Jidenco L&Y Railmotor build

[Ruston]

I've had this stashed away for quite a while now and everything I've heard about the kit has been bad, so has put me off tackling it. The fact that it has outside valve gear, and I have never before built anything with outside valve gear, has also put me off. It seems to have such a reputation that I couldn't even get a professional to give me a quote to build it... It cost me nothing, so I may as well have a go myself.

 

So, here we go...

 

I've started on the coach body. Sides folded top and bottom, curved in toward the bottom and the ends tacked in. There's no floor in the kit, save for a piece of plastic, and the roof is some sort of vac-moulded thing that needs cutting and trimming. As the sides themselves are quite flimsy I'm going to have to strengthen them and make a brass floor.

[Edwardian]

Good luck!  Very Dearne Valley.

 

I look forward to seeing what you make of it. 

[Ruston]

I got the solebars on after a bit of a fight and then turned my attention to the bogie. It seemed quite simple; a one-piece etch where a few rivets need to be dimpled out and then folded up before adding whitemetal springs and axleboxes. Only it's not that simple. On folding it up I found there was no way the wheelsets could be fitted. I've had to chop the whole thing apart, cut the crossmember off, make some pieces up from scrap and then put it back together so that it's wider and the crossmember doesn't prevent the fitting of the wheelsets. To top it off I've just looked at drawings and multiple photos, in two books, and find that the bogie in the kit is a work of fiction and is nothing like the prototype anyway.

 

There's a whitemetal casting that looks as if it's meant to be a mount for the bogie but I can't work out how it's supposed to work and the "instructions" are silent on this. In fact they're silent on most of how to build the entire thing it, to be fair.

 

And... the coach body continues its entire length with the same profile where the back of the 'loco' portion of the coach should actually be a simple straight up and down affair, without the curvature of the coach side. The bogie being wrong I can probably live with but this is so obvious that I'll have to cut off the offending part of the coach and renew with scratchbuilt parts.

 

I can't say I wasn't warned...

[Scottish Modeller]

Hi Dave,

 

I've built 2 of these over the time since they were first released.

 

One for myself and one for someone who ran scared after looking at the kit in the box.

 

Looking back I see that I charged £100 for building it and that was in 1979!

 

It sounds like you have a different bogie in the kit to what they used to be as I found the bogie to be the more accurata part of the kit.

 

The problem with the coach body is the same as it always was - it includes part of the body that should be a part of the loco.

 

As you have had similar thoughts to how this can be resolved to my method - keep on with it!

 

Cut off the offending portion and create your own which looks more like it should.

 

I remember the review in the L&Y Society magazine and found myself almost crying at it as I couldn't understand how they wrote it up to make it sound so good.

 

Thanks

Phil H

 

ps - I sold the one I did for myself in 1989 and thought I was lucky to get £100 for it.

[Stanley Melrose]

Hi,

I hope you are aware that there's an error in the panelling on the Jidenco etch for the carriage sides?  If you check with the attached drawing, you may find it possible to correct the small fault with the panelling - or not - if you consider it immaterial.

 

Cheers,

 

Stan

PS Bill Bedford used to do an etch for the trailer carriage . . .

Platform 15 P6.pdf

[Scottish Modeller]

5 minutes ago, Stanley Melrose said:

Hi,

I hope you are aware that there's an error in the panelling on the Jidenco etch for the carriage sides?  If you check with the attached drawing, you may find it possible to correct the small fault with the panelling - or not - if you consider it immaterial.

 

Cheers,

 

Stan

PS Bill Bedford used to do an etch for the trailer carriage . . .

Platform 15 P6.pdf 769.87 kB · 0 downloads

Hi Stan,

 

I became aware there were errors in the kit as a result of building them, but It's only noticable if you are familiar with the real things and no one ever noticed it on the ones I built.

 

Thanks

Phil H

[Coal Tank]

Looking forward to this 

[Adam88]

Any news, or did it turn out to be a bit too challenging?

[Ruston]

10 hours ago, Adam88 said:

Any news, or did it turn out to be a bit too challenging?

No news, no progress. I haven't touched it since September. I haven't been well over Christmas and the New Year and I have three scratch-builds and another brass kit on the go, none of which I've felt like doing much about.Most of the modelling I have done has been weathering, which can be done in the house and doesn't really need much thinking about.

 

I have too many modelling projects on the go and this one is way down the list of things to do. I may even sell it.

[Adam88]

Dave,

 

Thank you for the answer,  I trust your are recovering now.  L&Y railmotors have always been a favourite of mine.  I started one of these kits very many years ago but it came to nought.  In those days very small, suitable motors and gearboxes were hard to come by and the delicate outside valve motion was beyond my skills at the time.  I have a friend who had much more success with his though and it ran very sweetly.

 

Adam

[Ruston]

I have decided to part with this as my current interests have changed somewhat. If anyone is interested in having it, I'll possibly swap for an industrial diesel (or kit of) of some description, or beer vouchers. PM if interested.