Author Topic: Another Simplex Refurbishment  (Read 57681 times)

Offline doubletop

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Another Simplex Refurbishment
« on: July 25, 2012, 11:20:21 AM »
Both Stu and me purchased a Simplex loco for refurbishment around the same time last year. Both of us have had other stuff on the go before we made a start on our separate projects. I've been working on mine on and off and apart from a few pics here and there I haven't started a thread. There's not much to be seen making new bushes and pins etc. Anyway now Bogs has started this new forum and there's a topic on restoration I'll start a thread here.



This loco was built in 1994 as a joint effort by two well known NZ loco constructors and,about 4 years later,  purchased by one of the then presidents of a local club. It seemed to earn its keep and looks like it had worked hard. It came with good documentation including photos taken in 2002 of defects that needed dealing with. Those same defects still needed work so I'm assuming not much had happened in the intervening 10 years.

First job was strip it down









As you can see it was a bit grubby and plenty needed doing

Pete
« Last Edit: July 16, 2017, 08:04:54 AM by doubletop »
?To achieve anything in this game, you must be prepared to dabble on the boundary of disaster.? - Stirling Moss

Offline doubletop

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Re: Another Simplex Refurbishment
« Reply #1 on: August 24, 2012, 10:26:00 AM »
OK I'm going to fast forward this a bit. I cleaned up everything and re-painted the frames etc








Things then moved on further and the motion re-furbished, port faces skimmed and polished, new pistons, rods and CI rings, new cross heads, every bush replaced, all pin holes reamed up to the next metric size and all new pins. everything that needed it case hardened.  I didn't see much point in showing photos of all that and cleaning stuff. so here were are and I got all the running gear back together and gave it a blast of air.

<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NoilRuuiIYQ" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NoilRuuiIYQ</a>


Things weren't quite right and I called one of the club members who was going through a similar process on a 7.25" Phantom (NZ origins) I then decided to purchase Don Ashtons valve gear book. I had many evenings trying to make sense of it. Then lights went on and the realisation that the expansion link needed work to take out the wear in then die block. Through another forum I even ended up in a dialogue with the man himself. Now the valve gear is way better than it was in the video above. A bit of blow by on the piston rings but I'm told that should sort itself.

Pete


« Last Edit: July 16, 2017, 08:06:20 AM by doubletop »
?To achieve anything in this game, you must be prepared to dabble on the boundary of disaster.? - Stirling Moss

Offline ozzie46

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Re: Another Simplex Refurbishment
« Reply #2 on: August 24, 2012, 12:00:45 PM »


    Great job Pete. She sounds nice.

     Ron

Offline sbwhart

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Re: Another Simplex Refurbishment
« Reply #3 on: August 24, 2012, 01:43:47 PM »
Down the line a bit than my re-build Pete, Great job seeing that will give me a kick to get more done, looking forward to seeing it in steam.

Stew
A little bit of clearance never got in the way

Online steamer

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Re: Another Simplex Refurbishment
« Reply #4 on: August 24, 2012, 01:50:50 PM »
Hey Pete!

Great Work!

Feel free to post photo's of any of this rebuild....that's why we have a restoration section....and cleaning/painting and "dealing" with the defects is what it's all about

Dave
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Offline arnoldb

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Re: Another Simplex Refurbishment
« Reply #5 on: August 24, 2012, 06:10:41 PM »
 :NotWorthy: Looks great Pete, and runs very nicely  :ThumbsUp:

Kind regards, Arnold
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Offline doubletop

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Re: Another Simplex Refurbishment
« Reply #6 on: August 25, 2012, 09:58:21 AM »
Thanks guys, its coming along unfortunatley Dave I haven't many photos of making bits and bobs and actualy I'm a bit further on that the video's while I was waiting for parts to be delivered I spent my cleaning rubbing down priming and re-painting to the point that all the plate work is painted ready for re-assembly. So today I thought I'd do a trail fit.

Before




After


Before


After


Before


After


As I said a trail fit with barely any fixings holding it together, encouraging things was all the plate work holes lined up perfectly so nothing out of alignment since the strip down.  Still plenty to be done with rework on all the plumbing, drain cocks, brakes, ash pan needs some work. That's tomorrow

Pete



« Last Edit: July 16, 2017, 08:10:09 AM by doubletop »
?To achieve anything in this game, you must be prepared to dabble on the boundary of disaster.? - Stirling Moss

Online steamer

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Re: Another Simplex Refurbishment
« Reply #7 on: August 25, 2012, 12:13:31 PM »
No worries Pete!   "run what ya brung!"

We'll watch!

Looks Great!

Dave
"Mister M'Andrew, don't you think steam spoils romance at sea?"
Damned ijjit!

Offline sbwhart

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Re: Another Simplex Refurbishment
« Reply #8 on: August 25, 2012, 12:55:35 PM »
Looking good Pete  :whoohoo: :whoohoo: :whoohoo: :whoohoo:

I like the change in colour.

What paint did you settle for in the end ?.

Stew
A little bit of clearance never got in the way

Offline zeeprogrammer

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Re: Another Simplex Refurbishment
« Reply #9 on: August 25, 2012, 01:19:14 PM »
That's just looking great.

There must be a great feeling of satisfaction doing a restoration.
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Offline doubletop

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Re: Another Simplex Refurbishment
« Reply #10 on: August 26, 2012, 08:40:51 AM »
Dave

Thanks I'm quite pleased with the results myself

Carl

Doing a refurb is the quick way to getting a running loco. My Rob Roy is fun to drive but it won?t pull much and the Northumbrian is just a toy. I wanted something I can play with on sunny days rather than waiting while I spend five years building something from scratch. I can now play and get that long term project underway

Stew

On the painting

Frames

The frames I?ve done with Hammerite Smooth. I used to use it years ago and had great coverage and durability. This time I used spray cans and the jury is out on the results. The paint didn?t apply as well as I expected and it exhibits thinning at the sharp edges, it also doesn?t like loctite. On my Rob Roy I had the frames powder coated, If I do a full strip down again I may go for the powder coating. When I did the Rob Roy the powder coaters gave me high temp masking tape to mask off all those places where dimensions need to be maintained, cylinder mounting faces, axle boxes, motion plate etc.

Hot spots

Smoke box, saddle, smokebox door, backhead are all done in high temp engine, barbecue paint and baked to cure in the barbecue. I couldn?t get my smokebox off the boiler and wasn?t going to heavy it, so the baking of the whole boiler didn?t go to well. If its not baked any solvent, oil will remove the paint. I?ll redo in situ and let the first firing do the baking for me.

Wheels and Platework

Where already painted I rubbed down with 400 wet/dry primed with primer filler and sprayed with epoxy enamel. I stumbled across epoxy enamel in the auto store and then found it available everywhere. It goes on great and is a great finish. It can go on bare metal with no primer, but I didn?t do that. On another forum I ended up in a conversation with Chris Vine (book - How not to paint a loco) he advise that epoxy enamel can go brown under heat but another forum member said that a number of members in his club have used epoxy enamel without any problems. We?ll see. I?ve used Deep Brunswick Green.

Panels where paint was coming off were stripped and primed with etch primer and then re-painted in epoxy enamel

In all cases 3 coats were applied, rubbing down between each coat. After the final coat, auto sprayer style, I baked the end result in the barbecue at about 200degF just to harden the paint.

Lines

I found I had a Buegler lining tool http://www.beugler.com in my kit, it was brand new and unused, my dad must have bought it for something. Anyway I thought I?d give it a go and after a while got the hang of it



The smears are were I had washed loco before taking the pics and the flash showed them up

Hope that helps

Pete
« Last Edit: July 16, 2017, 08:11:30 AM by doubletop »
?To achieve anything in this game, you must be prepared to dabble on the boundary of disaster.? - Stirling Moss

Offline sbwhart

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Re: Another Simplex Refurbishment
« Reply #11 on: August 26, 2012, 09:41:46 AM »
Hi Pete

Thanks for the heads up on the painting, I,m going to use hammerite smooth same as you on the frames, I have some high temp auto paint for the hot spots got it from halfords, the rest I'll just use car body paint mine is going to be an all black job, I'm going to mark it up as a WD loco the military ran quite a few locos at one time and I though it would be unusual to have one in that livery as the guys at the club running simplexes seemed to have bagged on the usual livery skeems LNWR:- BR:- GWR etc.

I'm not particularly after a sooper paint job I just want something that will run well and pull a uselfull load of passengers.

Stew


A little bit of clearance never got in the way

Offline doubletop

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Re: Another Simplex Refurbishment
« Reply #12 on: August 26, 2012, 10:24:31 AM »
Hi Pete


I'm not particularly after a sooper paint job I just want something that will run well and pull a uselfull load of passengers.

Stew

I'm with you this is a run-about for playing, however seeing your other work your "not sooper" paint job will no doubt look like it's just out of the works.

I'm going GWR, hence the window change,  I come from down south and used to go to school on GWR and the last days of steam. Green because I did the Rob Roy in black.

Pete
?To achieve anything in this game, you must be prepared to dabble on the boundary of disaster.? - Stirling Moss

Offline ozzie46

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Re: Another Simplex Refurbishment
« Reply #13 on: August 26, 2012, 01:54:12 PM »


  She's looking real nice Pete. I hope mine looks half as good when I'm done.

  Ron

Offline doubletop

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Re: Another Simplex Refurbishment
« Reply #14 on: August 27, 2012, 08:59:32 AM »
Ron

I'm sure yours will look as good if not better. The other thing with yours you'll have made it yourself and no shortcuts like me.

regards

Pete
?To achieve anything in this game, you must be prepared to dabble on the boundary of disaster.? - Stirling Moss

 

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