I have recently been working on the cab for my 7 ¼” gauge Midland Compound locomotive. This has a very distinctive shape which immediately identifies the locomotive’s Midland origins. However, along with that shape go some quite tricky manufacturing problems and I thought it might be worth recording the solutions at which I arrived for the benefit of anyone else building a ‘foreign’ engine.

The front splashers were reasonably straightforward as I had already made a set of George Thomas’ bending rolls. I rolled the outer shape to radius, using a cardboard template and bent the ends over in the vice. Then I silver soldered it to the outer face, which I had cut roughly to size, and dressed off the surplus with a file before carefully fitting over the step in the running board. The splashers have a very noticeable beading around the outer edge so I fretted this out of a piece of 26 SWG brass and riveted it on. I used a piercing saw to cut this out, as demonstrated by Mark Davis at our recent exhibition and I would certainly recommend it for cutting thin sheet. It has been worth its weight in gold for this project. The splashers were finished off with the addition of a row of dummy rivets.
Rear splashers were next and these are part of the cab. Where they meet the front of the cab there is a reverse curve. This, I made as a separate piece by rolling the curve and then riveting it onto the top. I plan to hide the joint with some filler before painting. As before, I riveted the curved splasher top to the side plate and then silver soldered them together. Unfortunately, this time I had used steel for the side and the differential expansion made it go like a banana, much to my chagrin. It took me some considerable time heaving on it in the vice to pull it back to an acceptable profile. Another fretted out beading and row of rivets finished it off and you can see the result in fig 1.
Next job was the spectacle plate. This, I cut from the door-skin of a 1911 Daimler car. If you don’t have a 1911 Daimler to hand, then a piece of steel purchased in the normal way would probably be satisfactory. The windows are cut from acrylic sheet, purchased from B&Q, and then mounted by sandwiching them between two brass frames, cut out with the piercing saw and secured with a ring of 12BA brass screws. Hinge pins are soldered to the inner frame and run in 1/8” square blocks bolted to the inside of the spectacle with more 12BAs.

The Deeley cab is most distinctive in that it doesn’t have two sides and a roof but that the top halves of the sides are formed by bending extensions of the roof downwards around the spectacle plate and joining them to the sides at waist height. I therefore had to bend a piece of brass angle around the profile of the spectacle to which the roof could be secured. The large radius bend I achieved by putting the angle in the vice and pulling it around a bit at a time until it matched the curve of the spectacle. I therefore had to bend a piece of brass angle around the profile of the spectacle to which the roof could be secured. However, at the corners, I cut out some of the flange and then bent the angle whilst hot. Hard brass goes like putty when red hot so bending is really quite easy, especially if you have provided yourself with a bar end of the right diameter held in the vice around which you can pull it. However, I would recommend quenching it before comparing it to the spectacle. I forgot….. . Once bent, I riveted the angle on but overlapping the edge by a few thou so I could dress it back. Forming the large radius bend had caused the angle to collapse slightly to 88°-89° and I wanted to square it up again.

The next tricky part of the spectacle was a piece of angle riveted to the front which follows the curve of the firebox. The bends were much tighter this time so I didn’t think that I would be able to bend brass around. Also, the angle is a very visible feature of the locomotive and has to be neat. In the end, I decided to make the angle from copper by flanging. I took a piece of MDF and cut it through, the shape of the bend I wanted to achieve. I then took an annealed strip of 26swg copper and clamped it between the two halves of the MDF in the vice and just flanged it over with a mallet. This succeeded very well and a further annealing allowed me to pull the copper around by hand just enough to make it fit closely. See fig 2.

Just for a bit of light relief, I made the safety valve cover next. This is a simple spinning, as I have described before, and took nearly half an hour including cutting out the copper and making the tool. There truly is a great joy in having the right tools for the job to hand!
The cab roof gave me greatest concern as it has five different bends of three different radii and the bends must be accurately positioned so that it closely follows the spectacle plate. I also only had enough brass for one go so it had to be right first time. I started by wrapping a piece of string around the spectacle to get the overall length and then cut the brass 1” oversize. I cut the roof shape but left the side windows to be done once the bending was complete. The three centre bends could be done in my rollers and were easily accomplished. However, the sharp corner bends were much more challenging.
In the end, I made a bending jig (Fig 3) by mounting a piece of 1” angle on a heavy base plate with the open side upwards. I then took a piece of 7/8” diameter steel bar and drilled two cross holes at the ends. Through these I put two 5/16” hex screws and tapped them into the base plate. I could then force the bar down onto my piece of brass pushing it into the angle and putting in the correct radius bend. First of all, I bent a test piece which I had marked with a datum line. Once bent, I could see where the bend had come relative to the line so I could put a line on the cab roof and thus get the bend just where I wanted it. (Fig 4).

I am very pleased to say that it all went surprisingly well and, although my heart was in my mouth for the whole process, it went right first time and fits beautifully.

I cut the sides out and at last was beginning to get the proper cab shape. The rain strips were added next and these were more bent angle. As before, I made an MDF flanging block and made the corners of copper while the remainder were commercial brass angle. The ventilator was beaten over another MDF block held in the vice. I used a mallet so the bends came out smooth with no dents. (Fig 5).

The beading was filed from rectangular strip to the proper section and then bent, whilst red hot, around a wooden former. This works quite well although, not surprisingly, about two profiles are the limit before the block is destroyed. I made up some U-shaped clamps to hold the bead in position whilst it was soft soldered. (Fig 6).
Once again, I had to bend some angle to follow the profile of the splasher and cab front at the joint with the wrapper. This time, it had a reverse curve in it but I cut another MDF flanging block and beat a piece of copper strip to shape. (Fig 7).
The result was rather pleasing. (Fig 8).
Then of course, I had to continue the angle up the front splasher, around the front corner of the firebox and then around the joint between the barrel and the splasher. These two were progressively more difficult as the last piece had to be bent in two directions to fill the gap between two curved surfaces and the one around the box went from a 90° to 60° angle around a 3/8” radius corner making a mitred joint at the end. I was pleased to see them completed! (Fig 9).
I hope this description has offered a few ideas to help with awkward platework. The locomotive is now almost mechanically complete and has been steam tested on the garden railway. Hopefully it will run at Creech and Isle Abbots later in the year.