Brighton Atlantic: 32424 Beachy Head

How do you convert the frames of a 4-6-0 into a set for a 4-4-2?

 

Well Churchward did something like this for the GWR early on in his career but they were designed to be so convertible. The present instance seems most improbable!

Paul H.

 

"A combined sub-frame and strengthening plate carrying the rear 4ft 1 1/2in wheels and axle with outside bearings was fitted to the locomotive frames in place of the trailing coupled axle, but the main frames of the [GWR] 'Atlantics' retained cut-outs to accommodate a trailing coupled wheelset in case conversion should ever be required"

http://www.thesaintproject.co.uk/Pages/AtlanticOption.html

 

Yes, though those locos were designed as such, sharing driving wheels etc. Rather more difficult to use the same frames when there is twelve inches difference in wheel diameter between an H2 and an S15!

Tom

 

Forgot about those but as you say they were designed to be convertible.

 

I served my engineering apprenticeship in the machine tool industry and this method was and still is used as a method of lubricating slides. I spent many hours bedding surfaces together and can still do it....if you don't get the highs and lows right you will get the surfaces "wringing" together like slip gauges.......

 

Presumably that was for similar metals, eg steel on steel, not whitemetal on steel?

 

Very interesting chaps... Seems like using the S15 for an Atlantic starter kit might have been a step too far!


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Mostly cast iron to cast iron/steel. I have however scraped ali-bronze, phosphor-bronze and white metal to steel. And nowadays a material called Shamban, a low friction product. I have scraped steel to align linear bearings. I have never scraped steel to steel and would have thought steel to steel bearings would be of a rolling element type.

 

Sorry, I didn't follow that. Any chance you could explain in a bit more detail for us less-educated types?

Noel

 

'Wringing' is the process by which two very highly finished surfaces seem to stick together. You can take two optically flat surfaces and 'wring' them together by which the bond is so strong that it is almost impossible to pull apart, the only way is to slide them out of contact. Often used in precision metrology with measuring 'slip' blocks which are used to build up a master of an accurately known dimension.

 

If my memory serves me correctly, the S15 was going to donate its bogie and some other frame parts to the Atlantic, the S15 being considered really a spare parts loco at the time. Fortunately that didn't occur, giving us the slim hope that 830 might be seen in steam again. S15 tender and bogie wheels are the right size for the Atlantic, see http://www.bluebell-railway.co.uk/bluebell/locos/atlantic/latest_10.html
Daniel

 

Could'nt have put it better....

 

Aha! That explains a lot...


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I think there may have been thoughts of using the driving axleboxes as well.

 

Thanks for the explanation. Does this happen with dry surfaces too? (I think I've seen it myself, with wet surfaces.)

Noel

 

Yes if they are made of the same metal (except cast iron which contains graphite and acts as a lubricant) and the surfaces will 'pick up'. That's why we use, for instance, bronze or white-metalled crosshead slippers on steel slide bars. Ray.

 

Just flicking through Youtube this afternoon and found this old colour archive footage of a Brighton Atlantic. Sadly not Beachy Head but Trevose Head and gives a tantalising vision of what we will see on the Bluebell in the not too distant future.

 

Another update on 32424 just posted on the Bluebell web site.

http://www.bluebell-railway.co.uk/bluebell/locos/atlantic/latest.html

 

Not wishing to be a pain, but what livery is planned for her once finished? (I know, lest important part of the build but interested!).