GWR 3150 rumour

[Guest Jack Benson]

Please be patient, my chum has heard that a GWR 3150 Prairie tank is being considered for manufacture, is this a viable rumour or is he pulling my leg?

 

StaySafe

 

[MPR]

48 minutes ago, Jack Benson said:

Please be patient, my chum has heard that a GWR 3150 Prairie tank is being considered for manufacture, is this a viable rumour or is he pulling my leg?

 

Brassmasters are developing a 4mm kit - details at:

See http://www.brassmasters.co.uk/blog.htm#21-08-21

Edited September 6, 2021 by MPR

[No Decorum]

12 hours ago, Jack Benson said:

Please be patient, my chum has heard that a GWR 3150 Prairie tank is being considered for manufacture, is this a viable rumour or is he pulling my leg?

 

StaySafe

 

It would be agreeable if either Hornby or Dapol were to produce one RTR. However, were are told that the major expense in developing new tooling is the body rather than the chassis. If so, and given the larger boiler, it would be a major retool. Your chum may or may not be pulling your leg but I suspect that holding your breath will result in an early demise.

[Mark]

The kit has been designed by Martin Needham. Here is a picture of the test build.

 

Mark

[Siberian Snooper]

That looks very good, something to be added to my kit stash, when it gets released, whether it will get built is another matter.

 

 

[57xx]

That does look nice. Not something I'd be after but hope it does well.

[MPR]

On 09/09/2021 at 12:45, Mark said:

The kit has been designed by Martin Needham. Here is a picture of the test build.

 

Mark

Will this kit cover the “3100” std 4 boilered rebuilds?

[Steamport Southport]

5 minutes ago, MPR said:

Will this kit cover the “3100” std 4 boilered rebuilds?

 

If not, PDK are doing one.

 

http://www.pdkmodels.co.uk/index.html

 

 

 

Jason

[DCB]

I have been plotting a 3150 for some very considerable time involving looking at a whole lot of photos and the drawings in the Russel book.      

It immediately jumps out at me that the test build doesn't look right. Its a big beast the 3150, visually a 2-6-2 T version of the 42XX more than a big boiler 51XX, as the 3150 has the early pre 61XX cab 

 Analysing what looks wrong it seems to me...   The Cab roof looks a bit too flat as the back of the firebox is too low because the firebox top slopes back far too sharply, The No 4 firebox top slopes back slightly but not as sharply as in the model.

The front and rear footplate tops should be the same level, the model looks low at the back.

The bottom of the Cab cut out/ cab shutter lower rail looks like the right height for the 3100 of 1938, too low for a 3150

The boiler handrail is far above the level of the cab shutter whereas they are very nearly the same height on a 3150.

The smokebox saddle detail might improve things but the cylinder and smokebox saddle appear to be offset on the model but  the cylinder and smokebox saddle half were cast in one piece on the full size.

[Mark]

19 hours ago, DCB said:

I have been plotting a 3150 for some very considerable time involving looking at a whole lot of photos and the drawings in the Russel book.      

It immediately jumps out at me that the test build doesn't look right. Its a big beast the 3150, visually a 2-6-2 T version of the 42XX more than a big boiler 51XX, as the 3150 has the early pre 61XX cab 

 Analysing what looks wrong it seems to me...   The Cab roof looks a bit too flat as the back of the firebox is too low because the firebox top slopes back far too sharply, The No 4 firebox top slopes back slightly but not as sharply as in the model.

The front and rear footplate tops should be the same level, the model looks low at the back.

The bottom of the Cab cut out/ cab shutter lower rail looks like the right height for the 3100 of 1938, too low for a 3150

The boiler handrail is far above the level of the cab shutter whereas they are very nearly the same height on a 3150.

The smokebox saddle detail might improve things but the cylinder and smokebox saddle appear to be offset on the model but  the cylinder and smokebox saddle half were cast in one piece on the full size.

The slope on the top of the firebox is 0.25mm front to back. This was based on the Mogul frame plan. As much as possible has been designed using proper works drawings with dimensions. The footplate height is the same at the front as at the rear and this can be seen easily by putting a straight edge on them in the photograph. The handrails are in the correct position and this can clearly be seen from the picture of the 3150 posted earlier in the thread. The handrails on the boiler were located using engineering drawings, the cab was drawn from engineering drawings. Numerous photographs were consulted to verify relative positions for features where no drawings were available. The artwork has been overlaid on a side view of a 3150 and all the door cutouts lined up perfectly. Great Western fireboxes are wider at the front than the rear and this can give the illusion of an excessive slope in the top when viewed from below at close quarter. The cylinders are in the correct position relative to the saddle based on real drawings. There are castings to go on the front for the cylinder covers. Consideration was given to making it flat but based on the Mogul the decision was made to leave a slight slope which at 0.25mm front to back is imperceptible.

 

Mark

[DCB]

 

On 14/09/2021 at 20:51, Mark said:

The slope on the top of the firebox is 0.25mm front to back. This was based on the Mogul frame plan. As much as possible has been designed using proper works drawings with dimensions. The footplate height is the same at the front as at the rear and this can be seen easily by putting a straight edge on them in the photograph. The handrails are in the correct position and this can clearly be seen from the picture of the 3150 posted earlier in the thread. The handrails on the boiler were located using engineering drawings, the cab was drawn from engineering drawings. Numerous photographs were consulted to verify relative positions for features where no drawings were available. The artwork has been overlaid on a side view of a 3150 and all the door cutouts lined up perfectly. Great Western fireboxes are wider at the front than the rear and this can give the illusion of an excessive slope in the top when viewed from below at close quarter. The cylinders are in the correct position relative to the saddle based on real drawings. There are castings to go on the front for the cylinder covers. Consideration was given to making it flat but based on the Mogul the decision was made to leave a slight slope which at 0.25mm front to back is imperceptible.

 

Mark

There is a thread " GWR 31XX or 3150 from SEF parts " on here with a lot of information.      Moving the camera back might lose some of the distortion but the cab isn't right. Could be build quality rather than etches, but it shouldn't droop away from the roof like that.

[Mark]

On 16/09/2021 at 03:46, DCB said:

 

There is a thread " GWR 31XX or 3150 from SEF parts " on here with a lot of information.      Moving the camera back might lose some of the distortion but the cab isn't right. Could be build quality rather than etches, but it shouldn't droop away from the roof like that.

This was a test build so there are various parts missing and others just loosely positioned for the sake of taking photographs. The cab roof is not fitted so that is the reason for it sloping forward slightly and the curvature may need tweaking to better fit the front and rear of the cab.
 

If you have access to any Swindon engineering drawings which address the points you have raised earlier (Not weight diagrams as used in Russell) then I am sure there will be a lot of very interested people in them. As I said earlier where proper dimensioned drawings exist they have been used and the gaps have been filled using photographs and standard part drawings used on other classes.    This project has taken nearly a decade to get to this stage after gathering as much information as possible from numerous sources. The whole point of the exercise was to get it as right as possible. That doesn’t mean odd things won’t slip through but the up front research should minimise them.

 

Mark

[The Johnster]

On 14/09/2021 at 00:03, Steamport Southport said:

 

If not, PDK are doing one.

 

http://www.pdkmodels.co.uk/index.html

 

 

 

Jason

Which will no doubt make my kitbashing bodge attempt look a bit feeble, but I’ll plug on with the bodge for now, since I’ve already started.  It should come in at about half the price of a completed PDK, for which I’m hoping to end up with an acceptable appproximation/‘layout model’. 

[Miss Prism]

The test build looks good to me. Here's 3152 at Newton, 15 September 1933.