Powlesland's Peckett

[45568]

A purchase of a Hornby 'Lilleshall' Peckett from Australian Ebay for a very keen price made me think about what I could do with it. My brewery was well supplied with Pecketts and a single Barclay, so my thoughts turned back to my youth and wondering at the plethora of small saddle tanks (mainly), that were present at the beginning of the Western ABC, and that all seemed worlds away from Tyseley, being nearly all Swansea-based.

 P&M 1151 seemed to offer the best chance of conversion, and googling 1151 GW Locomotive brings up a good number of photos. Working from these I identified the following that would need alteration from the Hornby model.

1] 1151 has a larger cab, with large sidescreens on either side and a side portion to the cab rear itself. The Hornby cab back can be separated from the roof and floor and be removed intact. I found that this could be rested on top of the rear buffers to increase the cab size, and allow new cab rear sides to be fabricated from 10 thou. plasticard. The bulge for the handbrake was cut out, and the hole filled and made flush. GW-style lamp irons were fabricated from 10 thou. and placed in appropriate positions. An additional section to extend the cab roof was made from 10 thou. plasticard.

 The sidescreens were pieces of 10 thou p/card with 3mm brass wire handles. size was judged from pictures.

2] The tank top details vary from the Hornby arrangement. The chimney is shorter; the original chimney was removed and shortened, not as easy as it sounds and it took some time for me to get a nice clean joint to the shortened pieces. (All down to my inability to cut and file straight!!). The tank filler was removed and increased in height with 1mm p/card. (a 4mm circle was cut out for this), and additional details added in 10 thou. The dome/safety valve arrangement is very different. I tried unsuccessfully to find a replacement casting, and in the end modified the Hornby casting with part of the safety valve from an old pannier body and filing the Hornby original to a better shape. The dome/valve sits further back on 1151, so the original position hole must be filled and smoothed over.

 There are a couple of vents on the tank top between the chimney and dome. These were fashioned from wire and plastic rod and positioned with reference to photos.

2A] The Bell!! Prominent on the tank top between the dome and the cab is the bell. This proved hard to find in UK models, but a friend who models US outline linked me to the Bachmann US spares website. The bell is actually from HO Decapod 2.10.0 and sold at $US 2.20, postage was $US15.60! I bought three bells in case I ever repeat the exercise! That said, the bell is exactly what is required.

3] Other items: The front handrail needs to be altered from curved to straight. I managed to reuse the Hornby knobs in their original holes, just providing a new 0.45 brass wire handrail.

  There are two prominent lifting points on each side of the saddle tank. These were fabricated from a single link of chain on a sliver of 10 thou. p/card and placed accordingly. The original Hornby whistle disappeared early in the piece and was replaced by a metal spare.

4] Painting and finishing: Throughout the conversion Tamiya TS-29 semi-gloss black spray was used for the body and detailing parts. Initially I intended to finish the loco. with a BR early crest, but looking online it appears 1151 received an overhaul and repaint September 1959, and was given the new crest. A Mike Morant picture shows this well, and therefore a Fox transfer was used for the crest. A white route restriction disc was handpainted on the cabside, not very well but I was unable to source a transfer for this. final varnishing was with Tamiya TS-79 semi- gloss.

 Narrow Planet gave their usual excellent service providing bespoke numberplates and shed plate. The underframe and wheels were weathered as per the Mike Morant picture using a variety of Vallejo colours.

All in all, a pleasant and inexpensive project which has yielded an attractive Peckett variant.

Cheers from Oz,

Peter C.

Edited May 16, 2019 by 45568
spelling

[The Johnster]

Nice little Danygraig engine.  Powlesland and Mason's contractees, the Swansea Harbour Investement Trust, renamed themselves the Swansea Harbour Trust when the acronym was pointed out.  My dad told me this when I was 10 and I thought it was the funniest thing I'd ever heard; still makes me smile a little.