Chemical blacking of..
`Graham Farish' N gauge rebuilt pacific wheelset for `CLANLINE'
 |
35028 `Clan Line' ready to run, `straight out of the box' with shiny new BFB (Bulleid-Firth-Brown) wheelset and outside valve gear. |
 |
Driving wheels and motion gear assembly after the first stage of chemical blacking, `brushed up' in readiness for the second process. |
 |
Care was taken to avoid chemically blacking the `slide bars' as these are one of the very few parts of a locomotives motion components that should be shiny! |
 |
The tender wheels were `double dipped' (by full immersion) cleaned and are seen here refitted to the tender chassis. The middle carrying axle of the tender is not used for current collection so the center `axle slot' in the chassis has been slightly deepened and two lead weights have been placed above the outer axles. These modifications help to prevent the tender from `flying' when running tender first ensuring good current collection and preventing derailments, as an added bonus the weight stops the tender `jumping' when coupling onto a train. |
 |
Complete pacific 4-6-2 + tender wheelset after first chemical blacking process. The driving wheels require a second process after which they will be cleaned up and refitted to the Farish chassis block for final touch-up and detailing. |
 |
Clan Line's `BFB' (Bullied Firth Brown) driving wheels and outside valve gear after a second chemical blacking process. The driving wheels were blacked `by hand' using cotton buds and a fine brush to selectively place the blacking chemicals leaving the backs of the wheels and axle untreated, the wheelbacks were polished before chassis assembly to reduce friction between the wheels and `wheel wipers' used for traction power collection. |
 |
All wheels and motion gear components have been blackened using the processes shown on the chemical wheel blacking page, All `non driven' wheels were dipped as normal but the driving wheels and motion gear components were all treated with chemicals applied by hand with a No:`0' artists brush, this allowed me to selectively leave the slide bars shiny and inner faces of the driving wheels untreated. A few small details have also been added, The front bufferbeam now has a `Scalelink' 2mm scale hook and screw coupling fitted, A few grammes of lead have been fitted inside the tender to stop it `flying'. There is also a fireman on the footplate complete with shovel, The driver is absent as he has `Gone orf sumwars' around Stoneybridge (I checked the pub but no luck!) He will be sent to join the lone fireman when he returns. |
 |
The completed loco, rebuilt with blackened wheels, conrods & outside valve gear giving the model a much more prototypical appearance. Chemical blacking also helps to reduce the percieved size of the wheel flanges which were very noticeable before blacking especially on the leading bogie wheels. The fireman's blue jacket can be just seen through the cab windows. |
This page only covers the chemical blacking of this model, The complete overhaul of this locomotive is covered in further detail on the `Locomotive Overhauls' page at the `Stoneybridge Locomotive Works' website.
Copyright Notes
All content, images and photographs on this site are Copyright ©1999/2000 Ozz Scott unless stated otherwise. Copyright holders will be fully credited for images where copyright is held by a third party.