Corbs & Chris' Clinic - Taking Stock

[Corbs]

More to come...

Edited October 2, 2022 by Corbs

[Corbs]

Bachmann WARSHIP TLC

 

It's Chris' birthday tomorrow (so this project must be around a year old), and I wanted to get something cool. At the moment we are in the process of DCC converting the fleet, starting with the diesels from late 1960s - late 1980s period, so it made sense to get a loco that would fit in.

I found this Bachmann 'Warship' on eBay, the seller said it had been professionally chipped, weathered and renamed/numbered to D.804 'Avenger', but had more recently been dropped and the bogies smashed off their mountings. 

 

 

 

 

 

I've never worked on one of these before but a handy guide to these locos on RMWeb was a big help.

Here's the culprit. You can see the mounting tabs have snapped off the sides of the bogies and bits of them are still in the retaining blocks.

 

 

 

 

I made up some tabs from styrene L section and fixed them on with epoxy.

 

 

 

The corners were trimmed back to allow them to rotate in the slots.

 

 

 

Tried on the rolling road but it was very, very sluggish. I read that certain decoders have this effect on this era of model.

 

 

 

So I chopped out the chip to be reused another day, and used a LaisDCC chip and stay-alive instead. Works much better.

 

 

 

 

One of the windows was missing, and getting a glazing set was a bit of a step for just one pane, so it was substituted with some glue 'n glaze.

 

 

 

Voila! Back to working condition, another loco rescued from an uncertain fate. Pictured here waiting for the glue 'n glaze to dry.

 

 

 

 

Edited September 26, 2022 by Corbs

[Mike 84C]

HI Corbs,

    can you remember how the smokebox front is fixed on a Bachmann N class? I want to remove it to cast  a different  style of door in resin.

  Mick

[Corbs]

Just in the usual way as far as I can tell. I removed the door from my scrap boiler to check for you, it’s mostly an interference fit with a slot to locate it, and a bit of glue holding it on. I got a small screwdriver in the gap underneath and levered it off.

[Corbs]

HORGBL 9F

 

 

 

A few locos came back for DCC fitting and a few tweaks. Unfortunately the Warship runs really badly, just won't move half the time and sputters everywhere. Possibly it's the grease in the bogie units? I've read that the grease gets so thick it prevents the loco moving properly.

 

Back on the bench were 'Duke of Gloucester' and 'Black Prince' both getting Lenz decoders, more or less a straight plug in although I had to cut away some of the plug mounts on the 9F to create enough room.

 

The 9F, like the Duke previously, was missing a tender. I raided the drawer and came up with this one from a GBL 'Evening Star', the same as I used on the Duke.

 

The tender to loco gap is embarrassing.

 

 

I had modified the Duke's one by cutting off the steps and reattaching them closer to the tender body, like this.

 

 

 

This is the 9F one after mods. 

 

 

I also drilled out the chimney holes which were obviously plugged.

 

 

 

Instead of a proper tension lock coupling, I used a piece of brass rod bent to a U shape, and then with the ends bent down, passed through holes in the chassis and then secured with araldite. Hopefully the height it's at means it can also push other tension locks.

 

 

Some cheap primer and satin black next, the static wheels were swapped for some cheap old ones I had in my spares box, then fox transfers for the crests, coated with matt lacquer. The axleboxes and bufferbeam were painted by hand.

 

 

A bit of Roket Card Glue squirted into the tender secures the coal in place.

 

 

Quite pleased with how it looks now! Ready to slug up the helix with some nice long trains.

 

 

Edited September 21, 2022 by Corbs

[FoxUnpopuli]

44 minutes ago, Corbs said:

A few locos came back for DCC fitting and a few tweaks. Unfortunately the Warship runs really badly, just won't move half the time and sputters everywhere. Possibly it's the grease in the bogie units? I've read that the grease gets so thick it prevents the loco moving properly.

 

Good chance of it.  Any loco of that age I buy S/H I strip it completely and soak/toothbruth all the 'grease' off using IPA.  I had a Replica 57xx that was a wonderful runner when it was packed away in 1992....  the green grease had set into a glue in the intervening years - the motor didn't even buzz (glad I didn't melt the windings!)  Stripped, cleaned, relubed, it's as sweet as it ever was.

Edited January 24, 2020 by FoxUnpopuli

[John Tomlinson]

Re. the Warship, the factory applied grease may well be a problem by now.

 

I think as well that D804 is one of the models listed as a candidate for mazak rot, so a close inspection should reveal if this has appeared.

 

Nice work on the two steamers.

 

John.

[Corbs]

Ah, that could be worth looking out for when I disassemble the warship. I have a feeling that this may be a renumbered/renamed other loco, but not 100% sure. Possibly a replacement chassis candidate if it is indeed warped, as with the 31s.

[Corbs]

So after having stripped the DCC chip out of one of my other locos that's switching to RC, I fitted it to this Type 2 frankenstein that had been sitting neglected for too long. The body is off a mazak rotted 31, as are the motor and bogies.

All sat in an old, cut down, Airfix frame.

Finished a few things off like fitting the desk, front lights, part of a cab interior, and re-used the salvaged bufferbeam detail from the rotten one.

 

 

 

Think it is a standard LaisDCC decoder with a stay-alive fitted too. Roket card glue was used for most of it to avoid the superglue fumes messing things up.

 

The class 41/43 hybrid was back on the bench, I took the opportunity to remove the angled stripe from one side and copy the straight divide from the other, so they both match.

 

 

Edited September 21, 2022 by Corbs

[Corbs]

Hornby CATHEDRAL

 

The construction of this loco (from a Hornby Princess, King and a Hawksworth Tender) was described in the cobblin' thread many many years ago. It's long been converted to BPRC but was deleted from the Sudrian Histories 'lore' when I had a change of heart. I didn't want to get rid of the actual loco, though.

 

The NWR lettering was gently scraped and rubbed off and some early BR crests put on instead.

 

 

Handily for me, 24/7 had a set of Bristol Cathedral plates in stock!

 

 

It's had a trial on the megalayout but the front bogie's single pivot did not allow enough movement for the curves, so it was quite limited.

 

 

Very useful for testing height clearances with, though. It did clout the chimney on the first go....

 

 

I bit the bullet and got a new-new King bogie from Peter's Spares, along with the mounting bracket. So far it looks like it bolts in the same way as the Princess one, but the bracket allows much more side-to-side movement, so awaits further testing.

 

 

 

Edited September 22, 2022 by Corbs

[Corbs]

HORGMANN CASTLE

 

Thanks to John A I picked up this Hornby Castle for 10 of the finest. It was sans tender and in GWR livery, I wanted to do it as a fictitious Castle, the next highest numbered one, so that would put it as 1950-built. Thus a Bachmann Hawksworth tender was acquired.

 

 

The double chimney (to imitate Drysllwyn Castle from the Railway Roundabout 'Bristolian' film) is a cast one, the original single chimney was sawn and filed off. It needed a small amount of filler to bridge the gap.

 

 

The cab is from the GBL 'Earl Bathurst' static model, which handily had BR lining already. The plan with the firebox is to attempt to touch in the bands with brush painting.

 

 

Here's how the Bachmann tender is adapted to fit into the plug on the Hornby loco. A piece of brass rod bent 90 degrees, then epoxied to the tender.

 

 

At the other end, a printed 2A-rail NEM adaptor is used to allow for Kadees etc.

 

 

I think the loco may acquire some all-over lacquer and weathering to help blend the tones. I have been experimenting with T-cut on the boiler to create a polished but worn look.

 

 

It runs rather nicely, this is the newer type chassis with the can motor so no complaints from me. Not yet DCC fitted.

 

 

Edited September 22, 2022 by Corbs

[Corbs]

Hornby COUNTY

 

Whilst looking through boxes for a 'King' I knew I had, I came across a 'County' I had forgotten I had 😬

 

 

Looking back through the purchase history told me it had been bought as spares/repair. It would run but the wheels would stop momentarily once a revolution with a 'thunk'.

 

Dismantling it I was surprised to find a ringfield but turns out these were used in the original County and Castle models.

 

 

The culprit was a split gear on the rear axle, I could not find a single gear to this spec. for sale anywhere. Gary had a spares/repair County in the shop which also turned out to have the same issue, so that might explain where they all went.

 

 

The only options were to buy a new wheelset (all 3 axles). The one I got was from the Castle so the wheels were slightly bigger. I ended up pressing the oversize wheels off and swapping the County ones onto the axle.

It runs! (apart from a mistake when dismantling where I had to buy new springs for the motor, but we won't talk about that).

 

 

This one is going into BR black, I already had a tender body from a bargain bucket purchase some time ago. It will require some modification to fit this tender chassis, I assume it's from a different model.

 

 

A common criticism of these models is the shape of the cab, but it occurred to me I had the cab which came off the 'bitsa' Castle above. This has the more defined 3 faces to the cab roof and may work better (with a little adaptation).

The body has been sprayed with primer.

 

 

Edited September 22, 2022 by Corbs

[Corbs]

Whilst on a zoom call today I added some bits of styrene strip and clear plastic cut from a food container to the roof of the Castle cab to create the roof hatches. The County also had far more rivets so some Archers Waterslide Rivets were used.

 

Meanwhile the loco gained a coat of satin black. Note also I cut off the moulded smokebox door dart and replaced with a whitemetal one from the drawer.

 

 

This dried quickly and I was able to raid the decal drawer to find a set of Fox Transfers for GW mixed traffic locos - a couple of mishaps with the decals sticking to themselves but managed to recover. Once it was dry, I misted over a bit of Tamiya Matt Lacquer (on the tender too).

The brass safety valve cover was done with a small brush (as well as some of the backhead detail).
 

 

0.45mm handrail wire was bent to have a 90 degree turn at the base and then glued to the cab, using a pin to add a tiny bit of superglue at a time. The wire needs blackening still.

 

The bufferbeam was brush painted with enamel.

Adding the handrails, pipes etc back on makes a heck of a difference. Just a few things remaining like the whistles, glazing etc. but I am going to let the lacquer harden a bit more first. Think it needs some lamp irons too.

Name and number plates from Fox are currently in the post.

 

 

 

[Corbs]

 

Had an absolutely gorgeous day yesterday thanks to a birthday treat from my sister, off to the WSR for the fish and chip (veggie burger in my case) special with cream tea on the return journey.

Hymek power on the way to Minehead, but the fantastic Foxcote Manor back to Bishops Lydeard!

 

Got some reference pics when I was allowed up on the footplate, I did ask about painted vs. polished regulator handles which was met with an indrawing of breath and a 'don't go there' from the crew 😄

 

Back on the bench, the County is near completion after the addition of Fox lining transfers and etched name/numberplates, becoming 1005 'County of Devon'.

The lamp irons are from Wizard Models, they aren't the exact type but close enough.

The replacement tender body has a mounting screw so now it should just be:

DCC chip and stay-alive

Crew

Tender coupling

 

and then it's ready for a new lease of life on the layout!

 

I am very pleased with the Castle cab conversion in getting a better roof profile. The firebox is still a bit weedy but maybe if I end up redoing this or doing another one, I'll do the 8F firebox conversion, just felt like too much work at this point in time.

 

 

 

 

 

[Corbs]

More on the Castle, after the improvement to the front end that the lamp irons gave on the County, I've fitted some here.

 

 

After a couple of experiments, the firebox was repainted using a brush in Railmatch 601 GWR green, which is a close enough match for me and obscures the lining on the firebox (GWR had lining, BR did not). After a coat of matt lacquer it's blended a lot better - in this case I think the fact that the boiler, cab, firebox and tender are all slightly different shades actually helps.

 

 

In the background of the previous pics is a ringfield drive (and a very dark BR green) 'Cadbury Castle' which a previous owner had dropped and smashed the running board and steps on.

 

 

It is becoming a handy parts donor for a few projects, including the reach rod and nameplate backing (hopefully my etched plates will just glue over the top of this).

I've also used the Railmatch paint and a small brush to paint the running board valance green.

 

[Corbs]

A (SORT OF) Hornby 'SAINT'

Built from scraps

 

As a Clevedon boy who now lives with a view of Ashton Court from his window, I've wanted to have a model of 'Clevedon Court' and/or 'Ashton Court', the former being one of the last 3 'Saints' withdrawn by BR.

 

What are the options?

1. The SEFinecast/Wills Whitemetal kit - a good option if can get one for a decent price but quite a bit of work

2. The Triang/Hornby one - barely looks like a Saint as it was poorly adapted from the Hall tooling

3. Rebuild a 'Star' - didn't have £95+ to spend on a model that I was going to tear into

4. Build one out of spare parts

 

I confess this is not going to be 100% accurate and is a typical cobblin' project but hopefully it results in something Saintly (Saint-ish?).

 

Key ingredients - an eBay find of a 'Hall' that some unfortunate soul had tried to fix/improve by slathering it in superglue. This will donate the No.1 boiler.

A Churchward-style cab sawn off a GBL 28xx. (yes I know the 28xx has the correct boiler but I thought the Hall would be a better starting point in terms of mounting positions, detail etc.

Obviously all of the rubbish plastic handrail knobs snapped off when I removed the handrail.

 

 

The chassis is a later-style Hornby Castle one that I found in a drawer from an abandoned project. This should give the correct wheel diameter of the long-legged 'Saint'.

 

At first I considered using the Hall running board and trying to modify it by increasing the height of the front and rear drop-downs.

 

 

The Castle already has a significant drop-down in its running board, so I considered this GBL 'Castle' body a better donor, which would be cut and shut to the correct length.

 

 

The razor saw took care of that No.8 boiler and those superfluous inside cylinders....

 

 

... While the hacksaw and files were employed to reduce the length of the chassis.

 

 

The 28xx cab was glued on (with height extenders underneath) after the rear was shortened, and lots of experimenting with length and fitment took place.

I reduced the overall length of the running board by cutting it just behind the cylinders, which mount in the filed-out bit.

 

The front running board area was shortened and reinforced with some styrene.

 

The Saints had a similar drop-down height to the Castles but with smaller splashers, so they had deeper bufferbeams. Thus is being achieved with some styrene extensions (have ordered some Markits Collet buffers)

 

 

Running board joined back together with a reinforcing strip - this was not strong on its own but the boiler will act as a strong top brace.

 

 

The dragbox is from 'Cadbury Castle' which was missing a set of steps (salvaged from the GBL loco).

 

 

Cutting off the splashers was, in hindsight, probably a mistake as I likely could have reused the originals, so here they are being glued and blended back in - some very thin plastic was used to help flatten the bases and to get them sitting properly on the running board.
A lot of filling and sanding is going on with the cab height extensions but I am hoping this will be aided by the addition of rivets and lining.

The handrail is from 'Cadbury Castle' with the addition of some more handrail knobs from the spare parts drawer (think they came from an ancient Hornby Kind or something).

 

 

The bogie is from Cadbury Castle with the front sawn off (wheel spacing is correct but actual bogie is over length for the Saint).

Currently attached with a piece of brass strip bent over the bogie axle and screwing into the keeper plate mount. Will likely require refinement.

 

 

Current state of play - sitting a bit tall at the front so the area the cylinders sit on requires further filing down (the body is sat on the cylinders)
Cab handrails are .45mm wire melted into holes drilled with the pin vice.

The 4000g tender is borrowed from a donor 'King'.

 

 

Next job is to work out the permanent way of mounting the body to the chassis, tender coupling, then get the chassis working properly.

I suspect the conrod will need changing for a longer one than the Hornby 'Hall' I have as the distance is slightly greater due to the larger wheels.

[Mikkel]

Great to see you doing some GWR-bashing Corbs. Especially the Saint, not often seen on layouts these days I feel.

 

Very envious of your WSR day, looks like you went all in!

[Corbs]

Thanks Mikkel, yes it was a lush day. I am quite surprised that the Saint has not been done yet, maybe a manufacturer has it in the works?

I think proportionally mine is nearly there, I kind of wish I had bitten the bullet and sanded off a few mm under the boiler to get it to sit lower, but I don't really want to take it apart to re-do now.

 

Here's how I've mounted the body.

Styrene box section glued under the cab with a screw going into it (goes through an existing chassis hole).

 

The front screw goes under the bogie and is really just pushing up against the running board, seems secure for now though. Also shows the thin brass strip for the bogie.

 

 

A few weeks ago I designed some etched name and number plates and yesterday they arrived, amazing service from PPD up in Scotland.

0.3mm Brass, possibly a bit on the thin side but they were designed to be glued on top of existing plastic ones.

I did it by putting some Hornby 'King' plates in the flatbed scanner and then tracing them in Adobe Illustrator to get the size and curves, and redoing the letters and numbers as appropriate.

 

 

The 'bitsa' Castle (now with a Hornby rather than a Bachmann tender.... yes you guessed it, I found one in a drawer that was a direct fit) was the first to be identified.

It's now the new highest-numbered class member, 7038 'Budleigh Castle' (Budleigh is the fictitious location of the megalayout).

 

I did the infill by slapping on some black acrylic last night and sanding off the lettering this morning. The green is done with a brush, I think it needs a final coat and some matt lacquer to blend  properly. Very happy though!

 

[Corbs]

Before topcoat, some riveting took place. This is where the Hall had been somewhat damaged with glue that I'd sanded off.

 

I also added some along the footplate drop-down and the bufferbeam. I was going to do the cab but checking photos again, it looked like the loco may have had flush rivets later in its career (or they were quite small/indistinct) so it stayed smooth.

 

 

First coat of top coat, cheap satin black from ebay.

 

 

This morning before work I made a start on the transfers (Fox again, using up the remaining bits in the set from the County).

 

 

 

Masked off the chimney and brushed on some copper, painted and refitted the safety valves and whistle.

 

The loco now has both its identities!

2932 'Ashton Court' on one side, and 2937 'Clevedon Court' on the other.

 

The buffers are Markits Collett ones.

 

A few bits left to do but the body is nearly there. The chassis does require quite a bit of work to get it functioning again (and with the Hall motion instead of the Castle gear).

 

 

Edited October 12, 2022 by Corbs

[Miss Prism]

That livery looks good on a Saint, but I've got no record of 2932 receiving lined black. (2937 did.)

[Corbs]

5 hours ago, Miss Prism said:

That livery looks good on a Saint, but I've got no record of 2932 receiving lined black. (2937 did.)

It is a bit of a cheat by extending 2932's lifespan ever so slightly. I am hoping to do another one in earlier condition as 'Saint Agatha' (my sister's name) in which case the 2932 identity may get swapped onto one side of that.

The personal connection is I am from Clevedon and I now live almost opposite (and regularly walk around) Ashton Court :) 

One improvement I would like to make on the second one (apart from lowering the boiler pitch) is to remove the tunnel (fire irons?) on the LHS of the loco - I had not spotted this disparity until I had stuck the main components together!

Edited October 13, 2022 by Corbs

[Miss Prism]

The Saints never had fireiron tunnels.

[Corbs]

6 hours ago, 313201 said:

Hi Corbs

 

Can I ask please what modifications and changes you made to the princess loco to create your cathedral class, very interested in doing 1 myself

Hi mate,

 

I was going to point you in the direction of the cobblin' thread as it was one of the first projects on there, but all the images got wiped out in The Great Crash and I haven't fixed it yet.
Basically mixed a Hornby King and Princess

Princess:
Chassis, boiler, running board etc

King:

Cab, chimney, front bogie (unlikely it would have used it as the King bogie was found to be unnecessary so would likely have been a Castle one, but I liked the look of it), cylinders/motion, smokebox door.

I used a Hawksworth tender from a Castle (I think).

The buffers are Hornby Class 92 ones.

 

Sawed off the Princess cab and rear footplate and grafted the King one on (as low down as you can get it otherwise it looks weird) - used the footplate section which needed blending but gives the GWR look.

My donor King was a tender drive version but that was a false economy as I replaced all the motion and the front bogie with more modern parts in the end.

But this was back in 2014 and I didn't have much disposable income (Sabina and I were in our first flat together which we could just about afford so it was a case of finding what I could make work!).

 

Some pics:
 

 

Edited October 16, 2022 by Corbs

[Corbs]

10 hours ago, 313201 said:

Hi Corbs

 

Many thanks for your reply and more importantly the list of parts required for the project. 

 

I recently converted a Hornby railroad Gresley A1 into a 4-8-0, it was meant to be a 4-8-2 but the rear pony set kept derailing when running backwards.  The loco also has a Bachmann GUV with pickups fitted to the bogies for auxiliary power collection but there are no pickups on the loco chassis, only the tender and GUV collect the power.

Nice, we had a similar issue with the Cathedral on 3rd radius curves which is why I changed the front bogie to the more modern type so instead of swivelling from a fixed point, it has a bit of lateral movement. Also removed the little buffers in between the loco and tender so that it can stay moderately close coupled but with more room to move in relation to each other.

 

Over on the Saint I have done some more things.

 

Finally found the 4000g tender from a GBL Castle, scraped off the moulded handrails and added some wire ones. Sprayed the whole lot in primer and then the same cheap satin black paint as the loco.

Wheels are from a Triang B12 tender which was a freebie from years ago, just mounted in slots made by the dremel. I think a more permanent solution will need to be found but will try this first.

Clevedon Court had a larger tender for the last few years, Ashton Court retained its smaller one but along with its life extension it's got an upgrade.

 

Coal is real (smashed up and glued in over the moulded stuff with Roket Card Glue) and the decals are from Fox Transfers.

 

Bufferbeam was brush painted with acrylic (I think).

 

Reverser rod was pinched off a GBL King and bent to shape.

 

 

 

 

[Miss Prism]

Where is that tender from?