Dave Alexander K4 Kit

[ScRSG]

Would be very interested if anyone has and would like to part with the above.

[EHertsGER]

So would I…

[ScRSG]

I got lucky .

 

[dunwurken]

Have had one of these kits in the 'to build' drawer and now getting round to making a start on building it.  When the kit was produced there was little option but to build the chassis which came with the kit but the availability of the Hornby K1 chassis has got me wondering if I might be able to save myself the trouble of building the kit chassis by substituting the Hornby chassis.   Anyone already gone down that road?

Malcolm

[gr.king]

Wrong slidebars, crossheads etc on the K1 chassis though.  I used a Bachmann K3 chassis, with the right sort of outside motion, re-wheeled with Hornby L1 wheels, when I produced a K4 by carefully combining a modified B17 boiler with the rest of a K3. The spares that I needed were relatively cheap to buy in the days when East Kent Models were still "big" in the spares business.

[Metropolitan H]

10 hours ago, gr.king said:

Wrong slidebars, crossheads etc on the K1 chassis though.  I used a Bachmann K3 chassis, with the right sort of outside motion, re-wheeled with Hornby L1 wheels, when I produced a K4 by carefully combining a modified B17 boiler with the rest of a K3. The spares that I needed were relatively cheap to buy in the days when East Kent Models were still "big" in the spares business.

Sounds very good. Is there a picture or Two?

 

Regards

Chris H

[dunwurken]

12 hours ago, gr.king said:

Wrong slidebars, crossheads etc on the K1 chassis though.  I used a Bachmann K3 chassis, with the right sort of outside motion, re-wheeled with Hornby L1 wheels, when I produced a K4 by carefully combining a modified B17 boiler with the rest of a K3. The spares that I needed were relatively cheap to buy in the days when East Kent Models were still "big" in the spares business.

I note what you say regarding slidebars, crossheads etc however the DA kit comes with a brass etched chassis and valve gear.   Why the Hornby L1 wheels?   The K4 had 5' 2" drivers, the K3 had 5 ' 8" drivers and if my memory serves me correctly the L1 had 6 ' 8" drivers.

Regards

Malcolm

 

[t-b-g]

1 minute ago, dunwurken said:

I note what you say regarding slidebars, crossheads etc however the DA kit comes with a brass etched chassis and valve gear.   Why the Hornby L1 wheels?   The K4 had 5' 2" drivers, the K3 had 5 ' 8" drivers and if my memory serves me correctly the L1 had 6 ' 8" drivers.

Regards

Malcolm

 

 

I think your memory may have let you down on this occasion! The L1 had 5ft 2ins wheels, correct for a K4. 6ft 8ins is more your Gresley Pacific size.

[micklner]

https://www.lner.info/locos/L/l1thompson.php

[MarkC]

On 01/12/2023 at 15:56, dunwurken said:

Have had one of these kits in the 'to build' drawer and now getting round to making a start on building it.  When the kit was produced there was little option but to build the chassis which came with the kit but the availability of the Hornby K1 chassis has got me wondering if I might be able to save myself the trouble of building the kit chassis by substituting the Hornby chassis.   Anyone already gone down that road?

Malcolm

Given the issues pointed out by others, to me you'll be as well just building the kit as supplied, tbh. That's what I'll be doing with mine.

 

Regarding frames, I had a Nucast K1, an eBay rescue, to build. Its original whitemetal lump chassis casting was missing, so I built a chassis using a set of DA's K4 frames. That worked well.

 

Mark

[dunwurken]

Apologies, got my L1 classes mixed up.  I was mistakenly thinking of the SECR / Southern L1 class rather then the LNER L1 🙄

 

You may well be correct Mark.  As I said earlier I had one of these kits in the 'to build' drawer and only now getting round to making a start on building it.  It was only the availability of the Hornby K1 chassis that got me wondering if I might be able to save myself the trouble of building the kit chassis by substituting a r-t-r chassis.     

 

Thanks to all for your input.

 

Malcolm

[Clive Mortimore]

After seeing Graeme's conversion using a K3 chassis I thought I would have a bash. I am using a Triang B12 boiler.

 

This is an early stage photo from the trial fit of the boiler.

 

Here it is next to a K3.

 

 

[Red Devil]

Aren't the Bachmann K3 wheels undersized anyway? I may be wrong but seem to remember reading that somewhere.

So they might be 'close enough' for some.

[dunwurken]

3 hours ago, Red Devil said:

Aren't the Bachmann K3 wheels undersized anyway? I may be wrong but seem to remember reading that somewhere.

So they might be 'close enough' for some.

Would they be undersized to a scale 5'2" ?

Malcolm

[Red Devil]

3 minutes ago, dunwurken said:

Would they be undersized to a scale 5'2" ?

Malcolm

A very quick google brought this up. 

The K3 model scales nearing 5'4" over tyres, and the driving wheels do look undersize as a result. To the flange edges its 5'7"

Depends on if that's close enough for you I suppose!

[gr.king]

On 02/12/2023 at 19:14, Metropolitan H said:

Sounds very good. Is there a picture or Two?

 

Regards

Chris H

Apologies for the delayed response, I' was away over the weekend.

When I found these images I was surprised to find that they date from 13 years ago...

The tender is also a former Bachmann or Replica item, with separate cuts and shuts to the tank and the frame to produce the low-front 3500 gallon variant that Loch Long initially had, others in the class built slightly later getting the revised high-front version.

I can't remember whether I had already changed the coupled wheels before taking these pictures. Keen observation will probably provide the answer.