Welshpool No 85

The other project on the go is the Dundas Models Sierra Leone No 85 which runs on the Welshpool & Llanfair. Again, it's a quick build to provide extra locomotive power for the layout as and when exhibitions are back on.

Since being on the WLLR it has had some interesting liveries but after the lining of Triumph I have opted for the full black that was used on the WLLR just prior to it being withdrawn for overhaul. 

The model has gone together well. I would have to say it has been one of the crispest and simplest to put together. The only place that has needed filler is round the smokebox door, the side tank pieces being of slightly different length. Unfortunately you can't just trim a piece off the other end as that end fits tightly into the rear of the cab but really it is a minor inconvenience.

One aspect of modelling it in the year before overhaul is that it had the extra coal bunkers on the front of the water tanks. The bunkers supplied in whitemetal are, of necessity, quite thick. In real life the metal of the bunker would have been half an inch maximum but the thickness of the whitemetal was such that it translates to 3 inches in real life.

I found some brass offcut and bent it to shape but I made the mistake of not filing the groove at the bends with the result that the corners were curved rather than rectangular. Once I had corrected my error it still looked rather rounded. 

I knew I had to redo them but then I realised I could probably just print them. It was the work of a couple of minutes followed by a couple of hours of printing time but it gave me the opportunity to experiment with printing direct on the print bed which worked unexpectedly well, despite the fact that I made the wall thicknesses to be 0.4mm which comes out to just over 1 inch in real life.

The picture shows the three different forms, left to right. I am sure others can fabricate these parts quicker than I can print them but as it was literally 5 commands to design them and 1 extra command to produce the mirrored part, I am happy with what I can achieve.