The New Arrival - No.4 - a Roundhouse Bertie!

[dougrail]

In replacement of last summer's theft of the wellknown 'Swordbreaker', finally, a new little engine has been sorted. It involved a massive cash drive as some of you may have seen, a phon call - and a trip in person to Doncaster.

I have to confess - sorting this little fellow out and readying it for its inaugural track run was part of what has kept me busy!

Okay, so, I'd raised the cash from four factions:

1)The sale of the final 'Dougstar Works' engine, Lady of the Lake
2)A Railtour refund after said tour was cancelled
3)The sale and clearout of the last of the legendary 'junk yard' of Mamod/MSS/Janet parts
4)A surprise order for not one but three of my Tender Loco body overlay kits~!

With all the cash gathered together, I gave a certain workshop in Doncaster a phone call....and placed the order, with an absolute ton of bits to go with it.

Three weeks later, one Monday I was informed that the engine had been finished that morning. I arranged to visit up the coming Thursday as it was a day off work. So, having taken the train upto sunny Doncaster and made the half hour walk to Roundhouse Loco Engineering, I was presented with the sight thus:



I was informed that the loco had been run on air and then steam tested that morning. They were very happy to steam the engine again for me there and then, so, the fire was lit...


The engine, unfortunately, could not have its wheels or rods prepainted as I had requested, but the loco seemed very sturdy and willing to go. Once brought to pressure, the test track awaited...





The two blocks and truck weighed in at 20kg - and at one point the little slugger had 29kg on the load! It wheelslipped but was able to move it around the relatively flat track.





Needless to say, after the fire had died down I was very impressed and handed over the bank card to pay for it and all the upgrade parts. f you look carefully, the upgrading has already begun with the dummy whistle fitted to the cab



After a detour via Sheffield and a couple of drinks at the Tap, on the train home the little one was inspected...


~~~

Three days later, after the trip to the Paddock with 'Vixen' and her motion swap, the little fella' was test steamed on blocks. It seemed somewhat stiff to go at first and primed somewhat but after some encouragement, it ran rather well and could go very slowly but surely indeed - an improvement immensely over the old oscillators!



After this steam test, the engine was taken out of service for the start of its modifications in preparation for its inaugural steaming at Llechfan [where else? ] Namely, the painting of the wheels and cylinder covers in matching BS105 blue from Precision Paints, cylinders blackened and the con rods painted signal red:




Now onto more crossheads - I didn't fancy either set of crossheads and motion that RH supply for the Basic series and had requested some spare parts off a Classic loco. Infact I had requested two sets - the first went on Vixen, as I've detailed elsewhere. The second set...went on the Bertie.





All painted up and new motion attached -- this is the state in which it entered revenue earning service on Sunday 19th March at Llechfan Garden Railway.

A name has still not been decided upon yet. Suggestions have ranged from 'Basil' [a definite no] to 'Peacemaker' [a weapon suggestion, but struck out when it was seen the loco has a little bit of a timid nature...] and so this is in process. Once sorted, nameplates, numberplates and special fox plates will be ordered.

So far, so pleased.

Since its run at Llechfan I've had the loco apart [last night actually] and overhauled the cab somewhat with water gauge, water topup, pressure gauge and adjusted turret...

[dougrail]

So, after the successful steamtests and an inauguration down in Llechfan Garden Railway as is the tradition for three of my four locos, it was time to start tinkering and upgrading the Bertie. Less than two weeks ownership, and it was in pieces....



You can see the still uncluttered makeup of the cab, and the top boiler blanking plug as of yet untouched. Roundhouse supply a special thick box spanner with the kit, also with holes drilled to provide a lever in as they are on severely stiff. So, bodywork lifts off with two small nuts removed - one under the removable safety valve done, the other in the back of the cab followed by the removal of the gasjet through the square rear cab hole - unscrew the union nut between gaspipe and jet, undo the holding bolt and voila, gasjet removable. Wiggle off the body and you're now at this stage:-



~~~~~~~~~~~~~

After a two hour operation - readin instructions very carefully and being a little stuck regards aligning the top and bottom turrets of the water gauge glass [discovering that their pipes may need to be bent slightly to make them align just about upright, but so that the glass will slide in easily and hold, without risk of breaking].



Water gauge glass done, it was time to install the new water topup turret...



Simple - screw off the topholding bolt, remove the holding plug, undo the steampipe-to-regulator union nut, remove old basic turret with regulator on. Unscrew regulator and it two nuts and glands, attach to new turret. Screw on the water feed pipe to the other thread on the new turret - tightly - and then attach the now two-ended turret back onto the steam system.



Here is a clearer view of the new turret on the steam system. You will also see that at this juncture I finally added the pressure gauge. With that, voila. Cab and control upgrades all finished:



BEWARE: When reattaching the regulator to the new turret, the second union nut on the regulator piece with the thick black o-ring that the needle turns through, to enter the turret section is tricky. Tighten it just enough so that steam does not escape but do not tighten it until it it immovable or overtight. I did this and found that my regulator control suffered.

Bertie regulators are such that just a small touch, say 30 degrees, will admit enough steam to get a scale slow speed crawl. 60 degrees will get a more lively pace and 90 degrees is over too fast. In optimal conditions.

However by over-tightening as described about, my loco suddenly became very heavy on regulator, not having much scale between 0 and 75 degrees, then at 75 degrees admitting enough steam to trot about at a lively pace before going into the too-fast speed levels. Once we loosened this one gland nut, the loco's legendary responsiveness was restored.

As a result, once this re-tweak was carried out after some advice, a very successful afternoon was had last week on my week off at the Barley it Railway and Works. More on that later....needless to say, the loco went under quite some rigouous testing.

[artfull dodger]

Nice modifications! Love the red side rods and different crosshead and guides. Definate step up from the the Mamod/MSS engines. I having loads of fun modifying my USA version of Bertie called Sammie. I went whole hog and am installing Roundhouse's Walschaerts valve motion on mine. It partially done, need to resolve the lift link set up and how to control it from the cab. Great pics! Mike

[dougrail]

Nice modifications! Love the red side rods and different crosshead and guides. Definate step up from the the Mamod/MSS engines. I having loads of fun modifying my USA version of Bertie called Sammie. I went whole hog and am installing Roundhouse's Walschaerts valve motion on mine. It partially done, need to resolve the lift link set up and how to control it from the cab. Great pics! Mike

Cheers Mike - the rods and wheels weren't easy to paint but look the biz especially when you darken the eccentric. I'd say they're a leap, massively so from Mamods and MSSes - infinitly more reliable, economic and more power .

I saw a Sammie in the RH shops - seems they could in theory now paint them too in any colour as they're painted in house.

Now, you installing full Waelschaerts gear will be very interesting to see!

[artfull dodger]

Here are a couple of pics of the valve gear on Sammie. I am working on selling off a bunch of my stuff as a local modeler also has a Bertie he plans to sell soon and I want to buy him as well. I want to say his Bertie is in green, been a year since I saw him run it at a steam up. Last time we got together he brought Millie. Mike
This pic is right after retiming the valves and testing on air


Here is Sammie back together for now. I can only run in forward direction till I sort out the lifting link set up and some kind of cab control. There isnt the room for the normal lever set up that Roundhouse uses since the cab roof doesn't lift up.

[Chris Cairns]

Tip I was given regarding fitting water sight glass fittings, is to use drill bit upended (or piece of rod) the same size as the glass tube so you get the top & bottom fittings aligned correctly before fitting the glass tube. Also melt the ends of the glass tube in a naked flame to seal them - reduces risk of cracking starting at the ends.

I assume black backs to the buffer beams is still on the 'To Do' list.

One of our members here in Central Scotland got a Bertie in the same blue colour last year - he managed to change his order on the phone to that blue after his wife commented that it would be a better colour, having seen it on the Roundhouse website.

Chris Cairns

[dougrail]

Mike - brilliant work! I suspect you'll need to cut a hole in the lower cab front for the reverser control to get through to the linkage?

Chris - RH now supply a brass rod the size of a gauge glass within the kit to help you align the turrets correctly. Must confess even using this caused me a small amount of headscratching -- had to bend a gauge glass turret to get them to align correctly.

And yes, I broke a gauge glass. Lucky RH give you two to try, try again.
I may well get round to creaming the cab and blacking the back of the buffers. However the Talyllyn locos set a prototype of red behind the buffers too.

[artfull dodger]

Learning to install gauge glasses is just part of running live steam. I need to source a spare for my Sammie as I broke one as well and had to put in my spare. I did some plumbing rearranging and installed the reverse lever in the cab behind the gas tank. My gas valve now sticks out the back window instead of the right side. Just waiting on 2 more "penguin" brackets so I can install the rock shaft and lift links. Mike

[Keith S]

Nice work, Mike and Doug!

Doug, the Bertie looks really good with red rods, and I've always liked "Bertie", someday I might get one myself, I think it's a very appealing engine. Must have been very exciting to make the trip to the factory to pick it up in person, especially after your experience with "Swordbreaker" being stolen. I hold out hope that locomotive will someday resurface, you never know, but in the meantime I think "Bertie" will continue to grow on you. Check out Chris Bird's articles on decorating his- I really like what he did, I think using locoworks parts.

Will you be going to Peterborough on the 8th? If so, I will keep an eye out for you.

Mike, yours looks very good with Walschaerts gear- it goes particularly well with the "American" style of the locomotive for some reason- maybe because American engines tend to have more machinery exposed to view in the first place. It looks great, anyway, I hope you sort the lifting-arm challenge but I don't think you'll have any trouble, you seem good at that kind of thing!

[dougrail]

Nice work, Mike and Doug!

Doug, the Bertie looks really good with red rods, and I've always liked "Bertie", someday I might get one myself, I think it's a very appealing engine. Must have been very exciting to make the trip to the factory to pick it up in person, especially after your experience with "Swordbreaker" being stolen. I hold out hope that locomotive will someday resurface, you never know, but in the meantime I think "Bertie" will continue to grow on you. Check out Chris Bird's articles on decorating his- I really like what he did, I think using locoworks parts.

Will you be going to Peterborough on the 8th? If so, I will keep an eye out for you.

Mike, yours looks very good with Walschaerts gear- it goes particularly well with the "American" style of the locomotive for some reason- maybe because American engines tend to have more machinery exposed to view in the first place. It looks great, anyway, I hope you sort the lifting-arm challenge but I don't think you'll have any trouble, you seem good at that kind of thing!

Thanks Keith. I would recommend a Bertie - it's internal gas fired, RH Engineering, on a simple to clean and maintain slip eccentric chassis setup but powered by the same cylinders that they use on a Classic Series loco. Win win, for an engine that you can grab, fling in a box and take out to an inpromptu steam up. I was very pleased when I had finally raised the money and picked the engine up from Roundhouse HQ, especially when I got to test it at their track on 30kg!

I continue to hope that someday Swordbreaker will reemerge and that I will be there to deliver swift and divine justice upon the culprit....

Now, back to Bertie. I plan to start dolling him up as I have my Caradoc and my Beyer Peacock loco. Locoworks are top of the hitlist for springs and some other things, then a trip to Barley pit Works for saddletank rails to be drilled and fitted carefully.

You're coming over for Peterborough?! EXCELLENT! It will be awesome to meet you finally, after 7 years - from mostly on the Mamodforums Will you be bringing Omingyak? You're thinking about a Bertie - might it be worth me bringing mine for you to look at and review to help you decide? [if you're early enough and you decide you like them, you could then buy one....]

Douglas

[dougrail]

Anyone heard from KeithS...?

In other news, finally, a name has been reached for the little blue bombast: "FENNEC".

a photo reel from its first trip to Butterley last Sunday due up soon.

[Big Jim]

That is a smart looking engine you have there, I do like the colour. I could be tempted down the route of a Bertie, but some of my other stuff would need to go first.

I take it Fennec is after the little, fox creature with un-feasibly large ears? Very appropiate.

[Gralyn]

Fenek is Maltese for Rabbit. Sounds the same.

[Boustrophedon]

Tip I was given regarding fitting water sight glass fittings, is to use drill bit upended (or piece of rod) the same size as the glass tube so you get the top & bottom fittings aligned correctly before fitting the glass tube. Also melt the ends of the glass tube in a naked flame to seal them - reduces risk of cracking starting at the ends.

I assume black backs to the buffer beams is still on the 'To Do' list.

One of our members here in Central Scotland got a Bertie in the same blue colour last year - he managed to change his order on the phone to that blue after his wife commented that it would be a better colour, having seen it on the Roundhouse website.

Chris Cairns

Good advice, but you'll need more than a plumbers blowtorch to melt the end if it's pyrex. I used the oxy-acetylene at school last time I had to do it. Pyrex tube was a freeby from the chemistry department, free because they couldn't melt it to bend or draw out.

[GTB]

Good advice, but you'll need more than a plumbers blowtorch to melt the end if it's pyrex. I used the oxy-acetylene at school last time I had to do it. Pyrex tube was a freeby from the chemistry department, free because they couldn't melt it to bend or draw out.

Sounds like they gave you a piece of fused quartz. That has a softening point around 1680degC, so oxy-acetylene would be about the only thing to make an impression on it. Should make a more or less bullet proof sight glass though.

Borosilicate glass glass has a softening point around 820degC, compared with about 720degC for ordinary soda-lime glass. I never had any problem over the years fire polishing borosilicate tube in an ordinary bunsen burner in the lab. The last time I cut some sight glasses, the tube was borosilicate and I used a torch that clips onto the same butane cans I use for locos.

The rule of thumb we were taught in glass blowing class as a way of identifying glass tube, was that soda-lime glass was green when you looked at the end of the tube and borosilicate was pale yellow to clear. Fused silica is perfectly clear, so not necessarily easy to distinguish from borosilicate glass, until you try to work it. As you found out the hard way..........

Regards,
Graeme

ps. 'Pyrex' is a trademark, not a material description. 'Pyrex' brand cookware was once made out of borosilicate glass, but is now made from tempered soda glass.

[dougrail]

That is a smart looking engine you have there, I do like the colour. I could be tempted down the route of a Bertie, but some of my other stuff would need to go first.

I take it Fennec is after the little, fox creature with un-feasibly large ears? Very appropiate.

The colour is the new Roundhouse 'dark blue' standard colour -- BS105 Oxford Blue, comes out very ultramarine though - all the better. I would say a Bertie is well worth it, I can see why they go down so well.

You're on the money regarding the name - yes, it is after the little desert fox with the huge ears

Fenek is Maltese for Rabbit. Sounds the same.

True...can assure you it will be 'Fennec' as in the fox though.

Chris -- bufferbeams blacking are being painted today.

[Chris Cairns]

Chris -- bufferbeams blacking are being painted today.

Well done Doug. As I bring my locos out of winter hibernation I'm slowly painting up those that are still in red.

Chris Cairns

[dougrail]

Chris -- bufferbeams blacking are being painted today.

Well done Doug. As I bring my locos out of winter hibernation I'm slowly painting up those that are still in red.

Chris Cairns

Rear one done, that'll do for Pboro if I bring all three locos. Fennec is third choice though, unless specifically requested.

[artfull dodger]

How was Peterbourgh Doug? Your cross heads and guides, I am guessing they are the ones used on the Silver Lady version of Lady Anne. They do fit the UK look, where as the exposed valve motion on Sammie fits the USA look. I am going to be getting a Bertie soon, in the lighter shade of blue that Roundhouse offered. Bertie being a bit smaller than Katie, fits my micro raised layout better. Also more affordable. I am working on a plan to hinge the cab roof, as my eye/hand cordination isn't the best(a not so good part of my disablity). I find getting the oiler top off difficult for my fingers. Thats my only real complaint with the basic series. If Accucraft can hinge the roof on my Ruby#5, which retails for nearly what a basic series does in the USA. Then Roundhouse should be able to design a simple wire hinge for thier basic series to make working in the cab easier. So I am working on a design in my head to make Sammie's roof hinged. Another question, what is your process and choice of paint for doing the side rods? I am thinking black wheels, black eccentric rods, then the same side and main rods like you did, along with cross head and guides. Cant wait to see yours after the name plates are added. My wanted me to call my future Bertie "Smurf"! I was like...noooooooooo! Mike

[dougrail]

How was Peterbourgh Doug? Your cross heads and guides, I am guessing they are the ones used on the Silver Lady version of Lady Anne. They do fit the UK look, where as the exposed valve motion on Sammie fits the USA look. I am going to be getting a Bertie soon, in the lighter shade of blue that Roundhouse offered. Bertie being a bit smaller than Katie, fits my micro raised layout better. Also more affordable. I am working on a plan to hinge the cab roof, as my eye/hand cordination isn't the best(a not so good part of my disablity). I find getting the oiler top off difficult for my fingers. Thats my only real complaint with the basic series. If Accucraft can hinge the roof on my Ruby#5, which retails for nearly what a basic series does in the USA. Then Roundhouse should be able to design a simple wire hinge for thier basic series to make working in the cab easier. So I am working on a design in my head to make Sammie's roof hinged. Another question, what is your process and choice of paint for doing the side rods? I am thinking black wheels, black eccentric rods, then the same side and main rods like you did, along with cross head and guides. Cant wait to see yours after the name plates are added. My wanted me to call my future Bertie "Smurf"! I was like...noooooooooo! Mike

Hi Mike,

Peterborough was excellent thank you, though my Caradoc and IoM loco took the stand there.

The crossheads and guides that I snitched were actually Karen ones, hence their unusual length. It sounds like that you are going for a Bertie in the Darjeeling / sky blue livery, which does suit them. Bertie is good for small / micro / easy engagements which is why I chose one for my smaller rake.
Roundhouse could probably do a wire hinge as they do their Classic locos, but costs means that they want to keep the design as simple if effective as possible. Don't forget: labour costs too, and Berties aren't built en masse in batches, but, to individual order, such as was mine.

What I did was get some 1pk aerosol etch primer, spray it into a simple plastic pot and quickly paint it onto the wheels and eccentric rods. Let that dry then brush painted on some grey matt enamel to act as a primer on the eccentric and wheels.

The eccentric was then painted matt black, and the wheels painted in a specific shade to match the RH paint, ordered from Phoenix precision.

Meanwhile I had lifted the rods off, and etch sprayed them separately before brush painting them red. Finally when wheels, rods and eccentrics were all dry the loco was reassembled.

For a name, I have elected to name mine 'Fennec'.