Claud Hamilton from Golden Arrow

[Nile]

This wont be going anywhere soon, I haven't got a chassis for it yet.I need to explore all the options first, and I'm in no hurry to spend around £80 on a Hornby 2P.

[stewartingram]

Thanks to Nile for posting that pic - saved me the job of doing it!

 

At this stage I'm not thinking of doing a blow by blow account of my build, but just an occasional update with some pics thrown in.

 

Upon opening the box, I read the instructions(!) and had a thought about chassis options.

Eventually I decided to go with the Mainline/Dapol/Hornby tender driven 2P option. Thing is, I actually ended up bidding for 2 on Ebay, and won them both. So when they arrive, probably by the weekend, I'll have a surplus one to pass on. Also of course a spare body and powered tender.

 

I also looked at the "new" Hornby one. Far too expensive to break up so that was a no-no; also buying the chassis bits seemed fraught with difficulty in sourcing them all, as well as expensive, so I threw that out too.

The Comet chassis option was the 1st version I looked at, but I thought it worked out at costing too much, considering the (minor) tweak to the body to fit the 2P chassis. Would have been a superb chassis though, and as I have a s/h brass tender in stock, I could have used that with it. Maybe a future upgrade?

Another option I considered was one for an old resin body I once had, but damaged a while back. This was to use an old Triang L1 chassis, with an X04 motor. I toyed with this, but opted out as the X04 protruded into the cab, and the chassis needed some mods to fit into the body. I still have it though if anyone is interested.

I already have in stock a B12 tender fitted with a Patriot motor unit. This was intended for a B17 conversion many moons ago, but I never found a spare loco. When I get chance I'll post a hoto of the conversion to show how it was done. Today I serviced the motor on this; I will probably add extra pickups to the tender later. The coal has been removed from the tender; as this was very thick plastic, I'm hoping to replace the moulded plastic coal with the real thing (picked up from the site of the old Hunstanton locoshed!) to a different profile. It is interesting to see the space available in the tender with the moulded coal cut out.

Incidentally, the powered tender had been attached to a part-finished J19 on an old Triang 0-6-0 chassis with the X04 removed. I now have to re-motor that and add a differnt tender to it.

 

Stewart

[Nile]

It's up on the Lego blocks again!This time I want to see if a 2P chassis fitted with 7' wheels will fit, so I made a simulation of one from card.It looks like it will fit, so I'm now thinking of using a Comet chassis.

[stewartingram]

I've made much progress with mine over the weekend, though back on shift till friday so a temporary lull. Thanks to Andy Y for taking RMWeb down I got on with some modelling).

 

A Dapol 2P was received and the chassis stripped down and serviced to ensure good pickups. Front coupling was removed from the bogie.

D16 bidy was cleaned off flash, and boiler underside fitted along with the 2 chassis mounts. The chassis was then fitted.

The remainer of the D16 kit parts were then fitted: Westinghouse pump, reversing lever & crank, 4x steps, & the backhead strangely I could not find part 10, the frame extensions, but it appears I don't need them on my chosen example anyway. Would have been a simple plasticard replacement though.

The chimney was opened out with a drill & file.

Various in-stock bits were added: buffers (Bachmann), hoses (wire), lampirons (wire), loco drawbar (brass strip), boiler & cab handrails.

I still have to add the thick pipe (wire) on the RHS of the boiler, guard irons (scrap brass) and various bits have yet to be ordered from Comet, such as smokebox door handle, snifting valve, whistle & safety valve.

Am I happy with it? YES. It really looks the part.

The tender was already in stock & motored; I tried coupling it for a test run, but then discovered my layout controller is only giving 8v o/p, so have to sort that 1st.

 

This weekend I hope to get to undercoat stage, and hopefully a few pics.

 

Stewart

[stewartingram]

Help - old age is creeping up! I'm looking for the extra bits & bobs online but can't find them. Can anyone give me a pointer, preferably all in one place?

 

Snifting valve, safety valves, whistle, smokebox door handle.

 

Also a B12/3 chimney would be good too on the same order (not for the Claud !)

 

Hopefully if this rain clears up tomorrow I'll take some pics outside.

 

Stewart

[stewartingram]

More developments!

 

Searching around, I found I had an old broken Triang B12 body - complete with brass whistle & safety valves. So off they came, not bad quality considering the source I reckon.

 

Looking through my reference pics, I reckoned a small dome shaped Taptite* screw could be used as a snifting valve, so a hole was drilled and in it went. A bit of flattening of the top with a sharp file and, yes, a quite reasonable result. A bit of Milliput was used to fill the remains of the Pozidrive slot, and tomorrow I'll smooth that off.

 

As for the smokebox door handle? Well, to get the 'feel' of the face of the loco, I had already put a temporary 'nose' in place a few days ago. This was a brass handrail knob, and it set me thinking whether I could make something from it. So, out with a length of thin copper wire, which was threaded through the knob & soldered in place. Not whilst on the loco mind - it was held in the vice. The wire was bent round and behind the other straight bit, forming 2 handles. Excess solder was filed off with a needle file; bingo! It doesn't actually look too bad now its stuck in place.

 

I've also added a front numberplate from a strip of thin plasticard; later on I'll try printing the numbers onto a sticky label which can be varnished over. Just need a 31A shedplate then....maybe a transfer?

 

A minor bit of filling with Milliput was also done under the boiler, and on the chimney (small moulding fault).

 

This just leaves the front coupling to fit, and the fillings to be smoothed down, before I give it an undercoat - hopefully tomorrow. I have a Gibson lost wax brass casting for the coupling, so looking good for tomorrow!

 

The tender needs handrails fitting, and coal replacing, along with pipes & couplings on the bufferbeam.

 

I don't think I can ever remember getting this far so quickly with a kit before, says volumes for the quality of the product, and the subject matter I think! And quite a bit of actual modelling to boot as well.

 

* Taptite screw - a proprietary brand of self tapping screw, which is a cross between a proper thread and self-tapper; the end is tapered and has cutting edges so that it cuts a thresd into a deep drilled hole. A normal self-tapper distorts the metal as it goes through a thin sheet to form a coarse crude thread. I have a quantity of these from my factory days and find them useful in modeling.

 

Stewart

[LNERFan4489]

Love it - I would rather have a D16/2 than a D16/3 only because I found the /2's more good looking