i have recently been working on a conversion of an old Mianline J72 body into a reasonable model of a J88 mainly by simply shortening the body and re-shaping the chimney and, i am now working on the cab.

i finally managed to obtain a terrier chassis to fit underneath this conversion as this is the only chassis i can think of that is both rtr and anywhere near the wheelbase of the J88. photos to follow.

to make the body i tok the mainline J72 body and lengthened the tanks by approx 5mm, shortened the front end by 4mm. i also extended teh height of the tanks by 3mm using plastikard sheet and then sanded the edge to a curve as per the prototype. for the chimney i kept the original J72 chimney and filed the underside of the lip, i did consider making it into a stovepipe chimney but these looked unsightly and so, i decided to stick with the lipped chimney as these looked a lot better.

to make the cyliners and motion. i had a set of old mainline jubilee cylinders lying in my spares box, these were cut in half and the top edge filed round. these were then fitted to the underside of the running plate with the front of the cylinders in line with the smoke-box.

for the motion i took an old set of Hornby A3 valve gear to see what i could do. i found that i could use the slidebars and the connecting rods as this method would cost nothing and use up some bits and pieces that were lying around my spares box. i cut the slide bars in half and used only the bottom half and kept a lip at the rear end to stop the piston rod coming adrift. this was then securely fitted to the cylinders and at an angle as per the real thing.

as for the piston rod i did not want to use the square rod of the Hornby valvegear to i took some stiff brass rod and trimmed it to length and soldered this to the rear of the crosshead. this was trial fitted and fitted and worked first time which doesnt happen to often.

the connecting rods are also made from the Hornby valve gear. i took the A3 connecting rods and cut these short using a bit of guesstimation, drilled out a small hole for the fitting to the centre wheels and again it worked - surprisingly. the motion is over-scale compared to the Dapol coupling rods, the connecting rod will be filed down thinner at a leter date.

the body was fitted with handrails and dumb buffers and chain shakles as the J88 didnt have hooks. i have yet to fit lamp irons etc, they are on the to do list. i also have to decide what i am goin to do about the cab cut-out as this is wrong for the J88, the J72 has the same shape cut but it isnt in the centre where it is on the NB loco. i am in two mind what to do here, do i leave it as is knowing that it isnt right or, do i take the plunge and modify it risking the integrity of the model. i shall see.

apologies for the fuzzy photos i couldnt keep me hand still