More progress in the Workshop

More work has been going into the batch of Quarry Hunslets.  Last time I prepared the bar stock to make the cylinder blocks.  This time more of the same.  The first operation is to machine the middle of the block away to form the valve face.

Using the table stops on the mill makes machining the valve face quick work.

This is recessed so that the valve chest sits under the smoke box of the engine. Then narrow grooves are milled across the width of the block, these are to take 1/16" wide keys that retain and lock the block into the frames.  They also provide a useful point to index the block when machining the locations for the cylinders themselves.  Again the face of the machine vice provides the datum, material in the slot  providing a useful stop.  In this way all the blocks end the same size and the cylinders are parallel and the same distance from the face of the frames.  All done without measuring just using a centre finder, the machine vice face  and the stops on the machine.
The next stage is bench work with a small drill press and a pendant drill. This is the bit where a mistake is starting to be costly. First the centre line have to be lightly marked on the valve face.

Having machined the valve face the tool marks have to abraded away without the flatness being lost.

Then the hardened drilling jig is clamped on, sighting the scribed lines through the holes in the jig.  Then the ports are drilled through.  I have found that round ports work perfectly well and drilling them all the same size does not adversley affect the running of the engine.

Using the jig to drill the ports.

Then all the steam ways have to be drilled into the block  and sockets formed to take the inlet and exhaust steam couplings. Connecting the exhaust to the central exhaust ports is the bit I like least since it has to be done by eye using a pendant drill.  If you miss the port  you can write off the block.  The drill press is used to drill from the cylinder face to the inlet ports , it is a deep hole and can wander if the chips are not cleared.

All the steam ways drilled, next make the cylinders.The valve face is offset to one side to give room for the exhaust pipe.

Back in the Workshop.

It was an enjoyable break in France, as Sarah told you, the visit to the Gare de Sos was a real treat.
At the 16mm AGM show in Peterborough I purchased a kit from Swift Sixteen for a protected Simplex(Tin Turtle).  The were built in large numbers, 104 were ordered in 1917 and quite a few are still around.  This kit was based on the locomotive at Apedale. Where they are having a WD commemoration  on 12th/13th September this year.  Well worth going to, not only a unique assembly of WD locomotives and stock but also an accurate re-creation of a section of trench showing all the different trenching methods used.
The kit itself was excellent.  Well detailed and no problems in assembly- everthing fitted and the downloaded instructions were OK, perhaps some of the photos were a little hard on old eyes. Last weekend saw it built and painted.  I still have to paint the details and apply the well etched works plate and number plates.

The Tin Turtle assembled from a Swift Sixteen kit

After the Turtle was finished thoughts turned to the Quarry Hunslet locos.  We have notes of interest in over 50!  So the time has arrived to start building them.  I have decided to start with the mechanism.  We make this in house by fabrication.  The cylinder block starts out as a length of 3/4" x 1/2" bar.  The first operation is to get the batch all square and the same length having cut them roughly on a chop saw.

All machined to length

Next using the end of the machine vice as the datum they are all endmilled with a recess that is going to become the valve face between the frames of the loco.  The removal of metal is limited by the table stops and the down stops.  So once set up not much skill is needed.  The machine takes off 50 thou at a pass.

Starting to machine the last one in the batch.

Visit to France reopens memories of writing our last book

We have been away to France. Our hope was to hide away and make progress on the book about Colonel Pechot and the tracks to the trenches. We were distracted by friends who lured us to the Gers. We didn't need much persuading! South-west France is the land of perpetual spring, roses that bloom in April, cherries that ripen in May and idyllic domaines/wine-growers' properties surrounded by vineyards. The locals have a wonderful wide spread of animals to chase - they love animals, especially on their plates.
We were not disappointed. After the usual catch-up between good friends - politics, scandals and so on, they took us to Sos. Sos? I'd never heard of it, though Malcolm had, as a station on the Midi which closed in the early Sixties. As we approached, the years fell away and I was back to my youth (well almost) researching our last book, the Tramways a Vapeur du Tarn (TVT).

Book on the TVT Oakwood Press 2001

 Like Sos, this is also in the area once dominated by the Midi Railway Company but further to the east. Let's tell you more about Sos.
The old station has become a gite of luxury and character. To find out more and see it, go to the website which is www.gare-de-sos.com  It is a perfect little Midi station. The halle/goods shed is tacked on to the batiment des voyageurs/station building. (No accents - sorry!) A length of platform still survives, as does the pumping house which once brought water for the steam engines. The site of the water tower is still visible, though it has gone. The amazing thing was my feeling of deja vu. I could almost have been standing outside the station at Lavaur, researching our book about the narrow gauge railway in Tarn -  well, almost. In this picture we are standing beside the station hotel and Lavaur gare is larger.

Ex Midi station at Lavaur, a small town which is still served by a railway in the department of Tarn. The picture was taken by Malcolm in 2000

My previous book was pretty thorough. A reader told me that I was obviously determined to have the last word on the subject and I suppose that I nearly did. Yet apart from a peek inside the ticket office at Lavaur, I never saw inside any of the old buildings that served the TVT. Readers were probably spared another chapter! Yet here we were, being invited by David, the owner, to have a look around a perfect little Midi station at Sos.
When David purchased the station as a restoration project 20 years ago little could he have expected to find in the old salle d'attente/waiting room, hidden behind decaying wall board a set of Midi poster panels from the 1920s with layer after layer of promotional pictures. The rows of posters were high on the walls and below this pasted to the walls were the timetables. It would have been possible to travel from Sos to Tarbes in the south and Agen in the north. Sitting in the living room of the gite, you are in an atmosphere which must be unique, with unspoiled walls dating from the 1920s. We are not going to spoil it for you with any photographs. Stay at the gite and enjoy a trip back in time. We were invited upstairs to the old station-master's lodgings - a living room looking over the station yard, a kitchen looking over the sidings and three bedrooms which once had a view of the water tower. Stairs lead up to the attic which was once a store. These have been converted, but with sensitivity and panache. Once again, look at the website to be reassured that the creature comforts of the 21st century have all been included.