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Dapol B4 to EM conversion


ullypug

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I recently found a few photos of a recent conversion I did a while back of the Dapol B4 to EM for my Covid shunting layout.

I've been working quite a bit on Guernsey in the Channel Islands so this was originally an impulse purchase.

I decided the LSWR would have loaned it from Southampton Docks to work the Stonehouse branch in Plymouth in my universe anyway.

 

The B4 is a tricky thing to convert by the usual standards. I didn't want to change the wheels as there isn't a 100% accurate wheel available from Gibson. There's also very little room between the con rods and the front steps.

There is a chassis kit and full white metal body kit available for the B4 tank from Nucast Partners and I've one of these in the cupboard to do at some point.

After a bit of head scratching I decided to put the wheels in a lathe and skim down to 2.1mm thickness. It means you lose the wheel boss on the front but the good news is everything can be retained.

The wheels have a plastic boss on the rear which means they can be reset on the axles once skimmed.

Apologies to purists but my method was to use a 6BA bolt and nut fixed through the wheel and skimmed down. The remaining centre 'boss' was filed down afterwards. I took it very slowly over a couple of sessions.

All went back together using the original crank pins and rods. Pick ups were tweaked and all runs well.

 

Not much else to say really so here are some photos

 

original wheel and axle

IMG_8020.jpeg.9a5c7d09dc358e80359b4f514e1aefae.jpeg

 

skimming in lathe

IMG_8013.jpeg.06bf8433320683b806d353bdcc9d70a6.jpeg

 

the central 'boss' is then filed down

IMG_8014.jpeg.db66dca38f04e5fd82667678eb224933.jpeg

 

rewheeled

IMG_8020.jpeg.9a5c7d09dc358e80359b4f514e1aefae.jpeg

 

Wheels painted and all done

488618363_IMG_8035(1).jpeg.7bd2fd47e88570698a2102026b822731.jpeg

IMG_8018.jpeg

Edited by ullypug

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Very nice work, Andrew. The B4 is a favorite 0-4-0t of mine. 

 

Kind regards,

 

Nick

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So when you had turned the wheels, you pushed back in the insulating bush, trimmed it to shape and then fitted the wheels to new longer axles? Is that about right?

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2 hours ago, SandHutton said:

So when you had turned the wheels, you pushed back in the insulating bush, trimmed it to shape and then fitted the wheels to new longer axles? Is that about right?

Not quite. I used the same axles.

I could have explained it better.

The insulating bush was pushed back so it was flush with the front face of the wheel. This meant the back of it was set further back

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