The Diary of the Building of a 5" gauge Stirling Single

    

Painting

The drawing below is based upon that in the book The Stirling Singles of the Great Northern Railway. the colouring is also based upon the information given in the same book.

It is not intended to be a detailed image but a general impression to aid the purchase of coloured paints.

Main Colours

Light Green

Dark Green

Lake (a maroon colour)

Black

Lining colours

Black

White

Vermillion (a red colour)

There is a great deal of lining out to do so I have purchased a lining set, The Beugler lining and striping tool as invented by S.B. Beugler in 1934, and patented in early 1935.

I have now spent a day and a half at the NRM and from the research I have done there I am now certain that The Stirling Single does not have definitive colours as there are no painting specifications and "green to pattern" was the official description and painted a bright almost grass green and where panelled with a darker shade of the same colour.

I was able to apply a "Dulux" colour swatch to the tender of the Stirling No.1 (built in 1870) loco at the National Railway Museum - YORK and found that the Dulux colours INDIAN IVY 1 and INDIAN IVY 2 are as close as I can expect to get the colours and shades. The Research Centre at the NRM showed me the book of liveries "Britain's Railway Liveries" but could not offer me any further definitive help.

The book revealed "that locomotives had always been green of one shade or another" but nothing more definitive than that.

Another book I have The Stirling Singles of the Great North Railway indicate "that is comes as somewhat of a surprise to realise that during nearly half of Stirling's superintendency he seems to have continued the "BRUNSWICK GREEN of his predecessor" and that "almost certainly surviving vestigially in the dark green surrounds of the tender".

So I am going for the Indian Ivy 1 and Indian Ivy 2 and hope to get the paints from Craftmaster.


10th December 2014

I have made a start on the painting of the wheels		 main wheel ready for painting

The primer is now completed on the main wheels, to avoid coating the connection part it was covered in masking tape!		 main wheel with primer
The frames are nearly completed ready to fit wheels etc.
 painted frames

11th December 2014

The pony wheels are primed.
 pony wheels primed
12th December 2014

A main wheel painted with undercoat
 undercoated main wheel

13th December 2014

On the 22nd May 2009 the first machining of the main wheels took place.

Now five and a half years later the first of two top coats in the Light Green has now been painted onto all the loco wheels and the photo shows the main driving wheels.
 main wheel first top coat
15th December 2014

I decided to line out the outside of the wheel as shown on a drawing in my Stirling book.

I have still to decided how to line out the spokes !!
 main wheel outside lined out
Having completed the Black line round the outside of the wheel I now have to work out how to line the spokes of the wheels as the spokes are tapered and thus I cannot use the spoke as the guide.

This is my MKI idea as a guide system for lining the spokes. This arrangement should allow all the spokes to be easily reached

I have other ideas using M6 threaded rod and nuts and washers but I will give the MKI a try
 		lining surport
17th December 2014

This is the view I had when doing all the lining.

I made sure that the wheel of the Beugler would be in the centre of the outer part of the spoke and due to the setting up the inner part would thus be as well. The lining up was carried out by moving the wheel on the pivot support.

I found that with the slight downward pressure on the Beugler to turn the wheel by drawing the tool to wards me that in fact no additional steadying of the wheel was needed.

The whole of the MKI set up worked well on all the wheel of the Loco so now I must paint the tender wheel and line out similarly before tasking the framework apart.
 my view
Here is a completed wheel. I still have to work out how to line round the centre as the Beugler will no be able to do that with the Crank Pin in place
 .completed
Here is a photo of the "Contraption" I used to achieve the lining of the spokes. All made from Meccano and was stable enough to achieve what I wanted.

With my experience now of 8 Wheels I know that I should have used masking tape to prevent the over run on the edge.

Still I will learn by the mistake and the effort needed to make good for when I do the tender wheels.
 framework
3rd May 2019

Now attention is again turning to the paintwork.

I have been advised by a knowledgeable club member that my existing Green for the wheels is too light so I have purchased some different paint from Precision Paints and I look forward to seeing the difference.

The continuing story of the painting will now take place on a different page and the link below will take you there.

Link to next page