Rehab for secondhand kit built locos

[ecgtheow]

In June Tony sold me the 0-6-2 tank shown in the photo below, which he was selling on behalf of a widow & the CRC. It looked quite well built & he had checked it to ensure it ran well, which it did.

 

However, on delivery we saw that it had a large motor block very clearly visible in the cab. This didn't really matter as the intention was always to backdate it to its LNWR days. As I cannot yet travel to the UK my friend Frank Bulkan did this for me having fitted a Mashima motor, High Level gears, LNWR buffers, a Ramsbottom safety valve, correct trailing wheels, etc, & painted it & lined it with LNWR transfers.

 

I am very pleased with the result. It didn't cost that much to do & possibly the greatest difficulty was trying to buy a new motor & gears in these Covid times, but fortunately I had spares. So my message to potential purchasers of secondhand locos especially from someone like Tony, who has reviewed them, is that you can often get a good result without too much difficulty at quite a low cost compared with buying all the parts & starting from scratch.

[Paul H Vigor]

A Watford Tank? Very nice!

 

I'm also a buyer of tired, kitbuilt, white metal locos. Can sometimes be challenging to locate replacements for the 'missing bits' - usually one or more footplate steps, buffers, etc!

[Steamport Southport]

I'm a sucker for unbuilt kits but not usually built ones. But a few months ago I took pity on this.

 

 

 

Reasonable price so I thought I would take a chance and if it was a total dud then at least I would have got a tender and some parts.

 

It actually runs pretty well for an old K's kit. Needs a repaint, some detailing and replacement parts such as buffers which are a bit bent, and I'm not that fussy on the name. But I'm reasonably happy with it as it is. I was expecting to have to replace the whole chassis with a Branchlines one.

 

Any distortion is just the photographs. It's squarely built when placed on track.

 

So yes. I agree with the sentiment there are sometimes real gems that people are probably ignoring for the next shiny new RTR model.

 

 

Jason

[hayfield]

I have found if you are patient watching everybody's favourite auction site offers quite some wonderful opportunities at reasonable prices, granted the very rare items can fetch a kings ransom, but if you look carefully there are many bargains to be had.

 

These may well be kits, or kits with either wheels, gears and or motors. Or a kit built item with all the items which may need refurbishing or rebuilding and these can be quite cheap once you take the cost of all the parts into consideration

 

Next up is keeping an eye out for parts/spares, I have recently found an etched chassis for a very well made and excellently painted Wills N7 with a Triang/Hornby chassis. which included a Mashima motor and gearbox for less than the price of a new chassis

 

Finally sometimes second hand unbuilt kits with motor, gearbox and wheels are often worth buying for these extras then reselling the unwanted kit

 

All of these options do keep the costs down of building kits

 

The problem of missing/broken parts can be an issue, but Southeastern Finecast has always been a great source for spares, and I have bought some replacement parts from DJH, however the likes of Wizard models has a host of parts available

[Barclay]

A very enjoyable pastime.

 

I recently acquired this K's coal tank. very nicely built body, replacement etched chassis, and Romfords, for £40. A RTR model is available I believe but what's the point of that? This will keep me occupied for ages, especially since one of the wheels doesn't match the other 5...

 

[hayfield]

I have just won last night a Westward Terrier, the chassis is partially built, body still in wrapping, compensated chassis which looks to be P4 gauge, no motor or gears but what do you expect for £40 plus postage, as it happens its the second Terrier I brought recently as I bought a set of Falcon Brass etches at a very much reduced fee

 

Out of interest what is the issue with the wheels (which would have cost you more than you paid for the whole kit)

 

Edited July 30, 2021 by hayfield

[Barclay]

4 minutes ago, hayfield said:

I have just won last night a Westward Terrier, the chassis is partially built, body still in wrapping, compensated chassis which looks to be P4 gauge, no motor or gears but what do you expect for £40 plus postage, as it happens its the second Terrier I brought recently as I bought a set of Falcon Brass etches at a very much reduced fee

 

Out of interest what is the issue with the wheels (which would have cost you more than you paid for the whole kit)

 

Well there are 4 nice insulated Webb type wheels. One live Webb type wheel (I can live with that) and a non-Webb wheel with a different number of spokes. Same size at least!

So I might try to make a plasticard overlay, or even a paper one made from a photocopy of a Webb wheel, superglued on, and varnished for strength. Or maybe see if Markits will sell me a single wheel. That would presumably have stainless tyres now so it wouldn't fully match either... 

And only 2 axles, though I wanted EM anyway so that was no matter. It does suggest that there were two proper wheelsets for this loco. and the other had gone missing, being replaced by whatever was available.

 

[hayfield]

5 minutes ago, Barclay said:

Well there are 4 nice insulated Webb type wheels. One live Webb type wheel (I can live with that) and a non-Webb wheel with a different number of spokes. Same size at least!

So I might try to make a plasticard overlay, or even a paper one made from a photocopy of a Webb wheel, superglued on, and varnished for strength. Or maybe see if Markits will sell me a single wheel. That would presumably have stainless tyres now so it wouldn't fully match either... 

And only 2 axles, though I wanted EM anyway so that was no matter. It does suggest that there were two proper wheelsets for this loco. and the other had gone missing, being replaced by whatever was available.

 

 

 

Thought I might have been able to help, but I have no LNWR style Romfords in my wheel box

[hayfield]

I not only like whitemetal kits but also ones portraying locos which ran in the south and west of England, the K's GWR railcars are two a penny, but the Westward versions are highly sought after, many going near or past 3 figures

 

I spotted a Westward No18  (later style in need of a bit of a restoration. It looked to have been built well and came with a Lima chassis, but one side had been bent in, not creased just leant on. I am hoping it will just be a case of straightening rather than rebuilding, the worst case its a rebuild after some paint stripper has been applied (once the windows have been removed). I paid £21 plus postage, its complete with instructions and a new set of seats

 

At the moment there is an un-started body kit currently at £45, which needs a donor chassis. I am of a mind to ditch the Lima chassis for a High Level motor bogie and change the wheels

[hayfield]

The postman arrived today and I certainly dodged the bullet with this one as I failed to check what I had first. In the past I have bought whitemetal kits cheaply to do up and I knew I had a couple of Wills King Arthur locos, and thought I needed a chassis for one.

 

Well I won a partly built Wills King Arthur, it had an etched chassis with a set of Romfords, a motor, but no coupling rods or motion. It cost me £36 inc postage, the thought was the Romfords/Markit wheels would cost me £45+ the chassis are £40 and coupling rods and motion would only set me back £10- £15's. the added bonus was that the motor was not the dreaded X04 but a 5 pole Romford Bulldog

 

I looked at both my king Arthurs one did need an etched chassis but I had already found one, it has coupling rods and motion, but no wheels.  The body and tender will go back on eBay cheap (its out of my period (BR) and I have 2 already), I will also sell the Romford 5 pole motor as I don't use them

 

It will give me a spare etched chassis which I will convert to EM gauge and experiment on thinning the whitemetal cylinders (they are designed for a chassis with 00 gauge spacing, at worst I have the wheels I am missing at a knock down price after the loco and motor are sold, plus a spare set of loco frames.

[great central]

I've bought several part built kits over the years and what often surprises me is that heavy white metal kits tend to come with small motors.

One I had from a member on here a while back was a hefty 2-8-0 with a small Mashima motor. Add the equally heavy white metal tender and I doubt the loco would shift much in the way of a train.

Unfortunately due to the closure of Mashima, sourcing a big enough motor for the job is becoming difficult, not to mention the added cost. That project along with most of my others is now stalled, due to a loss of interest as much as anything else. Add to that the lack of a suitable layout for most of them, only a very few of my previous builds have actually run on a layout, and I find myself seriously doubting  I will move any of them forward, however I'm keeping them just in case, especially if I'm forced to retire from work.

I'm unwilling to buy Chinese made motors as since the 'issues' of the last year and a half I try to avoid buying such products as much as possible.

Also most of the larger motors now available are too wide to fit into a narrow firebox, so it's quite likely that when I'm gone my son will have several part finished or unstarted kits to dispose of as well as rather a lot of RTR stuff!

Edited August 2, 2021 by great central
Missing word

[kevinlms]

48 minutes ago, great central said:

I've bought several part built kits over the years and what often surprises me is that heavy white metal kits tend to come with small motors.

One I had from a member on here a while back was a hefty 2-8-0 with a small Mashima motor. Add the equally heavy white metal tender and I doubt the loco would shift much in the way of a train.

Unfortunately due to the closure of Mashima, sourcing a big enough motor for the job is becoming difficult, not to mention the added cost. That project along with most of my others is now stalled, due to a loss of interest as much as anything else. Add to that the lack of a suitable layout for most of them, only a very few of my previous builds have actually run on a layout, and I find myself seriously doubting  I will move any of them forward, however I'm keeping them just in case, especially if I'm forced to retire from work.

I'm unwilling to buy Chinese made motors as since the 'issues' of the last year and a half I try to avoid buying such products as much as possible.

Also most of the larger motors now available are too wide to fit into a narrow firebox, so it's quite likely that when I'm gone my son will have several part finished or unstarted kits to dispose of as well as rather a lot of RTR stuff!

Never did make the slightest bit of sense to provide/recommend tiny/fly power motors. I guess the kit maker thought that at least a small motor will fit, which rather misses the point, of a model railway, where the aim is generally to run trains!

 

Trouble is refusing to buy Chinese these days, tends to limit what is actually available. I don't blame them, we've allowed them to take over, by US insisting on getting stuff made cheaper.

[hayfield]

2 hours ago, kevinlms said:

Never did make the slightest bit of sense to provide/recommend tiny/fly power motors. I guess the kit maker thought that at least a small motor will fit, which rather misses the point, of a model railway, where the aim is generally to run trains!

 

Trouble is refusing to buy Chinese these days, tends to limit what is actually available. I don't blame them, we've allowed them to take over, by US insisting on getting stuff made cheaper.

 

I have had mixed results from Chinese motors partly down to a lack of understanding on my part

 

High Level have a super coreless motor under £30 and small powerful open frame motors under a tenner

 

I have bought a couple of smallish coreless motors both of which have failed

 

I did buy 4  1220 can motors quite cheaply, 1mm shafts and have fixing holes 8mm apart. But Chris has been closed, must order some more id they are any good and I can find them again.

 

I have no issues buying cheap items from China, it costs them far more to send them to me than they cost. However any thing that is expensive and or works off the mains I but from a UK company, purely on safety grounds 

[Barclay]

On 30/07/2021 at 13:27, Barclay said:

Well there are 4 nice insulated Webb type wheels. One live Webb type wheel (I can live with that) and a non-Webb wheel with a different number of spokes. Same size at least!

So I might try to make a plasticard overlay, or even a paper one made from a photocopy of a Webb wheel, superglued on, and varnished for strength. Or maybe see if Markits will sell me a single wheel. That would presumably have stainless tyres now so it wouldn't fully match either... 

And only 2 axles, though I wanted EM anyway so that was no matter. It does suggest that there were two proper wheelsets for this loco. and the other had gone missing, being replaced by whatever was available.

 

Curses - I can't bodge my way out of this: