Door Fabrication
As stated in a previous post, it has been decided to initially restore the locomotive to the state in which it was delivered to the Strathspey Railway with flat bonnet side doors and "Queen Anne" whisky advertisements. This means that the original bi-fold doors (which are more difficult to fabricate) can be made and fitted later, and also means the loco looks the same as the recently-released Hornby 00-gauge model.
The side sheets have been cut from 1.5mm steel sheet and the top edge folded over at 90 degrees. Sections of 6mm steel strap have also been cut and bent and these will be welded together to form a rigid frame under the steel sheet. Some lengths of continuous steel hinge have been obtained and cut to length and drilled to fit the locomotive. The remains of the old hinges which were part of the bonnet and rusty and distorted have been cut off leaving a straight edge to the bonnet.
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| LH Door sheet temporarily clamped |
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| RH Door sheet temporarily clamped |
The hinges have been bolted to the bodywork and the side sheets trial fitted using clamps. The appropriate dimensions for the doors have been obtained by referring to a number of old photographs of Queen Anne, as we no longer have the old doors to refer to.
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| Detail of the continuous hinge |
The original Ruston bi-fold doors were much lighter, as there were 2 doors on each side. The design was quite clever - when opened the rolled bottom edge of the door could be hooked behind the edge of a channel running down the middle of the bonnet to retain the door in the open position.
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| A bi-fold door in the open position |
Wheels
The
wheels have now been needle-gunned / wire brushed to remove the old
paint and primed. This was the only part of the locomotive that had not
been cleaned up.
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| Newly primed wheels |
