Overner

According to M.J.E. Reed's book, 'The Island Terriers'; front steps and tank handrails were fitted to No's 8, 11 and 13 in 1935/6 when still in late Maunsell lined olive green. No 14 appears, from photographic evidence to have received front steps but no handrail shortly before it's return to the mainland in 1936 where they then seem to have been removed! No's 9, 10 and 12 appear never to have received them.

I think the answer's in the question. The tooling for the IoW bunker is probably the only additional tooling done and, apart from the bunker, the only change they need to make to come up with a passable IoW Terrier. Most of the others, which were on the island before grouping, retained the front sandbox/splasher from their A1 days and had no sandboxes below the footplate. I've converted mine to Carisbrooke for very similar reasons as it too was a mainland rebuild with the standard A1X sandbox/splasher changes and it, and Fishbourne were the only ones to retain Stroudley chimneys.

'Photographic evidence has shown that W9 Fishbourne can be modelled more accurately and that some features from Newport have not been included in the tooling.' An interesting admission from Dapol - I wonder which features! As an aside, one of my Terriers had incorrect coupling rods on one side and correct on the other. As they are handed, this rules out a simple change over. I've emailed Dapol and asked for the correct rods.

Like you, Martin, I like modifying RTR and, speaking for myself, I've never been able to build a chassis that didn't run like a 3 legged camel! I like the challenge of making a good RTR model look that bit different. Kits, for me, aren't able to produce the result I want without access to a very large toolkit including some rather expensive bench tools which, for the occasional modeller like me, would sit gathering dust for months on end. It's interesting, looking at the Dapol Terrier and the Ixion HC as well as the large names in 4mm, that RTR manufacturers are making use of a variety of materials; whichever best suits the item modelled and not trying, like most kit manufacturers, to reproduce everything from a single material, whether it be whitemetal; etched brass or whatever. When, and if, the kit manufacturers adopt the same policy of multi-medium models, it might tempt more 'average' modellers into their orbit.

It goes back together like a good quality plastic kit. Shouldn't cause anyone any real problems. The LSWR acquired 2 Terriers in 1903. Both had their condensing pipes removed but retained the tank top vents. Otherwise they stayed as typical A1's until they were reboilered by Drummond in 1912 and lost their Salter valves in favour of Ross valves on the dome.

I took mine apart too, to convert it to an IoW prototype. Took a few more bits off as the conversion went on. Haven't counted them, I'm too easily scared, but it will be fun putting it all back together!

I think the white staining was more prevalent in certain parts of the country where 'hard' water could leave calcium deposits where it spilled.

I thought that 'variations on a theme' was what cost effective products were all about!

Just to add to the general difficulty of interpreting colours from black and white photographs. Up 'till the first world war, the film used was orthochromatic which wasn't equally sensitive to all colours, rendering colours at the blue (colder) end of the spectrum lighter than they in fact were and colours at the red (warmer) end darker. Panchromatic emulsions which render all colours in the right shade of grey didn't become generally available until after the war and common until the 1920's.

But not until the mid 1930's.

It would appear to me that these models are quite well packed, the clear plastic holding it firmly in place. Unless the box has been badly damaged in transit, I can't see how it could be anything but a packing fault and, assuming that they were packed where they were made, it's unreasonable to expect Dapol, or the dealers to check every one before despatch. Having said that, it's now down to Dapol to take it up with whoever did the packing and make sure it doesn't happen again. An apology, at least, on their website might be nice too!

If anyone out there is interested in converting to an IoW prototype, I've started a new forum to share experiences and success/failure. http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/102631-isle-of-wight-terriers/ Colin

The Brighton works loco was a fairly standard A1X in LBSCR colours. The Dapol SR green version is almost an exact match only needing the removal of the 'Torpedo' extensions on the tank tops - and a repaint of course. Incidentally, it originally carried the number 377S until 1959 when it was taken back into capital stock as 32635 but still in Stroudley livery. It was withdrawn and scrapped in 1963.

One problem is that both the A1's to date have early wooded brake blocks. These were updated to iron long before rebuilding to A1X so a whole period in their lives is missed out unless, at some point, Dapol combine an A1 with a later brake moulding. Presumably the two brake mouldings are interchangeable.

The Billington coaches were about 2ft longer than the earlier Stroudley vehicles and about 8in higher. Also the panelling on the brake was slightly different. There were 3 billington sets on the IoW, set numbers 497;498 and 499, in addition to 2 Stroudley sets, 495 and 496. All sets were made up of 2 x brake 3rds, 4 comp composite and 5 comp 3rd and close coupled within sets. Mainland sets were 12 coaches - that's a lot of plastic layers to glue together!

Andy, We should keep in touch and compare progress. Maybe we should start up a new forum for anyone going down the IoW route. There seems no point in waiting for Dapol to produce an IoW variant. If the gestation period for the Terrier is anything to go by, I might not live that long! Colin

I built a couple of coaches from plastic card, push pull set 484, following the guidelines in David Jenkinsons excellent book, Carriage Modelling Made Easy - Wild Swan 1996. Don't know if this book is still available but it's well worth tracking down. It was my first attempt at 0 scale coach building and I'm quite pleased with the result. I'm current;y building the other set, 483, to run with my Terrier when I convert it to Isle of Wight configuration.

On all the photo's and plans that I've ever seen, the joint is forward of the centre drivers. I think this is an assembly fault made possible because of the 6ft x 6ft wheel spacing.

It might get a bit cumbersome if it all goes on this topic, but we all know where to find it! Provided that anyone who starts a new topic makes it known to this one and gives us a hotlink, I'm sure we'll all "follow the bear". I'm planning to convert one of mine to an Isle of Wight example, probably W3/W13 Carisbrooke as it means I can keep the Stroudley chimney and won't need to alter the sandbox arrangement. I promise I won't inflict it on anyone 'till it's done.

It's a small cicuit board - no idea what it does. DCC and everything connected with it is a mystery to me!

It is a flywheel, but it still stops dead when you shut the controller down.

Hi Kevin I had no idea but an earlier response said it was at Havant an 1937 - no reason not to believe it.

Removing the body is straightforward. Take out the 4 screws arrowed (almost hidden behind the brake rodding) and it simply lifts off.

No problems changing the rods over, the crankpins are simply screwed into the wheels. Changing took me about 10 minutes and it runs as sweet as ever.

Has anyone noticed a small QC error. I've just received my second Terrier and noticed that the coupling rods are fitted differently on each. The first had the rods correctly jointed ahead of the centre drivers, the second had the joint behind. Hopefully it should be a straightforward job to reverse the incorrect one but annoying to have to do it!