Differences between LNER A2 and A3?

[narrowman]

A fellow "senior" modeller has asked me if he can make a good representation of 'Tornado' from his Trix A2 body and a 'Flying Scotsman' chassis and tender. Having no knowledge of LNER locos, I thought the experts on this forum would have the required knowledge.

Are the boilers of A1, A2 and A3 a similar size?

I assume he wants to have a reasonable model of Tornado without spending all his pension on a Bachmann or Hornby product!

Narrowman

[SirNigelGresley4498]

Having compared the details on the LNER encyclopedia it might just work - A1's and A2's share a boiler, and A1's and A3's share a wheelbase and size...

 

It's probably easier and quicker just to buy an RTR one, though.

[Mallard60022]

Railroad Tornado surely?

P 

[narrowman]

He already has the A3 chassis and tender, along with the Trix/Dapol A2 body, so the purchase of even a Railroad Tornado would eat into his basic pension, which he'd rather spend on food/heating/etc...

Narrowman

[The Doc]

Sitting at work I cannot check the dimensions of my Bachmann A1 body and my Trix A2, but you may find the Trix A2 slightly smaller.  Also, it has a single chimney, whereas Tornado has a double chimney (If you contact Bachmann they can probably supply you with a double chimney from a V2 - I got one a few years back).  The hardest problem to solve will be that Tornado has wheel splashers (very slight wheel arches above the driving wheels on the footplate) whereas the A2 does not (because it has smaller driving wheels).  Although these splashers are quite small and difficult to see from a distance, without them the Trix body will sit too high on the chassis - and won't look right, especially if the buffer beam is 2mm higher than anything it is next to.

 

I think that converting an A2 to an A1 would be quite tricky for the above reason.  The chassis will look okay, although Tornado has chunkier cylinders than the A3, so you will have to work on those.  I made a budget A1 (before the Railroad Tornado came along) by waiting patiently on ebay for a Bachmann A1 body at a reasonable price (you'll be lucky to get one for much less than £20), which I mounted on a Hornby Flying Scotsman chassis.  It took quite a bit of hacking at the chassis to get it all to fit because the Bachmann body has integral metal parts that can't be easily removed.  

 

If this puts you off and you wonder what else you can do with a Trix body and a Hornby chassis, try getting hold of a Hornby Britannia loco chassis (the tender drive version is usually less than £20), combine it with the rear pony truck (Cartazzi) and tender chassis of Flying Scotsman, and you have got yourself a Peppercorn A2 at much less than the cost of the Bachmann version.  I made two like this before the Bachmann version came along.  I'll try to upload some pictures but as I am new to this forum it might take me a while to get the hang of it.

[The Doc]

Hi again,

 

I'll see if I can attach photos to explain my previous post.  Sorry that they aren't great quality, and I really need to give my locos a dust.

 

The bird's eye view shows Hornby Tornado (top) next to a Trix A2 - you can see size differences, different chimney and different dome - which raises another question.  When some people refer to "banjo" domes, are they referring to the one on the A2 (and the old Tri-ang Scotsman) or the more triangular streamlined version that Tornado has?

 

The second picture shows a Trix A2 body on a Hornby Britannia/A3 hybrid chassis - I got this idea from the old Wills whitemetal body kit that was designed to sit on a Tri-ang/Hornby chassis.

 

The third shows a Bachmann A1 body on a Scotsman chassis (these can be picked up fairly cheaply).  Still some work to do - enlarge the cylinders, lower the body by another mm, and paint the wheels black.

[narrowman]

Thanks for all your replies!

I've passed the info on to him, so something might appear before long!

Narrowman