BR “Ixion”

BR “Ixion”

The Class 97 that made it to preservation...

The sub text might seem a little strange to readers outside of the UK... However the Class 97 designation was the one used by BR testing department. Normally this meant some prolonged and often horrifyingly painful or spectacular death sentence for the locomotive concerned. After all someone has to check that the safety calculations for a head on collision at 100 mph with a pressurised nuclear flask actually DO work!!! It is a sad fact that some of the Class 97 locos did not last long enough for the new dark blue and red paintwork, (or in some cases even the hastily stencilled numbers) -to dry...
Ixion started off as a standard Class 46 loco with the standard 1C0-C01 bogie arrangement on the standard English Electric type 4 bogie. As such she was the very conventional passenger and freight locomotive design of the 60's and 70's BR era.
She served her time and was transferred to BR Technical Centre Derby where she was used for traction and brake testing -which is how she got her name.
As yet I have not decided when this loco will be built -but the bogie design is complete. I come from a design back ground and I have a deep hatred of doing things more than once -I term this "applied laziness"... However for the power bogies I have had to bite the bullet and admit that the only person who is going to do this -is me, (again and again).
The bogie is based on a module which I have termed, "Module 03", this is based on a motor from a large UK supplier, (MFA/Como Drills), of model motors and some judicious carving of 3mm thick steel plate. I started work on these as a "private project" for the Gauge '3' Society -so as the designer I can throw these into the "Public Domain" as the costings for the Society to make them via laser cutting were simply unbelievable!
SIX motor modules will be required for the power bogies this will give the loco a power out put of 24 Watts and due the "Facet Bogie" method of construction be able to take curves tighter than would normally be expected at 2 metres radius. The original facet bogie was capable of 3.5 chain radius curves (95m) which made it far more flexible than that say of a "Castle" which required an 8 chain radius curve.
This is the PDF output from the CAD drawings -I use DIN standard.
See PDF 1.
This is the same drawing without the DIN markings. Feel free to scribble your own upon it.
See PDF 2.
Now I KNOW they look horribly confusing but if you just bear with me each item on the PDF will be explained.
The next drawing shows the parts for the motor bracket module.
This is the face plate that the motor bolts into. [PART 7]
See Picture 2.
This then connects to the radial plate that sits around the bogie axle. [PART 8 & 9]
See Picture 3.
The next picture shows the assembly of the parts required to produce a power bogie. There are two [PART 2] that sit below [PART 1] and [PART 3] sits above them and locks the sandwich construction together. The two end frames are made by fixing two [PART 4] to [PART 2] and fixing [PART 6] to the top of [PART 4] -leaving a slot for [PART 1] to slide through.
See Picture 4.
This picture shows the front "pony axle" assembly.
See Picture 5.
So, at some point I will be very busy with a sheet of 3mm plate steel and a hacksaw!.
NOTE: this bogie is suitable for the following locos BR class 40, 44, 45, 46, D16/2 and The NBL Gas Turbine loco(!)
A couple of weeks have passed and I now present the first version of the working drawing. It shows the general arrangement of the bogies and the internals. As with the Fell loco it will use a water cooled Marine Glow motor but this time of 0.91 rating. Two square spiral radiators will be used with a draw through fan arrangement meaning that air will be drawn from the top of the loco and force vented by the fan to the side of the loco. I have decided to “cheat” and plumb in the heat fins of the ESC and rectifier assemblies into the return from the radiator. This will be a simple length of brass silver soldered to the pipe with 3mm holes to bolt the TO-22 devices to...
See Picture 6.
The alternator will either be home made or a stepper motor suitably mangled to perform the job in hand. Given the amount of current that the system will have to produce a home brew example is more likely as the alternator will have to turn at several thousand RPM. I envisage a fluid clutch not unlike the one used in the Fell. But unlike the Fell it will only have to go “in” and then ”out” not be varied to provide a variable torque.
A few people have asked (very politely -”what does an English Electric type 4 bogie look like in real life?” You can get some idea of the structure of it from the shot of “Ixion” above -but for a good close up you have had to wait until now.
This is the front “pony truck” to the bogie -you can clearly see the axle shaft from the pony truck free moving within its bogie. To the right of it is the sand box..
See Picture 7.
Moving along...We come to the first “power axle” of the bogie -the yellow bearing cover indicates that this uses “Timken” roller bearing and not bushes -(depot crews please notice). To the right is the set of steps up to the drivers door.
See Picture 8.
Moving along... We come to the central power axle. The white dial to the right is the level indicator for the train heating boiler. Directly below the dial is the output from the sand box.
See PIcture 9.
And finally... The third and last power axle.
See Picture 10.
No in depth review would be complete with out this shot -which shows that it is a genuine “type 4” bogie -it is sat under a restored Class 40 loco!!!
See Picture 11.