Having added a Regner Lumber Jack, and an Accucraft Edrig & Ragleth to my roster, a Roundhouse locomotive had eluded me so far. These tend to be in the 'Luxury Car' price range of the Garden Railway market, whether brand new or 2nd hand via eBay or the reputable dealers, and being unemployed then (now retired) I could not justify those prices.
Being an active member of the Ayrshire Railway Preservation Group with a predominant Andrew Barclay collection, I've been tempted towards the AB based Roundhouse products, and whilst a couple of nice Argyll/Atlantic's have appeared recently they do not really fit in with my predominant industrial range of rolling stock.
So a plan was tentatively hatched around acquiring a manual Billy kit initially, running it in manual first then upgrading to radio control, and possibly ultimately converting to a coal fired Riverdale Elke. With the last of my endowment policies (remember those!) maturing this month there was going to be enough surplus after paying for my steam railway holiday to Sri Lanka next month to get this Billy project off the ground.
At a previous running day of our 16mm NGM group I happened to mention my ambitious Billy plan only for it to transpire that a fellow member had a stalled Billy kit lying idle. I told him to let me know if he wished to sell it, and at his running day last weekend I left with a toolbox & 4 partly assembled Billy kits.
For those that are not aware Roundhouse put together 3 or 4 kits for some of their locomotives which allows one to start building whilst spreading the costs over time by buying 1 kit at a time.
The 3 main kits (chassis, boiler & body) are supplied in very strong cardboard boxes
which contain a printed set of illustrated instructions (mine date from 2004 in B&W but the latest versions have coloured illustrations making identifying specific items better)
and the back of those instructions has a checklist of all the components supplied in the kit which Roundhouse have checked off, and it is the first thing you should do prior to starting the kit
Many of the components have been sealed in plastic pockets, which is a time consuming process during manufacture (I have experience of using this process from my early retail sales days)
So on to the first kit you would build with the Billy.
HBK1 Billy Chassis Kit
The previous owner had completed a large proportion of this kit. I only had to flip over a return crank so it did not foul the connecting rod, then add the weigh shaft & lifting arms/links, followed by setting up the valve timing. The exhaust pipes need bending to their final shape (and I need to allow for the possible eventual fit of an exhaust 'T' piece here with the Riverdale Elke), and the superheater pipe needs fitting as well so it will be easiest to remove one of the cylinders to complete those tasks.
This kit came with the nice brass cast reverser lever arm & quadrant so those will need painting up prior to fitting to the completed cab floor. The supplied reverser rod is just a plain push rod with fitted clevis so this will need to be bent to the required shape so it does not foul the side tank (this is not in the instructions) - comparing this rod with the reverser rod supplied in the R/C Fitting Kit shows the required bend will be around the end of the threaded portion so I'll need to be careful here.
It will be some time before the next kit (boiler) has been completed so I'm looking into how to run this chassis on air (Topic to be raised in Help Me section shortly).
HBK2 Billy Boiler Kit
The previous owner had painted the boiler wrapper & safety valve cover, plus had a very nice replacement chimney turned by another member of our Group who mainly scratch builds his locomotives.
For the Riverdale Elke conversion it is best to have an opening smoke box door. Roundhouse silver solder the door to the smoke box casting so when ordering one for a Riverdale conversion you ask for it to be supplied with a loose door. I have read elsewhere online of others de-soldering this door, but it is then a time consuming cleaning up the residual solder. Something to discuss with our Group's experts - do I de-solder the door now or just buy another casting on converting to a Riverdale Elke later? Once I've decided the smoke box, chimney, visible parts of the boiler plus the fittings at the rear will all need painting.
After temporarily fitting the gas tank, boiler mounting foot and burner in place, I used a piece of soft wire to work out the required bends required on the gas pipe. Gas jet has been cleaned, coffee filter paper placed behind, and jet sealed into the holder. All these fittings now need painting black to blend in with the cab.
So a far bit of painting to do first, and once all of the above are fitted the lubricator pipework will need bending to the required shape.
HBK5 Billy Body Kit
The previous owner has made a start with this kit. The cab floor has been shaped & painted, the hinge has been fitted to the cab roof which is painted, and the main body has been formed and soldered up, with just a few fittings remaining to be soldered in place.
However this kit is not required for the initial running so my focus will be on completing the chassis & boiler kits for now.
HBK12 Billy R/C Fittings Only Kit
The previous owner was going to R/C this locomotive so the battery box has been formed & painted. This kit will remain in storage until I decide to convert the locomotive from manual running later.
Chris Cairns
