Trio of SEF N7's

[hayfield]

 

Quite a few years ago I bought this part built Wills GER L11 (LNER N7) bought the missing body parts and some paint then never did anything, has a hand built chassis in the shape of a Triang Jinty, but no coupling rods or rear pony truck

 

 

4 years ago have moved house into GER territory earlier this year I bought a Southeastern Finecast N7, built with an 00 gauge chassis but un painted. The chassis was duly rebuilt to EM gauge and I rediscovered the unused can of paint, has a DS10 motor and Markit wheels

 

During lockdown I saw another N7 going cheaply, with a built but damaged chassis plus a spare and on closer inspection a few damaged body bits, all for just over the price of a new SEF chassis. the body had its paintwork damaged,, I have sanded off the lining but I will need to flatten off the old paint a bit more

 

 

For some reason the body was separate from the footplate, which made the following repairs much easier

 

 

The parts were ordered and I have started to rebuild the body, For some reason a large part of the front footplate was missing, which I filled with some spare largish whitemetal strip. I then soldered fixing screws to the front and rear of the footplate to fit the chassis to

 

 

Also a chunk of the splasher was missing, this I built up with low melt solder, grinding the inside and filing the outer to shape

 

As it happens I bought a fourth unbuilt kit solely for the Gibson Chassis and wheels which turned out to be P4 plus quite a few packs of spares.

 

As it happens the Wills body is designed for use with a jinty chassis, so the wrecked etched chassis cab be rebuilt and made to fit this body and I can use a comet bogie etch. With the older body if I can restore the paintwork, all I would need to do is paint the replacement parts once fitted. I now have 2 SEF etched chassis and one set of Alan Gibson frames along with a set of either Gibson or Ultrascale P4 wheels. Do I need a spare chassis, what gauges should I build them to ? I am building a small BLT in EM gauge and a tiny P4 harbor layout so perhaps 00 gauge is a non runner. Then I have a spare hand built jinty chassis 

 

Finally can I line locos? and do I need three L11/N7's

[Barclay]

Some loco's just breed - you collect some parts together and before you know it you have enough bits to make three. Rude not to, I suppose.

[hayfield]

1 hour ago, Barclay said:

Some loco's just breed - you collect some parts together and before you know it you have enough bits to make three. Rude not to, I suppose.

 

 

The first one I must have had for 10 years plus nicely hand painted and lined in GER livery, bought the parts which were missing/damaged but it stayed in the box, it does need a good clean but I have no idea what to use. But whilst waiting so long the chassis with damage to the rear part of the chassis will be easier to fit to the body and as I said use a trailing bogie. With this in mind on reflection I may just keep it to 00 gauge and move it on as I have the two  SEF versions

 

The 4th one was just bought to as they say "farm" the extras. It cost me more than the others but I sold it for not much less than I paid for it.

 

The other two I bought during lockdown, one whilst I was out on my afternoon lockdown walk in our local woods, both as I like the loco, there are Southeastern Finecast kits and because they were cheap. Certainly the last having two chassis, and one set of wheels, gears and motor. Whilst writing this I have just noticed a slight issue with one of the side tanks (a botched repair) I will have to get the low melt solder out, a bit of luck finding it now rather than after fitting to the footplate.

 

The main issue is the colour, if I build them as N7's they were only painted black, I prefer them in blue !!!

 

Still nice and easy kits to build

[hayfield]

 

I started to feather in the chipped paint and a piece fell out

 

 

In the past I have had issues with using low melt solder as filler, but since i bought a 70/80 watt temperature controlled iron turned down to 300 degrees it seems to work. Plenty of flux then carefully fill up the gap

 

 

Filed flush and the glue and paint will hide the slight mark left. Sadly I cannot get access to solder the body to the footplate so 2 part epoxy will have to do. Then a good sand before fitting the final bits   

[34theletterbetweenB&D]

On ‎26‎/‎08‎/‎2020 at 10:04, hayfield said:

The other two I bought during lockdown, one whilst I was out on my afternoon lockdown walk in our local woods...

 

Still nice and easy kits to build.

Where is this woodland? I tramp about my local woods regularly, through which lay a branchline on which N7s ran for near forty years, yet have never pulled off this trick. Is an incantation required? 'Fructiosa Swediemettus' perhaps? We need to know...

 

It is a good simple kit, and looks well, especially with an etched set of frames.

[hayfield]

Our part of the village is surrounded by either Woodland or commons, its been rather nice to be able to go for a stroll and see it change from spring with the bluebells to summer with the ferns. I think we were in Blake's Wood at the time having our lock down walk, I was more interested in the eBay app that the wood

 

The N7's may have ventured on one of the branches to Maldon in the past

 

And as you say the kits are quite basic, and easy to build. Plenty of room for a larger motor and the etched chassis are fine