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Bassett-Lowke 0-6-0


Hesperus

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At the Telford exhibition last weekend I felt rather sorry for an elderly model of a Jinty on the bring and buy stall so I bought it without checking it over as well as I should have.

 

The body looks to have been scratchbuilt and may be a tad over scale but not so much that it bothers me.  The chassis turns out to be a Bassett-Lowke 0-6-0 that has had it's third rail collector removed but without insulating the axles.  As I'd like to run it (on my 2 rail layout) I've popped the body onto a Lima 4F chassis for the time being. 

 

Before I realised the manufacturer of the chassis I was going to turn down the flanges and insulate one side using whatever method was cheap / easy but seeing the prices that old B/L goes for I wondered if it would be better to restore the chassis properly to sell on,  then buy something a bit more 'scale' with the proceeds, any thoughts?

 

It's not currently a runner (something is shorting in the motor) so a stripdown beckons,  do any of you have any advice before I make any horrible errors.

 

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I got it running last night by adjusting the wipers on the motor (that do the job that carbon brushes do on modern motors).  The motor is fairly smooth but not very powerful.  There's also rather a lot of slop in the motion where some of the wheels are loose on their axles.

 

Are you sure it is Lowke, the wheels look more Leeds/Bonds to me, but the motor I am fairly certain is not Leeds.

 

Could be Bonds, such is the construction of the body.  Please restore!


 

The chassis has "BASSETT-LOWKE  NORTHAMPTON MAKE" stamped into it but maybe the wheels are from something else as there are signs that things have been tampered with.  I'm wondering if a coat of paint on the mating surfaces might take up some of the slop and insulate the wheels from the axles.

 

The flanges are 2.5mm high but it still runs ok on my plain track,  though handmade points are a bit iffy.  If I can get it to run on 2 rail electrics then I'll keep it and pop the body back on as a mainline loco that drops through wagons off at my light railway station.  ( a good deal of my wagons are old and course scale so it'll fit in fine).

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The wheels look like Romford from the pictures with the screw holding the wheels on the axles. The chassis's seen a lot of use looking at the groove worn on the flangeless centre driver! Cheapest option would be to put a set of Romford wheels on it.

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