97xx

Thanks very much for the encouragement. The Weir Pump was a brass casting from Branchlines. This shows what I've added: anything brass = not from kit...! When I originally built it, the handrail had three knobs, but prototypical for 9707 was four per tank. The cab door handrails are oversize - the one bit of detailing I left for posterity from my build 40+ years ago. On reflection, I could and should have done the tank vents 'correctly' - perhaps a piece of twin and earth conductor, folded, soldered to shape as round vent, then curved out to each tank.

I'm in the process of rebuilding an old K's kit and want to put in a decent motor, gearbox and flywheel. K's motor has lots of play and runs average only at slow speed. Back to the hobby during lockdown and I see the likes of Mashima have gone away (I've one ready for a to-be-built 61xx). I have looked at Markits offerings, but am keen to see what's available. Couldn't find an up to date listing here, so hope you all don't mind me asking the question: "Who and where supply good quality motors, gearboxes and mounts etc. for 00 gauge?" I think specifically I would go for something along the lines of: 1. 38:1 or more 2. Horizontal motor about 23-25mm above axle centre 3. Double-ended so can fit flywheel 4. Will drive rear axle, so not too constrained on how far forward motor goes I'd prefer stuff that isn't Chinese - although critical of the K's motor, it did last 40 years and I don't want to rebuild it all again in my lifetime... If I have to I can and will build a gearbox using gears, layshafts etc, but would prefer not to, as the model isn't good enough to justify that outlay in time, imo. Thanks.

No turning back now! Perhaps I should Blog the whole process...?

Useful to know - thanks. From your experiences is the SEF chassis likely to fit the K's body without a lot of effort? Given it's £90+ (and I assume excluding wheels and motor?) this makes it a very expensive proposition, given the pretty poor standard of the body - I need to judge whether it's worth investing too much in a good chassis. I'm not inclined to reuse the existing wheels, so a compromise would be re-wheel, plunger pickups, plus a motor that I can engineer to fit. Would welcome any suggestions! Thanks.

Somewhat buoyed by my relative success in turning the K's 97xx into something acceptable, I've decided to try to repeat with the considerably nastier Bulleid Q1... Truly terrible kit. Motor sort of works, but think I will replace - so any suggestions for what might fit most welcome. Tender is (was before I split it back up) square, yet axle holes were not opposite each other! It appears I did install an additional pick up in the tender - with spring pickups stuck to tender roof! I suppose this qualifies for the 'before' picture! Something of a challenge...

I had originally modelled it 40+ years ago as 9705 - for no reason I recall - perhaps those were the only brass plates one could get back then for a 97xx. When I rebuilt it, I went for one that I could find pictures to work from, and also therefore where the rough positions of things like toolboxes etc. matched the castings. The K's kit included white metal plates for 9710, but that engine had no RH toolbox so far as I can see from pictures, so hence I went for 9707. Yes, 9707 did carry at least early BR livery - see below. Others that definitely did at least carry early BR crest were as follows, with (L) denoting late crest where I have evidence: 9700, 9701,9702(L), 9704, 9706, 9707, 9710(L). I have a picture of 9703 still sporting GWR on sides in 1955.

Thanks for the positive feedback - looks like the milling machine beckons then! I did contemplate rewheeling the chassis, but given the non-prototypical wheelbase of the HD block for a pannier, plus need to custom make rods to suit, going the whole hog with decent wheels and motor/gearing seemed a better step if body was good enough.

I've just returned to the hobby after a 40-year or so break, and made my first forays into weathering. I initially tried (my wife's...) Rowney pastels, and did as others do it seems by scraping or sanding off some fine powder. They seem very good. See the Iron Mink below which pre-COVID was pristine (and without lettering) and now is a bit tattier - all with pastels and a bit of Railmatch underframe dirt airbrushed. I have just redone a 97xx and thought I'd invest in a DCC Concepts weathering set. I have to say I didn't find it offered any advantage over the pastels. It doesn't seem as fine as I would have thought. Works OK, but was a little surprised as it was marketed as super fine etc.

I have posted this elsewhere (in whitemetal kits for Dublo chassis) but as it hits this spot too, reposted here... With the lockdown I have returned to my collection of predominantly Dublo/Wrenn which is all boxed awaiting the moment (next house...) when I get to build the layout. I came across a K's 97xx Bodyline kit I made when I was about 14. Anyone who has done one knows the protruding chassis, ill-fitting parts and misaligned rivet detail. Inadvertently I managed to mask for of that with three layers of paint - red primer, gloss black then later matt! It had cracked along most joints - think it must have been cyano'd. So, into the paint stripper - which left me with the kit as pristine as ever, albeit glaring how rough it was. No return so, reassembled, milled the chassis to fit properly, added brass detail, painted and weathered, trying to make it resemble 9707 which the Bodyline kit is fairly close to in terms of toolbox positions, etc. Quite pleased given a first effort for umm, xx years... Was considering making a decent chassis, but wasn't sure whether the model justified it, but bouyed by some positive comments, may well consider it. After all, diary looks fairly free for at least next three weeks...

Pleased to report that the problem is solved. It was the insulating bush - which seem very hard to source as a spare as, yes, would have been an easy fix. Epoxied a lining on the insulating sleeve, and reamed out to 4.5mm then pressed bush back in. New choke and cap, rewired given state of wiring, remagnetized and all is well. Runs at ca. 300mA. Will need to keep a watch on it as I suspect this is a delicate fix. At least if it fails it's not the armature that's going up in smoke. Thanks for advice all.

The plot thickens. Might not be armature at all... Just found out that there is a dead short between the brush bushes. The 'insulated' one is dead short to casing, so the insulator is defective. It appears in perfect unbroken condition, but with the brass brush bush reinserted dead short again. On inspection with the probe of a multimeter, I can detect what must be a crack/thin spot where it shorts. So, have 'lined' it with epoxy and tomorrow will ream it out enough to press brush bush back in. If that fails, might try layers of heatshrink on bush to create interference fit. If that fails, will try to machine up one from delrin/paxolin.

It might be worth making a decent chassis for it, I agree. I did consider simply rewheeling it (so having fully flanged wheels) but the odd wheelbase meant custom coupling rods and so the task snowballed. The right answer is a scratch chassis, which I'm happy to do, but wasn't sure whether the quality of the kit justified it. Here is the almost-finished article - i'd be interested in opinion on my return to modelling after a verrrrry long time...

Thanks both. I may well measure more carefully now that I see the config of the windings.. Unfortunately I have never run it so have no datum. My many other Ringfields are fine and the entirely encapsulated nature of this one supports Ray's suggestion that it has succumbed to overheating. Perhaps I'll try rewinding it myself....

Prompted by the lockdown, I have taken the opportunity to revisit my Dublo collection and since they haven't turned a wheel for 40 years decided a bit of a service was in order before I admire them. The 0-6-0 shunter has a problem: no sign of movement and draws excessive current (i.e. well over 1A if I let it). I bought this about 20 years ago, and have never run it. Long story: want to build a layout, but probably has to be in next house, so have collected meanwhile. Dismantled it and no apparent fault, but then measured the armature resistance (with it out of engine so no other factors like brushes, shorts, etc in play) and getting 6.5 ohms across adjacent pairs. Clearly this is too low and suggests to me insulation has given up the ghost. I'd expect more like 30 ohms. Can someone give me some guidance, and/or confirm my fear that the armature is toast? Thanks.

Just joined this rather excellent forum, prompted by the dreaded lockdown and time to revisit some of my collection. Relevant to this was my rediscovering a very ill-fitting and poorly-made 97xx condensing pannier K'd 'bodyline' white metal kit which fitted the R1 chassis as mentioned. Although it was a pretty terrible kit - the chassis protruding through the buffer beam by well over 1/4", poor alignment of rivets between parts and pretty coarse detail. The body had started to crack along the joins, and the paint job was one I obviously rattle-canned when I made this at age 14. So, the whole body went in the paint stripper, it all (a) fell to constituent pieces, and (b) all the paint came off (revealing gloss black under the matt so no wonder the rivet detail was a bit poor!). Just today finished rebuilding it, attempting to detail it, repainting, and weathering. As someone who hasn't really touched railway modelling for 30 years plus, I'm reasonably happy with how it has turned out. So, apologies but long answer confirming the K's 97xx bodyline on HD 0-6-0 R1 chassis.