Al's Workbench - LNER 4-8-2 Mountain, Rebuilt W1 and A budget level Coronation set.

[Al.]

A quick update on the Mountain.

 

Hornby A4 body cut in half and positioned. I'm planning to join the two halfs back together this weekend and rendition the rear body locating clip.

 

I should have something resembling the finished look by mid-week.

 

 

[Al.]

More progress on the Mountain.

 

The body is now back as one piece, and I've started filling in the gaps. The valve gear is on, although the conrods to the rear drivers still need some attention. However, it now runs under its own power. I'll drop it onto the test track at my local club tomorrow and get a video of it running.

 

[Al.]

A few weeks ago I picked up Humorist from eBay for a reasonable price. Along with Coronach, this was one of the locos I converted from the old Triang/ Hornby A3 model back in my teenage years. Humorist had the double blast pipes and Coronach had the cut away smoke box and vent. As the newer Humorist model is very good, there was no point trying to restore my old one and it's been stripped down for parts and this morning I turned my hand to weathering The new one.

The intended look is a moderate to heavy weathering having just come off train. I've also tried to replicate the heavier sooting on the boiler top caused by the softer chuff from the double blast pipes.

On the whole I'm reasonable happy with the loco, but not the tender. This has gone too heavy. I'll probably clean this off over the weekend and redo it.

 

 

As for Coronach, I'm on the look out for a reasonable priced Book Law to convert.

[Al.]

Humorist's tender got reworked this evening, and Camoronian got a lighter coat of weathering.

I'm far happier with the one. Just goes to show what a difference a bit of prescribe and patiencecan make.

 

[Al.]

Another A4 is under the knife. This time to make a rebuilt W1.

 

I learnt a lesson or two on joining the body halfs on the Mountain so this ones a much neater job.

 

[teaky]

Hi Al.  Nice work so far on the W1 but there are a couple of things to note.  The W1 had a larger cab than an A4 and a double chimney.

[Al.]

Another A4 is under the knife. This time to make a rebuilt W1.

I learnt a lesson or two on joining the body halfs on the Mountain so this ones a much neater job.

image.jpeg

It's still work in progress. Cab, chimney and tender still to do.

[teaky]

It's still work in progress. Cab, chimney and tender still to do.

Ah, good.  I did wonder about the cab but the chimney looked like it was newly added.

 

I hesitated before commenting because one never knows what the author does and doesn't know but I figured that if it was me I'd prefer someone to tell me before the model progressed too far.

[Al.]

Ah, good.  I did wonder about the cab but the chimney looked like it was newly added.

 

I hesitated before commenting because one never knows what the author does and doesn't know but I figured that if it was me I'd prefer someone to tell me before the model progressed too far.

The single chimney can with the donor body. It'll get cut off and replaced with a double chimney once I pick one up.

[teaky]

I suppose you know about Graeme King's resin parts for converting an A4 to a W1?

 

(Something else on my round tuit.)

[Al.]

I suppose you know about Graeme King's resin parts for converting an A4 to a W1?

 

(Something else on my round tuit.)

Yep, but decided to take this one myself.

[Al.]

I have done 4 locos with 8 driving wheels, although the difference is that I used the A3 bodies.

 

The 1st loco that I made was done as a 4-8-4 then the other 3, out of which only 1 still working due to major chassis issues with the 2nd & 3rd locos which means they will require a complete rebuild of both the chassis and bodies.

 

Can I ask what radius your loco will comfortably negotiate without getting stuck or derailing.  The reason I ask is because I use 8 wheels with the flanges in place so its quite possible that I need to remove these from 2 of the wheels on 1 axle.

 

With regard to your loco, I am curious as to why you opted for tender drive instead of loco drive

 

Answering your question in reverse order, its tender drive as that's what can with the donor loco, which was the old Hornby Seagull A4 they released back in the early 80's. I had two, pretty much 90% intact, sat in the same box the Tri-ang Transcontinental came from - the other A4 is being used for the W1.

 

The model uses all the chassis components from Seagull, plus an additional pair of drivers and conrods. All the driving wheels are flanged, however the second pair have a slightly shallower flange. With the exception of the rear extension, the only change I've made to the chassis was to fill down the sides by the 3rd driver to allow more side play

 

Test running of the chassis showed it handled Peco medium radius turnout without a problem and small radius if you went steady. I still need to repeat the test with the body on to see if there's any change to that.

 

The A4 version Mountain is basically a rolling test bed for an A3 version which I plan to build once I'm happy with the running of this one.

[Al.]

Along side the Mountain I've been working on this Ugly Duck.

 

2576 'White Knight' fitted with ACFI water feed heater.

 

Edited June 15, 2018 by Al.

[manna]

G'Day Folks

 

There is another version of 'Humorist'.

 

manna

[Al.]

And there was also this version with double chimney and small winglets smoke deflectors.

 

It's an easy conversion from the Hornby model. Just a case of filing off the top flange from the chimney and adding the winglets.

 

[Al.]

Just looked into ordering 5 nameplates from Fox Transfers to go onto my A3 fleet. The total came out at £51.10.....! I could buy another loco for that price.

 

Last time I brought any nameplates would have been 30 years ago, and I think I payed £2 or £3 back then. They've certainly gone up some since I've been away.

[manna]

G'Day Folks

 

Try E-Bay, bough most of mine off of there, couple of quid each.

 

manna

[Al.]

A bit more work done on the ACFI. It's looking better, but I still feel it's a bit on the crude side.

 

[Al.]

G'Day Folks

 

Try E-Bay, bough most of mine off of there, couple of quid each.

 

manna

 

247 Developments are quoting me £37. Much more like it....

[Al.]

An update on White Knight.

 

With all the body work modifications finished, she's had a base coat of black paint and is ready for apple green. But that won't be happening until I've sorted out the tender first. The photo I have of 2576 shows her with a

non-streamlined, non-corridor tender. The only Hornby model available comes off Book Law, and they seem to be as rare as hens teeth. So I've got corridor tender body on the way which I'll be converting. It looks pretty straight forward on paper. However the reality may be slightly different.

 

 

[Satan's Goldfish]

Interesting stuff, good work. Coincidently not long ago I was playing around with similar LNER 'mountain' ideas on the imaginary locomotive thread but basing it on an A3 rather than A4 as the start point. I've attached the picture below, I used slightly smaller drivers from the P2 and the streamline P2 style of still having a cylindrical boiler.

 

Top to bottom; Standard A3, Double Chimney Mountain, Streamlined Mountain, Streamlined A3.

 

 

Keep up the good work

[Al.]

Not bad. But the standard dome looks odd. With the final batch of A3's, built 1934/5, being fitted with the streamlined domes, would that not have been carried forward onto those designs? It might improve the looks.

[Satan's Goldfish]

Not bad. But the standard dome looks odd. With the final batch of A3's, built 1934/5, being fitted with the streamlined domes, would that not have been carried forward onto those designs? It might improve the looks.

http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/14790-imaginary-locomotives/page-136&do=findComment&comment=3204868

 

I did tinker a bit more with it afterwards, bigger wheels, etc, and yes the other dome does look better.

[Al.]

Another one of my little side projects - A Bachmann V2 fitted with Indicating Shelter.

 

It's still work in progress. Portal windows are still needed to front of the shelter and a myriad of cables need running along the boiler from the shelter to monitoring equipment at will be positioned on the tender.

 

[Al.]

The Mountain got a mist coat of blue this morning. It's shown up s couple of defects that need sorting. The worst one being the joint line between the skirt extensions the body. It's cracked and needs refilling.