A brace of Prairies - second one off the starting blocks
Entry posted by Barry Ten
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Back in 2015 I posted a series of entries on building upgrading an old Airfix Prairie with a Comet chassis, and mentioned that a second Prairie was in the works:
It's taken a while, but the second one is now coming together, courtesy of the SE Finecast kit:
The model uses the same wheels, motor and gearbox as the Comet one, so - all being well - they should be very similar runners. The Comet one (with its ESU
sound decoder) has settled down to being one of my best-running locomotives, so the new boy has a fair amount to live up to. Whether it'll be be DC or DCC,
though, remains to be decided, depending on the livery I finally apply.
The chassis went together very easily except for the crossheads, where I had to deviate from the kit design in order to get enough clearance between the back
of the crosshead and the leading crankpin. Once all was tested and adjusted, though, I was very pleased with the running. You'll note that the Finecast slidebars
are set further apart than the Comet one, which makes life a bit easier as there's no chance of the connecting rod clouting the ends of the slidebars at top and
bottom of each wheel rotation. Tonight I added the brake gear, which is one of those jobs I always find fiddly but immensely satisfying once done, as they lend
and immediate presence to the chassis. One of the failings of the current Hornby model, other than that my two don't run particularly smoothly, is that the brake
gear is very wimpy in appearance.
Next I have to attach the pony truck. Fortunately, having the done the Comet one, I have a good guide as to how much material needs to be trimmed from the
inside faces of the cylinders to enable the truck to swing.
The quality of the body castings is top notch, and most fit with very little fettling. A bit of a contrast to the Gem 2-4-0T I did last year!
http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/blog/257/entry-18366-cambrian-2-4-0t-and-dean-goods/
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