Mainline Rebuilt Royal Scot - Modifying

[plasticbasher]

Hi All,

 

I have a question, but I'll get to it...skip to the bold text if in a hurry..!!!

 

I recently got hold of a rebuilt Royal Scot loco by Mainline in (I believe fictitious, but quite attractive) LMS crimson.  It was a non-runner and had several issues.  Most of those have now been sorted.

 

Cosmetically, the bent front steps were straightened by dipping in pretty hot water for 10-15 seconds and tweaking back to shape (water was uncomfortably hot but I could keep my hands in it for that time...so I guess about 45-50C).  Years of grease and grime was removed from the body-shell after a soak in warm water & washing up liquid and careful scrub with a soft paintbrush.  Remarkably, it's actually turned out to be in pretty good condition.

 

On the tender, what I am convinced are small, rusty wood-screws(!!!) holding it together were massively tight and one actually sheared when I took it apart - the original fixing posts are definitely past saving, so I'll have to bodge up a way of holding the tender chassis and tender body together securely, but that's no hardship.  I even found a Mainline "steamsound" unit in the tender, but haven't tested it yet (no PP3 battery).  I'll ditch that and put some old lead in to weight it anyway.

 

The loco chassis even runs tolerably okay after a complete strip-down and service!

• A rivet missing from valve gear was sorted with a "thing" I found in my box of tiny nuts, fixings and bolts (it may actually have been a old Hornby valve gear rivet actually)
• There were a couple of screws missing holding the two halves of the chassis together which I found suitable substitutes for.
• There are no broken gears, the split axles haven't split and the chassis block doesn't have the typical (and terminal) Mainline / Bachmann problem of excessive wear in the block where the axles wear against the block.
• Mechanically, apart from the valve gear, dried grease and general filth the main issue was the motor wouldn't spin - I replaced the (incorrect and very stiff) brush springs with some suitable ones found in my "nuts & bolts" box (they are probably Hornby Ringfield ones).

All in all £15 well spent in my opinion.  The old split chassis Mainline and Bachmann locos are such a gamble I doubt I'd be willing to pay more without cast iron guarantees they are mechanically perfect.

 

Anyway, having come this far I cannot get away from the feeling the cab sits too high relative to the rest of the loco.  It makes the firebox and boiler look small, spoiling the "muscular" look of the real thing.  I have no scale plans but photo's infer I'm correct.  I've a vague recollection that someone, somewhere lowered the cab on one of these (maybe it was a Mainline rebuilt Patriot?) and the whole effect was much more convincing.  Google doesn't turn anything up and I was hoping someone could point me in the right direction.

 

From looking carefully, the cab and the first 5mm of footplate in front of the cab is a separate moulding from the rest of the body.  Mine feels like it will lift off if I try (I'd have to remove the rearmost handrail knob and detach a pipe on one side.  Then I reckon removing a couple on mm from the cab front where it meets the firebox top and tweaking / replacing the footplate would do me (and the amount of patch repainting would be very minimal...)

 

But obviously if someone has done it before I'd love to see what they did before I ruin mine!

 

And yes I know the Airfix rebuilt Scot was a more accurate model than the Mainline one; and Hornby do one now too which is probably leagues better still.  But I have one by Mainline and it's polishing up so well for zero cost I'd like to make something of it  :-)

 

TIA

 

plasticbasher

 

 

[plasticbasher]

And here are some (none to great) pictures...

 

 

 

 

 

plasticbasher

 

 

[plasticbasher]

Evening Everyone,

 

I think, although I'm not totally sure, I may have answered my own question here (where was the article on modifying a rebuilt Mainline Scot).  Google can be a very powerful tool..!

 

I now believe it was:

- A magazine article rather than a forum post or blog.

- A Mainline rebuilt Patriot, not a Scot.

 

I found it with the help of this very useful online magazine index:  http://www.olimpia.com:8084/search

 

 

Magazine name | Month | Year | Volume | Issue | Number | Story title | Author | Photographer/ Illustrator | Page | Tags

 

Railway Modeller (UK) | June | 1982  | 33 | 380 | Rebuilding rebuilt Patriot | Larry Goddard | Larry Goddard |198 | LMS, construction, England, RWMOD

 

Even though this is not exactly what I had recalled, I do believe this is the article I'm after.  I've long since disposed of the box of old model railway magazines I once had, so can't check.

 

So a follow-up request; does anyone have a copy of this magazine?  And if so and they have a scanner to hand, would they be kind enough to scan that article and email it to me.  I'll PM my email address.  Doesn't need to be amazing quality - just readable.

 

In return, if the article is as applicable to a rebuilt Scot as a rebuilt Patriot (my hope), I'll do a blow by blow of my efforts at replicating this modification in this thread.

 

TIA.

plasticbasher

Edited November 20, 2017 by plasticbasher

[Flying Pig]

The cab moulding clips tightly into a groove at the back of the firebox and should be removable with care, though you may damage the fine pipe running from the ejector into the cab on the LHS. If you are unlucky the cab could be glued to the large tab projecting from the main body moulding under the cab floor and/or smaller ones under the running plate just ahead of the cab.

 

As I recall from nearly 40 years ago (!), comparing the model to the Roche drawing showed that the problem is not so much that the cab is mounted too high, but that the whole cab side is too tall. Looking at your picture of the model and comparing with prototype photos, the bottom edge of the cab does appear to be at about the correct height relative to the tender running plate, though there's obviously something not right with the footsteps. I believe most of the error is in the lower panel of the cabside, so it might be amenable to a cut and shut below the horizontal beading, but I never plucked up the courage to do that.

[DCB]

I think the cab roof and spectacle plate give too much height to the center of the cab roof, the current Hornby Scot has a much flatter roof profile.

The cab sides seem to match the tender which is the critical visual cue.

[plasticbasher]

Thanks Flying Pig and David,

 

Tonight, I've been looking at rebuilt Royal Scot photo's (prototype as well as the Airfix and Hornby models).

 

If I were to replay my recent bargain impulse purchase, looking for a similarly cheap Airfix model might have been the easier starting point as an 'economy' option.  Okay it's 1970's tender drive technology, but probably less of a gamble than a Mainline model that could well have a terminally worn chassis.

 

You could always drop a 5 pole Hornby Ringfield unit from a tender drive Railroad Schools or Thomas range tender loco in the Airfix tender.   Actually, most later 1990's tender drive Hornby Stanier tender drives (Black 5, 8F, Princess, Duchess) used the Schools drive unit with a pretty decent cast metal representation of a Stanier tender chassis, so just substitute the Airfix tender body for the Hornby one.  Anyway, my point is - the more I look, the more I feel the overall look of the Airfix Royal Scot loco is much more convincing than the Mainline / Bachmann one.

 

I did fleeting consider buying an Airfix Scot that was beyond saving just for the cab, because it's also a separate moulding.  From memory the Airfix model's cab is just the cab sides, spectacle plate and roof, unlike the Mainline one which also includes sections of footplate.  But I've come to my senses - that's spending yet more money and all the ones I saw on eBay were too good to break up just for a cab.  And the whole point of this thread is making a better Mainline rebuilt Royal Scot..!

 

So I am going to find my Mainline parallel boiler Scot in the loft (which does look convincing) and put the two side-by-side to work out what surgery would be required to address the cab on the rebuilt Scot (I'm sure the Mainline parallel Scot is more accurate all over - it certainly has the massive and powerful character their rebuilt version lacks).

 

I'll try doing some photo's if time allows tomorrow.

 

Cheers,

 

plasticbasher

[rodger5591]

Not sure how far you want to go (or spend), but here are some suggestions.

The Comet Royal Scot detailing etch is worth considering. It is for a rebuilt Scot, but the cabs were not rebuilt so can also be used for parallel boiler scots. Some of the other details are useful, especially the front frame extensions and guard irons. See https://www.wizardmodels.ltd/shop/locomotive/lms-rebuilt-royal-scot-detailing-fret-ls75/ 

Alan Gibson provide the correct Fowler backhead, dome and chimney as well as the unusual cylinder draincocks used on Scots and Patriots

 

The Comet cab makes up very easily, but the backhead and roof are not included, so you would need to reuse the Mainline ones or scratchbuild.

They also do a similar 8F detailing etch which gives you a Stanier cab useful for other Mainline/Airfix LMS loco detailing projects.

 

SEFinecast might sell you a cab roof and backhead as one off items out of their Scot kit (they also do the correct Fowler whistle)

 

Rodger

[plasticbasher]

Thanks Rodger....having a look at those links in a second.

 

Unfortunately these Scots seem to breed.  I now have:

• One rebuilt Scot (the one above).
• One parallel Scot (Mainline body, Bachmann chassis....always been terrible runner; should never have sold the original Mainline chassis).
• One Bachmann parallel Royal Scot (owned for years - unlike the other Bachmann chassis, this runs beautifully)
• One tender-less and partly valve gear-less parallel Scot I took pity on this week (another £15 with the postage...).  Mostly working chassis now cobbled together.

 

All in LMS crimson red.

 

I also have a bare Mainline parallel Scot loco body missing its (broken) chassis - it donated several mechanical parts to the one I mention taking pity on above. Tonight it may find itself donating a cab to the rebuilt Royal Scot this thread is really about.  Photo's and measurements pending.

 

This is getting out of hand...!  In fact I shame faced admit to posting a couple of wanted adverts on this forum to get the fourth loco whole again...

 

​Cheers,

​plasticbasher