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Updating 'Nellie'


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2 hours ago, JimRead said:

Hello all,

 

May I ask another question please, would someone be good enough to measure the length of Nellie just over the buffers, I'm doing a micro track plan drawing and as usual trying to get a quart out of the pint pot.

 

Cheers - Jim

 

Might depend on buffers fitted, but mine seems to be 102mm

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3 hours ago, JimRead said:

Hello all,

 

May I ask another question please, would someone be good enough to measure the length of Nellie just over the buffers, I'm doing a micro track plan drawing and as usual trying to get a quart out of the pint pot.

 

Cheers - Jim

 

The older one (I think) is 102 mm, the other is 103 mm

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2 hours ago, carlwebus said:

Railway Modeller May 2018 had a feature on converting a Nellie (or Polly) into a nice looking Drummond 0-6-0T with the look of LSWR, North British or Caledonian using an A1X Terrier  running chassis.

 

I have a Nellie body (which someone had already kindly removed the "handrails" from) and also an old Dapol Terrier.  Its on my jobs list to convert to a presentable representation of a stovepipe Westinghouse  fitted Caley  782 class.  Quite a lot to do  to the body but I think it will be worth it.

 

This might look very good, a Perseverance chassis would need 4 mm removing and the Branchlines chassis 5 mm, might be a better option that the Avonside B3 chassis I have, except the the B3 has outside cylinders. But I have been thinking of a mark 3 version using some good quality castings I have, plus I need a quickie chassis build for test purposes

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1 hour ago, JimRead said:

Hello RS,

 

I found the page on the LNER site: https://www.lner.info/forums/viewtopic.php?t=6750 it looks fine to me. I scratch built a Y7 and a Y8 in cardboard for 0 Gauge.

 

Cheers - Jim

[edit] The North Sunderland Railway hired a Y7 from the NER and insisted they have the 'hole' at the back blocked up and a window fitted.

 

Thats the one - nice, isn’t it? The “Nellie” moulding is quite good, compared to the preceding generation and especially the bodies like the 0-6-0ST and “top tank” derived from clockwork originals 

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1 hour ago, rockershovel said:

I’ve also seen mention of fitting a Smokey Joe chassis with some minor modifications, seems a lot easier than the various attempts to fit outside cylinders to the original chassis. 

 

 

Sorry but its a rubbish chassis, awful wheels and motor. The original chassis is far better especially if the motor is swapped with a 5 pole motor

r

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4 hours ago, hayfield said:

 

 

Sorry but its a rubbish chassis, awful wheels and motor. The original chassis is far better especially if the motor is swapped with a 5 pole motor

r

 

Oh, fair enough. I’ve never actually had any experience of them, I was just passing on a comment second hand 

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Rockershovel

 

The Smokey Joe body is well worth developing, though how easy the plastic is to rework is unknown to me. The plastic chassis would be far too difficult to upgrade

 

The Smokie Joe body is one I thought of re-building and should have been the recipient of the chassis which is now under Nellie, as it happens I might still buy one as it is a representation of the Caly Pug and which the chassis was designed for. Whilst the Smokey Joe chassis work, and are reliable, they have cheap motors, coarse wheels and a poor representation of an outside cylinder.

 

Now my Nellie can rightly be criticized as it is totally freelance, however I have tried to both update the detail on the body (which is also worth doing on the Smokey Joe body) to something nearer today's standards and put a chassis under it which is to both finer standards and has better quality, my plan is to building the chassis to P4 standards . I could have kept the Nellie metal chassis by re-wheeling it and using a decent motor and gearbox, new coupling rods and a bit of extra detail, but I had this chassis in my stash.

 

At the moment Nellie will keep this chassis, but in the future I may fit a modified (etched) Terrier chassis to it,  Mk 2 or 3 body may have a cut down bunker closer to the LSWR loco and would be a better fit for the chassis. 

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243.jpeg.0265530c667d9fa505bd31f66de7dedc.jpeg

 

I managed to put a top coat on Nellie last Friday and put some more colour on by brush last night

244.jpeg.536bd73223e96675951102537ba17230.jpeg

 

The top coat shows up blemishes which were not visible when in primer still its fine especially when I am happy to accept molded smokebox door darts

 

245.jpeg.3217b044cf21a00ec2ef6e9a685c4756.jpeg

I need a buffer, must look in the spares box, I will not have the exact one but may find something.

 

Chassis needs finishing, I now have some Gibson wheels, but want to try out a new coreless motor first

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Jim

 

Thanks, I will give a video a go (never done one before !!) but the components I have used are fairly basic and commonly used Romford/Markit wheels High Level gearbox and a Mashima motor.

 

I have not fitted pickups yet (chassis tested using wires direct to the controller. As the chassis will be live and I am going to fit Gibson P4 wheels, the current crankpins may short against the slide bars lets see.

 

I will also fit 2 slabs of roofing lead into the tanks to add a bit of weight. I am also very tempted to have a go at some lining, must spray up some plasticard and have a go

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  • 3 weeks later...
14 hours ago, JimRead said:

Hello all,


I bought a Nellie a Triang one old enough to be easily called vintage. I stripped it and it's motor down sprayed it with Jizer and then washed it soapy water. It all came up rather clean, put it back together and it went ... nowhere, such is life.

 

Looking closely at the wheels I realised that they were plated and it was peeling off on the rear of the tyres. Using a diamond file and my old Bosch drill I got the plating off and polished them with some 400 W&D paper. Back together again it ran one way but not the other, eventually I realised it was the brushes not making contact properly with the commutator. I found some very worn carbon brushes from an old X04 filed them flat put them in and it began to work properly.

 

I was using circuit No 3 on Scott's pages: https://www.scottpages.net/ReviewOfControllers.html tried my spare made with No 1 and thought I must make another the slow start is better with this, I was one component short but enough to make circuit No 2, which I'm glad to say works just as well as No 1.

 

The video

 

 

I stop the chassis a few times to see if I can move it a few mm and on the way back demonstrate the feedback

 

I made the test track with card sleepers and super glued some Code 75 to it, the curves are to simulate an 18" radius crossover. The chassis runs better left to right and 'cogs' a bit going the other way, some running in would soon sort that out, I'm astonished at the X0 motor no wonder they have such a following.

 

Eventually I hope to obtain a 5 pole armature and I'm going to have a go at fitting another worm and gear.

 

Cheers - Jim

 

 

Jim

 

I still have a couple of these chassis, one thought is to take it completely apart, space it out to EM gauge (I think it would work equally well replacing the cast blocks with 00 gauge spacers) Bush the axel holes in the chassis with 1/8 bearings and use Romford wheels and a decent modern motor and gears/box, and adding some decent coupling rods

 

The other thought was to convert one to fit an 0-16.5 Hunslet much the same but beefing up the coupling rods

 

As for 5 pole motors the MW/ Airfix MRRC MW 05 motors regular come up on eBay, also now and again the Romford Bulldog motors appear, both are a direct replacement for the X03/4

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On 15/07/2020 at 08:23, hayfield said:

243.jpeg.0265530c667d9fa505bd31f66de7dedc.jpeg

 

I managed to put a top coat on Nellie last Friday and put some more colour on by brush last night

244.jpeg.536bd73223e96675951102537ba17230.jpeg

 

The top coat shows up blemishes which were not visible when in primer still its fine especially when I am happy to accept molded smokebox door darts

 

245.jpeg.3217b044cf21a00ec2ef6e9a685c4756.jpeg

I need a buffer, must look in the spares box, I will not have the exact one but may find something.

 

Chassis needs finishing, I now have some Gibson wheels, but want to try out a new coreless motor first

 

Nice conversion, it reminds me of the Bassett Lowke 112 tank

 

sca029.jpg.25d2364036659bb61ad356ff326d1b81.jpg

 

Dave

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