MW 4" Burrell Traction Engine Kit 8


A worthwhile improvement ModelWorks have made with this kit is the use or corrugated cardboard to pack large items. Several times I have found that the large bits have moved around and split the outer box or scratched other parts. This will put a stop this. I have had a quick scan of the instructions and I note that there are bits to paint and leave to dry so my next task is to fully read the instructions and form a plan. Saturday 29th: Progress has been nonexistent as I have been concentrating on making a new home for the Burrell. I am building a cubicle at the top of my garage to accommodate the engine and a small workbench for the dirty jobs. Painting decisions are distracting me from getting straight into kit 8. I have not yet sealed the inside of the tender and I plan to fit a few of the parts from kit 8 (eg winch bracket) before sealing. I am trying to work out which are the parts that need to be
removed during routine maintenance that Steve refers to in the instructions. I shall be painting many of the brass items supplied in this kit and need to etch prime them or even completely paint them before final fitting. I plan to paint the tender as soon as possible to help me decide if I like my chosen colour. Monday: I finally made a start today. Before sealing the tender top I decided to check that it fitted OK. At first sight the holes did not line up but as I put in more of the 3mm bolts things came into good alignment. Before sealing the tender tank I have decide to fit the lower winch bracket and the lower hose cleat.
Wednesday: Sealing the tank was not as messy as the tyres. As instructed I have put on a fairly thick layer, the down side of which is that it will take some time to dry. Saturday 5th: I am continuing to be distracted by the garage conversion. Today I fitted central heating but unfortunately I had problems with a leak. The liquid rubber on the tender has nearly dried and looks like it will be ready before me!
Sunday: Today I tackled the preparation jobs on the water filler and the steps. The grip on the lid of the filler is made out of 21 rivets soldered in position. For some reason ModelWorks supplied the filler with lid attached so the first job was to drive out the hinge pin. Rather than use the hob I chose to use my brazing hearth. I placed a length of solder on the fluxed lid and gently heated it until the solder melted. With the lid at the "right" temperature I spotted multi-core solder on each rivet. Warning (added 11/9/04) check the profile of hinge to avoid paint rubbing - see here.

Whilst still warm I wiped of the flux to avoid effort removing it later. Rather than use castings ModelWorks machined the steps out of sold brass using their CAM machines. The tread is made out of checker plate Araldited in position. I had to get some more Araldite as I had used all the araldite on the hubs. I easily filed the checker plate to size but I found it difficult to get the plate absolutely flat. On the surface plate I got it flat to within about 1/32" I prewarmed the steps to make it easier to achieve an even layer of araldite, dropped on the checker plates and baked for half an hour as instructed. Now that they have cooled I am happy with the results. There are a few small gaps under the grill but I am sure they will disappear when the steps are painted,

Wednesday 9th: Assembly of the water valve was relatively straight forward. ModelWorks supply a water strainer which seems a good idea. I have never seen porous brass before but it looks like it will do the job. Since it will be some time before I permanently fit the water valve I shall be storing the filter where it won't get dirty. Water strainers on the POP's water feeds would be a good idea as I have been having trouble with dirt in the water. I have had a look for them from my usual supplier but I can't seem to find any. (10/6/04) Steve dropped me a line to say that they are in fact sintered bronze silencers for pneumatic systems. I have now found them on RS part no 722-283. I shall be leaving final fitting of many of the accessories until after they and the tender are painted so the next thing to be tackled was fitting the tank top. Fitting the tank top did not go according to plan. I found that the water pump pipe restricted the movement of the lid making it difficult to get the other end of the lid past the protruding nuts and bolts that secure the
tender back. I had to attack these with a file and was then able to spring the lid down. Fitting the filler strip was fiddly but achievable. As the photo shows I am part way through fitting the slot less screws that secure the lid. Thursday: I have spent a few hour fitting slotless screws and I still have not finished. I managed to get them in around the water unions though I did have to use a 1/2 nut on one of them. Saturday: After finishing off fitting the slotless screws I decided to trim off the protruding portion of screw thread as this will become more difficult as more parts are fitted. The 5 BA nuts used on the slotless screws are not true to prototype and I am considering trying to make the more visible nuts look more like rivets. I may be able to do something with a grinding stone held in the mini drill but I am still considering my options. The next task is the assembly of the water lifter. After cleaning up the parts I trial assembled the lifter and to complicate matters I found that the adaptor (part on left hand side of picture above) came to rest just past top dead centre. The instructions recommend filling the adaptor to achieve a vertical position but at first I could not work out how this would help.
When I screwed the adaptor in it was binding on the thread rather than when the adaptor reached the flange of the steam cone. On examining the steam cone I could see that the thread was not undercut. My first thought was to try brut force and extend the cut of the thread using the other as a die. I had limited successes with this and I chickened out with more than 1/2 a turn to go. It was getting very tight an I was concerned something would break. I decided to use the lathe to bore out the first few threads of the adaptor. I chose to leave the steam cone alone as it would have been harder to set up in the lathe. I could now screw in the steam cone and get it to come to rest with the adaptor against the flange of the steam cone. The other advantage of having the adaptor in the lathe is that I could now take fine cuts until the adaptor position was correct. Note: I had previously permanently fitted the steam cone to the body so that I could be sure of the position of the mounting flange. I left off when I could hand tighten to about 45 deg of the correct position. With the thread sealed and the body held in the vice I used an adjustable wrench on the adaptor to tighten things until the male thread was vertical. If I did not have a lathe I suppose I would have been braver and forced the steam cone into the adaptor. Another approach would have been to fit a washer between the steam cone and the body.
Assembly of the rollers was relatively straight forward. I hit a small snag with bunker divider in that the top screw is the same as used in kit 7 to secure part of the beading. I had previously trimmed this to the correct length and now that the bunker is in place it is too short. I have a cunning plan to swap this with one of those used to secure the beading of the tender extension. Sunday: Whilst fitting the last few bits to the tender I discovered that no bolts were included for the upper hose bracket. At first I though this was me but as they are not listed on the parts list I guess they are omitted from everybody's kit, if so I am sure ModelWorks will correct this in kit 9. I made a start on the bunker extension. No real problems just hard graft profiling the bunker beading. I intend to ride on the engine so the bunker will not be a permanent fixture. Monday: Finished the bunker today. All that is left is to temporarily fit all accessories as a final check before striping for painting.
Tuesday: Surprisingly I hit a few snags on final assembly. I had not previously cleaned up the water level taps and discovered both to be jammed solid. Since I could see the operating levers start to bend when I attempted to turn the taps, it was clear they were not going to budge easily. I loosed the nut holding the operating valve but still the tap would no budge. I then removed the operating valve with a sharp tap cleaned up the innards and reassembled that valve. Success! I could not find any bolts to fit the water lifter. I could be me as my workshop is long overdue for a tidy up but as there are none listed on the parts list there may have been none to find. On fitting the water filler I was suspicious that the bolts were on the short side as I could only get about two turns of the nut. There was no way I could use the washers that ModelWorks supplied. My final problem was with one of the clinch nuts used to secure the tank's inspection cover. It was tight and soon began to spin when I applied moderate force. I should have realised something was up when the bolt could not be put in using fingers like the others. My advice if things get tight before the bolt is fully home investigate rather that apply force. I had great fun getting the bolt out! Luckily I have a clinch nut kit and was able to replace the clinch nut. Here is a picture of the assembled tender (Kit 7&8) and for anyone with bandwidth to burn here is a high resolutions 1600 x 1200 version.

Kit 8 - Tender Accessories