Manning Wardle K class footplate and bunker

I had been putting this off because I knew the splashers would be hard to do, and also expected trouble with the flared top on the bunker.

The first job with the splashers is to bend up the splasher faces connected to the footplate with a half-etched fold line. I started from what I thought was the back to get some practice in... turns out that was the front. As usual by the time I did the last couple I'd got the hang of it. The trick is to score along the half-etch fold lines a number of times until you can just see a mark coming through, at which point these small parts will be easy to bend up without damaging them.

D Wagon - now with axleboxes

Now with axleboxes
Originally uploaded by dajtaylor

Given the next job on the Manning-Wardle kit is to file down 6 leaf spring castings I felt like doing something else...

So I dug out the "early years" axle boxes I bought from PME to go with their sprung W-irons and decided to make some progress on the D-wagon that has been sitting idle for about 8 months.

The axleboxes consist of a brass casting for the box itself, and a brass etch for what I think is a flap/lid to hold oil in.

First you cut the axlebox castings off the sprue and clean them up.

Then you increase the size of the blind hole already cast on the back of them using a #39 drill so the Slaters bearings used in the sprung W-iron assembly fits inside. You need to drill the hole as deep as possible, preferably without breaking through the casting. If you do break through it doesn't matter, especially if you only just go through and create a small hole. This will be covered up later.

When you put the bearing in you only want the gap between the back of the axlebox and the plate carrying the bearing big enough that it slides easily over the W-iron, with a little extra play to allow one wheel to move up or down independently of the other.

Now cut one of the little flaps off the etch and clean up the tiny tabs that were holding it onto the etch (not the 4 bigger tabs that are meant to be there).

The flap has a single central tab at the bottom and three at the top. The bottom tab should be bent out a bit using the smooth part of the jaws of some long-nose pliers.

Then slightly bend the flap so it can follow the curve on the top of the front of the axlebox. I bent mine around a needle file. I then used superglue to stick the flap onto the axlebox.

Finally, use Locktite or similar (I used Lock-Nut) to hold the Slaters axle bearings in the box (or the box on the bearings, however you want to look at it).

Now for the part I've really been putting off, the leaf springs and the brackets used to attach them to the underframe.

Building the Slaters/PME Manning Wardle K class kit

One of my hobbies is building model trains. I have been posting the progress of my different models to a Yahoo group for Australian modellers (or is it for people who model Australian trains?) so thought I may as well change over to publishing progess in the form of a blog.

The current project is a Manning-Wardle 0-6-0 tank locomotive, being built from a Slaters kit that has extra parts and rewritten instructions supplied by a Sydney firm called Prototype Model Engineering (PME).

PME specialise in high quality/detail kits and parts, are a local reseller of Slaters products, and also sell modelling tools. Unfortunately they do not have a web site at the time of writing.

Any posts in this series will be given the label "mwk". Model railway related posts in general will be given the label "model railways".

I'll go into more detail on various sub-assemblies in other posts, but to give an overview of progress so far I nearly have a rolling chassis, and the footplate and splashers (wheel covers) are done.

The next steps are to get a freely rolling chassis, then add the pickups so it can be tested with a motor, and to modify the leaf spring castings as described in PME's instructions and fit them.