Awesome - good work and interesting - I suspect we may see a shortage of Hymek bogies if people cotton on to your modifications. I've found plasticard and superglue sufficient to support the normal bogie spring mod so I'm sure you're new leaft springs will be safe enough with glue and milliput

A strange hybrid of Lisbon, Newcastle and Scotland as so much of Airthrey Park is.I will let Andrew comment...but if he found it easy, it was! The spares are dirt cheap. £1.10 each? Much waste to get the springs but at that price? All in all, Mr Heljan,a job worth doing? Probably not.

The sound fitting is getting more challenging when we are in 26/0 area but we still favour 'going down' on McRats as it were. The polar opposite of 47 fleet where the 29mm round on a plastikard bridge over bogies and under Shawplan fans gives heaps of din.

The usual Donnelly workmanship on painting and finishing rounds it all off. If you don't love this loco, in this livery...........you have no soul???

Some extra notes from the Lisbon end...

Paint job is all original Heljan, with warning flashers removed and re-added in correct position for '010, along with no data panels (wasn't forgetten, missing in my photos of the loco!), plus a HA castle. Handrails painted in, then a Satin varnish over the top and bodyshell done.

For the bogies, I removed the frames from the bogies then very drastically attacked them with a Dremmel mini-drill to remove the coil springs. Rather crude method to cut the bits out, but am a bit of a whizz with the Dremmel these days (just removed a 33/2 exhaust panel with one, then inserted an original pattern Lima equivalent on the way to doing an original green Slim Jim, but I digress...) A bit of tidying up with a file and scalpel left a 'U' shaped frame hanging down from the main side frame. This is quite fragile, so I did not cut it off and do the usual recess/set back job - it seems unneccessary with the leaf springs jutting out more prominently than the coils. The donor Hymek bogies were then attacked (very, very literally!) with the Dremmel, armed with a cutting disc to cut out just the cube of the leaf springs, followed by a bit of tidying up with a file. Amazingly, once done the leaf springs fit almost perfectly into the gap in the bogie side frames - a just a little tweaking with a file and they should fit in nicely. Secure initially with some plastic weld, then add oodles of epoxy behind to secure.

I also added a continuation of the bogie frame around the front, filling in the gap left where the NEM pocket unit goes. Simply some bits from the famous bits box were added between the two side frames which become a large 'U' shape, but still capable of being clipped into place on the motor bogies. Guard irons were also added to the bogie fronts with some more 'L' shaped scraps. These are quite visable in Simon's photos.

The bogie steps were also altered to the original angled style, simply by removing them from the frames (the pull out easily with a scalpel), the cutting an angle across them and gluing into place.

Reassemble, paint, weather, pack, go to post office, pay 39eur to send to Simon... :-) Job done.

Oh yes what a beast, love your work look forwards to seeing some pics of her on Airthrey Park with your other McRats.

Could you keep us posted on how you go with the 33/2 I do like my Cromptons.

Cheers Peter.