Updating 'Nellie'

[Nearholmer]

Yes, did it myself, very messily, 40+ years ago.

[hayfield]

Body now has hand rails etc

 

 

see a couple of marks which need filling

 

 

The body has a slight tilt owing to the cylinders being higher than the chassis ends, which have cut outs to fit the Hornby Cally tank, plasticard fillers will be used

 

 

Lamp irons need fitting, next up will be fitting the gear box, then if all is OK I will order some Gibson wheels

[Poor Old Bruce]

Not mine but a mate at the local club has got this which he found on e-bay. A multiple cut-n-shut job on a Lanky Pug chassis.

 

 

 

Sorry about the foggy effect, I think the camera must have been steamed up.

[hayfield]

Looks to be a god buy, a bit of filler and handrail knobs will really spruce it up. The hardest part in my mind is the chassis, the Triang body is easy to fix as it takes to plastic solvent my body had loads of knocks which the filler (White Squadron) sorted out, I do find thinning the filler with Humbrol Liquid Poly allows it to seep into the cracks

[rockershovel]

Straying across from the thread about the Tri-Ang 0-6-0ST, the pics above (in primer) do rather make the “Nellie” body moulding look rather good, compared to the distinctly crude and Toy-like 0-6-0

[hayfield]

Its difficult to comment, but the body of the early saddle tank is about the same period, so I would assume its of a similar material, I assume with a careful bit of fettling should come up about the same, as for the detailing they may need changing

 

I have been thinking about the second body and it may be worth removing the cab doors, I have already removed the bunker coal rails and the coal, also fitted a cab rear lower wall

[hayfield]

 

High Level Loader fitted into the chassis, all OK and working, now I can order the wheels from Alan Gibson

 

 

[DCB]

Looks good.  I am still working on designs for a 2-4-0 Polly based tank loco.  It has to get round 12" radius so may have to be a 4-4-0.  Like the ex NBR  D51.    With the cylinders driving on to the leading coupled axle  I can shift the drive wheels back so the firebox is in front of the trailing axle leaving room for the crank axle in front of it.   Having done my initial drawings it seems to me many of these pug bashes aren't thought through though as regards the mechanical details.  The inside cylinder 0-4-0 as supplied RTR would not really work as there is no room for con rods or crank axle as the typical circa 1900 deep firebox and ashpan would be in the way. The inside cyl 0-6-0 puts the drive further forward. with cylinders inclined driving over the front axle.

Likewise the outside cylinder Nellie really needs its cylinders directly under the chimney.   Like the LSWR original, and also really needs outside valve gear as there is so little room between firebox and rear axle.  I suppose the Fletcher Jennings valve gear from Dolgoch on the Tallylyn could have been used.    Then again I just realised the cab interior from an 0-6-0 Thomas the Tank looks like it will fit if I chisel it out so maybe Polly will just get handrails and a cab interior. Should save a lot of work.

Edited June 30, 2020 by DavidCBroad

[Nearholmer]

14 minutes ago, DavidCBroad said:

 Like the LSWR original, and also really needs outside valve gear as there is so little room between firebox and rear axle.

 

I'm not certain, but I think the LSWR ones had the rear axle behind/below the firebox, which would have made inside valve-gear impossible, unless of the FJ-type, like "Captain Baxter". 

[hayfield]

 

On 30/06/2020 at 16:42, DavidCBroad said:

Looks good.  I am still working on designs for a 2-4-0 Polly based tank loco.  It has to get round 12" radius so may have to be a 4-4-0.  Like the ex NBR  D51.    With the cylinders driving on to the leading coupled axle  I can shift the drive wheels back so the firebox is in front of the trailing axle leaving room for the crank axle in front of it.   Having done my initial drawings it seems to me many of these pug bashes aren't thought through though as regards the mechanical details.  The inside cylinder 0-4-0 as supplied RTR would not really work as there is no room for con rods or crank axle as the typical circa 1900 deep firebox and ashpan would be in the way. The inside cyl 0-6-0 puts the drive further forward. with cylinders inclined driving over the front axle.

Likewise the outside cylinder Nellie really needs its cylinders directly under the chimney.   Like the LSWR original, and also really needs outside valve gear as there is so little room between firebox and rear axle.  I suppose the Fletcher Jennings valve gear from Dolgoch on the Tallylyn could have been used.    Then again I just realised the cab interior from an 0-6-0 Thomas the Tank looks like it will fit if I chisel it out so maybe Polly will just get handrails and a cab interior. Should save a lot of work.

 

David

 

You could take a SR E1  or 4 or 5 extend the footplate, loose the front drivers and fit a bogie

 

 

 

Edited July 2, 2020 by hayfield

[Nearholmer]

I’ve no idea how big/small that 4-4-0T is, but I wonder if it might be do-able from a Terrier, the Stroudley >>>Drummond development being very clear. An E1 is quite a big loco, and might be too big for the job. And, secondhand Terriers are ten a penny.

[hayfield]

 

Front and rear steps fitted last night

 

The rear fixing hole was still showing so letting the filler really dry out before sanding, then drill holes for the lamp irons. I need a spare buffer !!!!

 

 

Polly mk2 cut off the coal rails and coal, fitted a full length cab rear, the front steps are on Mk1, also cut out the cab doors.

[rockershovel]

14 hours ago, Nearholmer said:

I’ve no idea how big/small that 4-4-0T is, but I wonder if it might be do-able from a Terrier, the Stroudley >>>Drummond development being very clear. An E1 is quite a big loco, and might be too big for the job. And, secondhand Terriers are ten a penny.

 

Pretty much a NBR “Terrier” by all accounts, along with the subsequent 0-6-0T which was based on the Terrier, and would provide boilers for updating the earlier 4-4-0 type 

 

[DCB]

The NB 4-4-0T was 30ft over buffers against 26ft for the Terrier with 5ft driving wheels against 4ft and a foot taller to the chimney so quite a lot bigger than the Terrier.  The Terrier originated with a Highland design/ lash up to create a cheap shunter using redundant boilers from main line 2-2-2 and 2-4-0 locos. It was not a particularly small loco by the standards of the time.  After the 3 Highland locos  Stroudley re used much of the design in his LBSCR Terriers.   Drummond copied Stroudleys work and copied his LBSCR D1 class 0-4-2T and had trouble with the trailing axle so for his next passenger tanks he went to the 4-4-0T for 3 large  D50 Clyde Coast fast suburban locos with 6ft driving wheels and the small later D51 tank mentioned above before re jigging the 0-4-2T as an 0-4-4T which he then took to the Caley which built many of them and later to the LSWR which tried to use them on Plymouth expresses until a couple failed to get round a corner at highish speed.  Most of these designs evoluted and those which were blank page new designs tended to fail completely or remain as one offs.    I cut a Polly body in half last evening, now I have to fix the lathe so I can turn down a spark plug extension from a coil pack so I can lengthen the boiler. 

 

[rockershovel]

1 hour ago, DavidCBroad said:

The NB 4-4-0T was 30ft over buffers against 26ft for the Terrier with 5ft driving wheels against 4ft and a foot taller to the chimney so quite a lot bigger than the Terrier.  The Terrier originated with a Highland design/ lash up to create a cheap shunter using redundant boilers from main line 2-2-2 and 2-4-0 locos. It was not a particularly small loco by the standards of the time.  After the 3 Highland locos  Stroudley re used much of the design in his LBSCR Terriers.   Drummond copied Stroudleys work and copied his LBSCR D1 class 0-4-2T and had trouble with the trailing axle so for his next passenger tanks he went to the 4-4-0T for 3 large  D50 Clyde Coast fast suburban locos with 6ft driving wheels and the small later D51 tank mentioned above before re jigging the 0-4-2T as an 0-4-4T which he then took to the Caley which built many of them and later to the LSWR which tried to use them on Plymouth expresses until a couple failed to get round a corner at highish speed.  Most of these designs evoluted and those which were blank page new designs tended to fail completely or remain as one offs.    I cut a Polly body in half last evening, now I have to fix the lathe so I can turn down a spark plug extension from a coil pack so I can lengthen the boiler. 

 

 

You always learn something on here. 

 

I can well imagine that 0-4-4T were not best suited to high speeds on the route to Plymouth! 

[hayfield]

The plastic on Nellie is a little different to the "soapy" stuff we find hard to glue these days, I would try some on the inside of the body first. The other alternative is Phoenix Precision paint stripper which is friendly to most plastics

 

The primer I use is Halfords rattle can, not worth getting my airbrush out until I come to the top coat

[Malcolm 0-6-0]

8 hours ago, JimRead said:

Hello all,

 

I've got an old Nellie and finding this thread I would really like to have a go at it. The body has been badly painted and I read that disinfectant will remove the paint, is this right?

 

I like the way you've done yours Hayfield the primer looks so smooth.

 

Cheers - Jim

 

Caustic soda or oven cleaner. Either won't harm plastic.

[DCB]

Car brake fluid works for me. 

[PatB]

I recently stripped a couple of Triang Jinties using neat Dettol. Left them to soak in it for 24 hours, then scrubbed the resulting goo off with a toothbrush. It didn't attack the Triang plastic at all, either the traditional black or the strange maroon stuff used for the dodgy Lms livery. Whatever you do, don't add water until you've got all the dissolved paint goop loose, or it all turns to an impossible sticky mess. It actually worked better than caustic/oven cleaner on the paint that had been used. 

[PatB]

6 hours ago, PatB said:

I recently stripped a couple of Triang Jinties using neat Dettol. Left them to soak in it for 24 hours, then scrubbed the resulting goo off with a toothbrush. It didn't attack the Triang plastic at all, either the traditional black or the strange maroon stuff used for the dodgy Lms livery. Whatever you do, don't add water until you've got all the dissolved paint goop loose, or it all turns to an impossible sticky mess. It actually worked better than caustic/oven cleaner on the paint that had been used. 

I should add that I did apply water prematurely to the first shell I did, which gave me a bit of a nasty moment. The resulting sticky coating feels exactly like polystyrene that's been dipped in MEK, and I thought the body was dissolving. I was quite relieved to discover that it wasn't. 

[hayfield]

38 minutes ago, JimRead said:

Thanks John and Thanks Malcolm and Thanks David and Thanks Pat,

 

A wealth of suggestions there, I'm spoilt for choice :-)
I'll have a scrabble through the cleaning cupboard and see what we've got.

 

Thanks for your help - Cheers - Jim

 

 

Jim

 

If you are going to remove the molded on detail then you will be rubbing the body with abrasive paper anyway, I superglued strips on to wood strips to make sanding boards. Also I used plastic filler which I thinned with solvent, but let it dry out fully overnight before sanding.

[Edwardian]

On 02/07/2020 at 20:17, hayfield said:

 

Front and rear steps fitted last night

 

The rear fixing hole was still showing so letting the filler really dry out before sanding, then drill holes for the lamp irons. I need a spare buffer !!!!

 

 

Polly mk2 cut off the coal rails and coal, fitted a full length cab rear, the front steps are on Mk1, also cut out the cab doors.

 

Very nice work.

 

What did you use for the steps - that looks like a useful casting?

[hayfield]

Top photo, The front steps are the locos repositioned, the rear ones are etched from the chassis fret (Branchlines Hornby Caly replacement chassis). There are also a set of front steps on the fret

 

Mainly trains do various sets of step etches, I also have some spare/scrap Weald Models E4 etches with steps on them. Southeastern Finecast sell spares and whitemetal steps are available. Just a case of looking out for appropriate items

 

The Nellie steps are a bit thin for cab steps but fine for front ones

 

 

[SteveyDee68]

Was always jealous of my school friend with a layout in his dad's garage - he had a Hornbt Flying Scotsman in LNER green but more importantly to me the cutest bright red 0-4-0 with an enormous shiny chrome finished dome!  If any loco makes me feel nostalgic, it is seeing that particular version of "Nellie".  I was so close to buying one at the last toy fair I went to - but picked up a dock shunter instead!  The magazine article with the Electrotren 0-6-0 outside cylinder chassis was tempting; maybe the spare Terrier chassis in my possession should be pressed into service beneath a "Nellie" body instead, as mentioned earlier in the thread?  Off in search of RMWeb inspiration for another 'dock' shunter!

 

Steve S

[carlwebus]

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.