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Dapol Terrier EM conversion?


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Branchlines does a Terrier conversion chassis that suits P4 and EM http://branchlines.blogspot.com/ and some time ago Tim Shackleton did a “how to” in his book “Plastic Bodied Locomotives” on how to upgrade plastic locomotives which I fear is out of print. A caution, the Branchlines chassis was designed to fit the Dapol/Hornby body so may need a bit of fettling to fit.

 

HTH

 

David

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Thanks David .

 I have Tim’s book and will revisit it .

The Locomotion model is superbly finished and has beautifully painted “spokes” on the balance weights . I’m hoping for a quick and cheap solution such as pulling out the wheels with a GW wheel puller - sacrilege, I know .However , I am aged 75 so time is finite . There are lots of projects I’d like to complete so time management and short cuts are important to me .

I have successfully converted Dapol railcars to EM by pulling out the wheels so am hoping the same approach will work .

Thanks for the suggestion .

All the best

Ken 

 

 

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Actually Ken that just might work. I was reading in Scalefour News a while back about some conversions made on Hornby Pecketts, both the B2 and W4, that involved doing just that along with spacing the cylinders out by about .05mm on either side. Not a problem with the Terrier! With P4 the wheels had to be re-profiled but with EM you should be OK. Good Luck!

 

Cheers,

 

David

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15 hours ago, davknigh said:

Branchlines does a Terrier conversion chassis that suits P4 and EM http://branchlines.blogspot.com/ and some time ago Tim Shackleton did a “how to” in his book “Plastic Bodied Locomotives” on how to upgrade plastic locomotives which I fear is out of print. A caution, the Branchlines chassis was designed to fit the Dapol/Hornby body so may need a bit of fettling to fit.

 

HTH

 

David

As does Wizard/Comet

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Thanks Dave and Penrith for the encouragement and suggestions.

I’m minded to try pulling out the Dapol wheels to preserve the decoration . Tim Shackleton also suggested taking out the resulting slack with fibre washers . You cut a segment out and slip it over the axle and so avoid having to take the wheel off the axle . I’ve done this before with a Hornby 28xx and it works . The splined axle helps .

I’ll try this approach and report back but there are a couple of projects before it in the 2do list .

How did I find time to go to work ?!

Mind , I retired aged 70 .

Forward !

Ken 

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I have had a look at converting Boxhill to EM and I’m not too positive . The clearance between the wheels and the footplate is commendably tight in 00 . The critical point seems to me to be around the leading coupled wheels  . It might be possible to cut or file the die cast  footplate moulding to increase clearance but this would encroach into the splasher housing . I haven’t taken the body off to see If it would be possible to thin the splasher moulding to move the wheel out  each side by at least 1 mm . There might be room .

If this works , I guess there would be more room alongside the middle and following coupled wheels  inside the tanks so the leading wheels are key .

I am pausing to reflect before proceeding .

Ken 

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I was thinking about buying either the Dapol or Hornby model in SR livery and then using the Wizard/Comet chassis for a P4 conversion, but the lining on the wheels put me off. I don't have the facilities to re-profile the wheels but neither could I do the lining on the wheels to a satisfactory standard. Best to move on or keep to the BR period. :huh:

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19 minutes ago, 1466 said:

I haven’t taken the body off to see If it would be possible to thin the splasher moulding to move the wheel out  each side by at least 1 mm .

I have taken my BR 32650 apart and I would imagine the construction will be similar.

The gap in the footplate measures 21.50mm for all the wheels.  However the front splasher fits outside a ridge cast in the top of the footplate.  If this was filed away it would give a space of approx 22.80mm.  The plastic splasher looks to be only about 0.5mm thick so not a lot of scope for thinning.

Everything on the model is glued together so it wasn't easy to get it all apart.  I didn't need to remove the smokebox which is just as well as it is really firmly stuck to the footplate.

Hopefully the body on your model will come off easily.  Mine seemed to be glued in at the front and required a large screwdriver between the footplate and chassis to release it.  The speaker was loose on top of the motor so that had to be moved around to get through the gap.

Good luck if you try.

Rodney

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Thanks again, Rodney. I’ve had a closer look and believe the clearances are tantalisingly close but dangerously near to breaking through the splasher fronts . 
My intention was to preserve the beautiful finish of the body and wheels so I am chickening out .

Thanks for everybody’s interest and contributions .

Ken 

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Pulling out the wheels is ok for em gauge.  Use a hub puller a bit at a time alternating sides. If you are careful you may not need to remove the rods!

 

Put the wheel sets back on the chassis and it may work but the plunger pickups may not reach!. I bought an extra set of terrier pickups and replaced the plunger pick up at one end, the other end has wipers (Dapol) . a bit of tweaking of the wipers and it should work. So far I have done this 3 times and it does work but you are reduced to pickups on four of the 6 wheels. i dont know if this will work with the newer Hornby Terriers and I cannot help with the locomotion model.

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Hello Anglian 

I’ve just measured my Boxhill , an EM gauge Bachman pannier with Ultrascales and my Hornby R3170 Hall with Gibson’s wheels  converted to EM gauge . A word of caution , these are as accurate as I can make them but anyone progressing to EM their Boxhill does so at their own risk OK ?

The following are mm and wheel width flange to face 

Boxhill 2.74

Ultrascale 2.3

Gibsons 2.26

Boxhill across the wheel bosses 21.40 and as RodneyS says the footplate is 21.50

I can’t get at the wheel bosses on the Pannier and Hall because brake gear etc gets in the way . However I have measured across the front faces of the wheels set at EM gauge using the EM gauge Society device .

Ultrascales 21.08

Gibsons 21.03 .

I reckon it may just possible to squeeze Ultrascales and Gibsons into an un modified footplate but the clearance would be unrealistic  . If you cut or file out the leading driver footplate to 22.80 as RodneyS suggests , the clearance would be 1.8 overall or (say) 0.9 each side . All of this doesn’t take account of wheels with bosses and coupling rods twirling around and hopefully not clouting the footplate . Side play would have to be controlled . I am assuming the middle and following drivers may be accommodated by cutting out the footplate in the same way as the leading drivers .

So it may work if you substitute Ultrascales or Gibsons drivers but proceed carefully.

I’ve revisited Tim Shackleton’s “Plastic Bodied Locos” and note that when he’d built a Terrier in P4 he used Gibson’s wheels but their provenance lay in Studiolith . I haven’t looked at Gibson’s catalogue to see what is currently on offer . 
Personally I’m leaning to using Gibson wheels and widening the cut outs in the due cast footplate . But I’m weighing up in filling spokes with solid balance weights, airbrushing the wheels and masking off “spokes “ . It is either that or leaving Boxhill as is . I was hoping this would be a quick and cheap conversion but it is proving to be a tad more costly and complicated. I’m musing still . 
Hope this helps.

Ken

 

 

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Hello Ken,

Thank you for taking the time to respond in such detail. Definitely an interesting challenge and one that I look forward to reading how you get on, if you do decide to try it after all. Given the precise measurements you've made it does sound viable, if only just.

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