Londontram

It doesn't have to be super strong and heavy duty as its only for cutting up plastic locos and carriages not sections of two by two I've got an old wooden one in the shed for that. I'll have a better idea when I see one in the flesh.

That looks very much like what I'm looking for. I've got to nip to B&Q before the weekend so I'll check it out. Thanks for that, Steve

I've been hacking around the Lord of the Isles and by cutting off the splasher from a second body so far I've got this. One question I'd like to run by you all with the outside cranks fitted how would you make the chassis removable from the body. The extended cranks are trapped by the springs and bearings so any suggestions on how to make the chassis removable?

Wouldn't mind seeing a photo of that if it's possible.

Thanks for all the replys, it seems what I have in mind doesn't exist but I think the previous post come close. I'll give it all some thoughts

Hello everybody can I ask for you help please. I do a fair bit of cutting and shutting of loco and coach bodies in OO Can any one recommend a good moddlers Mitre box one that might have a sliding side so it almost "clamps the body of what ever is to be cut in place. Its wanted for straight cuts across the loco/coach body at right angles only Thanks Steve

I dont know who did it others on here will know but a few years back you could buy a resin body shell for the Killin pug I've no idear if it's still available.

Loving this and looking forward to seeing how it turns out. Keep up the good work. Steve

Who can resist a Sterling cab. Somewhere in my extensive to do list I'm looking at building a G&SWR 22 class 0-6-0 which looks very like this with a distinctive Sterling style cab as well maybe on a Southern C class body. Keep up the good work mate its really looking good

Looks like your doing alright to me my friend. Interesting work and well presented keep it up I'm looking forward to what's coming next Steve

That would be great thanks, I'll be parts gathering for a while so it could be a couple of months before I have what I need to make a start.

If you could get the article that would be very interesting and could offer some handy tips. EBay (No connection other than a customer) have Lord of the Isle body's from £2.99p

They had smaller wheels fitted at the same time. Well the temptation is to great so I've started collecting parts for a possible build. I've got a Nellie chassis so need to get a set of 4 Romford/markits 28mm wheels along with the outside cranks, the front bogie (got) Two spare Lord of the Isles bodies to cut and shut to make the Armstrong body and was thinking as this will be fairly loose scale a GBL T9 tender tank (also got) cut down on the original Lord of the Isles tender chassis. It will take a few weeks to get most of the bits together but it hopefully should make a nice and fairly simple loco to build with so many of the parts available. Those that recall some of my Caledonian loco builds will know I've started with far less sometimes. I'd like to build it as it would of been cir. 1900

Thanks K14 my picture didn't have any information or say it was from flicker.

There must be people on here who have far more knowledge than me of SECR works and might be sble to pin point it but it does look like one of those narrow guage railways that were used for moving materiel around a works.

If as the original poster says he's happy to keep it loose scale then I agree with David in the last post. Carefull cutting and shutting of two Lord of the isles bodies and a Nellie chassis would be a good starting point for what could look a good copy of the Armstrong. The Lord of the isles splashers look a tad to tall due no doubt to the Lords wheels being 7ft 8inces or in model terms 28mm which are 8inces or 2mm larger that the Armstrong 7ft ones. You'll need to change the wheels to Markets ones with there extended cranks but you might be able to use the Nellie's own con rods but with the splashers as long as the overall balance looks right it should be ok which I believe it will. I once saw two Airfix 4F grafted together on a 9F chassis make a very passable 0-10-0 licky banker the only visual fault was the 9F chassis having only a single slide bar unlike the Midland style double ones apart from that it looked very good, so all it just takes is the will to do it and the vision in your minds eye.

Regarding the smoke box dart I've added a post to your update thread. Steve

I think you'll find there's not one there, it looks in the photo as if it "Lugs" around the edge of the door that hold it closed. Here's a better photo of the front end and it's a bit clearer Hope that helps keep up the good work. Steve Blown up it looks like it's having some work done on the pistons or valve chest as its seen here with the buffer beam off

I think if it looks right then it is right i'm not adverse to altering a body by moving the splashers by a mm or two to fit a RTR chassis. I've recently drawn a Caledonian railway single and have stretched the whole loco by a couple of mm to fit a Bachmann Emily chassis which I will be building in the future if I hadn't told you you probably would never have noticed when the model is built .

Stripping it out of locos and carriages? Putting it under the bed? I actually checked the first posting date on this thread to see if it said April the 1st Seriously chaps get a grip your not going to get lead poisoning from the weights in your locos and carriages. Just get real Grind it down and use it for snuff, suck on a lozenged sized lump of it and there's a chance you might get something but left as a weight that passes by you on your layout in a loco Jez It's not flipping kryptonite for goodness sake. Rant over

Now you say that but I still get a pang of guilt just before starting to chop a loco. Anyway the new design is much better

Much more in proportion.

Hmm I'm not sure if it's just the cab and bunker. To be honest the boiler looks to long for the firebox. A fireman would have trouble keeping any steam in that. Sorry

It seems strange that an item that hasn't been disturbed is now causing so much trouble. There's no chance the body is now sitting to low or has twisted so the wheels are touching the underside of the body. Or could it be you were gripping it by the wheels while working on it and the axle quartering has slipped slightly

I can see where your coming from trying to keep its originality but the very second you touch it it's no longer original. There's a few old Triang locos both steam and diesel that respond well to a lesser or greater degree of upgrading but I think in this case the marriage of a C class and the saddle tank might be the best option. By cutting the saddle tank cab and bunker off the saddle tank and grafting these on to a cut down C class you get to retain all the running plate detail like the splashers etc. One could retain the C class smoke box with chimney and smoke box door. This also might help to lower the top half a little bringing it more back into balance. PS as gratitude for my advice you could send me the C class tender which I can convert to look like a G&SWR one for a project I'm planing..... Well if you don't ask!