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On 04/11/2023 at 18:22, relaxinghobby said:

Another slow project is this LCDR  shunter, a Hornby J83 cut down and sitting on a Bachmann pannier tank chassis.

There is just about enough clearance over the motor.

 

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LCDR T class? If so I'll be very interested in this as I have a half built one from a J72

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These small 0-6-0s seemed to have been every where in the UK.

I think they were based on the the older Stroudly E1s of the London and Brighton with their round topped tanks and narrow cabs. Very modern for the 1880s

 

I picked up a small Bachmann pannier tank as a poor runner.

Not sure which version a 57xx or 64xx but it has 18mm wheels and a wheelbase of 29 + 33 mm or 4ft 6 inch wheels at 7ft 3” and 8ft 3 “ spacing small enough for my model.

It could be a LCDR T or a Hull and Barnsley shunter or a Great North o’ Scotland loco they are all of a similar size.

 

Sophia NSE I’ve seen your J72 based model it would be quiet small which suits these locos, much smaller than say a Jinty.

 

Cypherman thanks for the idea but an M7 tank body would be far too big and I already had a cut up J83 body that needed finishing. I had a brass chassis for it but never got it running.

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3 hours ago, relaxinghobby said:

 

These small 0-6-0s seemed to have been every where in the UK.

I think they were based on the the older Stroudly E1s of the London and Brighton with their round topped tanks and narrow cabs. Very modern for the 1880s

 

I picked up a small Bachmann pannier tank as a poor runner.

Not sure which version a 57xx or 64xx but it has 18mm wheels and a wheelbase of 29 + 33 mm or 4ft 6 inch wheels at 7ft 3” and 8ft 3 “ spacing small enough for my model.

It could be a LCDR T or a Hull and Barnsley shunter or a Great North o’ Scotland loco they are all of a similar size.

 

Sophia NSE I’ve seen your J72 based model it would be quiet small which suits these locos, much smaller than say a Jinty.

 

Cypherman thanks for the idea but an M7 tank body would be far too big and I already had a cut up J83 body that needed finishing. I had a brass chassis for it but never got it running.

7' 3" + 8' 3" would be a 57xx.

 

Chris KT

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  • 4 weeks later...

Back to the J94 tender version.

 

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When the rods were fitted I could not get the wheels to turn. The modellers bind of trying to get the loco wheels and coupling rods all to turn together. I had to make my own coupling rods and there the trouble started. They where the wrong length only slightly but enough to jam.

I find it hard enough to get an etched chassis kit to run smoothly, where you start out with matching wheel spacing and coupling rod crank pin holes. Needless to say all the wheels are exactly to the identical dimensions as well, sometimes they aren't. Worth checking just in case.

The old Mainline wheels I’m using have very fat coupling rod pins, meaning I could not just used some accessory suppliers etched rods if there are any for this old Airfix kit. Or maybe they are some from a Hornby spares supplier like Peter’s Spares, if indeed they have exactly the same spacing.

So I had to reuse the Mainline ones with their extra wide crank pin holes.

 

Plus I had to reattach the wheel stubs to their plastic centers. Fixing with Locktite super glue GLASS and Granville’s Lock Thread. And lining up the spokes looking through the wheels along the axial. Allowing everything to harden up for 24 hours.

 

So back to the rods I went for home adapted or home bodged in this case. Cutting down the original Mainline ones just to keep the big bosses. And re-soldering them to a shorter length on a home made jig.

 

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Using the plastic rods from the Airfix kit as a spacer to drill through the holes into some plywood

I’ve then pushed in nails to hold the rods in place whilst soldering the ends together.

 

Result is a bit tatty with globs of solder in the middle and the first time they locked up but making new hole spacing for the rear set I got the right length and the wheels all turn together and at last it roles freely.

 

There are some etched rods there from a scrapped 0-8-0 chassis kit. I tried to solder large pads to the crank-pin holds and open them out. Did not work so I gave up.

 

This has held me up for months, one of those trip points that can stop a build but being forced to stay in during the cold and icy weather last weekend has kept me at it, and a solution worked out.

 

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Is the cab floor level too low. Like the actual tenderised J94 2890 I lowered the footplate after cutting down the frame ends.

It's much lower than the floor on this GBL C class tender.

 

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The GBL tender had fixed wheels because it was a cheap static kit. I've fitted a chassis from a Hornby Schools class tender with it's metal wheels and pick up wipers. You can just see the copper strip between the lower right hand wheels. A step towards motorising this loco or I may try to motorise the tender.

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

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The short track plinth seen under many of the models above is adapted from the bit of plastic track on a shaped wooden plinth that comes under those 3mm display models of various famous trains from around the world. I don't know the make but they show up at train fairs and model show jumble sales frequently.

 

The gauge is 15 mm not much use to us 00 models but the track can quickly be pried off, it's just glued and by cutting along the inside of one of the plastic rails a strip of sleepers comes away with the rail.  About 2 mm is trimmed from the outer edge of the sleepers and the track glued back onto the plinth with some gauges acting as spacers.

 

In the picture the metal rectangle is an official gauge it came with a copper clad point kit for solder construction.

The other is a laser guided cardboard one from a piece of grey card from the back of a note book. Carefully measured to 16.5mm, works just as well. It is old, made in the pre spell checker age.

 

A bit of a coffee stirrer jammed into the top grove to stop the bits moving while the UHU glue sets.

Leave it under a pile of books overnight to keep it flat.

 

I would have said other brands of general purpose UHU type glue are available like Wilkinson own brand, but that is now an historical thing.

 

Edited by relaxinghobby
typos & editing
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  • 2 weeks later...

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Coupling rods on and it rolls nicely without binding in a loose waywhich works in 00 with it's more open clearances.

 

A white disk of plasticard glued and screwed to the cab to hold the end of the boiler tube that just plugs over it.

A bit blurry here but I've filed the front footplate step to give a curved look as with the prototype.

 

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The boiler, a retired pen body has chimney and dome from an old K's white metal 14XX kit. Safety valve base cut from an Airfix Schools boiler I think. All parts salvaged from broken bodies and kits found at exhibition club sales. So no good locos harmed. I think of all those old loco bodies as dismantlement parts to be rearranged into a new locomotive. To live again.

 

I find doing the details less interesting than the earlier basic shape part of the model making. So things like handrails and chimneys may take me ages.

Edited by relaxinghobby
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  • 4 weeks later...

“Make it so”, the immortal words of Captain Picard of the star ship Enterprise ordering his crew to action.

 

Well the old imagination is a bit like that, dream up a modification or new scratch build and then on the work bench you start out trying to do it there are endless problems to over come. (99 % perspiration comes after the inspiration as someone said once. Was it the great industrialist and inventor Henry Ford. )

 

 

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Remember this is the old Hornby Dublo and Wren chassis block filed down and filed down some more until it fits but it’s the correct wheel base so I’ll press on.

Now my imagination thought if I used one of the Highlevel tall gearboxes can I get the motor hidden inside the middle of the boiler barrel.

This is the Hiflier Plus at 7.8 mm wide and a length ways extender arm, can I file out the original gear hole to fit it in and then set it up with all those complicated gear meshing nicely so it works ?

The workbench reality is a lot of trial and error, fit it file some more and try to fit it again.


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Work in progress

 

 

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Does not fit yet

 

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Still more filing to get it to set down into it’s palce

Edited by relaxinghobby
Reimagine
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  • 2 weeks later...

J94 tender version

This is a conversion of an old Airfix J94 saddle tank inspired by the actual full size one that I saw near the town of Ruddington on the northern section of the Great Central Railway Nottingham  Historic Railway. I've waited several years for a model of the old Airfix to turn up so I could have a go then two turn up with in months of each other.

 

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Front end view shows the step made in the front footplate. I used the old cab back plate for the new spectical plate because it had round windows and the width was trimmed down. The original roof and sides where modified and stuck back on.

Smoke box front reused after the saddle tank was carefully cut away.

 

 

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I used some old Mainline J72 metal wheels, these have the fatter axles and fit nicely into the Airfix plastic chassis holes.

 

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I think this plastic J94 is going to be tender drive, this tender is just to get an idea of how it will look. The tender is from parts of an Airfix Schools kit, chassis and sides cut down a lot and built into a smaller older sort.

 

You can also see the step at the loco rear and the white layer is added back after I cut off too much from the height of the cab sides and found it looked silly.

 

The new boiler is made from some handy plastic pen bodies and plastic card rolled around them until the correct diameter is achieved and super-glued together to make a solid piece. This all sits on the original smoke box saddle and firebox base. the black parts seen here.

 

I've been doing the fiddle of adding handrails using a sprue of old K's plastic knobs. White metal chimney and dome. I think they where intended  for a GWR 14XX tank. The safety valve base is a filed down dome from another plastic body.

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Sunny day, better light , better photography.

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At the back the loco has a new valve gear adjustment rod made with scrap etch parts.

 

I'm going to make this a tender driven loco. I've got this short wheel base Bull Ant motor bogie. 

 

 

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It needs a plastic skin disguise to make it look like a locomotive tender.

 

 

This is the top half of a Bachmann H0 USA 4-4-0 loco who's chassis I used for a little 4-4-0 tank loco.

Dispite being H0 it is wide and just fits on a footplate the same width as the loco which has the original Airfix kit footplate.

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A serial packet cardboard template was quickly made to test the dimensions and fit. You can quickly cut and paste the card to make a pattern.

 

I'm copying the card template to make a  more durable plasticard.

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  • 1 month later...

Motor drive tender for J 94 variant.

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These Bull-Ant motor bogies are very nice in the way they perform but the wheel bearings and frame that holds the gears and wheels together seems very weak. Plus they are vulnerable to damage. I dropped this one and one of the plastic end clips holding the back and front wheels broke and can not keep itself in place well under any mechanical stress. It just pops off as soon as you apply power.

 

 

It clips back into position but drops off easily no good for reliable running.

 

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The center wheel bearing has a metal bracket holding it on and seems much more robust.

 

I suppose being from Australia these motor bogies are named for the characteristics they share with the local variety of stubborn Bull-Ant. Slow heavy and just keep on pushing whilst emitting a growling gear noise. Has any one been to Oz and met the ants there ?

 

Alternately don’t buy the cheaper but poorer running Kangaroo.

 

 

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So I’m developing this metal tray thingy to hold it all together and act to keep dust and loose ballast out of the mech’.

Made from 10 thou soft brass sheet, scored and cut with a heavy craft knife. And bent and formed with pliers. The plan is to hold it in place with some self tapping screws into plasticard blocks behind the buffer and front frame cross piece. See Green lines.

 

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On 21/03/2024 at 21:26, relaxinghobby said:

clips back into position but drops off easily no good for reliable running.


For this sort of situation I recommend cheap low quality superglue.  It will hold the body in place and enable it to be handled normally, but the bond can be easily enough broken if necessary.  Then you scrape the used glue off and re- glue the join.  This is not good modelling or engineering practice, it is bodgery of the worst sort of course.  But it works!

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