FIRST STEPS IN ‘O’ GAUGE.

Fifteen year old Tom Lewis builds a Tower Collection Andrew Barclay 0-4-0ST beginners kit.

Tom Lewis is fifteen and lives with his parents in the West Midlands. He was given a Hornby train set when he was six which he enjoyed for the next few years. Inevitably computers and video games became more attractive and the train set was discarded. This article tells of the rebirth of his interest and his successful first attempt at building an ‘O’ gauge locomotive.

My Dad got interested in ‘O’ gauge about four years ago. Like me he had had a train set as a child and had retained some interest. He started by building a few Slaters and Parkside wagons and finally bought a Tower Collection Class 02 diesel shunter kit. This was supposed to be a kit suitable for complete beginners and it must have been good because he managed to build it without any problems. He went on to build a couple more larger diesels and the house started to fill up with ‘O’ gauge.

Finally I decided to take up the hobby again. Dad likes diesels but I don’t. I wanted to build a locomotive but was only interested in steam outline. Given the high cost of kits (especially if you are still at school!) I had to get it right first time.

Cheapest option appeared to be a Mercian “Winnie” starter kit. Priced at £69.00 it seemed to be a bargain. To this has to be added wheels, gearbox, motor and couplings bringing the total price up to about £142.00. My Dad took me to the ‘O’ gauge Guild event at Chippenham and I was able to look at the kit. Although I liked the locomotive type the kit is mainly etched brass with some whitemetal parts. It would obviously require mainly solder construction and I wasn’t sure if I was up to it. I decided to continue looking.

A friend of my fathers showed me a Springside Pug he had built. He told me the kit was supplied complete with wheels, gears and motor and I could expect to pay around £175.00 for it. It was useful to me being able to examine the finished model. All the body parts were made of cast whitemetal so could be glued instead of soldered. However it appeared rather complicated in it’s construction so I decided against it. I then got chance to see other models of similar price in the Springside range by looking at a website. I am told the Manning Wardle and the Coffee Pot are both easier to build but I just didn’t like the prototypes.

The next exhibition Dad was taking me to was the Association of Larger Scales Railway Modellers event at Reading. Prompted by my family I rang Tower Models and asked them if they were attending and if they would have a sample of their Andrew Barclay beginners kit. They said they would be there and that they would have a built but unpainted sample of the locomotive on display that I could handle.

A week later at the exhibition I had chance to examine the finished item and to go through the instructions of the kit. The instructions seemed very well detailed and I was impressed by the completeness of the kit. It even included the Allen key for fitting the wheels. What is more, if it was as easy to build as the Class 02 diesel then it should be no problem. After all, my Dad had succeeded, so why shouldn’t I?

It took all my birthday money from my parents and family to buy the kit which was priced at £179.95. Dad told me I could use his solder, soldering iron and glue so that would save me a few pounds. I also knew I could rely on help from his friends at the model railway club if necessary. I resisted the temptation to start it as soon as I got home and waited until the following weekend before commencing building work. I spent a few hours in the days between to read the instructions and familiarise myself with all the parts.

The following Saturday I decided to start work on the building. The kit came with twelve pages of instructions including a number of exploded diagrams so I began by re-reading them again. Tower Models had described the kit to me as a screw and glue type kit that requires minimum amounts of soldering. All the body parts could be glued together with two part epoxy resin. Only pickups, the wiring to the motor and a few small parts would need to be soldered.

The instructions suggest you start by building the body. The saddle tank is cast in one piece in pewter. Everyone tells me this is better than whitemetal because it is stronger, melts at a much higher temperature and contains less lead. The saddle was cleaned up with a smooth file but was basically free from flash. It was now necessary to drill the holes for the handrail knobs. To be more accurate, you have to deepen the holes using a 1.4mm drill. Dad let me use his Minicraft electric hobby drill. I managed to deepen all eight holes without breaking the drill bit. The handrails can then be fitted in place. Dad told me it would be better to solder the handrails in place but I fixed them with careful use of superglue. The handrail wire was then fitted through the knobs and again I used superglue to secure them. The chimney, water cover and whistle are now ready to be glued in place using epoxy resin.

The lower half of the boiler is also cast in one piece. The smokebox door handle needs to be fitted to the smokebox door after deepening the hole with a 1.9mm drill. The boiler, saddle and smokebox can now be all glued together, again with epoxy resin.

The cab is cast in one piece. A few small parts have to be glued to it such as the brake handle and cover. The backhead is a separate piece and has to be glued in place with the regulator fitted . it was now necessary to fit the buffer beam to front and rear of the footplate. I would have glued this but an interfering father stated it was time to test my soldering skills. He argued that the buffer beams carry the couplings and hence need to be securely fixed in place. Maybe he had a point but I was still a little nervous.

Out came the soldering iron, a liquid flux and some 70 degree melting point solder. As Dad pointed out if I made a mess of it I could drop the parts into boiling water and it would melt the solder but not the parts. That was, as he pointed out, providing I didn’t burn a hole in the metal, as was the fact I was not allowed anywhere near Mum’s best pans should I make a mistake during the soldering.

The soldering iron was allowed to heat up, liquid flux applied to the parts, the tip of the iron and the solder to be used. I applied the iron to the solder, melted a bit onto the tip of the iron and applied it to the joint between the bufferbeam and footplate.

Amazingly it worked, it really was that simple. A little more solder was applied to give the joint strength and then the buffer beam at the other end of the footplate was soldered in place. Feeling more than a little pleased with myself we took a coffee break.

Returning to the job I then glued parts such as the tool boxes and reversing lever in place. With the footplate completed it was laid aside. The handrails are now fitted to the cab sides, following more drilling with a 0.7mm drill. The cab, assembled saddle and boiler all screw fit onto the footplate. The buffers, steps and couplings can now be fitted.

Four hours after opening the box I had finished the body. I decided it would be better to quit while I was winning so I decided to leave the chassis until the following day. The chassis consists of a preformed heavy brass channel with all the holes already drilled. The wheels and axles supplied with the kit are Slaters. The wheels are assembled on to one side of the axle, then passed through the chassis and the other wheel fixed in place. A balance weight is then stuck onto the wheel. Crankpins, which are also supplied with the wheels, need to be fitted before the wheels are fixed to the axles

The complete cylinder block is a casting. The cylinder end caps have to be fitted in place and the whole assembly soldered to the chassis channel. As I was now soldering pewter to heavy brass this was a first for me. Lots of heat, plenty of flux and crossed fingers all must of helped because it worked. The gear had already been fitted to the axle when the wheels were mounted to the chassis. I left the grub screw loose so I could settle the position of the gear once the motion was in place. Tower Models had told me to slightly elongate the holes for the motor screws which would allow adjustment to the fitting of the motor. A dry run, fitting the motor in place with the screws and loose fitting the worm proved this to be unnecessary. However, it was a tip worth remembering.

The grub screws were tightened on both the worm and gear and power supplied to the motor just to give it a test spin. So far so good, but next came the valvegear. The valve gear was supplied in etched nickle, only the crosshead was a pewter casting.

The slide bars were so well designed they just folded up into shape. This was something I was dreading as I had seen my fathers friends struggle with complicated valvegear on other kits. This all but fell into place, so much so I had to double check the instructions to make sure I had not overlooked something just to be sure. The connecting and coupling rods were all fitted with the nuts supplied. The pickups had already been fitted in place using low melt solder to secure them to the copperclad circuit boards. Wire could now be run through to the motor and secured by low melt solder. The time had come to test the locomotive.

To my relief the locomotive ran fairly well straight away. A few very minor adjustments were made to screws, nuts ad the pickups. A very small amount of oil was applied to the worm and gear and the locomotive left running against a block for twenty minutes to allow it to bed in.

A few nights later I was able to take it to the model railway club and give it it’s first run. It was still unpainted at this time but at least it worked. I have since painted the locomotive black using car undercoat and matt black cellulose spray paint. It is necessary to remove the wheels to paint the locomotive (unless you paint the chassis frames before assembly but I didn’t think of that.)

To sum up I have enjoyed building this locomotive kit and am extremely pleased with the result. An ‘O’ gauge locomotive kit is not cheap and from what I have seen the quality varies from one manufacturer to another. The kit I bought was totally complete, well designed and truly simple to construct. I feel the finished item is something I can be proud of. Obviously, due to financial restraints (birthdays once per year and now eagerly awaiting Christmas…) it will be some time before I can afford another kit but if it works out as well as this one I will not be disappointed.

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