Model of the Month April 2009
A touch of "DeWintonitus" by Bob Bath
You may have seen a previous Model of the
Month of mine in January where I made mention of a De Winton, to
which Tim asked me to write this piece. There have been many De
Winton's built to the excellent design of Dave Watkins and there are
probably as many variations as De Winton's
themselves built, as non appear to be exactly the same.
A little bit of background. The club of which
I am a member, Stafford & District MES (SADMES)
decided in their wisdom to build a 32 mm track (see current SMT). I
had never come across this gauge before, but after seeing my first
steamer I was hooked. Having looked around for something to build, I
came across Dave's web site and downloaded the plans to Idris.
Being bought up in the 50's & 60's to find the
drawings set out in Metric this was going to be a
challenge. All my workshop is set for imperial so I set about re-
drawing. Whilst doing so I made a few changes, for example I moved
the boiler 1/8" away from the cylinders to allow for cleading and
insulation. I don't intend to give a blow by blow explanation of the
build, Dave has already done this in his comprehensive notes. In the
accompanying photographs you will notice there is
more than one locomotive. Having purchased the copper for the boiler
barrel it occurred to me that I could get three boilers from the 12"
piece. My original idea was to build two with a spare piece in case
of error. The second would finance the first. Even before starting
to build two members registered interest. So three were attempted.
Two were to have curved frames and one straight frames and it's this
one that is up and running although as yet not painted.
The first photo is showing the component parts of the boiler along with the former to flange the ends. Despite the hedgehog spikes all the boilers were tested by the Association inspector and successfully passed. In hindsight having seen the amount of hot gasses drawn through the stack whilst running, a few small cross tubes may well have increased running time.
Photograph two shows the main frames of the
two curved versions the only variation from the original design are
the additional rivets and fish plates. In picture three the motor
has been fitted and run on air. It was during this test on all three
motors I found they all ran much better in one direction than the
other. If pressure was exerted on the unsupported side this
imbalance disappeared. Photograph four shows clearly the additional
"A" bracket fitted to rectify the problem. It is also the straight
framed version and the method of holding the axles is self
explanatory. Picture 5 is of the near completed loco with posh
carrying box. The name "Idwal"
was arrived at after an internet search for Welsh Kings, it needed
to be short for obvious reasons. The next shot six, shows a complete
loco with the insulation and cleading fitted. It has improved the
steaming in cold weather beyond my hopes. The last shot is of all
three ready for paint when the temperature improves, at the PLR
thanks to the General Manager Edward Hodson.
I have since building the De Winton's got to
know Dave Watkins and can honestly say you could not wish to meet a
more pleasant and helpful man. I only wish I had met him six months
earlier when I had more questions than answers. But it just goes to
show if his plans and notes are followed an excellent
fun little locomotive can be built.
Bob Bath (just getting over a bad attack of Wintonitus and now gone down with Crackeritus.)
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