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Hunslet Refurb


David Jackson

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Early in 2015 a decision to purchase a second NIR Hunslet kit came to nothing when John Hazelton of Silver Fox Models informed me that the kit was no longer available due to wear and tear of the mould.

When the opportunity arose to purchase a completed model on ebay I was straight in there. The model came complete with a Bachmann Class 20 chassis, but was poorly finished. I decided to go ahead with the purchase, as, to quote from the old TV series ‘The Ten Million Dollar Man’, “we have the technology, we can rebuild him”.

The purchase completed, the loco duly arrived, and the true state of construction was revealed.

Although listed as a Silver Fox model, there were substantial differences to the loco I already had. The grilles, and other fittings were etched brass or white metal, and had to be fitted, unlike my existing loco which was all one piece, in fact, it turned out to be an MIR kit. Nevertheless, the gauntlet had been thrown down, so deconstruction began with the careful removal of all fitted parts which were put aside for reuse where possible.

Once down to a bare shell, the chassis, which had been secured to the body with some Copydex, was refitted using 1.5mm plasticard mounts secured inside the body. As with my previous model, some scraping away of the inside of the roof was required to get the body to sit at a reasonable height. The roof is quite thick, so it was easy to remove up to 1.5mm of resin to clear the 21 pin DCC connector, the motor, and a speaker. The prototype loco was a tall loco anyway, and the model is still tall, but looks so much better once the body has been lowered. In order to lower it, the Bachmann battery boxes also needed to be removed. These are plastic mouldings stuck on to the metal chassis, and can be removed quite easily. The chassis had been shortened by about 4 or 5mm by the original builder, which I thought was a bit strange, until I accidentally tried to fit my existing unmodified Hunslet chassis, which turned out to be too long, another difference in the body moulding. The new chassis had only required about 1mm removed from each end, so some plasticard packing was fitted, 2mm at one end, and 1mm at the other to centralise the chassis. A small hole was drilled at each end of the chassis and small screws used to secure the chassis to the plasticard brackets fitted earlier to the body.

The mechanical alterations complete, the next stage was to remove/smooth away any excess paint or adhesive from the body, fill in any holes and imperfections and generally tidy up the body shell. Window apertures were filed out to the correct size and shape. Metal components were straightened out, and dunked in cellulose thinners to remove any paint. I did not use any sort of stripper on the body, as I had no idea what, if any, reaction my normal stripping fluids might have on the resin. Various files, a sharp chisel craft knife blade, some fine wet & dry sanding paper, and a fibre pen were the order of the day for paint removal on the body.

The body prepared, reassembly commenced. Firstly, holes were drilled for lights, to be fitted later, most of the original handrail holes were filled in and redrilled in the correct positions. The cab roofs were originally thin brass, but they had been damaged beyond reuse, so new roofs were made up from plasticard and fitted. Likewise, all the handrails, that were there, were discarded, and new ones made up and fitted. The etched grilles were carefully straightened and refitted. Cab door steps and door handles, which were not present on the model when purchased, were made up and fitted. Finally, a coat of Halford’s grey primer was applied and any imperfections sorted.

One of the original couplings had been removed from a bogie by the previous owner, complete with the coupling pocket, so, a large coupling was fitted to the bogie frame for use at the ‘push end’ of the loco. In the event, it was decided that the loco was to be finished off as 102 in it’s final guise, which meant there would be no ‘push-pull’ equipment fitted. The bogie frame with the large coupling was swapped with a bogie frame off an existing ‘push-pull’ fitted Hunslet, 101.

The loco came with Class 20 battery boxes, so new Hunslet ones were made up out of plasticard, and glued to the chassis.

During this refurbishment, John Hazelton notified me that the Silver Fox Hunslet kit was available once again, so another kit was purchased for a future build.

The loco is to be painted in the dark blue with yellow warning panels livery, so that it contrasts with my other two Hunslets, both Silver Fox models, thus making the etched parts fitted not so noticeable.

Lights, glazing and window frames will be fitted after the loco has been painted.        

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Hi David - looking back on my colour shots, I cannot find any with a Hunslet in dark blue with a yellow warning panel. It seems to have been either a narrow V, like that applied with the maroon livery, or a broad V - both in "day-glow" red. Also, the blue seems to have faded quite quickly - so a light colour is probably OK unless you want her ex-works.

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...and rather well it looked too. Pity it's "working" life in that livery was so short.  

 

I've often wondered why NIR back then went for a new "one off" design, but with EE engines etc I'd have expected them to have been much more of a success..they really "faded out" after just ten years - and "Merlin" seemed to be particularly prone to failure.. 

 

Hindsight is a wonderful thing but half a doz Type 20 updated locos might have served better in the longer term.; a general purpose "go anywhere" loco always seems best for Irish railways. (WT , 041)

 

Still it all makes for more interesting modelling.

 

A pic attached of something slowly taking shape on my workbench. More on it in a separate thread in due course DV  (BTW the underframe isn't longer than the body - that's a photo perspective issue.)

 

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Colm

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