Wills Finecast Saint - Alternative Chassis

[Weaselfish]

Hello.

 

I've picked up a Wills Finecast Saint kit complete with Romford wheels for a very civilised price. The chassis though is the old whitemetal casting and I'd like to have a go at producing something a bit more sophisticated. It's one of the kits that hasn't had an etched chassis introduced yet by South Eastern Finecast. I've found the Alan Gibson connecting rods already. Does anyone know if the Comet Hall chassis can be adapted to fit the Wills body?

[James]

Do Gibsons do frames for it?

 

Even if they don't now, have a word and they'll be able to add them if you'll make a template for them.

[Sidecar Racer]

I'd go the Comet route personnally , the Hall chassis gives the right wheelbase for drivers and bogie and you if you

get the full kit it comes with the correct two cylinder set also. I think from memory it has coupling and connecting rods

included .

 

The only thing you would need to watch out for is ride height , the Saint runs with 6' 8 1/2'' drivers while the hall is only on

6' drivers , but a bit of packing and trimming where needed should do it .

 

This way you get all the parts needed for a complete chassis , going the Gibson route get you only frames .

 

Your call .

 

Hope this helps , I did a conversion of a Hornby Castle chassis for mine and used a tender drive power source , this gave the

correct wheel sizes but I had to use a slightly modfied cylinder set up from some spare 28xx class parts I had knocking around .

 

Have fun and if I can help further please ask .

[Weaselfish]

Thanks both. I think the Comet route would be the best for me at the moment as it gets me all the extra bits needed in one go. I've got the ride height issue very much in mind though. I'm afraid any template I could draw up wouldn't be much help to Gibsons!

 

Thanks again,

 

Mark

[Craigw]

A few mates and I have been mulling over a saint class for a while. A friend has been working on 3D drawings to get a boiler done via rapid prototyping and we have been looking at etching for the rest. We were talking to David Geen about this and he mentioned that a Grange chassis is pretty well spot on for a Saint. overlaying Grange frames onto a Saint drawing suggests this may be the case - so perhaps a Grange chassis might be worth a try?

 

Craig W

[Sidecar Racer]

We were talking to David Geen about this and he mentioned that a Grange chassis is pretty well spot on for a Saint. overlaying Grange frames onto a Saint drawing suggests this may be the case - so perhaps a Grange chassis might be worth a try?

 

Craig W

 

 

You still run into wheel size problems , the Grange ran on 5' 8'' drivers , so it is still a matter of adjusting

footplate height , wheel base was common to most GWR 4-6-0 loco's at 7' and 7' 9'' , the bogie wheel base

was standard too , the major varitations were in it's position in realtion to the front drivers , but this was usually

only a matter of inches .

[dmurrell]

You still run into wheel size problems , the Grange ran on 5' 8'' drivers , so it is still a matter of adjusting

footplate height , wheel base was common to most GWR 4-6-0 loco's at 7' and 7' 9'' , the bogie wheel base

was standard too , the major varitations were in it's position in realtion to the front drivers , but this was usually

only a matter of inches .

 

No you won't run into wheel size problems if you use a Grange chassis! The frame depth and cutouts are just right - the problem is adjusting the profile for the front end to match the drop in the front footplate and corresponding deeper buffer beam as the buffers will now be too high. These are not major problems!

 

David M

[lonesome_whistle]

A few mates and I have been mulling over a saint class for a while. A friend has been working on 3D drawings to get a boiler done via rapid prototyping and we have been looking at etching for the rest. We were talking to David Geen about this and he mentioned that a Grange chassis is pretty well spot on for a Saint. overlaying Grange frames onto a Saint drawing suggests this may be the case - so perhaps a Grange chassis might be worth a try?

 

Craig W

 

Interesting! I've often felt that if one locomotive class was worthy of a state-of-the-art kit then it was the Saint.

[Weaselfish]

Much food for thought here! Thanks again all.

 

 

[Coach bogie]

My Wills Saints have used several different chassis.

 

Comet Hall as mentioned above. Gerald. Elliot/Bristol Models, Triang Hall with Markits special Romford Axles. My other Saints are ProScale, Westward and Falcon Brass and use the supplied chassis.

 

Mike Wiltshire

[Weaselfish]

My Wills Saints have used several different chassis.

 

Comet Hall as mentioned above. Gerald. Elliot/Bristol Models, Triang Hall with Markits special Romford Axles. My other Saints are ProScale, Westward and Falcon Brass and use the supplied chassis.

 

Mike Wiltshire

 

 

Mike,

 

That's interesting. What modifications did you need to make to fit the Comet Chassis?

 

Mark

[Coach bogie]

Mike,

 

That's interesting. What modifications did you need to make to fit the Comet Chassis?

 

Mark

 

I used the Triang Hall chassis as a template and cut the Comet chassis to length. There is a casting in the Wills kit that screws to to the back of the Triang chassis. I soldered this to the Comet. With this in place for alignment, the Comet chassis was cut short at the front to allow for the frames forward of the cylinders that is cast into the Wills kit.. I soldered a nut into the Cast body just before the drop frame and put one of the Comet spacers in line with this. Takes a bit of effort to get it all to fit, but it is worth it, if only to get decent brake gear actually attached to the chassis.

 

I did a similar exercise with a Proscale, after I made a mess of the chassis trying to get the spring suspension to work and failing miserably. It was a good excuse to do something different and I turned it into a straight frame with the front drop frame attached to the Comet Chassis rather than the body. I scratched the unique cylinders to produce 2900 William Dean in its final 1932 condition.

 

I have a Wills Saint on the workbench that is using a Triang chassis as the Wills was designed to take it.. Mainly Trains sell a Romford axle and scale con rods that fits the old Triang chassis. Thought I would give it a go. Not what you would call state of the art but it is an excellent quiet runner. This one will have the ex Great Bear 8 wheel tender attached as 2912 Saint Ambrose as running in the eary 1930's.

 

Mike Wiltshire

[Coach bogie]

Perseverance Saint chassis kit on eBay at the moment.

 

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=280650538964&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT

 

MW

[Weaselfish]

Mike,

 

Thanks for the advice and link. I've got an old Triang-Hornby Hall chassis that I'll have an experiment with too, so I've got lots of options now.

 

Mark

[TheCuckoo]

Hello.

 

I've picked up a Wills Finecast Saint kit complete with Romford wheels for a very civilised price. The chassis though is the old whitemetal casting and I'd like to have a go at producing something a bit more sophisticated. It's one of the kits that hasn't had an etched chassis introduced yet by South Eastern Finecast. I've found the Alan Gibson connecting rods already. Does anyone know if the Comet Hall chassis can be adapted to fit the Wills body?

I built the Wills kit a few years ago and used the Comet Hall chassis (which goes together very nicely). The holes for the brake rigging need to be re-drilled, but that is pretty much it. Yeah, keep an eye on the ride height but that was very easy to resolve.