South Wales Valleys in the 50s

[The Johnster]

Hmm.  Now that's a thought, a semi derelict shed with one side missing having collapsed (mining subsidence) and not much of a roof.  A wooden structure could have been involved in a fire as well, especially one that housed a loco.  I don't imagine a W4 would need a coaling stage, a few bucket fulls passed up to the fireman and tipped in the bunker just inside his side of the cab would do the job, and   some sort of basic water facility, perhaps no more than a standpipe with a length of hose which would be sufficient to brim the saddle tank between coal trains.  But for now I'm working to the principle that the shed and facilities are part of the pit complex, off stage.  A pile of coal and the standpipe, with the cabin, will be adequate up at this end of the NCB's little railway.

 

The loco has arrived, picked up 'click and collect' from a local Spar earlier.  There has been plenty written in praise of Hornby W4 Pecketts, and I am not disappointed; beautifully finished little thing, the Squeeze is describing her as 'cute', which I have no argument with, and ran well straight out of the box.  She is already loosening up a bit, and is rapidly developing quiet smooth well controlled slow running, a vital element of such a loco and one that has been absent from so many similar models over the years; Polly and Dokafority are not too bad, nor are the various Smokey Joe chassis'ed types of more recent construction, but for many years such locos were considered starter set toys, 0-4-0 being considered the limit of what a small child could put on the rails with acceptable ease.  The L & Y Pug Hornby inherited from Replica was a disappointment in this respect; the W4, B2, and the Hatton's AB are clearly the products of a different philosophy, reflected in the price but well worth it IMHO (got mine brand new BIN off the Bay of Es for £80).

 

Johnster is a happy puppy!  Later, he will test run the Polyfilla'd area and, when running is good enough, paint it.  If the paint dries, he will start with the dilute pva and the ballasting and ground cover.  Then the paint and pva has to be removed from the railheads and testing done again.  Then I might post up some photos of the new loco spur!

 

But now, the Squeeze had made him a cup of tea, and he is sitting, typing, and smiling...

[The Johnster]

Painting of the area is now complete, rails cleaned and tested.  Forest No.1 will manage 5 loaded out of the fy, and will thus need 3 trips for a full load; haven’t tried her with the empties yet but I think she’ll cope.  My loaded minerals are fully loaded as I like the ‘heft’ of them, but I can always replace the loads with ‘coal layer on sponge block’ loads to lighten them.  
 

There should be a Rule 1alternative history to explain the presence of a loco withdrawn from a colliery in the Midlands in 1924 working in a remote corner of Glamorgan in the 50s.  Ok, how about this; in 1924 the loco was bought back by J F Wake’s, and hired out by them for some years to various concerns.  With the depression taking hold Wake’s sent her back to Peckett’s for a full rebuild in the hope of selling her, with no luck in that depressed market.  WW2 saw her requisitioned by the RAF for St. Athan’s Airfield (a Manning Wardle actually served here IIRC but I’m happy to be proved wrong).  Replaced by a Planet diesel in 1947, she was bought as war surplus by the newly formed NCB who needed a replacement for a worn out Peckett at Cwmdimbath.  Her nameplate was removed for melting down during the war but a painted replica was applied by RAF apprentices at St. Athan’s as an exercise.  
   

 

[Banger Blue]

On 13/09/2020 at 19:49, The Johnster said:

but a painted replica was applied by RAF apprentices at St. Athan’s as an exercise.

 

RAF St Athan at one time, was the training school for the RAF Painter & Finisher trade so most definitely a plausible backstory.

Edited September 15, 2020 by Banger Blue

[The Johnster]

I did not know that, Banger, but as you say it does increase the plausibility of the tale. 

[The Johnster]

This evening's task has been to deal with the W4's ability to haul loaded coal wagons.  The trains, one loaded and one empty, consist of 12 wagons without the brake van and are a mix of XPO, various steel 16tonners, and 21tonners, both double door and hopper types.  I have seen a photo of a Tondu 42xx on a mineral working at St Fagan's hauling exactly such a loaded train in the late 50s, and while this does not tally with other photos of Tondu's coal traffic, power station coal in 24½ tonners, is I feel more appropriate for a period before the opening of Aberthaw Power Station.

 

The loaded train is currently empty of coal, and I am going to insert card filliers in the wagons which will have coal loads on top; previously the train was fully loaded, with real coal, and had a 'heft' to it.  Locos not driven with proper care slipped with it, and my Limbach 94xx, 8448, could not cope at all; the job is a 56xx or 42xx turn.  With the load lightened, I am still expecting to have to split the train for the W4 to bring it up from the colliery for the exchange; she is only just capable of propelling the empties in the other direction.  As things stand, she has to bring them up in 3 cuts of 4 wagons, which will probably now be 2 of 6.  And 8448 should be able to manage the duty, possibly with the other panniers as well.

 

The coal was fixed in to the wagons by a pva mix and I have had to fill them with hot water to release the loads, something I was a bit nervous about but the stock seems to have survived unharmed, including the transfers on various Parkside vehicles thanks to being fixed in with varnish.  No damage has been caused and no wagons were harmed in this process.

 

Cup of tea just had, back into railway room to fit the card fillers, and then re-load with fresh coal; fortunately I have some on hand.

[The Johnster]

Photo time, and a bit of twilight coal action.  The 42xx on the Abergwynfi Avon Colliery clearance is off the road, and the 56xx booked for the Cwmdimbath evening job has been pinched to go and rescue it's traffic, so the Cwmdimbath clearance has double headed panniers, 6762 having been pinched off yard pilot work since it won't have to deal with the Abergwynfi traffic for an hour or so.  Tondu loco are now out of serviceable locos until balance is restored and the night shift locos for the Llandeilo and Severn Tunnel jobs are up to working pressure; this is life on the edge and Control are crossing their fingers that nothing else is going to go wrong...

 

The colliery loco has already brought up the first batch of loaded. there is a passenger in the platform that will be away as soon as the token is sorted, and a complex exchange will give the signalman a possible hour or two of overtime.  There are, unusually, 4 locomotives in steam at Cwmdimbath at the moment, 3 in the photo.

[chesterfield]

Cant quite see from the photo, how many wagons have been brought from the minehead  - I assume 6- a half load and then back for the other half?

[The Johnster]

I split in into 3 loads of 4, allegedly because of limited shunting space down at the pit.  There is a trainset sharp curve exiting the fy, which is what defeats the little Peckett, and while I rather like to see a bit of slip with my larger locos I reckon the Peckett is a bit delicate, based on reports of fragile pickups. It’s pickups are fine at the moment and I want to keep them that way!

The fy slopes towards the buffers in order to discourage free-running stock from wandering about where they aren’t wanted.   The Peckett can thus manage a complete rake of 12 empties, but my assumed lack of headshunt space at the pit means that I still have to split them into cuts of 4.  
 

Makes the shunting more interesting, as the colliery road is off the platform road and if a passenger train is due, the loaded coal train must be made up on the loop before a passenger can be accepted from Dimbath Jc, so the signalman is starting to fret as soon as it’s off Brynmenyn, especially if it’s not an auto and a running around movement is needed.  He says it’s like playing chess with trains, especially if the timetable gets disrupted in the way it inevitably will on a network of single track branches; he has to plan ahead rather carefully in this case.  

[The Johnster]

I’ve withdrawn 8448 from service, as the new Baccy is not far off (the number plates will be xfer to the new loco), because I wanted set of buffers and couplings for the interim 4144 project, which means I have a spare Bachmann pannier chassis in good running order.  It’s a shame not to use it and it’s a better runner than the generic Hornby 0-6-0 underneath 2761, so this evening has been spent removing plastic from 2761 and fitting it. 
 

I had resisted doing this for a good while because the Baccy chassis has plain fishbelly coupling rods which are incorrect for this loco in her ‘as withdrawn’ 1950 conditon, but I have been appraised of the idea of replacing them with Gibson ‘adjustables’.  I had to cut a lot of material away from the firebox door area to clear the Bachmann mech’s brass worm; the gearbox is hidden beneath the cap floor.  Wheels align with splashers a bit better than I’d expected, and the Baccy ballast weight serves as an effective boiler bottom behind the smokebox. There’s even daylight under there!

 

I had to bodge a mounting plate for the Hornby body at the rear; my usual cheat of poundshop superglue secures it at the front.  The cab has a false wooden floor as part of my work up, which conveniently hides the self- tapper that secures the bodge rear sub frame. 

[The Johnster]

More faffing this avo with 2761; those who follow the saga of Cwmdimbath will know that this loco has form in this respect, and she is objecting to her new underpinnings.  I’m on top of the job, winning for now.  
 

The big hole where the firebox doors were that I had to cut to clear the Bachmann worm took a bit of thinking about in bed last night and the answer is to hide the thing as best I can.  I contemplated painting the worm yellow and orange to simulate the fire, but saner council prevailed.  The crew will be repositioned to conceal the unwanted orifice, and a long standing vague plan to model the canvas weather dodger in position is being put into effect. 
 

I did this years ago to good effect and much favourable comment to an Airfix Dean Goods, using elastoplast.  This time I’ve used aluminium foil.  A photo of the prototype on the reception roads at Swindon a couple of months after withdrawal shows the dodger missing, probably re-used on another loco, but the leather stowing straps hanging down. 
 

2761 had posts in the bunker corners to attach the eyelets of the dodger to, and some stiff wire has been superglued in place to be trimmed up when the glue’s gone off after this cuppa.  These stood about 6” proud of the bunker edge.  I’ve superglued the foil to the folded up representation on the rear of the cab roof and painted  the underside dirty brown.  Next job is to glue the dodger to the posts and paint the top.  Deployed, it didn’t leave a lot of headroom and should be a fairly effective view blocker; at least it will reduce the light in there!  

[The Johnster]

UPS delivered the 3D Cordon DD4 from Wild Boar this morning.  It’s an oddly made thing, of course I don’t know much about the ins and outs of 3D printing, but I’d thought it was a simple kit.  No, or sort of yes in a way, it’s in one piece but there are sprues that you have to cut out in order to separate the top layer of gas tanks from the bottom one and the bottom layer from the deck, then you glue them all together. 
 

To be honest it’s not a brilliant model, but at least it’s to scale so I can work it up.  Buffers are a bit lumpy and look fragile, so they’ll be replaced, and it runs ok on Bachmann spoked wheels but will run better with brass bearings.  The surface is a bit grainy and the tanks not properly round; they have ‘facets’ which I hope I can buff out or at least reduce with fine sandpaper.  Solebar detail is ok, but the springs have printed as solid blocks without relief between the leaves; even Rovex did better than this!

 

The wagon’s wooden deck is very poorly represented, and there is no detail under the floor inside the frames and brake gear at all beyond a crude undersize overlength cylinder to presumably represent the vacuum cylinder.  Overall it’s not the best advert for 3D printing, and my Stafford Road bogies and Modelu stuff are much better.  Should have gone for the Stafford Road DD5, but we’ll put it down to experience and work it up as best we can.  2 stars; it’ll pass from a distance.  
 

It’s very light as well and will need a ballast piece under the floor before I add any detail there.  There are good points; the NEM pockets are designed to be easily cut off if you wanted scale couplings and the general appearance of these odd beasts is well captured.  There is no attempt to represent the pipework on the ‘business’ side of the tanks, which is probably wise as it would be very delicate as a 3D plastic print; this needs to be metal.  

[The Johnster]

Who spotted the deliberate error?  14mm coach wheels, not 12mm wagon wheels of course!

[The Johnster]

As well as the Cordon, now finished all bar the shouting and in service (see topic on Kits'n'scratches), I did a bit of retail therapy on Wednesday which saw a load of online shopping for stuff I'll talk about when it comes, including a LNER unfitted steel open with wooden doors from Bachmann which has already arrived, been dirtied, and put into service.  I bought some glue and paint in Antics in town and impulse bought some Baccy Scenecraft cable drums.  

 

I'm very happy with these, a big improvement on my Peco Scalescenes drums, and very nicely finished in faded wood.  This evening, in between running trains, I fitted them with wooden chocks to stop them rolling about in wagons, a lovely thing to do as I was replicating what real railwaymen did with the same material, cut and trimmed wooden coffee stirrers.  Sometimes a model just ticks the boxes; these drums are absolutely convincing and, as a bonus, when I took them out of the packet, I realised that, of 4, 2 were empty and 2 were carrying coils of cable of some indeterminate sort.  Somebody at Barwell thought about this, and if by any chance he/she's reading this, thank you very much!  I'd been wondering about 'loading' 2 of them so that I can run traffic thus; there is work going on at the colliery to build a new pithead baths. and canteen, and cable is sometimes delivered to the colliery in connection with this and the underground workings, so a wagon is delivered carrying 2 drums of cable.  A day or so later, the empties are returned to disappear off stage with the pickup; brilliant!  The only thing wrong with these lovely little drums is that the central hold is solid plastic, but a few seconds with a drill will sort that!

 

Well done Scenecraft!

[tomparryharry]

Nice one John. Remember that the collieries were big users of rope & cable. Things like haulage engines, and the pit head themselves. I'm sure you can remember the rope works at Gabalfa.

[The Johnster]

Yes indeedy. 

[The Johnster]

Today I are mostly... fitting Lanarkshire cast whitemetal LNER fitted wagon buffers to a Hornby Insulfish van.  This is the first vehicle I bought, off a 2/h stall at the 2015 Cardiff Show, in my 'current' involvement with the hobby, because I rather liked the printing on it.  I have had an ambivalent relationship with it, and at one time withdrew it from service, taking it's buffers, couplings, and wheels for use elsewhere.  The problem was bad running, derailing, buffer locking and such.  First fault finding mission was unsuccessful; placing the van on a mirror showed that all wheels touched the ground and seemed square to each other.  About 6 months ago it's presence in the scrap box began to irritate me, and a bit of work was done.  New couplings, mounted on Parkside NEM mounts, and Bachmann wheels in brass bearings have improved matters considerably, and I got around to ordering replacement buffers last Wednesday as part of my shopping spree.  

 

I'm very impressed with them, probably the best and cleanest white metal castings I've ever had, and I will be paying more attention to what is available from Lanarkshire in future; fast response service too, they came this morning!  A dozen passes with the file had the very minimal casting rib disposed of.  Incidentally, the shorter ribs on the casing go top/bottom; this is so a shunter can get in there with a pole.  The van now looks a lot better, but I will at some time be 'revisiting' my rather poor weathering attempt on it.

 

I wonder what will come tomorrow...

[The Johnster]

Developments.  Firstly, I impulse bought a Kitmaster cattle wagon in town on Tuesday and have built it and finished it.  Nothing remarkable to see here, but I did my first of these about 57 years ago.  The tooling is showing it's age with a good bit of flash in awkward places, but no warping or distortion; you can still make a half decent cattle wagon out of it.  It's finished for now, and I'm not going to weather it as it would have been quite new in the early 50s, but there is some tidying up to do.  I have better brake handles and pin frames and the vacuum pipe needs touching up in red.  Good runner, but I swapped the kit spoked wheels for Baccy 3-hole; all of HMRS Paul's photos show them with this type of wheel.  Most seem to have 3 rows of ventilation/drainage slats but the model has only 2, but a photo on Paul's site of a preserved wagon at Quainton has 2 rows so I'm going to leave it as it is.  I have fitted Bachmann buffers salvaged from the withdrawn wrong length LMS Baccy wagon this kit replaces.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now, look at this!  Instanter couplings; has Johnster gone insane, scale couplings will never work on the curves at the entrance to his fiddle yard!  No, Johnster has not gone insane, at least not any more insane than he always was.  These are 3D printed couplings from James' Trains, an American chap who prints mostly H0 American stuff but has a range of these couplings to suit British stock.  There are instanters, 3-links, and bar couplings for fixed rakes of passenger stock; you remove the NEM tension locks from the pockets and these couplings fit into the pockets of both wagons to be coupled. They have the NEM beetle antennae on both ends.  No connection delighted customer, I got a pack of 25 instanters for less than £20 including delivery from Shapeways who actually print them up.  They are as you can see very well detailed, even the little horns for shortening or lengthening them with a shunting pole are there, all that is needed is painting.  Fitting is as simple as pulling the tension locks off and inserting the instanter print into both wagons to semi-permanently couple them.  They are pretty strong in tension or compression, but probably wouldn't survive much twisting or sideways force; so long as your trains remain on the road and your track is reasonably well laid they shouldn't get any.  I've half a dozen spare to cope with mishaps!  25 was sufficient to do both my mineral rakes, loaded and empty, but I have retained t/ls halfway along the loaded set which has to be split for the colliery W4 Peckett to handle. She'll pull the whole rake on the straight, but the sharp curve out of the fiddle yard defeats her.

 

They are printed solid though, as are the 3-link, and cannot be shortened or lengthened, which means that the train moves as a single solid mass without taking up slack or buffering up.  I suspect they would handle setrack curvature; tests show I can propel the rakes through a no.3 curve, the inner radius of a curved turnout, without problems and without buffer locking.  You can order different forms, step up from the pocket (these), level with the pocket, or one side step up other level.  There is a little 'give' in them, so starting heavy trains should not be too much of a problem at least any more than it would have been anyway.  Pushing a rake of wagons by hand, especially the loaded one, is a slightly odd sensation, as there is a small degree of boingyness....  I doubt it would amount to an inch with a 60 wagon train!

 

Some of my other online orders from last week are turning up as well, GW boundary markers, some coach shell vents, brass bearings, and two brass GWR platform benches from Dart Castings and MJT, so benches will finally appear on the platform!  Can't remember how many pages ago I talked about that; who knows, one day I might even run to a running in board.  The big deal is a Hornby 5101 body, the later tooling with separate handrails and a proper smokebox door but obviously not the current model (!), to upgrade Trigger's Broom, currently on it's second body and third Airfix chassis.  The current chassis has proved to be a very smooth runner, and I'm hoping this iteration (of 4145 in G W R livery) will last me a few years.  There are also some Wizard wagon buffers in the pipeline.

 

Chivers/Five49 pigeon van next pay day!

 

 

[The Johnster]

After a full operating cycle of empties and loadeds to and from the colliery, I can report that the James Trains printed couplings are very smooth in operation.  This is not a perfect solution of course, and the couplings should be in the the 'long' loose coupled position.  

 

The new body for Trigger's Broom arrived today.  This is my oldest loco, dating from the late 70s, on it's third body and third chassis now; the next stage will be to replace the chassis with a later Hornby type...  The Hornby body is a significant improvement over the old Airfix, the correct dimensions of smokebox door and handrails giving the loco much more 'presence'.  Other improvements are decent rivet detail on the buffer beams.  Workups to be done over the next few days are cab window glazing, an attempt at some detail inside the cab showing the bunker front, or at least an impression of it, a bit of filler to hide the lugs that fit the rear of the chassis to the oblong holes in the bunker rear, real coal, a proper smokebox dart, and some lamp irons on the bunker.  The buffers are a bit of an upgrade as well.  I've already scraped off the lettering and replaced it with 'G W R' initials; the loco is to represent 4145, delivered new to Tondu in 1946 and there until March 1948.  I've also done the buffer beam numbers and sprayed a coat of matt varnish to seal them.  Etched plates have been ordered from MMJE,

 

I believe I am correct in saying that the footsteps in the bunker side on the fireman's side of the loco were a BR innovation and 4145 was not built with them; if anyone knows different please tell me so i can add the steps.

[Nick Gough]

10 hours ago, The Johnster said:

I believe I am correct in saying that the footsteps in the bunker side on the fireman's side of the loco were a BR innovation and 4145 was not built with them; if anyone knows different please tell me so i can add the steps.

According to RCTS Part 9, "Welding of three steps to the fireman's side of the bunker began in 1952".

[The Johnster]

Thanks for that, Nick; 4145 will remain as she is.  Trigger's Broom came about because these locos eventually break their slide bars (one did it to the effect of digging the piston rod into the ballast and performing a rather graceful slow somersault), and I'm hoping to get some mileage out of this kindly donated low mileage Airfix, but will keep an eye out for Hornby running chassis or even early Bachmann 43xx on the Bay of e.  Eventually, I'll bite the bullet and treat myself to the current Hornby large prairie, and Trigger's Broom will be retired, but it has given good service over many years (?)...

 

Interestingly, as the bunker steps were a 1952 BR innovation, perhaps a result of having proved useful on the 94xx and 15xx, they came about very quickly after the cessation of production of the 41xx series of 5101s at Swindon in favour of the BR standard 3MT tanks.  If they were useful on 5101s, one would have thought they would have been fitted to the bunkers of 42xx/5205/72xx tanks as well, but not everything on the railway makes sense, even at Swindon.  I cannot see why they were needed anyway, coal trimming perhaps but then you'd expect them on the driver's side as well, but presumably they weren't put on for fun.  

[Nick Gough]

56 minutes ago, The Johnster said:

 I cannot see why they were needed anyway, coal trimming perhaps but then you'd expect them on the driver's side as well, but presumably they weren't put on for fun.  

The old Airfix/Kitmaster construction kits had them on both sides!

[The Johnster]

As did the Wills, Graham Farish, and Lima 94xx, all of which also had the cylinder cover that rested on the top of the frames as they slope down in front of the smokebox, which is only appropriate for the 10 high pressure locos built by the GW; this area is open on the 'production' BR built 200.  It is irritating because this is a particularly difficult feature to remove successfully, as you have to cut it out between the frames.  Even if you remove the lot and make good with new frame sections, you then have to make the front of the valve chest and the tops of the piston rod covers.  The new Bachmann, to it's credit, will accommodate such variations.  IIRC the Graham Farish large prairie, an 81xx with smaller driving wheels, did not have bunker side footsteps.  

 

Large prairies are a confusing bunch; the original Churchward 31xx is the basis of the later 5101 and 61xx classes, with his no.2 boiler, and were rebuilt into 5101s, which were followed by more 5101s built new to that class, finishing in 1950 with last of the 41xx series,  Churchward then designed the 3150 class, a version with the larger no.4 boiler.  These were originally conceived as heavy freight locos, which makes it surprising that Churchward retained the 5'8" driving wheels.  Collett updated the 31xx as the 5101, but was unsatisfied with the large prairies and clearly thought he could get more out of them.  His first move was the 61xx, with higher boiler pressure but no significant visual differences from the 5101s other than that some locos were fitted with London Transport tripcock equipment and 6115 was given 5'6" driving wheels,  These locos were intended for Paddington suburban traffic and the reason for the higher boiler pressure was a need for smart acceleration from stations to maintain headways in a busy WTT.

 

Next came the Collett 81xx, the loco Graham Farish modelled, with high pressure no.2 boilers and 5'6" wheels, intended for Birmingham area suburban work; gradients were steeper here than in the London area.  Only 10 were built, presumably because 5101s and 56xx were up to the jobs.  Collett's last effort was the 1938 designed 31xx; this number range was vacant as all the Churchward 31xx had been rebuilt into 5101s, but a duplicity of 31xx classes can cause confusion when large prairies in general are being discussed.  These 'ultimate' large prairies were real thugs, no.4 boiler and 5'3" driving wheels.  They were a development of Churchward's 3150, which had adopted a role as bankers in addition to the heavy freight work they were originally designed for; 43xx had a greater range and almost equal T.E.  Only 6 were built due to the effect of German foreign policy of that period.  I suspect they were intended as 'super bankers', but 2 of them, Tondu's 3100 and Canton's 3105, found employment on the Porthcawl-Cardiff commuter service, where their smaller driving wheels enabled fast getaways from stops on the busy South Wales main line.

 

I have a vague plan to build 3100 one day, kitbashing from Kitmaster prairie and CoT, running on a Bachmann 43xx chassis.  The chassis will need to be modified to enable the prairie running plate and the CoT boiler to sit at the right height, and the cab and bunker will probably need scratching, but I feel this rarely modelled, long extinct, and little known prototype is worth a shot.

[Northmoor]

I'm sure there was a model of a 3100 shown on the gwr.org site (and the build explained), but I can't find it now.  Worth a trawl of the site although I'm sure you have done anyway.

 

Re: 81xxs, wasn't the wheel size used for Airfix 61xx actually much closer to an 81xx?  I have a copy of the Model Trains article where Richard Gardner did the conversion, it was little more than a repaint and renumbering.

[The Johnster]

Yes, the Airfix wheels are a mm or so undersize.  It’s important, too; the differing proportions of large prairies, especially when it comes to wheel sizes, boiler pitch, running plate height, and cab profile, all subtly different and giving different characteristics to each class.  The only classes that were to all intents and purposes visually the same were the 5101 and 61xx.  
 

GW locos are all the same except when they are different. 

Edited October 11, 2020 by The Johnster

[The Johnster]

I haven't seem the gwr.org 31xx article, and will have a look for it.  I'm not sure an accurate 81xx could be made from the Airfix model though, as the 81xx, while similar to a 61xx/5101, sits lower because of the smaller driving wheels.  This means that the dimensions determining the height of the running plate and the cab front and side sheets will be different, and that the cylinders will sit lower as well.  As the buffers have to be the standard height, the height difference between the main running plate and the drop to the sections ahead of the cylinders and supporting the bunker will be different as well.  You could make a reasonable representation, but it would not be completely accurate.  Come to that, neither will my proposed Collett 31xx.