Jake

No, I have not as of yet come across anything that can be done to improve the chassis, short of a full rebuild. But having tried it on my inglenook It is possible to shunt, you just have to keep the wheels and track absolutely squeaky clean!

Hello, I have been a member for quite sometime, but have never posted anything, so this is me saying hello and also updating you on a project of mine at the moment. For quite a while now I have been looking at the Hornby Smokey Joe sat on my desk and dreaming up ideas for how I could convert it to a more prototypical tank locomotive. This is the second Smokey Joe I possess and the first has also been industrialised some time ago inspired by an article in RM on industrialising the Hornby Thomas range. Anyway during my numerous trawling's of industrial railway pictures I came across The North Thames Gas board and particularly an image of one of their reduced loading gauge locomotives. This was the result: All it needs now is a little matt varnish on those transfers and possibly a red buffer beam. I’m also thinking of fitting a reduced chimney. I thought I had seen more pictures of cabless locomotives in industry, but I can’t seem to turn any up through a Google search, so if anyone knows of any that would be helpful. Jake

Looks to me like a kitbashed airfix pug with half a tank wagon grafted on to it.