Adrian's Coach Works

[iL Dottore]

And just for a change, here is the Hornby Lord of the Isles modified and renamed to Storm King. It has a Gibson dome and safety valve cover, Gibson bogie wheels (closer to size - I used 3'11" wheels IIRC), modified bogie attachment to allow for the larger wheels, modified tender attachment, Gibson tender wheels, and a Falcon Miniatures crew.

This IS tasty. I have a Hornby Lord of The Isles and have been wondering how to turn from toy into model. Any chance of taking us through what you did with the locomotive?

 

F

[Adrian Wintle]

This IS tasty. I have a Hornby Lord of The Isles and have been wondering how to turn from toy into model. Any chance of taking us through what you did with the locomotive?

 

F

 

The basic changes I made were:

 

1. Replace the dome with a Gibson lost-wax brass part. The original dome will pop off with a bit of assistance (it has a central post). The Gibson dome needs a bit of cleaning up/shaping to match the boiler contour. Mine also needed a bit of work to reduce the seam line on the dome.

 

2. Replace the safety valve cover with a Gibson lost-was brass part. This is a similar procedure to the dome.

 

3. Add a Falcon Miniatures pre-painted white metal crew

 

4. Replace the bogie wheels - the existing ones are just clipped into the bogie frame and are on 2mm axles. There are two possibilities here (I've tried both, but the loco in the photo has the second):

i. Use Gibson 3'8" bogie wheels to replace the original wheels. This requires a slight tweaking of the pickups, but no other modifications.

ii. Use Gibson 3'11" bogie wheels to replace the original wheels. This requires the fabrication of a new bogie support bar (I used brass strip) that is shaped to raise the bogie so that the bogie wheels don't cause the drivers to lift off the track. It takes a bit of fiddling to get the balance right.

Note that the prototypical wheel size is, IIRC, 4'1".

 

5. Remove the tender wheelsets, slide the plastic wheels off the 2mm axle, press Gibson 4'3" tender wheels onto the axles, replace the wheelsets.

 

6. Rename/renumber with plates from your favourite supplier. The name plates on that one are overlaid using tacky glue without repainting (hence the slightly strange shape of the black area)

 

I didn't want to do too much to the tender because I didn't want to add weight there. If I was starting with an example with traction tires, I would likely have done a bit more to the tender.

 

There is still a lot that could be done (handrails, bufferbeam detailing, etc...), but none of the above required permanent modifications. The first three mods also add much needed weight on the driver.

 

Adrian

[Neal Ball]

Fascinating to see your list / photos of the coach projects Adrian.

[Neal Ball]

If you want an interesting build, try one of the Slaters toplight coaches. The only really complex bit is building the bogies, otherwise they are a relatively simple (but well detailed) plastic kit with lost-wax brass details.

 

My latest build is a Coopercraft (Mailcoach) P16 Monster - mostly done in a day. I'll get some pics and comments up shortly.

 

Adrian

 

I have 2 of teh Slaters Toplights and also have a Mailcoach Monster and an Ian Kirk Toplight full brake - all very good models.

[St Enodoc]

K's and PC both produced the 8ft American. They are quite crude by todays casting standards but be cleaned up and detailed with footboards etc.

 

They crop up from time to time on eBay

 

Mike Wiltshire

Coming to this rather late, sorry. I have a couple of sets of K's and PC 8 ft American bogies which I will use under my Slaters toplight kits when I get round to building them, but another thought that occurs to me is that you could use a Comet bogie with the right wheelbase, mounting the Slaters cosmetic sides on that. Has anyone tried this?

[Coach bogie]

Coming to this rather late, sorry. I have a couple of sets of K's and PC 8 ft American bogies which I will use under my Slaters toplight kits when I get round to building them, but another thought that occurs to me is that you could use a Comet bogie with the right wheelbase, mounting the Slaters cosmetic sides on that. Has anyone tried this?

 

 I have not tried this but the challenge is the bogie width compared to the body. Assembled Comet bogies appear over wide compared to conventional cast whitemetal bogies in my opinion.

 

Mike Wiltshire

[St Enodoc]

 I have not tried this but the challenge is the bogie width compared to the body. Assembled Comet bogies appear over wide compared to conventional cast whitemetal bogies in my opinion.

 

Mike Wiltshire

Thanks Mike. Would that be because the Comet cast overlays are too thick? How does the width of a Comet etched bogie frame compare with a Slaters one?

[Coach bogie]

Thanks Mike. Would that be because the Comet cast overlays are too thick? How does the width of a Comet etched bogie frame compare with a Slaters one?

 

They are quite thick and it is not easy to file them down as there is nowhere to hold them. I cannot compare the widths as my Slaters went in the recycling.

 

Comparison below. David Geen 9ft American, Comet 9ft Modern, 247 9ft modern.

 

Mike Wiltshire

[St Enodoc]

They are quite thick and it is not easy to file them down as there is nowhere to hold them. I cannot compare the widths as my Slaters went in the recycling.

 

Comparison below. David Geen 9ft American, Comet 9ft Modern, 247 9ft modern.

DSCF2581.JPG

 

Mike Wiltshire

Mike, that is extremely helpful. Thank you.