GWR 14xx CLASS - Kit FOUR - Motion
Up to now this kit was the one most eagerly awaited, as completion of this phase would show how the motion operated, not readily seen in the photos in the brochure.
An immediate problem was noted on checking off the parts. One of the connecting rods appeared to have an additional hole drilled into the small end of the rod. This was returned to Winson's, at their request, for replacement. It later transpired that it was one of a faulty batch that had been made, apparently the holes for the lathe chuck had been drilled too deep. I am still waiting for the replacement part, but proceeded to assemble the remainder of the parts without it.
The first thing I noticed was on fitting the connecting rod rear to the crank axle, whereas the instructions stated that the bores were oversize I found the opposite. Therefore instead of removing material from the joint face I had to remove material from the bore itself to get a good running fit.
The next job tackled was to get the eccentrics to run smoothly on the crank axle. This necessitated repeated filing of both the eccentrics and axles, refitting to check smoothness and disassembling to remove further material until just right.
Fitting of other parts of the motion proceeded without major problems. It was very awkward to insert the eccentric link spacer between the eccentric link forks and the expansion link.
Finally the weigh shaft was assembled and fitted to the frames. I tried to check the operation of the motion but, although satisfied that it works correctly, couldn't get the tiny grub screws to hold on the weigh shaft. They will need an application of loctite, but I am leaving that until the reversing gear is fully installed and the valve gear set up. This will ensure no slip ups I hope.
The photo below shows the motion minus the missing connecting rod.
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