JAMES MEDD : The Exmoor project
Building Exmoor Steam Railway locomotive 325
The Exmoor Steam Railway isn’t particularly well known as a builder of narrow gauge steam locomotives. Names like Hunslet, Kerr Stuart and Fowler might be more recognisable to those in our hobby, but Exmoor, who are based near Bratton Fleming in Devon, are possibly the largest supplier of new steam locomotives at present. Since the early 1990s, they have designed and built a number of attractive locomotives in gauges ranging from 7¼” to 15”. They are also involved in preserving larger engines, and in 2006, they restored one of the Beyer-Peacock Garratt locomotives for the Welsh Highland Railway.
The Prototype
Number 325 was built in 2009 to a design which shares some characteristcs with the South African NG6 locomotives. It is a 2-6-2 tender engine fitted with Walschaerts valve gear and painted in black livery with white and red lining. Originally designed for the 12¼” gauge Exmoor Steam Railway, it later spent some time at the Exbury Gardens Railway in Hampshire which already owned two Exmoor-built tank engines. Ultimately, a second engine to the same design was commissioned by Exbury; painted in their standard royal blue livery and carrying works number 326, it was named ‘Mariloo’.
Number 325, which later received the name ‘Black Beauty’, was transferred to a safari park railway in Denmark, where it remains now. The prototype is not a narrow gauge loco in the traditional sense, as it runs on a track gauge of less than 2’. However, as the design and aesthetics of the loco appealed to me, I decided to build a model of it.
The Model Construction began with a standard Roundhouse ‘Fowler’ chassis kit, which was assembled over the course of several weeks. I used M3 hex-head screws instead of machine screws and painted the wheel centres black, removing excess paint on the lathe. Roundhouse crossheads and union links were fitted to the cylinders as well. The frames were spray painted in satin black and the cranks were painted in Humbrol tank grey. Once complete, the chassis was run in on compressed air and all seemed well.
After fitting the smokebox, the next major component was the boiler. I decided not to use a standard ‘Fowler’ boiler, so I designed a custom one which allowed me to place the bushes for the steam fittings in the places where I needed them to be. The boiler was fabricated and pressure tested by GB Boilers of Bedworth. As the prototype loco is a 2-6-2, I needed to find a way to attach the mounting bar for the leading wheels to one of the frame spacers. Sadly, after trying out several options, there didn’t seem to be a way to attach the pony truck without it fouling the superheater and exhaust pipes between the frames. I regret not making a custom chassis, as this would have allowed me to position the frame spacers where I needed them, and I could have extended the frames to include the front step and cut-outs for the front pony truck. However, I felt that I didn’t know enough about valve gear to design the chassis from scratch. That’s maybe something for a future project! With the model now designated an 0-6-2, I needed a way to extend the frames forward by about 25mm. The solution was provided by Tom Beattie from Locoworks who made a brass box which attaches to the front of the frames. Tom also made the running boards which sit on either side of the boiler and they attach to the frames with small metal clips.
My attention now turned to the bodywork for the loco, particularly the cab. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to obtain any drawings of the prototype, so the size for each item had to be determined by finding a suitable photo of the engine, scaling it, and measuring the dimensions from there. I prefer to design components using a CAD program rather than on the drawing board, and as I lack the skill and dexterity to cut and file sheet metal to profile, the cab panels and other items were laser cut. 0.9mm brass was used for most of the parts, with 1.5mm mild steel being used for the cab footplate and tender base. The cab was soldered together with pieces of ¼” brass angle in the corners to support it. This was the first time I’d soldered large items together so it took a bit of practice, but I managed to get neat solder joins after a few attempts. A steady hand, plenty of flux and a 100 watt soldering iron certainly help, but my Dad also made a jig to keep the work square while soldering.
Some of the smaller parts were turned on the lathe, such as the spectacle plates and sandboxes. I don’t have a milling machine, but it was possible to make some components, like the sandbox supports, using a vertical slide attachment and a suitable cutter held in the lathe chuck.
The roof and boiler wrapper, which again are laser-cut parts, were rolled to profile using a set of slip rolls – another skill which takes practice to get right.
With the boiler now in place and the bodywork starting to take shape, it was time to add the steam fittings. The loco is internally fired and uses a standard Roundhouse poker burner and gas tank.
The usual fittings and controls, including the displacement lubricator, regulator and reversing lever were fitted one by one. The boiler has a spare bush fitted so that I can add a water top-up valve in future.The loco was first steamed in April this year, and apart from a slight leak on one of the displacement lubricator pipes, the loco ran smoothly in both directions. After fixing the leak, which just required a little more silver solder, I began to design and build the tender. The tender consists of two standard Roundhouse bogies and a ‘Fowler’ tender casting. A baseplate is bolted on to this, and then the tender panels are attached to a framework of ¼” square brass rods which are drilled and tapped for various fastenings.
The tender is mostly screwed together rather than soldered – I designed it this way so that I can add radio control equipment easily in future. However, I was able to practice soldering a few more small items, such as the coal scuttle.
A coal load was made out of a piece of styrofoam which was cut to shape, given a coat of PVA glue and covered with pieces of model coal.With the loco more or less complete, and after a few more steam tests, it was time to fit the boiler wrapper and bands. I had designed the wrapper with small ‘tags’ that would have been used to secure it to the boiler, but these broke off during rolling. Fortunately, the 3 boiler bands hold it securely in place.The completed loco and tender were put together on the workbench, then the model was dismantled and the parts were cleaned up and prepared for painting.
The parts of the loco were painted black using 2-pack automotive paint, with a gloss finish for the cab, boiler wrapper and tender panels, and satin for the footplate, running boards and many other small items. While the parts were being painted, I took the opportunity to touch up the paint on the chassis which had chipped off in places, and I also painted the smokebox and boiler using heat-resistant paint. The painted items were collected after a few weeks, and the cab and tender components now require lining. I began to rebuild the model by refitting the boiler wrapper and the boiler bands, and this is as far as I’ve got with the project at the moment. The next jobs are to attach the smokebox to the chassis, fit the boiler and add other components in time, and I’ll certainly update this report as the project continues…
Lessons learned – so far!This project has been useful in introducing me to new processes, tools and techniques. Probably one of the key tasks I’ve learned is soldering, using both soft and silver solders. I’ve understood why the work must be clean, how to clamp pieces of work effectively without losing heat, and how different kinds of solder can be used for different jobs depending on the size of the item being worked on. I’ve also had to learn how to use bending rolls, and I’ve continued to use the lathe to produce various components. I wish I’d waited until I’d completed all the bodywork before painting the chassis, because the paint invariably became chipped and flaked off when different items, such as the cab, footplate and running boards were tried in place. I’ve retouched the chassis with satin black paint, but the finish would have been much better if I’d kept the chassis in bare metal until all the other components were completed.
Even so, I hope that what I’ve produced is a reasonable model of the original loco. Finally for now, the old saying ‘measure twice, cut once’ is always a good rule to follow!
August 2020
G.B. Boiler Services
Eastland Fields Farm
Bedworth
Warwickshire
CV12 9SD
gb.boilers@hotmail.co.uk
Building Exmoor 325 - an update
As the year progressed, work on building a model of Exmoor Steam Railway locomotive 325 continued steadily.
The smokebox and footplate were re-assembled to the chassis after painting, and after a few small modifications to the superheater tube, the boiler was fitted in place.
At this point, I couldn’t resist test-fitting the cab to see how it looked:
The cab, parts of the tender, cylinder covers and other small items were then sent to Conrad Cooper for lining. While the parts were being lined, I decided to paint the gas jet holder, gas pipe and the displacement lubricator in heat-resistant satin black. I also made a custom gas control handle on the lathe.Once the paint was dry, these items were attached back onto the loco, and the gas tank was also installed on the footplate.
The lined parts arrived back from Conrad, beautifully lined, and I began to assemble the tender.The tender is mostly screwed together rather than soldered – this is my preferred way of doing things as I still don’t quite trust my ability with a soldering iron! First, the tender footplate was bolted to the cast whitemetal frame, which is used on the Roundhouse ‘Fowler’ loco. The bogies were then assembled onto this, and a drop of Loctite added to each lock nut to ensure that they don’t work loose in service.
I then attached the panel sides and back to the tender – as described in above, the tender is held together with a framework of ¼” square brass rods which are tapped in different places for various screws. The sides are secured to the base with M3 screws, while the back of the tender and the front and back of the coal load are held in place with 8BA screws.
I made the mistake of tightening up the screws on the base too much, which meant that the other parts didn’t fit properly. I should have left all the fasteners loose until everything was square, but in the end no harm was done, and I just had to re-paint the screw heads under the tender where I’d chipped the paint.
I now turned to fitting the cab, which is held in place by two small brackets and 8BA nuts and bolts at the rear. As the cab is a tight fit over the footplate, not much is needed to hold it in place. After re-attaching the reversing rod, I bolted the sandboxes to the running boards and went about fitting them to the loco. This proved to be quite a fiddly job as they attach with an M3 screw at the cab end, and are secured to the front buffer beam with 10BA nuts and bolts. The job required some patience, but eventually the running boards were securely fastened in place.The cab roof is a piece of rolled steel, and it’s attached with magnets that sit on brackets just inside the cab.
I hadn’t realised that a coat of paint on the roof would make it slightly less magnetic, so I attached a second magnet on the bracket at the rear of the cab. This still wasn’t enough, so I bought some thin self-adhesive magnets which are stuck inside the cab roof.
These give a bit more grip, although to be honest, I would have liked to have
designed a more ‘mechanical’ solution with a hinged roof or something similar. I would also have liked a rear buffer beam on the tender as per the prototype. I tried to drill the whitemetal tender casting, but it proved hard to drill accurately, so in the end I filled in the holes I’d made and gave it a coat of paint. One of the final tasks to do was to attach the works plates to the cab sides. I’m always a bit nervous about gluing nameplates and worksplates onto a model, especially oval ones, so I made a card template which I clamped over the cab side to ensure that the plate was in the correct position.
After adding a few details such as oil cans and firing irons, the loco was finished.
Although I haven’t had the opportunity to run the loco yet, I hope that I’ll be able to do so soon, and look forward to hopefully getting back to regular meetings in 2021.
In concluding this article, building Exmoor 325 has been an enjoyable and sometimes challenging project that has allowed me to develop new skills, build on my existing knowledge, and caused me to find new ways to overcome problems.
James Medd
December 2020