A Gaggle of Gas Mechanical bashes

[Greengiant]

A Gaggle of Gas Mechanicals, is that the correct plural?

 

If all goes well this should be a relative quick build of a number of Gas Mech bashes, if it does not go quick, something went wrong!

We are in need of some bashed Gas Mechs, hopefully some with sound to operate on 'Halfway', 'Theobald's Yard', 'The Yard' and 'The North Kent Light Railway', maybe even 'Whiteoak Light Railway' if it gets dragged out of retirement.

 

I have a number of Gas Mechanicals in stock, some with rudimentary weathering, some as they came out of the box.

The first one will have a taller cab, so a 6 foot+ driver can get in the cab without hitting their head on the door frame, this one will also have a taller bonnet to give more room for a sound decoder. I have some ideas on a version that will be a sort of 1.5 centre cab, I have enough bonnets and cabs kicking around.

Previously I have built an increased cab height Gas Mech which I think gives a better look for O-16.5, the cab on that was was increased in height by 10mm, this one will have a 12mm higher cab and a 6.3mm higher bonnet.

 

So lets begin, basically I am making these up as I go along, first I cut up the cab and glued in some 12mm extra pieces to the cab, the bonnet top was sliced off with a bandsaw which worked reasonably well considering how close my fingers got to the blade.

 

 

Overlap pieces glued inside the bonnet to help support the extensions.

 

 

Returns fitted to the cab corners and bonnet extensions glued in place.

 

 

Plastruct angle used to reinforce cab corners.

 

 

Here a view of the cab rear, I made a mistake here by not shaping the angle to match into the roof, will probably rescue this by adding a strip underneath the roof.

 

 

Filed off the lamp mount and exhaust mount, then plugged them with Evergreen rod and strip. Forgot to mention the radiator was sanded off the front panel with a rotary bench sander, the hinges and door handles were removed with a file.

 

 

Cab and bonnet temporarily reunited. Bonnet could have gone higher I think.

 

 

Some side-by-sides with a standard size Gas Mech body.

 

 

 

 

 

Mount infills have now been sanded smooth. Will need to continue the bonnet line across were the lamp mount used to be.

 

 

Some decoders and speakers for these projects.

 

 

Martin

[NeilHB]

I rather like that conversion Martin - it’s looking good so far. I built a new cab for mine when I modded it to 0-16.5 - the taller bonnet makes a big difference though. I think I might well have to try that experiment on my second example.

 

Looking forward to seeing further progress

[Greengiant]

Increasing the height of the bonnet has enabled me to fit a Soundtraxx current keeper module. The module pokes out into the cab area, this will be covered later, literally.

 

 

Holes drilled for start points to cut out a grill opening.

 

 

A few minutes later with the aid of a piercing saw, a hole appeared.

 

 

A new cab dashboard has been made, this helps cover the current keeper that extends from the bonnet.

 

 

It had to be notched out to clear the chassis cover moulding.

 

 

An exhaust stack, side grill, hand rail plates and grill opening surround have been added, some holes have been drilled for rivets to be added.

 

 

The other side of the bonnet has two brass etch doors left over from a kit, some plastic rod has been glued into the holes for the start of the rivets.

 

 

The cab rear has some weights from a spare loco conversion added and some rivet holes drilled.

 

 

Cab side with some rivet rod added.

 

 

This view shows how the current keeper is enclosed and the front grill mesh now in place.

 

 

A few photos with hand rails added before it gets the first coat of primer.

 

 

 

Photo makes it look wonky!

 

 

 

The windows had to be masked, so I used some spare windows I had in stock to cut round to form the mask with Tamiya tape.

 

 

Martin

 

[Greengiant]

Colour for this one is light green, one from the Vallejo range. I made a mistake in my hurry to get this one done and forgot about the inspection flaps, the rear one fouled the cab side because it is now slightly wider due to the external angle corner strip and rivets, so no other option to remove the flap and use it in the closed position in red primer.

 

 

While paint was drying I got on with making a speaker baffle from plastic sheet, a mini two pin plug was soldered on. The wire strippers in the photo are great for stripping decoder wire, although not cheap they do a great job.

 

 

All I have to do is get this lot under the bonnet!

 

 

After a bit of fiddling it all went in, the side panel glued on, some name plates added and a grey thing I found in my scrap box stuck on, a bit of rough weathering is all I had time for, this loco needs to earn its keep this weekend at the Basildon show.

 

 

Martin