Sweden’s early L5 steam locomotive featured a jack-shaft similarly found on other early locomotives including the Bavarian electric locomotive EP 3/6. Following up with a follow-up to another follow-up is the progress report on the FR build kit 46.140.91: SJ’s L5 locomotive.
Out of production again this build kit is very challenging, it took me two kits to get good results, but never having built an FR loco kit before I chalked up the first as a learning curve for this and other FR kits. Note: kit has not been available twice thus far, but it is still featured on FR’s website: if you are interested let Harald know, he maybe planning a third release.
The kit comes with everything except the chassis and motor assembly, that is found by buying a second hand Marklin version 8895 tank loco, I will be using the SNCB or SNCF version due to the black spoke wheels. Adapting the Marklin chassis to the finished shell will take some pre-planning, and I will be covering this topic in a future post. For now I will be giving details on the project from the standpoint of completing the shell and tender.
Photos include Marklin 88951 tank loco chassis (top) and shell (bottom) with assembled FR L5 shell in middle of picture.
The materials include laser cut nickel silver, stainless steel, cast plastic and cast pot metal for boiler.
The tender is designed with pick-ups to add 6 additional conductive wheels which are essential with short steam locomotive types. Metal sheet parts were soldered while handrails and buffers were epoxied in place. Plastic castings are epoxied on side of truck frame after customizing their shape to fit with top shell of tender, I found the Dremel tool handy for this task.
Note: wires sticking out of tender are attached to mini circuit board that connects to wheel pick-ups. These same wires will be soldered to pick-ups on motor during the final assembly stage.
The locomotive is made of up cast metal boiler, nickel silver parts and stainless steel. Cabin: roof is rounded around a very small wood dowel, soldered along with the other parts and ground to make a perfect round shape with Dremel tool. Small roof cap is added at the end of assembly. Stainless steel add-on parts are epoxied in place. Boiler: smooth out underside of casting as needed, pre-drill buffer holes and mounting screw (shell to chassis screw) as per included instructions and epoxy latter in place. Note: all parts attached to boiler should be epoxied, solder will melt the pot metal casting! Ladders and handrails are stainless steel and resist soldering thus epoxy these parts in place. Note: a variation of the 1st batch of boilers and this one includes new placement of the smoke deflector brackets which in this version is much better.
Finishing: best painting results are with airbrush (15-20psi) using water based paints starting with primer followed by two light coats of top coat followed by protective coat of water based primer. Headlamps are painted last with tiny drops of white paint applied with pin. Some touch-up with a fine brush maybe needed so add a brush to the tool kit for this project.
Putting the finished shell and tender with Marklin ready made chassis and motor will require some disassembly of the side rods and riveting a jack shaft in place as is found with the prototype, but knowing the most difficult task is yet to be I am finishing another project before tackling the final stage of constructing the L5.
Essential equipment: -Dremel tool with grinding and drill bits -fine paint brush -airbrush -soldering iron with fine point tip -5 minute epoxy -water based paints
Siding: old Kodak plastic 35mm film canisters work great for paint mixing and storage
