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BCDR No 4 from a Bachmann J11


colmflanagan

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BCDR No 4

 

A relatively simple conversion job from the Bachmann J11 Great Central “pom-pom” 0-6-0

 

One of my first efforts at producing a Northern Irish model locomotive was triggered by an interest in the "Belfast & County Down Railway” – an interest fostered by the late Desmond Coakham, the acknowledged expert on the BCDR, who took time to reply to the letters and requests of a 16 year old school boy, as I was at that time. I still wish I could ring him up with queries!

 

Anyway, part of the process was that I acquired a good selection of HC Casserley’s photographs of the railway and decided to have a go at modelling the “County Down”. A couple of Triang clerestory coaches got hacked about (one is peeping into one of the pictures) and then I wanted an engine to pull them. Those beautiful 4-4-2 tanks and “Baltics” were obviously far out of reach, but the County Down had some 0-6-0 tender engines and Tri-ang made an LMS 3F. The solution was obvious and after a bit of chopping and repainting I had a reasonable “No4” – though it was to be many years before I got etched scale BCDR style number plates for it and lined it out. The picture below was taken about 1972 on my first "proper" layout.

 

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All of which is to provide the background to this model. I knew my No4 wasn’t really accurate, as the big County Down 0-6-0s definitely looked “heavier”. Bachmann brought out a 3F and I hacked one of these into an LMSNCC “V1” class with reasonable success. I’d no desire to redo 4 at that time, as she didn't look too bad.

 

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Then appeared the Great Central Robinson “Pom Pom” 0-6-0, also by Bachmann. A quick look at one on an NE based layout and I thought – “quite like 4 apart from the tender and a few odds and ends”. So I bought one. It sat for some months while I got on with other odds and ends and then just before Christmas 2014 I got it out, took out my drawings books and photos and went to work.

 

Leaving aside some relatively small dimensional inaccuracies which you can’t do anything about with a conversion anyway, my main focus was on the splashers and the cab area. The County Down engines had prominent sandboxes on both front splashers – the J11 had none. It’s a fiddly but not too difficult job to provide them. The cab on the J11 is bigger –hence the model has no splasher in front of it – the cab cut-out is differently shaped and the roof is a different design. I made new plasticard cab sides and a new flat roof, which was simply glued to the existing one with the prominent ribs filed off.

 

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(And just in case the brainy historically accurate ones among you are wondering about the "express passenger" lamp code, the County Down didn't bother much...)

 

There was some other significant things that need attention – the J11 had four safety valves so I took them all off, filled the top of the housing and then drilled two holes and replaced only two of them; the whistle remains where it is. The front windows of the cab are bigger on the J11 and quite different from the four small rectangular ones on No 4. It would be possible to do a new cab front – I decided on this model not to bother and I cheated by simply over painting the clear plastic moulding which pops out when encouraged. It’s not perfect from all angles but I don’t peer too closely at it. The steps are not the right shape but I filed them away a bit - don’t look too closely again. The actual chassis is cast so hacking it and cutting bits off it is much more difficult that when it's plastic.

 

And that just about wraps it up for the loco. Then a look at the tender. It would be possible to cut away the top of the sides, the under frame is a bit “heavier duty” looking to my eyes, but that would do the job. It so happened I had a spare 3F tender and this looks fine if the coal rails are removed. Both tenders have the same wiring arrangement so that’s easy if you are using DCC; the 3F tender doesn’t have pickups but my loco runs fine without them.

 

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The second coach in the picture above is basically my 1969 Tri-ang conversion, with a roof tank added for the lavatories.

 

After that it's painting and lining, number plates from Guilplates, my usual source, crew and lamps and she is ready to go. Being quite heavy the model pulls smoothly and sufficiently well for any Northern Irish application – the County Down never had heavy goods traffic but the 0-60s acquitted themselves well in passenger services on which they performed.

 

The real No 4 survived the BCDR closure and went to the NCC lines. being taken over by the UTA. She was apparently quite well liked by the NCC men; although unlike some other BCDR locos never received a new coat of UTA black, just a new number plate “204” eventually. 204 was finally disposed of in 1956 along with all the other BCDR locomotives except one.

 

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So, what do I do now with my “original” No4. There’s no way I am selling or scrapping her – but with her generally “lighter” look I am considering a smaller tender with the springs over the footplate, and a re-number to “14” – an earlier BCDR 0-6-0. Watch this space, as they say.

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