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Modern Traction Kits


andyman7
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On 14/06/2021 at 12:08, andyman7 said:

I saw that one, a good buy from what I could tell!

 

The loco arrived today (I was away for most of last week and the seller kindly kept hold of it till I got back), For what I paid its worth every penny. Missing the instructions and at least one of the cranks (detailed in description), so now I will start the hunt for both the instructions and missing parts.

 

Its badly put together (not by the seller) but will come apart as glued together and thankfully not painted, the chassis will convert to EM gauge easily enough. £32 well spent especially as it has £45 worth of wheels

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On 03/11/2020 at 21:16, andyman7 said:

I picked up an auction lot of MTK kits - most were unmade Mk1s missing various ancilliaries which can all be salvaged and improved with replacement bogies etc. However there was this gem *ahem*.....
 

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I've nearly complete the restoration of this horror into a 'respectable' MTK offering. It's now BR Blue 25029, one of only four 25/1s that were built without boilers so correct for this model, and the only one I could find clear evidence still had nose end gangway doors with TOPS numbers. The (redundant) boiler room grille has been plated over. It just needs a little weathering and headcodes added now. I've added a picture of the work underway too. I know for many this would still be too crude but for me that's the point....!

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IMG_20210628_220104.jpg

IMG_20210131_155907.jpg

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Here's an MTK Class 40 which was acquired as a built but unpainted bodyshell; I found a Lima Class 40 chassis to mate it with. Bufferbeams are 3D printed versions. The main bodyside grille was just an opening so in true MTK style I made a backing and diagonal brace from plasticard and then fashioned the frost grilles from a cut out tea strainer. 40044 was the first ever Class 40 I saw in 1981; it's modelled here as it was in around 1978 when it still carried frost grilles and before it came to grief at Chinley, subsequently ending up with plated over nose doors at one end. 

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  • 4 weeks later...
On 28/06/2021 at 22:34, andyman7 said:

I've nearly complete the restoration of this horror into a 'respectable' MTK offering. It's now BR Blue 25029, one of only four 25/1s that were built without boilers so correct for this model, and the only one I could find clear evidence still had nose end gangway doors with TOPS numbers. The (redundant) boiler room grille has been plated over. It just needs a little weathering and headcodes added now. I've added a picture of the work underway too. I know for many this would still be too crude but for me that's the point....!

IMG_20210628_220207.jpg

IMG_20210628_220104.jpg

IMG_20210131_155907.jpg

The 25 has now had some weathering, cab handrails added plus I have attended to the main bodyside grille - MTK provided a mesh for this which quite a few builders (as in this case) installed behind the crossbeam but in real life the crossbeam was partially visible behind the grille mesh. I has a pair of spare Class 40 frost grilles which I chopped up to overlay to improve this area. Whilst the finished model is of course not to modern finescale superdetail standard I can honestly say that it now manages the 1970s wow factor:

- a modern outline model in workaday condition

- all wheel pickup and twin motors

- weighs a ton and crawls along with impressive haulage power

IMG_20210727_133846.jpg

IMG_20210727_133859.jpg

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2 hours ago, andyman7 said:

The 25 has now had some weathering, cab handrails added plus I have attended to the main bodyside grille - MTK provided a mesh for this which quite a few builders (as in this case) installed behind the crossbeam but in real life the crossbeam was partially visible behind the grille mesh. I has a pair of spare Class 40 frost grilles which I chopped up to overlay to improve this area. Whilst the finished model is of course not to modern finescale superdetail standard I can honestly say that it now manages the 1970s wow factor:

- a modern outline model in workaday condition

- all wheel pickup and twin motors

- weighs a ton and crawls along with impressive haulage power

IMG_20210727_133846.jpg

IMG_20210727_133859.jpg

A reminder of how it started out

IMG_20201103_210827.jpg

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3 hours ago, andyman7 said:

The 25 has now had some weathering, cab handrails added plus I have attended to the main bodyside grille - MTK provided a mesh for this which quite a few builders (as in this case) installed behind the crossbeam but in real life the crossbeam was partially visible behind the grille mesh. I has a pair of spare Class 40 frost grilles which I chopped up to overlay to improve this area. Whilst the finished model is of course not to modern finescale superdetail standard I can honestly say that it now manages the 1970s wow factor:

- a modern outline model in workaday condition

- all wheel pickup and twin motors

- weighs a ton and crawls along with impressive haulage power

IMG_20210727_133846.jpg

IMG_20210727_133859.jpg

Nice job!

 

I had one of these when I was about 13 or 14. It was my first white metal kit. Once I opened the box I was so dissapointed! I had expected it to fit together like an Airfix kit. I think I made a reasonable go of it in the end. IIRC I used car body filler to fix the gaps because that was the only kind of filler I knew of,

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On 28/06/2021 at 22:34, andyman7 said:

I've nearly complete the restoration of this horror into a 'respectable' MTK offering. It's now BR Blue 25029, one of only four 25/1s that were built without boilers so correct for this model, and the only one I could find clear evidence still had nose end gangway doors with TOPS numbers. The (redundant) boiler room grille has been plated over. It just needs a little weathering and headcodes added now. I've added a picture of the work underway too. I know for many this would still be too crude but for me that's the point....!

IMG_20210628_220207.jpg

IMG_20210628_220104.jpg

IMG_20210131_155907.jpg

 

Crude it may be, but it achieved something both Hornby and Bachmann failed on - the gangway doors/middle windscreen relationship is about right!

 

Quite a lot of Class 25s with the early body style reached TOPS with these doors, but finding photos is strangely difficult. Fewer photographers about in 1974/5 compared to later years?

 

Am I seeing things or is that loose buffer off a Lima GWR railcar? I bought some of these when available as spares and fitted them, along with Mainline/Replica bogies, to a pair of Lima Syphon Gs - possibly not entirely correct but definite improvements. Anyway, back to MTK......

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20 hours ago, Neil Phillips said:

 

Crude it may be, but it achieved something both Hornby and Bachmann failed on - the gangway doors/middle windscreen relationship is about right!

 

Quite a lot of Class 25s with the early body style reached TOPS with these doors, but finding photos is strangely difficult. Fewer photographers about in 1974/5 compared to later years?

 

Am I seeing things or is that loose buffer off a Lima GWR railcar? I bought some of these when available as spares and fitted them, along with Mainline/Replica bogies, to a pair of Lima Syphon Gs - possibly not entirely correct but definite improvements. Anyway, back to MTK......

And the lack of visible underframe is also correctly rendered too! 25029 is documented on the DerbySulzers website in blue TOPS numbered with gangway doors but as you say this variation is little documented.

 

There is indeed one buffer off a GWR Railcar as the kit was missing one and I needed something that was a close match rather than a completely authentic Oleo buffer. It still looks better than the rivets that seemed to get fitted to 70s RTR for buffers!

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  • 4 weeks later...
  • 2 months later...

... and here is the first MTK kit I ever successfully built, back in the early 80s, of 4CEP unit 7101.

 

Being one of the 1956 prototype units it had all the roof trunking that later units didn't.  I remember choosing 7101 because it had no window frames, which suited the flat-sided MTK shell, but it also had Commonweath bogies which was what MTK had supplied in the kit.

 

More recently I refurbished this model a bit by replacing the original MTK ends with MJT castings and Bachmann corridor connectors.

 

Stuart

7101.jpg

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  • 1 month later...

Revisiting my Cravens single unit parcel car, does anyone happen to have the MTK diagram for this? I'm going to strip kine down and try to get the roof vents and handrails right.

 

Having compared it the the Bachy Cravens 2-car, the ends are remarkably good for MTK, even the underframe is a close match, though I doubt the parcels car would have 2 Webasto heaters fitted. I suppose any other GA diagram would be helpful.

 

The Lima motor bogie with MTK sideframes is good enough to continue using as well.

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Edited by roythebus1
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The parcel car was finished in dirty BR blue and ran on the MRC's New Annington in the 1980s. We didn't have much choice for modern rolling stock in those days, but the Lima motor bogie is a reliable workhorse. I never got round to putting the ab windows in the other end.

 

I may repaint it in BR green and scribe door lines on it.

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I think this 2HAP Class 414/1 that I obtained in an auction lot recently was built from a Phoenix kit rather than MTK but after some repairs it looks very good. It has a Tenshodo motor bogie, the frame hiding the slightly undersize wheels. Green SYP is normally a bit early for me but it's so well done that I have kept it. As supplied various underframe bits had fallen of, the glazing was loose and the interior was rattling around inside, with a bit of patience all repaired or replaced fairly easily.

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  • 5 weeks later...

Going through my unmade kits I found the MTK SR 4 Sub “Sheba” kit which I thought might be interesting for people to see. Seems to have original instructions but I doubt the single tenshodo would be able to move a 4 car train. It’s been started and the builder has achieved a very smooth cab roof join on the ends.

This is probably destined for eBay or rehoming sooner or later as I doubt Ill ever finish it off(Interested parties form an orderly queue:laugh_mini2:)
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OliverSR

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  • 1 month later...

Having a bit of a sort out recently and I unearthed 71010 and 74009, which I built from MTK kits about 35 years ago.  They each had a Lima 33 chassis so I've replaced the Lima armatures with CD motors and fitted 'Peter's Spares' wheels. Both now running nicely on DCC.

71010 and 74009 small.jpg

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On 18/01/2022 at 22:05, OliverSR said:

Going through my unmade kits I found the MTK SR 4 Sub “Sheba” kit which I thought might be interesting for people to see. Seems to have original instructions but I doubt the single tenshodo would be able to move a 4 car train. It’s been started and the builder has achieved a very smooth cab roof join on the ends.

This is probably destined for eBay or rehoming sooner or later as I doubt Ill ever finish it off(Interested parties form an orderly queue:laugh_mini2:)

OliverSR

 

Hi OliverSR - if you do decide to re-home the Sheba I'd be interested in taking on the challenge :)

 

Stuart

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4 hours ago, 74009 said:

 

Hi OliverSR - if you do decide to re-home the Sheba I'd be interested in taking on the challenge :)

 

Stuart

Sorry but that’s already made it’s way to a new home. Based on your 71 and 74 you’d have done a great job with it. I look forward to seeing any other MTK kits you post.

OliverSR

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On 10/03/2022 at 12:23, 74009 said:

Having a bit of a sort out recently and I unearthed 71010 and 74009, which I built from MTK kits about 35 years ago.  They each had a Lima 33 chassis so I've replaced the Lima armatures with CD motors and fitted 'Peter's Spares' wheels. Both now running nicely on DCC.

71010 and 74009 small.jpg

 

You've achieved a very nice finish on these, they both look great! But do you find it necessary to go easy on the throttle? I had an unfinished Class 74 body come my way around 30 years ago and considered melting the thing down for ballast weight but eventually fitted it with Craftsman Class 33/1 MU pipework and a shortened Lima Class 87 chassis (with a bit of fiddling the 87 sideframes looked passable). E6108 ran fine in a straight line but was so top-heavy that taking curves at any kind speed would see it topple over!

Having no need for a Class 74 at the time I sold it on (with a warning note!) but having since put together a small SR collection set in 1967/8 which the 74 would have fitted right into I now wish I'd kept it. Not the first or last time that's happened........

Will we ever see an RTR model of a class which lasted just ten years spanning an unpopular modelling period and only ever carried one livery? Would such a loco in fictitious liveries to expand the eras e.g. BR green and Gatwick Express ever sell? Considering recent and upcoming releases, I wouldn't bet against it......!

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