Another lockdown project; NS 8811 An austerity 0-6-0ST

kevsmith Apr 26, 2020

Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.
  1. kevsmith

    kevsmith TrainBoard Member

    1,976
    4,712
    63
    The Hunslet Austerity 0-6-0ST as NS 8811


    Forgive the lengthy pre-amble but before going into the construction of my latest 'lets get it finished in lockdown' projects I thought I'd give you some background on the 'whys and whats'


    Many years ago, long before I went fully into Z gauge, I used to tour the U.K with two big gauge 1 exhibition layouts. One was based on a typical British coal mine and the other on a Bavarian branch line. As the show team got older and we found ourselves living further apart geographically it became apparent that lugging 8 metre long, heavy, layouts about was getting too much so they were both retired and sold.


    Mardy Colliery principally ran small British industrial tank locomotives and here the saga of the Austerity tanks begins. The design was a development of a standard Hunslet 550050 class modified and simplified to meet the requirements of the war department commission for a locomotive that could be built in large numbers relatively easily for use in the U.K and Europe after liberation to replace the thousands of locomotives lost in conflict.


    No less than 485 were eventually built by Hunslet and other manufacturers and so rugged and powerful was the design that construction carried on until 1964!


    The Wemyss Private railway in Scotland had theirs handsomely finished in crimson lake. I really must get around to rewashing the original transparency and rescanning !


    [​IMG]

    I started with the 550050. Construction was nickel silver superstructure on a GFS steel chassis with wheel castings by Locosteam and power was a Beuhler motor mounted vertically in the firebox. All axles were sprung. It had the characteristic deep buffer beams and sloping back to the bunker. It was finished in an industrial livery and named 'Topham'


    [​IMG]

    seen alongside 68011 shunting the coal screesn on Mardy

    [​IMG]

    next was 68011. A standard model that went into British Railways stock after the war and then went into preservation on the Kent and East Sussex railway. Construction was the same as 'Topham' and it was a very powerful, smooth runner. It became the loco of choice to bring the empties up the incline into the colliery yard on the layout as the four wheelers usually needed a banking engine to get up. It was also the first one I fitted with working inside valve gear and also the first one I found out what the word 'masochist' meant!

    [​IMG]

    more in a mo'

    Kev
     
    drbnc likes this.
  2. kevsmith

    kevsmith TrainBoard Member

    1,976
    4,712
    63
    preparing to attack the grade on Mardy with a rake of empties

    [​IMG]

    you can see that the inside valve gear is almost totally hidden

    Lurking in the wheel casting drawer were two more sets of driving wheel castings. Jack wanted an Austerity that had the unique cut down cab of the examples that ran on the Lambton, Hetton and Joicey Colliery system in the North East coalfields and so I started two more locos with the fourth being again a standard example. This time the superstructure was brass but in all other respects the design was as before. I got the Lambton cab one finished after a major fight with the shape of the roof but the last one fell off the radar and was dispatched to the loft in 2000

    Taken on an early digital camera (God how ghastly they were!) are the two last WDs

    [​IMG]

    The unique Lambton cab

    [​IMG]

    Every now and then it was taken out and dusted off but my heart really wasn't in it so it has languished for quite a while. Now I am working from home due to the lockdown and there no show deadlines for the Z layouts it seemed the obvious next one to finish after the Thai railways C56 2-6-0.


    more soon
     
    goatfarmer and drbnc like this.
  3. kevsmith

    kevsmith TrainBoard Member

    1,976
    4,712
    63
    The first thing to decide was what to finish it as. Another British one didn't appeal to me but then I remembered the 27 that were sold to the Netherlands Railways after the war. Substantially unaltered, no less than three of these have survived into preservation to join the 67 other examples that have survived. That's right, there are 70 still surviving today and it has been a mainstay of preserved lines in the U.K for decades being powerful, easy to maintain and easy to get hold of.

    [​IMG]

    I've decided to do NS 8811. It won't be an exact copy as the original has been modified in preservation a couple of times but should be fairly close and finished in WD Green with the characteristic continental headlamps.

    Laying all the bits out it was apparent it wasn't far off. It had donated one wheelset to the Lambton one due to a quartering issue and the side rods needed tweaking and I couldn't find the firebox backhead anywhere so will have to another.


    [​IMG]

    The white plastic bits are the patterns for the pantograph engraver to profile mill the coupling rods

    A start was made by making the torque arm that holds the motor upright but allows the back axle to move up and down on the springs and also the inside valve gear. 68011 had full working inside valve gear but on 8811 it will be static. It is just to fill the big empty void between the frames. The chassis was then run up and down with the gear wheel disengaged to check for tight spots. One crankpin hole needed easing slightly and it was o.k

    [​IMG]

    the first part of the video which also features another NS Austerity now repatriated to the UK. 'Walkden' is a regular runner at the Ribble Steam Railway in Lancashire



    Much more later this week

    Kev
     
    HemiAdda2d and drbnc like this.
  4. RBrodzinsky

    RBrodzinsky November 18, 2022 Staff Member TrainBoard Supporter In Memoriam

    5,685
    2,780
    98
    Duplicate thread - locked
     
Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.

Share This Page