Wills 0-6-0 chassis

[hayfield]

I brought this Wills Finecast whitemetal chassis off Ebay last week. As the wheelbase is the same as the Triang Hornby chassis and has 20mm Romfords I am guessing that its for either the GWR Collett, LMS 4F, LNER J39 or the SR Q class. Though it may be designed for an 0-6-0 tank loco and have the wrong size wheels as the rear fitting is more suited to a tank loco.

 

 

AS you can see from the picture it has 3 sand tanks between the wheels, would this be a clue? also the 2 tanks between the wheels have the sand pipes pointed at the centre wheel, is this correct please.

 

Thankfully for me the photo and description were poor, so I got it for £9. But the seller had no idea about it.

 

Thanks in advance

[34theletterbetweenB&D]

They are very 'Midland' sandboxes. The centre wheel having feeds from either side is a pretty normal arrangement: as the directly driven axle, this is the wheelset that really wants ot 'bite' first, whichever direction the loco has to start. I very much doubt that the chassis will be right dimensionally for any of the types named, it looks fairly short, scaling around 7'6"+8' As such it may well be the old compromise chassis, not quite right for any particular 0--6-0 prototype, but also not too far out: nearest fit would be Swindon's 7'3"+ 8'3" 0-6-0 llayout.

 

 

[hayfield]

Thanks 34C I think you have cracked it.

 

Most Wills locos were (some still are) made to fit on to RTR chassis. The latter etched chassis to replace either the Triang or Hornby Dublo chassis had the respective rear fixing lugs. This chassis is similar to those for locos with the 'special chassis to suit' (where the wheelbase was non standard RTR), eg hole at each end of the chassis.

 

Thoughts were that it might be for one of their tank locos which use the Triang/Hornby chassis E2, 94xx or Caley tank, but your mention of the LMS sand boxes probably answers the question. The Collett goods has a built in sand box at the front of the footplate where as the 4F does not. The Wills 4F is designed to take the Triang chassis and what I thought was the rear mounting bolt hole is the rear motor mounting screw. So it would use the Wills rear body clamp and be screwed to the body at the front.

 

Looking at this drawing the sand boxes line up.

 

http://s405.photobucket.com/albums/pp133/dirty_numb_angel_boi/British%20Steam%20Drawings/?action=view&current=LMS4F0-6-0.jpg&mediafilter=images

 

But I could be wrong !