Dear Reader,

Happy New Year. I do hope that it is not too late?

Here is a short update on Super-Pig 76010. She now sits on the correct number of wheels and pick-ups have been fitted. Brakes and wheel weights have been added to the loco. The tender has still to get its brakes.

The only area that I had trouble with was the front pony truck. The instructions in the Branchline kit show a spring wire going from the front of the pony truck to a point on the chassis above the pivot screw. This doesn’t work as the wire has the same pivot point as the bogie so there is no leverage. So I have bent the wire so that it fits in a slot just behind the buffer beam and as close as possible above the centre line of the axle. The slot is built up from styrene strips glued to the underside of the body. Hopefully this picture should make sense of it.

For spring wire I am using 0.010” Guitar wire, available from your local music shop. (I write this as I wish someone had passed this tip onto me some time ago). The springing is set up so that the pony truck self centres and has enough down force to keep the wheels on the rails. Later on when the model is fully assembled and fully weighted I will adjust the springing so that the pony wheels take the same proportion of the model weight as the prototype. This will help guide the locomotive through points and junction work and help ensure smooth running.

With the chassis almost ready I can now start on the fun part of adding the detail.

So I have started on the body and here are my notes should anyone wish to follow my path.

First of all drill the holes. If you study the photos you may notice that I have managed to drill more holes than is required and have had to do some filling.

First the footplate

Lots of little holes around the boiler ouline. Notice how much extra room I have around the gearbox. That is because this chassis is wider for EM. Shows how narrow OO is and it also allows me to get cleaner wire runs and a wider axle bearing

Don’t forget the two lifting holes...hmm they look a little too big in this photo. I will have to check the drawing.

Then remove the bits that are not required. That is the steps, the tube under the boiler and the two lugs.

Here are the two boiler halves. The top one has had the pipe-work safety valves and handrails removed.

Leave the steps on. BUT BEFORE REMOVING the handrails drill the hand rail knobs. The moulded knobs are in the correct position so all you have to do is drill down from that point to the centre line of the boiler except for the two positions on the firebox that run more perpendicular to the surface.

This picture should explain what I mean.

I am also removing some of the moulded detail from the boiler back and note that holes are appearing here as well.

The only fault with the Airfix/Dapol/Kitmaster kit is that the cab is just under a mm (3 scale inches) too low. So I am adding some 1mm strips of plastic. This height difference becomes more apparent when trying to line up the holes with the pipework both inside and outside the cab. Cue more wrong holes and filler.

While I am at it here are the tender sides being prepared.

One tip that I was given was not to worry too much about losing rivet heads especially around areas where transfers are to be applied, in fact they can be reduced as it makes applying the decals easier.

The tender sides just require removal of the rail and the lining strip. The purifier boxes seem to be at the limit of plastic moulding and always seem to require a bit of filler. I will come back to these sides later.

I will be at the Southampton show this Saturday with No 10 and No 9 on the ENGS stand. Do drop by for a chat.

More updates to follow.

edit for typo