‘ALICE’
Click here for PDF Drawing of 'Alice's Frames with Bissell truck
Click here for PDF Drawing of 'Alice's Frames with Radial truck
Click here for PDF Drawing of 'Alice's General Arrangement
‘Alice’ is a 10 ¼” gauge model of the small 2ft gauge Bagnall locomotives supplied to many quarries, factories and construction companies in the early 20th century. She is built to a scale of 5 inches to the foot, producing a very powerful locomotive of just under half full size.
Built by Giles Favell, designed by the Rev. Brian Favell, ‘Alice’ took five and a half years to build, was completed in 2001, and was named after Alice Favell, the builders’ mother (who had to put up with ‘flipping railways’ all her life…). She then became resident at the South Downs Light Railway, at the Wyvale Garden Centre, Pulborough, West Sussex.
Her cylinders are 2 7/8” bore, 3 ¾” stroke, which although small for an engine of this size, with her small wheels and high boiler pressure (150psi), give ‘Alice’ the ability to cope with the heaviest trains at Pulborough. She has a marine type fire-box, which steams very well and is very easy to manage. Having as large a grate area as she does, she will sit for several hours with the damper open and without the blower, without the fire needing attention.
As two people are able to sit side by side on her tender, ‘Alice’ is frequently used for driver training.
It was initially concieved in 1976 that this loco would be built on a 4 1/2" South Bend lathe - the biggest we had available at the time, and this drove the choice of prototype - as the nicest loco having really small wheels (8 inch dia)! However as the years had passed, by the time building had started in about '95, bigger machines were available.
Patterns were made for the castings for cylinders, end covers, valve chests and covers, and also for the smoke-box door (not the saddle – this was fabricated) wheels and brake blocks.
The chimney was fabricated by the Bluebell Railway from 4” steam pipe, repeatedly slotted over its length, temporary reducing collars fitted, welded at the taper, and dressed down, with the bottom then flared out, fillets welded in and dressed to match the smoke-box..
Industrial and domestic valves, fittings and pipes were used – an internally mounted ½” BSP ball valve (steam rated) for the regulator, with ¼” BSP valves used everywhere else (injector steam feed, steam brake etc.), all piped in domestic 8mm with compression fittings. Valves rated for steam normally have red handles. The yellow handled valves are for use with gas and are not rated for the temperature/pressure.
The boiler is by Franklin & Bell of Gloucester, and has proved to be a remarkably good steamer.
Paint is actually just ‘Smoothrite’ (as opposed to the Hammerite from the same company). It was intended to be a temporary coat – but we all liked it and time being what it is….. It took about ten aerosols of the green, five or six black and a couple of red. I found it sprays well (with care), and is certainly a robust paint – even resilient to the heat of the smoke-box.
Having been in service for two years, I found that the valve-gear bushes and pins – together with the little ends were badly worn and needed replacing. The valve gear had gunmetal bushes with 8mm dia plain steel pins. With hindsight, it would have been better to build Alice with 10mm pins so as to increase the surface area and decrease the wear – however, I have now fitted steel bushes with hardened steel pins (as all the Exmoor locos are built).
It has been received wisdom for many years that a new-comer to model engineering should start with a 3 1/2" or 5" gauge tank engine (for simplicities sake). I agree whole-heartedly about keeping things simple - hence I chose an outside valve gear for the all-important access - both to build and to lubricate and maintain.
'Alice' was the first loco I built, and I have no regrets at all about learning on something this size. I built her on a wheeled dolly at a low working height, which gave me mobility, access all round, and storage. All the bits were arguably easier to work - being that much bigger - but the componants themselves are still small enough to handle easily, the material cost was still reasonably low, and I only had to get into mechanical handling when placing the boiler (at about four hundredweight I was able to place it delicately and accurately with an engine crane, instead of struggling with a boiler of half a hundred-weight by hand).
I would be very interested to hear from people who might like a go at building something like 'Alice' in 10 1/4" gauge.
Update on 'Alice' GOOD NEWS - 'Alice' is now repaired and is running again....
The repair plate from Sciss was perfect, and was bonded on with the Loctite 510, the valve was chucked and faced off, and my
brother Aidan spent Christmas Eve refitting the cylinder (always a bit of a fiddle - due to lack of clearance). She has since had a test steam and run,
and all is very well, with no apparent blow-by!
Previously
The valve face that got damaged was in fact a steel repair plate (originally due to a hard spot in the casting - and therefore a rescue from scrapping), and although I had it off and machined it down in my little shaper,
on testing, I found the thing porous between exhaust and steam - blowing beneath the rapair plate. I therefore removed it (wrecking it at the same time....) and machined down the cast iron, in the hope of getting down to a good bit.... Watch this space.......
Previously.... Yesterday we had a disaster with 'Alice'. A younger member (very competent) had her in charge all day, but sadly, towards the end, she started missing a beat, with a bit of a roar.
On inspection, it was found that the lubricator was full and over-flowing with water, and therefore hadn't been lubricating for some time. There was no option other than to strip valve chest covers and cylinder end covers to see what the damage was.
Fortunately (or not) only the left-hand valve face is damaged (with the valve). The valve itself, I can just chuck in the lathe and face off,
but the valve face is another matter. I have two options. a) remove the cylinder, which I am rather loath to do, as the steam and exhaust joints are a pain, and b) machine it in situ - which there may be a way of doing....
The moral of the story is to make sure everyone understands that when you 'check the oil' it is absolutely vital that you ensure that the level is actually going down, rather than simply checking that there's oil in the reservour.....
More photos in the PHOTO ALBUM
The build methods are agricultural – welding where possible and advisable, bolting (metric) elsewhere. Most of the metal cutting was done by plasma cutter (up to 10mm thick), with the panels for the tender being supplied cut to size and folded where relevant.
MIG welding was used throughout, using machines with a minimum rating of 180 Amps (smaller machines really can’t cope with much above 1/8” plate!), with welds being dressed down with angle grinders.
Lighting up at the 2003 Great Dorset Steam Fair
However, I'm not so convinced about the philosophy of size. I suspect it is just as easy (or easier) to learn your craft on something quite big, as is is to indulge in watchmaking, and rather more fun to play with at the end of the day! It is quite true that most 3 1/2" loco's are easily handled in the workshop, but that can be less true of 5", and very unusual indeed if you go as big as 7 1/4". How many people have wrecked their backs by over-reaching or twisting with a loco they have been building on the bench? Many, I suspect.
If you work in 7 1/4", unless you are going for the very smallest specimen, you will find that you need an engine crane or hoist to handle just the frames safely. This is a very good thing, as it means from the very outset that you are much less likely to do yourself an injury! and once into mechanical handling, there is no real limit to the size of loco you can build.....
I chose to build 'Alice' with a tender, thereby making the whole thing ten feet long or so - a significant length to find room for in a workshop - but as a pure tank loco, she would come out at around five foot six - shorter than many 7 1/4" locos. A trailer is necessary to move her about, but then, doesn't that often go for a lot of 7 1/4" too?
In short, with the facilities and space necessary to build most 7 1/4" locos, it is perfectly practical (and I thought desirable) to build a loco in 10 1/4" gauge, and at a not greatly increased cost. At the time, 'Alice' cost me about £4,500 to build in all, and having learned a lot from it, No 2 won't cost me so very much more......
ALICE at the 2003 Great Dorset Steam Fair
My two favourite Ladies at Pulborough
No such luck, so I've ordered and taken delivery of a new repair plate (water-jet cut by Sciss - see links page) which I will then fit with loctite 510, which allegedly will withstand 190 degrees, resist oil, water and pressure ..... we'll see. It's got a good chance
(after all, the old repair lasted five long and very hard years) and if this really fails, there will be no alternative than to make a new pair of cylinders.
Either way, it's a real pain, using time I haven't got.
Click here to return to home page