 12:11 AM, Ratch said:

Sme did not have smoke deflectors and the Crosti-boilered 9Fs were strikingly different.

 

Other then the Crosti 9Fs, I'm not aware of any others that didn't have smoke deflectors, do you know the numbers of any that didn't?

 

John

 

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19 minutes ago, johndon said:

 

Other then the Crosti 9Fs, I'm not aware of any others that didn't have smoke deflectors, do you know the numbers of any that didn't?

 

John

 

Not to hand.

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