Morning Dave,

Do you have any more info on the bus (J4216), looks BMMO'ish to me, but not ok familiar with that fleet.

There were a few C class at my local Sainsbury's and having read this forum from beginning to end I invested in two straightaway - my first purchase from the GBL series. Ignored my wife muttering "I don't understand why you're buying TWO".

As I mainly model the North Staffordshire Railway pre and post-grouping, this model will convert into a very convincing NSR 159 class 0-6-0. The main alteration will be to provide a chassis of slightly shorter wheelbase at the rear (7'9"+7'9") with a noticable splasher in front of the cab, and removing the sandbox on the centre one. The front footplate may need shortening slightly. The rest of the boiler and the smokebox front are spot on for a 159. Safety valves are fine for the NSR Ramsbottom type but will need changing to Ross pop for LMS era. The tender looks pretty close to a 159 but probably needs more minor modifications than the loco body. Tender needs some toolboxes, NSR axleboxes and coal rails. As the 159s were virtually identical to a Furness Railway class, FR modellers might find them useful too. Although NSR classes were decimated by the introduction of LMS standard classes, a couple of NSR 159s lasted in service until 1936 so plenty of opportunity to have one in LMS black. Here's a photo of 8677.

Incredible value at £8.99 and both mine appear to be perfectly assembled and painted. I might just keep them in SECR green for a while...

Mark (5D_Stoke)

At the risk of being smug, the Dremel has come out and a Hornby Jinty chassis has been chopped about a bit, as has the bodyshell. There is enough space for a modern Hornby 0-6-0 chassis to fit, but it will need the rear chopping off (which is time-consuming with hand tools, to say the least!) and you'll end up losing the bottom of the boiler.

The splashers are separate fittings, and can be popped off carefully, which will allow you to file out the wheel slots in the chassis, which are slightly too fine for the Hornby wheels (on the outside face only). If people want to know, I'll try to do a "what I did" to show how to do it. 

I also found that the backhead detail can also be left almost intact, but the cab floor needed to come out to allow the Hornby chassis to protrude slightly. If I had the tools to slice a chunk off the top of the chassis (to lower the body's ride height) even this would not be necessary. However, the copper pick-ups on the Hornby chassis show rather spectacularly where the boiler bottom (a separate part) should be!... (note: It turns out that the splashers mostly hide this, which is helpful! Still needs a spot of black paint though.)

Edit: Yes, I realise I've got the coupling rods on upside-down, I'll have a look into that! 

One of mine had a small gap under the smokebox, so apart it came.

The splashers are separate parts, glued on.

While I was at it I took the tender apart as well.

The only obvious error is the extra divider on the tender top. Otherwise a very nice and useful model.

I popped back to Sainsbury's after work and bought a third C class, the last one they had in stock.

For anyone else inspired by the possibility of a class 159 conversion, here is a three quarter view of number 159 itself, in NSR lined madder lake livery (a lot harder than plain LMS black...).

I suppose a 159 could be converted from the Bachmann SECR C class but the prospect of discarding the motorised chassis to substitute one of the correct wheelbase makes it an expensive exercise. Chopping up and detailing a basic £8.99 unmotorised GBL one is much more appealing.

Mark (5D_Stoke)

Further to my last post, I've been spraying the seven 104 bodies today. Sadly further action with filler and sanding will be needed before proceeding to the finishing coats.

I've attached four pictures that might be of interest;

Overview

A pair of cab ends showing defects around the re-formed windows and domes

The TBSL in the area of the join - tumblehome crease needs further attention

Interiors remodelled for the seven, drivers cabs sprayed white, also seat mouldings that were in blue are painted white as undercoat

The eight bodies used all came from Ebay in various states, after removing windowframes, tumble home creases and refashioning the end windows and the domes I decided to strip the little remaining paint to give a clean start, hence the bare shells.

I'm not sure I should be hijacking Clive's thread, and will gladly move if he wishes.

John

The motor bogies for these will be the good old Hornby Ringfields, in this case they have been re-cycled from some old Hornby Hymeks in my 1970s scrap line. I think these power units have received a poor reputation in the past, but I found that was really down to bad pick-ups, they are actually very rugged and I find them more controllable than the Lima (and quieter!).These motor bogies have an adjustable wheelbase, so I need to move the brass tube bearing from the 10ft position to 8'6" for DMU. This can be tapped out with a suitable drift, care must be taken not to damage or distort it. Re-fitting in the new position is a gentle tap, again don't force it.

I'm trying out Bachmann's 36-034 small turned wheels on the 79xxx, including the motor bogie for uniformity, so the idler gear will have to be removed from the Hornby originals. I've used the 36-034s before on trailer bogies, but for power bogies I usually use the Jackson Romford 12mm disc, the 36-034 have an 11.9mm diameter, which is only a few thou greater than the Hornby gear, it's a bit tight. Failing this, I could always use the Hornby 13mm or go back to JR12s, no buying those expensive Ultrascale replacements here!

The Hornby gear is centred on the Bachmann and affixed, the pin-points are cut off and rounded smooth, I've added one brass washer to the axle, to keep the gear away from the block. The original Hornby wheels had a live axle, the Bachmann are insulated both sides, I haven't got time to turn up some metal bushes, it's also a tricky business that can easily knock the wheels out of true, so i'll add pick-ups both sides, like the bogie's modern cousin.        BK