The GC and Met in OO

A set of drawings for these locomotives and the class 18T altered (LNER classes J58 and J59) were published in Model Railway Constructor in December 1968. They were by C.A. Reddy, who did a lot of GCR locomotive drawings around that time.

 

Jim

 

I didn't know what!  Thanks- I'll be hunting a copy up. 

It's a very large body, even perhaps over scale?

It's certainly very tall (in fact, it's so tall that the chassis could fit in back to front with the motor in the smokebox).  I'll be turning that around.... dropping 3mm out of the height then should be a doddle.  Because I'm using the Triang chassis necessarily means that the model will be slightly stretched in length, but only of the order of 4 or 5mm or so.

 

Then there's the big blocky nature of it.  Before I started cutting it up I measured it; from the wheel tyres up to the chimney top scales out at around 13' 3" or thereabouts.  You've got a high-pitched boiler with a big saddle tank- it's necessarily going to have a certain heft or presence about it.  Lowering it should do something to alleviate that.  Then I'm going to have to replace the dome and chimney, which need to be taller and more slender, which should also act to reduce the apparent size. 

 

I found a copy of the December 1968 MRC by the way; when it arrives I'll be able to start checking the more critical dimensions and deciding where to make cuts and the like. 

I'm now in possession of the December 1968 MRC.  Comparing the loco with the drawing, the length is slightly off but nothing that is obviously jarring or wrong.  Height, on the other hand.... well that 3mm is about right, it might even be more like 4mm has to come off the bottom of the body.  (Also the tanks need a strip taking off of them). 

 

More progress next week I hope!