GWR 4-6-2T - Chassis ideas

[DK123GWR]

A locomotive which I have wanted to build for a while now is a GWR-style 4-6-2T using a Manor boiler. The body choice seems obvious - a Mainline Manor boiler combined with an Airfix 61xx bunker, cab, and tanks. I can't quite work out how they would fit together. The Manor has a raised section over the cylinders which would suggest to me that either the Manor running board is lower or its cylinders are higher than the 61xx. I'm hoping that the 61xx running board sits at the same height as the raised section on the Manor's, since this would probably make it easier to join them while extending the running borad to accomodate the longer boiler and extra pair of leading wheels. Does anyone know if this would be possible?

 

There seem to be two broad approaches to this problem: start with a 4-6-0 chassis and add a rear pony truck, or start with a large prarie and change the front bogie to one with two axles. From the first approach, the options are:

- Mainline Manor - cheap, but by all accounts most are reaching the end of their serviceable lives now.

- Bachmann Manor - much more expensive than the Mainline version. I'm not sure what the differences between them are.

- Hornby Grange - I would expect this to be the best running option of the lot, but at a higher cost again.

- Future Dapol and Accurascale Manors - disqualified on cost grounds.

 

On the other side:

- Airfix GMR 61xx - cheap, especially if the body is used as well. The one I have is very good when running freely, but there is a fault with it which seems to produce excess friction from time to time, with the loco sometimes binding up alltogether.

- Hornby and Dapol 61xxs - disqualified on cost grounds.

 

I would lean towards the Airfix 61xx since I'm really not keen on the idea of a rear pony truck to a 4-6-0. My main concern is the position of the cylinders. These are much closer to the driving wheels than on a Manor. At the very least, this will mean that they are out of alignment with the smokebox and steam pipes on the Manor, and will need moving forwards (meaning that longer connecting rods will need to be sourced) or that elbow steam pipes, as seen on the 4 cylinder locos, will need to be found from somewhere. There might be other complications if the vertical alignment is not as I am hoping (see first paragraph) or if the cylinders foul the new front bogie - though without having all of the bits in front of me and test fitting them it probably won't be possible to know whether this is an issue or not. Any thoughts with respect to this would be very much appreciated.

 

Finally, I am not aware of any actual models of locomotives like this (though it is something which gets discussed or photoshopped occaisionally, but if anyone does know of one and can provide information on how it was built I would very much appreciate that.

[Miss Prism]

Coincidentally, I had been perusing Jim Champ's Fictitious Locos page this morning, which includes a 4-6-2T 'Manor Tank'.

 

Definitely a heavy Red route engine! 

[brightspark]

I assume that this will be in OO. If so then you should have bags of space. EM or P4 things get tight.

An RTR chassis may be an obvious way forward, but have you considered scratch building a chassis from sheet brass?

[DK123GWR]

28 minutes ago, brightspark said:

I assume that this will be in OO. If so then you should have bags of space. EM or P4 things get tight.

An RTR chassis may be an obvious way forward, but have you considered scratch building a chassis from sheet brass?

Definitely OO, and no I haven't (and won't) consider scratchbuilding in brass. My soldering is not good and I don't really want to worry about things like working out how to mount the motor so that it's in the right place. Using an RTR chassis would eliminate much of that.

[brightspark]

Fair enough. 

But I think that you are over estimating the difficulty level of producing a home brewed chassis.

Have a look at my first attempt in the loco challenge. I started off by thinking that it was going to be a total dog. But was delighted at how easy it eventually turned out to be.

Mind you I am pretty confident with a soldering iron, I have made a few kits and had quite a few 'opportunities for improvement' over the years.