R3518 "Gay Crusader" -The Final Day

[robmcg]

Tweak , I "adjusted" my Book Law this involved far more than than a simple tweak I assure you !!

 

I did a couple of Book Law straightening jobs, yes, 'tweak' is one word, prayer and brute force might be closer to what I used.

 

[robmcg]

In the interests of thread integrity...  Gay Crusader on a wet day somewhere on the Eastern Region.  Well, what became Eastern Region after the Final Day..

 

 

pics edited, will remove if required

[bigherb]

On the other hand you could wait for Bachmann to produce it's own version LOL.

With droopy cabs.

[micklner]

Book Law needed far more than bit of bending. It ended up being repainted etc etc.

 

The whole saga is here

 

 

 

http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/100735-a3-book-law/page-10

[robmcg]

Book Law needed far more than bit of bending. It ended up being repainted etc etc.

 

The whole saga is here

 

 

 

http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/100735-a3-book-law/page-10

 

An impressive rebuild, far beyond my skill level, congratulations.

[gpplumy]

So does gay crusader suffer from ski jump front or not lol?Very tempted to get one still. 

[drmditch]

I bought one of these as a Christmas present to myself last year when I was quite poorly and miserable. It got checked for running but was then put back in it's box.

This year, I thought I would celebrate a bit more and opened the box again.

Yes, it is a darker green and does have a ski-jump, although not as bad as some I've seen.

The tender appeared to be lower at the rear.

 

The photograph below shows it next to my A1 'Flying Fox' that I've had for I don't know how long.

(The later is a 'special' 1938ish engine for my late 1940s railway.)

 

 

I was able to correct the front footplating quite a lot by:

- Notching the inner edge of the footplate moulding just behind the front false frames. and scribing the underside.

- Fitting a washer to the body location screw so that it imparts a greater downward pull to the front footplate.

This has reduced the bend by more than 50% (actually the LH side is better)

I was considering making a bending jig, but thought I would try this first.

The tender rear fixing screw (above the rear coupling) was very, very tight.

I was trying to work out what was needed when I realised that with the screw a lot looser the problem disappeared!

 

Both locomotives are, apart from coaling 'out of the box'

 

I think No.108 'will do' with some further work. It is going to get re-numbered and re-named, and may well be a Gateshead allocated engine.

It will therefore probably end up quite dirty!

 

Edited January 10, 2021 by drmditch

[Dominion]

Looking at Gay Crusader, I think the steam dome is mounted in the wrong position.

From front to back are Hornby's Gay Crusader, Windsor Lad, a Fairway body (from the tender drive tooling) and Sandwich.

The front 3 are all 94A boilers while Sandwich has the A4 type 107 boiler.

The bodies are lined up with the cabs running plates and wheel bases aligned.

 

Correctly I think, the boiler bands and front of the firebox line up with each other on the three 94A boilers and are a little further forward on the Sandwich boiler.

Also correctly I think the steam dome on Sandwich is further forward.

However the steam dome on the Gay Crusader is further forward than it should be I think, as though it were on an 107 A4 boiler.

Gay Crusader never had an A4 boiler fitted according to the green book, and they didn't start being fitted to A3s until well into BR's time anyway.

The inspection ports and wash out plugs and boiler bands are all correct for the 94A boiler Gay Crusader had at the time modelled as far as I can tell.

The box art also has the steam dome in the correct position.

Do others agree ?

 

I may try to push the dome off from the mounting spigot underneath and see if there is sufficiently little visible glue or paint damage to it move back.

 

[GWR-fan]

It would have paid me to do a little research prior to my very recent purchase of "Gay Crusader", purchased pre-owned from a well known and reputable store.  The loco was as new condition/unrun and basically without blemish,  but for the elephant in the room,  the ski jump.  I was not aware that this loco suffered from this.  While not as bad as seen on many examples of "Book Law",  it is none the less present.  The loco was purchased for a very good price so I think that I will turn a blind eye to its slightly raised footplate.

[drmditch]

The 'ski-jump' is correctable, with a little work.

[Fireline]

6 minutes ago, drmditch said:

The 'ski-jump' is correctable, with a little work.

It's also possible to ignore it, taking no work at all. 🙂

[rogerzilla]

I've never noticed a ski jump on my gloss Firdaussi, and I have looked carefully.

[No Decorum]

15 hours ago, rogerzilla said:

I've never noticed a ski jump on my gloss Firdaussi, and I have looked carefully.

I got mine from Derails. Dan very kindly took the trouble to take photographs to convince me that Firdaussi’s running plate was straight. Excellent service. It’s a lovely model.