orford's Blog

I've just read the whole blog, and what you have ended up with is a very creditable model of a B12. Brilliant. The one thing that let's it down, which you can do nothing about, is the 8mm that Triang cut out from the front end - it really does make such a massive difference to the looks of the loco. The proper length loco looks lean and svelte, the Triang/Hornby shortened version looks squat and dumpy.

 

I want to get a B12 for myself, but as an EM modeller who enjoys building locos, I will be buying the PDK kit, however, I've got a few more kits to build before I buy that one!

 

Phil

Yep - not much can be done about the length, but I've tried to disguise it as best I can by redoing the front bogie, adding front bogie splash/stone guards, etc., cheating just a little bit on all.  The Hornby front frames are also rather too low in profile (in front of the smoke box) and again - there isn't a lot which can be done about it.

 

At the end of the day - it was never going to be a true scale model of a B12. the idea was simply to improve the Hornby model as much as possible within a reasonable time scale, until one of the big boys finally brings out a decent version to modern standards (we live in hope).

 

The biggest change was lowering it by about 3mm so that it sits at the correct height on the chassis - this alone makes a huge difference. Also fitting a modern (actually Sandringham) tender, to replace the original shapeless 'blob'.

 

But as I model the Aldeburgh branch (or at least, an imagined extension of it), I needed a B12. And I'm running out of years!

 

- Don

Looks a lot better but the over long firebox still lets it down.

 

Whats up next?

 

Peter

A lot of work on the other (O Gauge) exhibition layout, Peter.  This one's pretty much about done, other than waiting for a couple of Hornby D16/3's to arrive later in the summer.