Crantock

Incidentally, another easy update is the Dock Tank. Here the wheels do fail and clunk along the sleepers.  The cheap solution is to use 14mm coach wheels with the original gears soldered onto a brass tube that's as close as you can to 2mm inside and 9/64ths outside.  Soldering the join required a bit of heat but a ceramic hob does the trick. Care with the light as the DCC current is higher voltage. 

Somehow they lack the beauty of Nellie.

The Nellie upgrade (without cylinders!) also basically works for the other diesel shunter but it's even less a looker.

Please excuse the quality of the pictures but I think I have refined the art of Nellification.

First take your Nellie body and apply Mr Muscle to remove paint.  Then remove moulded handrails with a knife.  If modelling an industrial variant consider removing lamp brackets and coal rails.  Replace handrails with wire.  Remove front steps. For a mainline version add grilles to the rear windows (Mainly Trains - ceased trading). Add drawhooks and vacuum gear to taste.  Repaint.

For the chassis It had too many gaps that needed filling.  I used brass strips to create mounting blocks for a DCC Concepts chip and stay alives in the cab.  Also created a mounting block overlay to allow outside cylinders to be fitted.  These were made from brass tube and nickel silver strip slidebars using a jig.  Yes I know an outside cylinder 0-4-0 is a minority but hey.   

This in itself was educational as you realise that the slide bars need to be pointing at the centre of the axle and there needed to be a point on the body to support them. 

The original wheels were scrapped. Care is needed to not twist the chasses when removing. The replacement was easy.  The gear was extracted and remounted on a 9/64ths Romford axle with gnarled centre (again Mainly Trains - ceased trading).  Just visible is the crude washer behind the wheel to maintain clearance. The front axle was a standard Romford in bearings.  The wheels were 16mm plastic centred cheapest available.  The coupling rod was simply a Romford crankpin washer soldered into the original crankpin.

To fill up the rear of the chassis I used Comet Models Stanier sandboxes with oversize sandpipes added and front ones soldered behind the cylinders.

Pickup is a strip of copperclad with a the copper removed from a middle strip using a slitting disk and 2 countersunk mounting holes.  33 Thou wire provides 4 pickups.  Obviously replaced the coupling with Bachman.

I have 6 of these and 5 spare bodies for either pseudo BR or industrial.  The Industrials have some A1 models number plates on them and are In BR Sherwood Green with black roofs and smokeboxes.  ie as close to No 27 as can be done.

On a wander round the trade at Wigan Exhibition on a Sunday, I felt that Blue boxes were thin on the ground and Reds predominated.  That's all small traders.

Many thanks, wasn't suggesting you were being greedy.      The key point is the time saved and the availability of something different.  Good luck.

• Well done but not cheap.  The L&Y class 28 I have as:

£68 Loco FUD

£21 Loco chassis WSF

£14 coupling rods

£34 tender WSF (is FUD available)

£14 tender chassis

So that's £151 before wheels and motor and bits and bobs. London Road Models class 25 is £95 as a comparator.  I can't help feeling there is a balance to be struck between etches and printing.  Then again one between time and cost.

Surprised you are bothering with a Fowler tender as Bachmann ones can be sourced on Ebay and with a bit of reworking even an old Airfix one can be made respectable.  Now if you were to go for:

• Fowler cab tender
• Stanier 3500 tender
• Stanier 3500 slab sided tender

I might be interested.

Anyway, well done and a nice video

Interesting to stumble across this thread and see that things have not changed much. My experience started in Nov 2005 when I ordered a 2 bil. Although I was charged promptly the order did not arrive until Feb 2006. It was opened the day it arrived. The driving coach was broken, with the motor driven up into it. The dummy car had random screws sticking out of it. I complained by email with photos and was told there was nothing Charlie could do if the postal service broke it up. I pointed out that both the inner box and outer box were undamaged so it must have been put in damaged. We agreed I would return it. After a long silence Charlie said he was repairing it. I finally received it back, but did not open it right away having very low expectation. In Sept 2006 I did look at it and found that the motor did not run with only one set of wheels turning in each direction. I complained and again was told it was fine when it was sent. Charlie also told me, very snugly, that the train I had returned had been repaired for more that I had paid for it. I'm not sure selling damaged goods for full price is something to be proud of, but there you go. The problems with the motor were so obvious it is impossible that it ran properly before it was sent, and was probably somebody else's damaged goods fostered off onto me.

At this point I gave up. I wish there had been a forum to air my story with at the time. Frankly, with the kind of attitude I experience, I'm amazed Charlie is still in business.

Oh come on that was 9 years ago. The fact he is still in business is better evidence.

(And I have learnt not to reply using taps talk from the garden)

Interesting to stumble across this thread and see that things have not changed much. My experience started in Nov 2005 when I ordered a 2 bil. Although I was charged promptly the order did not arrive until Feb 2006. It was opened the day it arrived. The driving coach was broken, with the motor driven up into it. The dummy car had random screws sticking out of it. I complained by email with photos and was told there was nothing Charlie could do if the postal service broke it up. I pointed out that both the inner box and outer box were undamaged so it must have been put in damaged. We agreed I would return it. After a long silence Charlie said he was repairing it. I finally received it back, but did not open it right away having very low expectation. In Sept 2006 I did look at it and found that the motor did not run with only one set of wheels turning in each direction. I complained and again was told it was fine when it was sent. Charlie also told me, very snugly, that the train I had returned had been repaired for more that I had paid for it. I'm not sure selling damaged goods for full price is something to be proud of, but there you go. The problems with the motor were so obvious it is impossible that it ran properly before it was sent, and was probably somebody else's damaged goods fostered off onto me.

At this point I gave up. I wish there had been a forum to air my story with at the time. Frankly, with the kind of attitude I experience, I'm amazed Charlie is still in business.

I think it will sell regardless of imperfections.  And regardless of technical accuracy i bet a variant appears with LMS bogies substituted.

To me the wheels, plate joins and rivets are too prominent.  

And surely, lamps both ends is surely an imperfection too far?

I think the photo is a very different beast from the ones mercian do and i suspect its going to be a DIY jobbie with at best an RTR chassis but that looks a bit of a monster to be honest.

http://cliffjones.zenfolio.com/p1056649801/h37A29E8E#h37a29e8e

I agree that fabricating your own slidebars would be a worthwhile improvement.  Though you might get somewhere by painting the relief on and where do you stop?  Whilst there is clearly too big a gap between the slidebars and running plate, I think the slidebars might be a touch too low.  I would expect the cylinder centre line to pass through the driven axle but think its a bit low.  Too complicated to change.  

Perhaps we should have a whip round for a fresh body?  You know that after developing the techniques on the prototype the best answer is to have a clear run from a clean sheet.

Good luck.

Mike, Is there a complete catalogue downloadable somewhere?  I can see that the one on UK Modelshops does not include everything mentioned on RMweb.  Eg the odd LMS pacific and conversion kits from Ivatt to Riddles 2-6-0s

If not, I will say hello at York

Ah in the series of named 40s mine was Deraillia.  I treat it as a £20 donation to the Pontypool and Blaenavon Railway.

I picked up a Bachmann 40 bodyshell (much criticised but compared to Joueff.....) at Warley and mounted this on the Joueff chassis with springs on the pony wheels and a detailed bufferbeam.  It sort of works.

The body still exists as a store for paintbrushes and a test bed for resprays.

Seriously, in general, life is too short and it doesn't justify the cost of a DCC chip.

Bin or Ebay

The Triang/Hornby Nelly/Polly/Connie. I buy them occasionally at a going rate of £10-£15. They look nice if you paint them in BR Black and totally remanufacture. I have a fleet of 5 and 5 bodies.

 

Gostude has an orignal. http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/TRIANG-Hornby-R359-0-4-0-PRIMARY-INDUSTRIAL-TANK-LOCO-/370489383878?pt=UK_Trains_Railway_Models&hash=item5642e35bc6 Probably a bit disingenuous to call it an industrial with a BR logo. Still "This loco appears brand new and unrun"

 

The Gostude price for an R355 - £397.50. At which point buyers will no doubt consider £9.50 fair game for the post.

 

Cant afford it - don't panic. He has another

 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/TRIANG-Hornby-R359-0-4-0-PRIMARY-INDUSTRIAL-TANK-LOCO-/370489383877?pt=UK_Trains_Railway_Models&hash=item5642e35bc5

 

That's £297.50 and only £8 for the post. It also "appears brand new and unrun" or to me appears resprayed and re-decalled

 

Ah well, don't need any more.

Ah doesn't time fly....  Say hello to a pair of old friends from Gostude. Anyone else would cut the price.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/370489383878?_trksid=p2060778.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AITand http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/370489383877?_trksid=p2060778.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

Let me also say hello to the other 7 watchers.  My guess is that 6 are on here and one is at trading standards.

Now I am emotionally bought in to hoping you get it soon and all ends well.    Not least as I start to drool when looking at that catalogue.   I have a nice class 02 awaiting final spraying.

Hi everyone , does anybody know if Craftsman Models are still trading as of today ?

 

I placed an order before the New Year , still not received . I tried ringing the number on their website and left several messages , no reply , found out today they have a new number which is not displayed on their main web page only right at the bottom of their catalogue page . Anyway tried this number and got the dreaded " This number has not been recognised " .

 

Have also emailed several addresses from their pages , still waiting for a reply , so basically spent money and it seems to have gone up the chimney.

 

Any news would be appreciated.

In the old days mail order always used to say "allow 30 days....." these days we get worked up if delivery is not immediate.  So would you care to put a date on "before the new year".  I have to say i for one have only been back at work since Monday having been off since the 23rd.  So I would personally not be fretting about orders unless the cash was taken in the first week of December.

indeed the catalogue is dated January 2015 and the wording is: "From November 2014 Craftsman Models new phone number: 01619029645 davidjones5676@outlook.com"  So I would see that as some positive signs.

I would assume that the gear ratios are such that the two sets of axles rotate at the correct speeds relative to their diameter.

Yes, but I expect that has been achieved by flexing the diameters of the wheels, not the gears which will surely be a standard (ie avaialable off the shelf) size.  

Anyway, mustn't distract you from the good work!

Emily has the rear bogie and main driving wheel geared together making her effectively a 2-4-2. This is one of the reasons I decided not to alter her chassis or indeed re-wheel her. It would be nice if Bachmann did a proper Stirling and after the Locomotion Atlantic anything is possible.

Its an interesting concept gearing together wheels of 2 different diameters.  Assuming standard sized gears are used in the gear train, it must drive some compromise on wheel diameters to avoid slippage (which destroys adhesion).  That possibly precludes re-wheeling.  Or is there slippage inherent in the design?  Not an easy one to test.

Mike/Jason,

Someone has to ask the obvious question......why not 3Dprint the complete body to mount on  the Bachmann chassis?

Sorry, but I have just had a weekend of "hacking" and sometimes question if there is a better way.

regards

Great so I now am getting emails from Ebay "still interested in"....A piece of sh*** that I can only have accessed via this thread

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/ATLAS-MODEL-TRAIN-PACIFIC-CHAPELON-NORD-ON-WOODEN-BASE-BRASS-PLAGUE-/201163939295?pt=UK_Trains_Railway_Models&hash=item2ed64e1ddf

"Give it another chance"  - nope avoid like the plague.

Hi Nile, I can't comment for Paul,

but you can buy transfers from railtec transfers

 

http://www.railtec-models.com/showitem.php?id=1355

 

Owen

Very many thanks for this post.  I think I have just bought the last one they had.  It said "in stock 1" and i bought.  I mention that, not to show off, but because it is no longer showing on the website (presumably as out of stock) and this may confuse readers.

Hi everybody!!! Ive just purchased the weathered Tarmac Sentinel! I have plans for a repaint n such, but for a later date! In the meantime, i was wondering if there was any relative stock for this livery to pull?? Im not overly sure of any tarmac wagons, if any at all??? If any1 cud help id b very grateful

I hope Narrow Planet don't mind me posting their initial sketch they sent me but here it is. I thought because it was such a small loco I'd call it the opposite. The plates are 2mm high and the grid is 2mm square, I probably should have gone for 3mm plates but 2mm will do, it's my own fault.

image.jpg

Rhys

Pulling the two together, to blank the Tarmac" logo you would need a 13.5 X 3mm nameplate.  Then you have a free range of owners.

Otherwise its a case of ebay (but watch these go up in price) http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2-X-R-002-Tarmac-Aggregate-Hopper-Wagons-00-Gauge-/231209264101?pt=UK_Trains_Railway_Models&hash=item35d52563e5. Or just using a generic hopper wagon depending on your budget from this http://www.amazon.co.uk/Hornby-R6473-RailRoad-Mineral-Rolling/dp/B00260GF2Y/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1398597433&sr=8-2&keywords=Hornby+railroad+wagons upwards.

Its a good point that Hornby launched the loco without a matching wagon.even though they have PGA hoppers in their range.

Sir Henry Fowler is often misjudged.  His innovations included breaking away from the standard midland wheelbase and the introduction of taper boilers.  Josiah Stamp put an end to some of the more outlandish spend such as the cast numberplates and copper chimney rings seen here.

Fowler 0-6-0......

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/MAINLINE-0-6-0-FOWLER-LOCO-WITHOUT-TENDER-/181367085323?pt=UK_Trains_Railway_Models&hash=item2a3a52190b

One day some company will design a chip that will be the same size and plugs in like a micro/nano tablet chip, it will contain all the required info and will plug in under the body so that it does not have to be removed. I am sure the technology is there it just needs a company to take it on.

The simplicity of DCC is that you can hard wire almost any chip. I can hard wire a 1961 Nellie and have done.  I am using different chips today to 3 years ago and expect all my chips will be obsolete in 5 years.  So unless there is a standard socket that will be supported in 10 years time, we will still want to be able to unscrew and solder as well as to plug in the transient chip of today.

Well "Patience" has arrived.  The weathered Tarmac is a lovely green and is simply too good to repaint.  

One point to flag, the buffer beam inserts I received for the weathered version are not a match for the weathered buffer beam.  You would need to respray.  Basically the buffer beam is heavily weathered and the inserts are a dull yellow.

Just a heads up - Hattons have had a batch of Sentinels into stock today*, however their order was only partly fulfilled and, depending on when a pre-order was placed, customers may or may not get their order.  The next batch is quoted as being due in a weeks time.  Looking forward to the imminent arrival of my little blue NCB!

 

*according to emails I've had this evening.

Includes Tarmac ones:

This is an automatic notification to inform you that we have processed your order for the following items:

1 * Hornby R3180 Class 4wDM 0-4-0 diesel Sentinel shunter in Tarmac green. Weathered (Next batch due 11th March) @ £45.00 each = £45.00

"Patience" is finally coming to allow "Nellie" to be retired.  

All of the resprays featured on here retain the nicely done buffer wasp stripes.  It would be good to pin down the history of those.  Was there a point in time they became obligatory? (I don't think so).  Otherwise I propose a repaint in Sherwood green with red buffer beams to match the rest of my industrial fleet.