Silk purse from a Sow's ear, rebuilding a Triang TC pacific

[Virgil]

This is my attempt to create a suitable companion to my collection of brass CPR and CNR steam locos, using parts acquired over the years.  The plan being to produce a loco that will not look out of place in such company, as cheaply as possible.

The TC "Hiawatha" pacific has tended to be overlooked, misunderstood and criticised by the UK modeller but is a reasonable approximation of a Canadian Pacific Railway G-3c 4-6-2 by the standards of when it was first produced by Triang, even having a correct type tender and bogie trucks of the correct type - except for the earliest issues which had incorrect trucks.

Can it be made into a model better model, worthy of mixing with superior quality locos?  Well yes, though the final decision will also rest with the onlooker as well as the builder, let's see shall we?

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited January 2, 2021 by Virgil

[Virgil]

First a word about tenders, as already stated recognisably a CPR tender. It can be improved fairly simply by thinning the exposed edges, fitting bearing cups into the  trucks and finer scale wheels on pinpoint axles. The open axleboxes can be filled though axlebox cover plates were available as Hornby spares and may still be.

I would have progressed further refining details on the Triang tender but the fortuitous purchase of a Van Hobbies Samhongsa brass tender of the correct type made the choice of tender for this upgraded model inevitable.

[Virgil]

Triang bodyshells in the 50's were manufactured from Acetal plastic and the TC pacific was first produced using this medium. If you are looking to buy secondhand my advice is to look out for warping, especially of the tender body, banana shaped examples are frequently seen for sale so not uncommon. Fortunately later production switched to Polystyrene plastic which is much more stable.

Although mostly true to prototype the loco body was stretched in order to fit the Triang Princess chassis which demands a cut and shut to achieve scale length and the moving the safety valve assembly forward a correct to scale position.

[Virgil]

As is invariably the case, a scale drawing is worth its weight in gold along with photos of the prototype.

[Virgil]

The safety valve assembly was carefully cut away across the top of the boiler using a razor saw, the resultant hole filled with Araldite, first running sellotape tightly across the exterior of the boiler then the  Araldite was applied beneath. When set the sellotape was removed leaving a perfect finish.

As i already had a scrap distorted bodyshell I removed the safety valve casing from that by cutting down though the boiler. the cut out assembly was then carefully filed round to shape and glued further forward to match the drawing, the extra thickness of the scrap boiler shell gives the assembly more height as per the prototype.

A section of the smokebox/boiler was cut out using a razor saw again to give correct length true to prototype.

[Virgil]

A quick word about the chassis to be used and a suitable donor.

The original Triang Princess chassis is best retired (in my opinion) and is a non starter for this project.

I initially plumped for a Mehano USRA type 4-6-2 but was not happy with the over usage of plastic in it so put that to one side on finding a better alternative.

Enter the Franklin Mint Crescent Limited which ticks a lot of the boxes and can be purchased usually very cheaply, my example for a running loco cost £35 on Ebay and as I write there is one buy it now at £38 on Ebay, amusingly posed with its tender reversed.

It's not just the chassis that can be used, the Elesco feedwater heater in front of the chimney is a  better moulding along with the Westinghouse air pumps and electric generator to begin with , all easily removed.

The not so good feature is the over width cylinder block assembly, here I substituted the cylinders from the Mehano USRA pacific which fitted a treat and are not objectionably wide.

Edited January 2, 2021 by Virgil

[Virgil]

Returning to the Franklin Mint chassis again, I decided to replace the standard simple can motor with a Hornby 5 skewed pole as fitted to the Hornby Merchant Navy pacific and others as it is a very good performer, although in all fairness the original can motor performed well enough. 

From a Hornby scrap chassis also came the 8 pin DCC socket and mount which fits  the chassis very well and it will be wired for DCC, the square weight, also from the spares box fits snugly in front, it will be necessary as the Crescent Limited hefty diecast body far outweighs the Triang plastic moulding.

Edited January 2, 2021 by Virgil