Rodney, a plonker no longer!

[Dan Griffin]

With my recent interest into industrial loco's, and a chance conversation in trains4u about a Bachmann junior loco got the idea cogs turning. could a decent believable industrial steam shunter be bashed from a childs starter loco? i obtained a Bachmann junior 0-6-0 saddle tank loco to asses these little engines and was pleasently suprised. a small compact motor drives the 0-6-0 wheel arrangement and it was dcc ready and poweful. so i set about the work.

 

first off, i stripped the loco down into its component features, cut away the solid 'glazing' and rubbed the whole thing down with 1000grit wet/dry to remove the LNER livery. the bunker was tackled first, with cab roof removed, the bunker was sawn off with a razor saw and a new angled version made from 40thou plasticard, as seen on jacks green at wansford on the NVR. it was at this point that i found a smokebox and door from an old junior loco, and decided to add this onto the existing bodyshell, thus needing an extension of the running plate, and new buffer beams. the existing chimney was cut off, its place being taken by the water filler cap. although it looked unbalanced with its new smokebox and huge gap from wheels to buffer beam, so i set about to find some cylinders and piston motion. a spare set from a Hornby shire/d49 class were in the scrap box and they fitted perfectly, alinging with the centre axel and giving enough clearence to the cyclinders. these were cut and the chassis buffered up with plasticard to get them correct and inside the frames. a small plastic washer was made to fit onto the centre crank and the whole thing was tested at differing speeds, after fine adjustment, it now runs fine without falling apart!

 

the bodyshell was sprayed, after fitting wire handrails, and filling and sanding, into EWS maroon, cab roof black and cylinders maroon with gold banding. and real coal was added to the rebuilt bunker. the dcc chip was fitted into the bunker under the false coal load. two crew members were added to the cab to hide the wires of the dcc chip. buffers were added to the bufferbeam, old Bachmann class 24 buffers, and hook with three link coupling added. a wire coupling was added to enable coupling to oo stock. the pics below show the finished article. the name rodney came as i had a spare set from a class 50 and a short name suited the industrial style of the loco.

 

when investigated there are a few commercially available industrial loco stlye names, lion, tiger, and titan to name a few. the pics below show the loco put to work, and a before shot! let me know what you think.

 

next up a Bachmann junior diesel will get tackled. ill update the post with pics when thats done, i may do two, twin diesels, lion and tiger, watch this space.

 

 

this is the before shots http://www.ehattons.com/StockDetail.aspx?SID=21217

 

and this is it now.

[Dan Griffin]

yes its dcc ready. i found that running it on dcc was a bit jerky, after a short while, but it calmed down after a few minutes each way.

[cactustrain]

All the attempts to detail these basic locos that I have seen have always looked horrible, in my view - guilded sow's ears. But yours looks great! Grafting a new smokebox on the front is a brilliant idea. Well done.

 

Perhaps the only thing of concen now is the size of the wheels. Are they the originals on your model?

[Taigatrommel]

That's a really good conversion, and certainly fuel for ideas. The loco has gained a whole new character!

[halfwit]

A very nice conversion. It has the look of a heavy 'main line' industrial as found on the larger colliery systems.

[Dan Griffin]

thanks, im currently working on another industrial 0-4-0 this time bashed from a Bachmann percy, same marron colour, but without the moving eyes!!! ill upload some pictures as work progress'. this next one will be named superb (another short class 50 name) then after, twin diesels lion and tiger. all from either the Bachmann thomas range or Bachmann junior range.

[Dan Griffin]

yes the wheels are the original Bachmann produced ones. i wont be changing the wheels on any conversions i do to make it simple

[StaffsOatcake]

Where can I place an order for one?

 

I really like the look of that industrial tank and is a superb conversion from a childs toy.

[StaffsOatcake]

Where can I place an order for one?

 

I really like the look of that industrial tank and is a superb conversion from a childs toy.

[britanniaruletherails]

Once you cut the smoke box off of the other Bachmann junior loco what did you do to secure it to the rest of the locomotive? Also how did you keep the tender's added section on as well as the pistons?

[Dan Griffin]

The smokebox was superglued onto the other locos saddle tanks. The bunker was made using plasticard, and again superglued together. The cylinders and modified Hornby hunt class ones, as are the piston rods. The cylinders were epoxy resin glued to the chassis.