What have you done with your Keyser kit

[hayfield]

I have found that the LNWR six wheel coaches were the hardest to find/obtain, though quite often they are miss-described, also the LBSCR coaches sell for high prices.

 

The rarest wagon is the plastic Motor rail which as far as I can establish was never released to the general public, but were part of a promotion back in the 60's. This is the only wagon or coach I do not have.

 

 

[cctransuk]

6 hours ago, hayfield said:

I have found that the LNWR six wheel coaches were the hardest to find/obtain, though quite often they are miss-described, also the LBSCR coaches sell for high prices.

 

The rarest wagon is the plastic Motor rail which as far as I can establish was never released to the general public, but were part of a promotion back in the 60's. This is the only wagon or coach I do not have.

 

 

 

I recall seeing the K's CARTIC-4 - (as a 'CARTIC-2') - advertised for sale in the contemporary model rail press, though not for long.

 

I'd guess that they were a private promotional model, and that the over-production was sold off in this way.

 

I have a couple of kits, for eventual conversion into a proper CARTIC-4.

 

Regards,

John Isherwood.

Edited October 5, 2019 by cctransuk

[Jol Wilkinson]

6 hours ago, hayfield said:

I have found that the LNWR six wheel coaches were the hardest to find/obtain, though quite often they are miss-described, also the LBSCR coaches sell for high prices.

 

The rarest wagon is the plastic Motor rail which as far as I can establish was never released to the general public, but were part of a promotion back in the 60's. This is the only wagon or coach I do not have.

 

 

The K's LNWR six wheel carriages are, in my view, best avoided. Although simpler to assemble as designed than an etched brass equivalent, they need  a considerable amount of work to provide a decent and effective chassis.  

[Prometheus]

Oddly enough, there’s a K’s LNWR 6 wheel brake, painted up in panelled GWR colours, on eBay right now (352813192249).

 

Tony

[hayfield]

42 minutes ago, Jol Wilkinson said:

The K's LNWR six wheel carriages are, in my view, best avoided. Although simpler to assemble as designed than an etched brass equivalent, they need  a considerable amount of work to provide a decent and effective chassis.  

 

Jol

 

I think all of the K's cast whitemetal coach kits have theit axleboxes out of square, several years ago I built some LBSCR ones with etched W irons, they ran very well.

 

When the K's kits came out etched kits were in their infancy, pinpoints were still either being thought of or just used by the P4 guys. How a K's terrier could pull a rake of non pinpointed ones is beyond me

 

[Crimson Rambler]

Earlier today I found some longtime mislaid 4mm scale models so for the amusement of all, below appear a couple of poor quality piccies (bit dark) of yet another K's Kirtley 0-6-0 this time in Midland red (with abysmal lining) and converted to 18.83. I can't remember when I did that but it was before I made the point it is standing on. The latter I know existed in 1981 so the gauge conversion would have been then or a little earlier as not long afterwards I went to O gauge followed quickly to S7 (S4 for the hamfisted!). The kit was a present from my father just after he had finished working on the film The Anniversary starring Bette Davies. As a fifteen year old I was able to build the engine and tender but the chassis completely defeated me. That was made for me by Beatties in Southgate and was of course OO.

 

   

 

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you all.

 

Crimson Rambler

 

 

 

 

 

[Gibbo675]

On 05/10/2019 at 12:00, cctransuk said:

 

I recall seeing the K's CARTIC-4 - (as a 'CARTIC-2') - advertised for sale in the contemporary model rail press, though not for long.

 

I'd guess that they were a private promotional model, and that the over-production was sold off in this way.

 

I have a couple of kits, for eventual conversion into a proper CARTIC-4.

 

Regards,

John Isherwood.

Hi John,

 

I have developed and built my own kit although I need to source some etchings to finish it off, pictured below :

 

 

 

Gibbo.

[Devo63]

I was wondering how common a problem I've had with K's tender drives is and if anyone has had the same problem. I have four of these (for many, many years) and only recently noted that the pick-ups on all of them were wired up to run the reverse of the bulk of my RTR and kit built models. Some of them I bought new back in the 70's which only goes to show how often I've used them. 

Two of them were still in the boxes in which they had left the factory, still wrapped in the original tissue paper, with the other pair fitted to an old modified Kitmaster City of Truro (a very nice conversion to a Badminton) and a Stirling Single which I had bought second hand a long time ago.

Over the last few days I have corrected them to run the 'right' direction when power is supplied. Three of them were quite easy as they had two white metal castings held together with self tapping screws. All I had to do was flip the wheels sets from one side to the other and solder on new pick-ups. 

The last one had a heavier one piece casting with the axles held in place by two brass rods soldered to the base - probably and earlier product from K's and maybe kit built. As I didn't want to dismantle the whole thing I managed to pull all the wheels from the axles and swap sides, finishing with re-soldering the pick-up into place.

Was this the common way these left the factory or have I managed to find four wrongly assembled drives?

 

Dave R.    

[hayfield]

Would turning the chassis through 180 degrees in the tender work?

[BernardTPM]

It doesn't work for any DC loco/power unit.

[Il Grifone]

IIRC the two I have run the right way - forward with the insulated wheels on the positive rail, but it is rather a long time since I ran them. I'm sure I would have sorted the problem if it had arisen however. (Loco's that run the wrong way are a PITA.)

[hayfield]

Something I have been working on and off for too many months NuCast (Nee Keyser) Adams radial

 

The model has been well built by someone else, cannot remember if it had a motor, if so what one. It is a candidate initially to be converted to EM gauge, sometime in the future either the decals and numbers will be removed in favour of Southern style ones or a complete repaint into green

 

 

 

The regauging was a quickie, owing to how the cylinders were attached to the chassis, the wheels were removed, 1 mm plasticard sides added to the outside of the frames, axles of the drivers changed to EM gauge a High Level Slimline+ gearbox fitted with a Mashima 1220 motor I will replace the gearbox for either a Slimline or Slimline Compact+ as the slimline+ is too big as the extension is not needed with this chassis. It really is a quiet smooth runner

 

 

Standard phosphor bronze wire pickups fitted on to a PCB strip, just a few bits to finish off such as the rear wheel spacers and retainer, and fixing screws. Longer term a better crosshead is needed

 

Still if I had made the time, a very quick and easy conversion, The loco had already Romford Drivers fitted, which are much better than K's wheels and easily converted, High Level Gears are light years away from those available when the models were first issued as are the Mashima motors

 

Certainly this conversion (wheels, motor & gears) from K's products will equally work well for 00 gauge modellers

[BlueLightning]

Hi guys!

 

Here's my K's LBSCR K Class, built as K's intended, other than the addition of a DCC chip. Painted as number 338 in the red oxide that it was turned out in, and wore throughout 1913. Posed alongside my Hornby LBSCR E2, which has been modified with a shirescenes kit for the extended tank version. I can't imagine what made me want to pair it with that.

 

[hayfield]

More like what will I do with my K's kit

 

 

This kit must be over 50 years old, it started out with the pre-quartered wills and a mk1 motor, wheels now are Romfords, for some reason I decided to fit a HP2m motor, over time the crossheads have been taken off and a buffer head has been damaged. Having the keyhole shaped axle holes I guess the chassis is banana shaped, the connecting rods and crossheads were in soft whitemetal thus very fragile

 

Its a long story which I will not go into but this week I became aware of Agenoria models and caught up with its new owner CSP models, what a gent and so helpful, and has some great obscure GWE small tanks

 

 

They not only do an etched model bu sell the chassis separately which includes lost wax casted  crossheads, needs axle bearings and 8ba screws but at £20 inc postage is excellent value

 

Just thought I would give everyone a heads up as these were very popular models

[97xx]

I have posted this elsewhere (in whitemetal kits for Dublo chassis) but as it hits this spot too, reposted here...

 

With the lockdown I have returned to my collection of predominantly Dublo/Wrenn which is all boxed awaiting the moment (next house...) when I get to build the layout.

 

I came across a K's 97xx Bodyline kit I made when I was about 14. Anyone who has done one knows the protruding chassis, ill-fitting parts and misaligned rivet detail. Inadvertently I managed to mask for of that with three layers of paint - red primer, gloss black then later matt! It had cracked along most joints - think it must have been cyano'd.

 

So, into the paint stripper - which left me with the kit as pristine as ever, albeit glaring how rough it was.

 

No return so, reassembled, milled the chassis to fit properly, added brass detail, painted and weathered, trying to make it resemble 9707 which the Bodyline kit is fairly close to in terms of toolbox positions, etc. 

 

Quite pleased given a first effort for umm, xx years...

 

Was considering making a decent chassis, but wasn't sure whether the model justified it, but bouyed by some positive comments, may well consider it. After all, diary looks fairly free for at least next three weeks...

 

[Philou]

Aah - proper couplings ..................

[Philou]

Here are a couple of my 'K's efforts as built and painted nearly 55 years ago - truly awful runners as I had great difficulty in getting the quartering right. I could probably do it properly now thanks to the advice found here on RMweb, but for the moment they're consigned to the display cabinet.

 

I will say though, I was mighty pleased with them at the time despite their drooping cylinder blocks:

 

Mogul ..............

 

 

............. Grange.

 

 

The chimney of the Mogul IS square, it's just the camera.

 

Cheers,

 

Philip

 

[Gibbo675]

47 minutes ago, Philou said:

Mogul ..............

 

The chimney of the Mogul IS square, it's just the camera.

 

Cheers,

 

Philip

 

Hi Philip,

 

I may have the wrong end of the stick but the chimney looks quite round to me.

 

Gibbo.

[Barclay]

13 hours ago, 97xx said:

I have posted this elsewhere (in whitemetal kits for Dublo chassis) but as it hits this spot too, reposted here...

 

With the lockdown I have returned to my collection of predominantly Dublo/Wrenn which is all boxed awaiting the moment (next house...) when I get to build the layout.

 

I came across a K's 97xx Bodyline kit I made when I was about 14. Anyone who has done one knows the protruding chassis, ill-fitting parts and misaligned rivet detail. Inadvertently I managed to mask for of that with three layers of paint - red primer, gloss black then later matt! It had cracked along most joints - think it must have been cyano'd.

 

So, into the paint stripper - which left me with the kit as pristine as ever, albeit glaring how rough it was.

 

No return so, reassembled, milled the chassis to fit properly, added brass detail, painted and weathered, trying to make it resemble 9707 which the Bodyline kit is fairly close to in terms of toolbox positions, etc. 

 

Quite pleased given a first effort for umm, xx years...

 

Was considering making a decent chassis, but wasn't sure whether the model justified it, but bouyed by some positive comments, may well consider it. After all, diary looks fairly free for at least next three weeks...

 

It looks terrific - well worth a new chassis I reckon.

[hayfield]

The first K's loco I bought was a Dean Goods, followed by a 57xx, 14xx, Grange 1361, Dukedog, Bulldog and Aberdare. All of these worked, some better than others. Most had Romford Drivers fittet and for some mad reason (I believed the advertising) the Mk 1 motors changed for HP2M motors. Two or three had Perseverance chassis fitted,

 

My early models suffered from being glued together and hand painting, some suffered from two or more rebuilds. I guess some will never be rebuilt

 

I now model in EM gauge and quite a few have been successfully converted to EM gauge (think I have even got one to P4 gauge). Initially simple conversions were made by widening the chassis with 1 mm plastic sides simply stuck on, now I am using etched chassis where available

 

As for the bodywork and extra detail, soldering now is prefered where possible and the use of model fillers. Painting by airbrush with Phoenix paints 

[97xx]

1 hour ago, Barclay said:

It looks terrific - well worth a new chassis I reckon.

Thanks for the positive feedback - looks like the milling machine beckons then!

 

I did contemplate rewheeling the chassis, but given the non-prototypical wheelbase of the HD block for a pannier, plus need to custom make rods to suit, going the whole hog with decent wheels and motor/gearing seemed a better step if body was good enough.

 

[hayfield]

I am afraid I do not know the subtle differences but a 57xx chassis is quite close, certainly it has the same length and wheelbase, a Comet kit could easily be made to fit, if you want something a bit more detailed then a High Level kit could be the answer. I do understand those with engineering skills enjoy the challenges scratch building, but for us mere mortals even a set of Gibson frames looks hard work.

[Steamport Southport]

I should hope a 57XX chassis would fit. Seeing as that's what it is. Just with shortened tanks to fit the pump and condensing pipes. 

 

However did 9707 get BR livery? I thought it was one of the three 97s that didn't receive it and kept GWR livery to the end. 9703 and 9709 being the others.

 

 

 

Jason

[Jeff Smith]

Here's what I'm doing with a K's 63xx

 

[97xx]

15 hours ago, Steamport Southport said:

I should hope a 57XX chassis would fit. Seeing as that's what it is. Just with shortened tanks to fit the pump and condensing pipes. 

 

However did 9707 get BR livery? I thought it was one of the three 97s that didn't receive it and kept GWR livery to the end. 9703 and 9709 being the others.

 

 

 

Jason

I had originally modelled it 40+ years ago as 9705 - for no reason I recall - perhaps those were the only brass plates one could get back then for a 97xx.

 

When I rebuilt it, I went for one that I could find pictures to work from, and also therefore where the rough positions of things like toolboxes etc. matched the castings.

 

The K's kit included white metal plates for 9710, but that engine had no RH toolbox so far as I can see from pictures, so hence I went for 9707.

 

Yes, 9707 did carry at least early BR livery - see below.

 

Others that definitely did at least carry early BR crest were as follows, with (L) denoting late crest where I have evidence:

9700, 9701,9702(L), 9704, 9706, 9707, 9710(L).

 

I have a picture of 9703 still sporting GWR on sides in 1955.

 

 

 

Edited April 30, 2020 by 97xx