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"Thompson A2/1 from a Bachmann V2 & Graeme King Parts - Part 4"

S.A.C Martin

Entry posted by S.A.C Martin

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A bit of finishing off prior to weathering. Firstly, the front steps on the running plate have been removed. 60508 didn't have these steps, and it was a timely post from one Tony Wright on another thread which spurred me into removing them (particularly as 60508 is photographed in this livery quite clearly without them). Lining out was also added to the bufferbeam, along with gluing down the buffers, hook and coupling and vacuum pipe.

 

EDIT: I should point out that 60508 is the only A2/1 which didn't have these steps. This clarification by Tony Wright, c/o Andy Y can be read in the comments section of this blog. Thanks Mr Wright, much appreciated! :)

 

The dome was painted using Railmatch's apple green, from the same can as the A2/2 I am building. I am flabbergasted as to the difference in shade when compared to my A2/2, seen here:

 

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Both painted in exactly the same manner and with the same white undercoat. What gives? The A2/2 is darker! I am in two minds still. Having talked it out with Mick at length via PM, I'm reluctant to remove such a smooth finish, but the colour is just wrong. It's far, far too dark. The A2/1's dome came out okay so I am scratching my head as to why.

 

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The tender has had some further changes. Here we can see that I've chopped off the moulded coal, keeping the rear wall in the tender, filling it instead with real coal. This will look much less shiny when weathered I suspect! I've gone off two photographs of 60508 at King's Cross, and filled the tender to the brim.

 

The smaller B1 tenders were not well liked on these class of engine, and I suspect that was down to both the lack of a tarpaulin at the cab, and the lack of water or coal capacity, for what was an economical machine but only on the heaviest of passenger and freight trains. There's interesting lb per mile statistics for this particular engine in a set of trials, which can be read in British Pacific Locomotives by Cecil J. Allen, or East Coast Pacifics at Work by Peter Townend. Whatever your take on the A2/1s, it's clear that the "orphans of the storm" were moderately successful when employed on the heaviest of trains but lacking in the refined qualities the A3s, A4s and A1s possessed.

 

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A further modification was to the buffers; the Bachmann ones were poor in comparison to these Hornby B1 buffers, which are available from Peter's Spares on eBay, and were duly replaced. The bufferbeam will have a bit of filler, wet'n'dry paper, and some red paint added before too long to complete the job.

 

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The cabside numbers have been added, with a coat of Johnson's Klear used to seal them. I am debating whether to just say "sod it" and go commission a set of transfers for the curly 6 - from the look of things, I will need approximately 30 of these numerals to renumber my fleet, which includes many of the apple green Pacifics which had them. This curly 6 was created by cutting and shutting a number 5 from a Fox Transfers sheet, a method tried and tested with much success elsewhere on RMweb. It is a very good tip.

 

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So that, bar weathering, is more or less that. The one thing standing out is the cartazzi wheels; they haven't been added yet as I have not had enough time to devote to examining my chassis and working out the best way of attaching them. I suspect Graeme King's excellent A-frame idea he applied to one of his A2/3s may come in handy in due course.

 

So for the moment, that's yer lot with Thompson A2/1s. I'll weather it once I have time to get the airbrush and spray booth out, but from today until next week I'll be away from home mostly, so no chance to finish it off completely for a while yet.

 

Until next time, thanks for reading.

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toboldlygo
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I'm assuming the tender was painted first Simon. I'm wondering if the paint wasn't mixed thoroughly enough as I've had that happen myself with Brunswick Green from Railmatch.

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S.A.C Martin

Tender wasn't painted at all - it was a spare tender I bought from eBay for precisely this purpose. Bachmann previously released an apple green B1 with British Railways on the side. Why make things more difficult for myself was my thought! The B1 frames and the V2 tender top have both gone to new happy homes for reasonable sums, and that has given me an RTR tender in the correct form and livery I wanted.

 

The paint comes from their aerosol, and I'm mystified because I didn't do anything differently. Both used a white, acrylic based undercoat which had been allowed to harden over 24 hours. Both have come out very smooth, both very different colours. Madness! I wonder if I just had a bad aerosol can.

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S.A.C Martin

The only thing which is stopping me from stripping the A2/2 down altogether is the surface finish. I've never painted anything as smooth in my whole life. I'm wondering if with lining out and then weathering, it'll look somewhat better, but I'm afraid that the apple green (being so dark) simply won't show up, and annoyingly the best pics I have of 60506 in my research show it remarkably clean in apple green livery.

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Andy Y

Hi Simon,

 

Tony has sent me a note of clarification:

 

ONLY 60508 of the A2/1s never had the small front footsteps adjacent to the smoke deflectors. The other three did. 60119 was the only Peppercorn A1 never to carry the correct style of Gill Sans '6' and '9' on its front numberplate. It retained its incorrect-style plate right to the end.
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S.A.C Martin

Hi Andy,

 

I appreciate the clarification and tip on 60119. 60508 remains correct then? I am surprised it was the only one. Did all of the other Thompson Pacifics have them then? I am looking through Power of the A2s and it's surprising how prominent it is on 60508 by their absence, but the rest seem to have them.

 

I will edit my above post to avoid confusing others in the footstep issue. Thanks for dropping by the blog to pass on the info :)

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DavidBelcher

I'm back on RMWeb after a long break caused by work and sporting commitments!

I've severely trimmed back the ex-LNER contingent in my stock collection, impressed with your A2/1 though. I've a hunch "Rothesay" might have been the only member of the sub-class to sport a 6-wheel tender bearing any sort of BR identity....

 

David

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S.A.C Martin

I think you're right there David. I have photos of 60509 in apple green but with the eight wheeled tender. An easy win it seems if I wanted another A2/1 in apple green as you'd just keep the existing A2 tender. 60507 is very tempting, as no.507 and with LNER on the tender, in all over black to offer something different for my 1948-50 Ganwick Curve scene.

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