Another freelance Garratt

[Tim Brien]

Given the other thread on a freelance Garratt, I thought I would revisit a previous 'stalled' project. I am a little perplexed about the aesthetic length of the model. The centre carrier will have deep sides to blend the carrier to the locomotive ends, but I am thinking it could be one or two centimetres too long. The deeper sidesills will basically shorten the visual length of the locomotive. The problem is if I shorten it too much then I will pass the point of no return and may lose interest again in the project.

Possibly the boiler could be slightly fatter. An extended firebox will project forward of the cab front wall. Steam dome is cut from a Bachmann Annie body.

The forward drive has a modified Bachmann Anniversary cast weight and the traction tyre rear drive has a standard LGB cast weight. This allows room for electrics. The drives are modified LGB #2017D drives. I added the third axle and extended the drive rods. The stock #2017D tender body was modified either end and fitted to a #2017 drive chassis moulding.

 

[bobg]

Tim, my thought is that an extended firebox will also have the effect of visually shortening the boiler, though perhaps it is very slightly long, but I think fat enough once those things are sorted.

 

[Tim Brien]

Bob,
similarly, I am hoping the extended firebox and deep sidesills will visually blend the centre carrier with the drives.

My problem is that if I shorten the length I am concerned it will be too short and I will lose interest, again.

 

[bobg]

Take two photos of the loco, side on, and overlap them till you get the right effect, then work out what you need to cut. That should get it right first time and save a lot of heartache.

I would have thought in the order of 10 - 20 mm, not much more. You could draw on the extended fire-box as well.

 

[DoctorM]

If it were my model I would try to shorten the boiler by the diameter of the smokebox door to enable it to open, whilst maintaining the overall length of the locomotive.

 

[bobg]

If it were my model I would try to shorten the boiler by the diameter of the smokebox door to enable it to open, whilst maintaining the overall length of the locomotive.

That's a good point. Some had cutaways in the rear of the front tank to allow the door to open.

 

[Tim Brien]

Bob,
I bit the bullet and took out 20mm. The face of the tender adjacent the smokebox door has a dogleg type cutout so door clearance should not be an issue.

 

[bobg]

That, somehow, is much better even though it wasn't much.

In the early days of doing mine I used a G.A. drawing and cut and pasted photocopies of the bits (manually, computers were not so easy to operate back then), moving them all over 'til I got the right impression. I haven't looked at them much lately as now it's growing, I can visualise it better in the round. It is down mostly to aesthetics in the end, if it looks right, it can't be far out. Learning to trust your eye isn't always easy.

 

[Woderwick]

Middle bit is too long IMO.

 

[jgallaway81]

The one thing to remember with garratts, the design lent themselves to better boilers. A short fat boiler is more efficient than a long skinny one of the same boiling capacity. They SHOULD be shorter than a normal boiler. But, whatever floats your boat, it should make you happy to see it snaking around your layout.

 

[Gareth]

Hi Tim this one is a difficult one in my eyes . If you have not got any larger piping problem as the real Garretts hve short large Diameter boiler and large firebox. Now if you add a large wide firebox to the boiler and extend below the cradle add to pony trucks to make it a 2-6-2 2-6-2 I think you should find it all comes together well I think so I hope you do and I hope it inspires you I enclosed to rough modified photos to give you an idea

 

[Gareth]

heres enlarged piccs

 

[Tim Brien]

Thankyou all for responses. I shortened the boiler a further 10mm (total of 30mm). I did provide a little extra clearance with the smokebox door.

Adding the deeper sidesills, plus the deep firebox will beef up the look of the locomotive.

Edit: I still was not happy with the length, so off with another 40mm (total of 70mm from original length). Length over buffers, 70cm.

 

[DoctorM]

It's looking much better now, and will look better still with your extra bits dangling underneath.

 

[Woderwick]

much better imo.

 

[themole]

That's looking a lot better Tim.

 

[whizzo]

Hi Tim, the loco is looking great much better with a shorter boiler -I m o please can you say how ,you put on another wheel set to the 2017 chassis regards Dave

 

[Tim Brien]

These photographs may explain better than words. I made an axle 'bearing' from two pieces of brass tubing (one inside the other to get a better thickness and fitted inside the rear extension moulding on the Stainz type motor block. Care must be taken to ensure the additional axle is inalignment with the other two axles to prevent drive rod binding.

A spare set of drive rods was obtained and was used to make up the additional drive rod to the third axle. The metal drive rod can be soldered.

I will fit a power pickup set to this third axle to get better operation over point frogs.

This is a six wheel Stainz I did a year or two ago. Power pickups fitted to extrra axle.

 

[jgallaway81]

Every now and then, you see single axle gearboxes show up in the parts for sale from Warenburg.de on eBay. I just received my second order from them a couple weeks ago. Got to love that dollar->euro exchange rate.

 

[Tim Brien]

Today I 'played around a bit'. Added a firebox from an old Buddy L loco body. This gives me a large firebox to match the fatter boiler.

Also, with the cab body coming from an old quite rare LGB #2016 locomotive, I needed to add the little extensions at the back of the cab to give the fireman a degree of safety.

I also added a bit of strengthening to the carrier frame. This will be covered with an aluminium extrusion to give the deeper sidesill look to the frame. A deep ashpan has been built to fit under the firebox and hang low to the track. Still a great deal to do.

Suprisingly, a lot of odds and end pieces were in the parts drawer. The carrier frame was cut from a window blanking plate used when ducting a portable aircon exhaust through an open window. The boiler came from a leftover plumbing project and the black boiler cladding came from the UK and was used as packing for an "OO" scale coach purchased. The smokestack and steam dome were leftovers from my various B'mann Annie projects.