Detailing of the drive units - Below the footplate

Equaliser tube

The equaliser tube does exactly what the name suggests: it equalises the water levels between the left and righthand water tanks. It is slung under the the frames and the two water tanks in a stretched U-form.

It is not possible to model the entire pipe. The horizontal tube would interfere with the frames during assembly. I decided to model the elbows and a stub of the horizontal part, leaving the frames free to pass.

It makes the fabrication easier as well. It is no longer necessary to aim for a specific width of the horizontal tube. It also makes bending the elbow easier as you will see.

First I turned the elbow-to-be from 3.0 mm brass rod, leaving two flanges proud of the surface.

The tubes are very wide and bending a 90 degree corner in 2.2 mm thick brass rod is no easy feat. So after turning I annealed the brass rod. I made myself two bending handles from steel in which I drilled a 2.2 mm hole.

With the handles the bending operation becomes relatively easy.

By gently bending the elbow a bit over 90 degrees and then ease it back with a bit of luck the flanges stand at 90 degrees. It is a bit of trial and error. I chamfered the ends on handles after bending the first elbow to make the bending "over 90 degrees" easier

Derailment bar

1931

1933

Immediately at delivery the LTM 51 had a rim at the lower end of the skirt. It also sported two curious looking brooms as rail cleaners (left photo).These are only visible on builder's photos so presumable they did not work as intended and where quickly removed after entering service.

After about two years an extra profile was added at the lower end of the skirt (right photo). Initially i didn't have the faintest idea what its function was. Later I was told it was derailment bar. If the drive unit were to derail, it would catch on the rails of the track and not sink away too deep between te rails. This made rerailing much easier.

I decided the model the LTM 51 in the later condition.

.... and then soldered the profiles on the skirts.

I did not mention it thus far but I always worked both drive units at the same time, so they were always at the same stage. That is why yous see two identical drive units on the photo.

A close up, showing that there is a neat gap between the profile and the skirt

Hoses for the air pressure brake and steam heating

Right the initial situation and, on the left, the final result of this step in the image.

To begin with, I marked the places where the hoses were to be installed. This is all a bit of guesswork because it is not very clear from drawings and photographs. So my main concern was that the various components on the buffer beam would not interfere with each other and would then be distributed in a visually acceptable manner.

Good model building is not just about being able to do something really well straight away. Model building is often about messing something up and then still being able to fix it properly.

I then filled the rear of the buffer bar with JB Weld two-component epoxy, allowing the epoxy to ooze out of the holes at both the front and rear. I was careful to avoid filling the holes that had already been drilled for the buffers. I didn't quite manage that, but a drill bit and a reamer quickly created enough space for the buffer stem.

Finally, a new hole was drilled in the right place.

JB Weld saved the dayr!

Time to move on to the hoses.

I set my compass to the distance between the top and bottom keys

And with that, I marked the height of the holes on the front plate.

By then drawing the vertical lines downwards from the top holes, I obtained the intersections, which I then drilled.

The hoses were then soldered into place.

Soldering was carried out from the inside using 140C solder. After soldering, the protruding pieces of the spigots were cut off and filed smooth. Note that the repair to the leftmost hose is now invisible. Any remaining traces that are still visible will disappear when the model is airbrushed.

Sand boxes

The sandboxes at the rear of the drive units will always remain something of a mystery. I don't have any photos where they are clearly visible. They are almost always in the shade or obscured by other objects. Only the overview drawing gives a little insight into them.

Because they are very small parts and not particularly distinctive, I decided to use Weinert sand boxes, no. 8780, which was somewhat similar in terms of general layout.

The top was smoothed out.

To improve their profile, I removed one side with the milling cutter. The width was reduced to 3.2 mm.

I also drilled a hole in the horizontal drain pipe so that I could attach the sanding pipes later.

And then solder... done!

Whether I will actually install the sanding pipes remains to be seen. They get in the way when installing the chassis to the superstructure.

Manhole cover

The first two went on effortlessly. Just put them on and solder them in place with a little solder paste. After the third one, I wanted to check that it was sufficiently secured. I stuck a small screwdriver underneath it and heard the dreaded ‘pinggggg’ and there was no manhole cover anymore. So no, it wasn't properly secured. I spent the next hour looking for the fugitive number Three. Unfortunately, it was gone forever and there was little else to do but redraw it in Fusion 360 and have it 3D printed. So now I have a stock of 20 plastic copies.

In the model-making group I share a lot with, the disappearance of number Three caused hilarity. The disappearance of small parts is now known by the expression ‘Oh, it must have gone manhole covering.’ And when something goes missing again, the first comment is almost always ‘Go and look at the manhole cover.’

Water level indicator

Yes, and soldering, of course. Not much else to say about it.