Well that's Christmas over and a few bits of old age illness seen off, so perhaps its time to key in a few more words.

The third loco for conversion, which I predicted as a "quickie" was a very ancient OO LNER J50, 0-6-0 shunting tank. This was a favourite model in my OO days being one of the best performing models which operated on various OO layouts owned by members or club at Huddersfield RM. I had purchased it second hand because it was beautifully finished in lined apple green and it was LNER, at a time when that railway's locos were hardly recognised by the model railway trade.

By today's standard it was a rubbish model!. A white metal body, by Kayes I think (? - may have been Wills!), on a totally incorrect wheelbase, Hornby-Dublo chassis, but it ran like a dream and looked like an angle! No real detail existed; model locos did not need things like brakes, sanders, lamp brackets, injectors, ejectors etc, to be warmly accepted in those now distant days, - I'm going back to the mid-late 1960s here.

The builder had however fitted wire handrails, albeit in severely over-scale (by today's standards) handrail knobs, and the paint finish was excellent. It was however totally incorrect. Only one J50 was painted green and lined out and that was number 8891 which had a short bunker with an extended cage-type coal rail unit and was a J50/1 converted from a J51. Some twelve years of design improvement later the "583 Series" was born, and later became J50/3.

The white metal kit bears a reasonable resemblance to a J50/3 which became the LNER Group Standard shunting engine, having a long bunker and three, plated-in coal rails. Visually the J50/1 is quite obviously different to a J50/3. So even in those far off years, unable to accept this, to me, quite obvious error, that gorgeous green finish was removed and un-lined black was substituted.

The person I purchased the model from, a fellow member of HRM but not the builder, was annoyed with me for what he considered to be desecration of a good model. He was totally unable to accept my reasoning even though the model was no longer his. Remembering this still makes me smile; - funny lot railway modellers!

For the EM conversion,my original intention was simply to change the Hornby-Dublo wheels and axles for a set of Gibson wheels with EM tyres and that's what I initially did. But right from the start my obsession with fine, highly correct detail started to interfere and this so called quickie proved to be anything but!

However, the old Hornby-Dublo chassis now had a set of Gibson EM wheels with a new set of fluted coupling rods and went off to Wheegram Sidings for a test run. Gosh! It was very noisy, even though the chassis had been well cleaned and lubricated after its 30 to 40 years in storage. Worse even than the noise was the poor speed control and in particular the fact that it would not run slowly and smoothly. Nor did rice pudding skin need to worry about its pulling power. It had been a star performer years ago; what had gone wrong?

What had gone wrong was that the motor's magnet had virtually 'died'!

This leads to a much higher revving motor with very little torque development. Either I needed to re-magnetize the motor or replace its magnet by a modern magnet or replace the motor with a modern motor.

This was supposed to be a quickie job and making a re-magnetiser would take time and offer little use for future. Sending away for re-magnetising would cost more in postage than the job was worth. Re-motoring really meant building a new chassis as the Hornby-Dublo motor was built to fit into the chassis block and mesh with the existing gearing. So a new magnet it would be

A trawl of the Internet resulted in a multitude of suppliers of modern magnets of all sizes but in and among all those was SuperNeoMagnets@aol.com and coopertrains@hotmail.co.uk, both of whom seemed to sell magnets which were a direct replacement for various RTR manufacturers motors. Coopertrains answered my e-mail enquiry quickest and charged £11.50. I ordered on receipt of reply. Two days later Superneo replied with a lower price. Serves me right for being over eager!

These modern magnets are light-years better than those from early years and are very good at retaining their magnetism as well as being somewhat stronger size for size. The one I purchased took all of five minutes to replace the original H-D magnet and from then the running was once again exemplary. Pity about the price I paid!

When I started this conversion I had no intention of doing any detail improvements, but my desire for precision started to interfere and the flat time taken waiting for the new magnet resulted in some reading research mainly based on The RCTS' Locomotives of the LNER 'Green Bible' (Volume 8A for J50 class) and our good friend 'Yeadon's Register'; being volume 46A for this class.

I started to compile two lists:

Body Modifications and Chassis modifications, and quickly compiled 20 items which would improve the appearance and make this a presentable modern day model. Now the Hornby-Dublo chassis has the wrong wheelbase for any J50, but the white metal body is a reasonable representation of the J50/3. However if I am to resurrect my once much loved J50 and bring it into the twenty first century, I will have to accept some compromise on precision of detail. One such compromise is the driving wheel sandbox. In reality this is a complex shape which causes the middle steps to have a curved back-plate riveted to the front of the running plate valance; an unusual and very visual fact. On the model, because of the wrong wheelbase, it is impossible to put the sandbox behind the steps, which while approximately in the correct position for the body, are in an incorrect position as relating to the wheels. To get this correct needs a new chassis, but I want to retain that old H-D chassis. A compromise!

Before I can list my compromises and relate how I achieved some of the changes I will have to consult my notes which are not currently with me so I leave with a picture of the conversion at this stage.

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