Pierview

This is my latest project which has formed part of a quite intensive GWR loco build this year. I have always liked the small prairies and have fond memories of travelling from Yeovil to Taunton behind a 4575 class loco working bunker first. I didn't really need another 45xx but I have a weakness for acquiring old white metal kits and subsequently rebuilding them to produce something useful again. This partially built kit was obtained from that well known auction site on Christmas Eve, and when it arrived a week or so later I lost no time in assessing possibilities. The body had been soldered together very neatly but the chassis was not functioning with the ridiculous K's white metal connecting rods bent. out of shape. Adopting my Mc Shrewd persona (an Iain Rice description in one of his articles) my first thought was that I could produce a cheap loco by replacing the K's motor with something better from my stock of motors. However, this was an early K's kit with wheels already mounted on their axles and removal to get at the worm wheel was therefore not an option. I replaced the errant connecting rods with steel ones fashioned from bits in my spares box, fitted the K's motor with a more secure mounting (the original builder had already done some work on this) added a new pick up assembly and got things running again. It was however very noisy and instantly took me back to struggles with K's kits in the 1970's. It was clearly incompatible with current standards and the logical thing to have done would have been to sell the whole thing on as a bad job. However, I liked the kit, which is one of K's better products in my opinion, and rather felt that a decent chassis would enhance it considerably as well as the weight of the cast body being very useful. Not a cheap exercise - no chassis construction is these days - but something that I had to do! I began by completing the body and adding some extra detail. I already had a 45xx lost wax chimney casting in stock so I fitted it. The cab front and back head had been cut away for motor clearance by a previous owner so I managed to remove it and replace it with one cut from nickel silver sheet . A cast back head with control detail will be added at a later stage, and I also cut a floor to which I added a hand brake pillar and reverser. The chassis kit was by comet. I am very familiar with these kits, having constructed at least 20 over the years, and find that they offer a very straightforward and common sense approach to chassis construction. They are basic compared to more sophisticated productions but I like them. The chassis fitted into the body with only slight adjustment, and I went on to fit Markits wheels, a High Level road runner plus gearbox and a Mashima 1420 motor. I think the kit now looks a lot better and certainly performs more smoothly! The 4575 now joins the line of recent projects awaiting the paint shop so I had better get on with things! Barry

Thanks Pete that is tremendously helpful. Many thanks to Phil as well for sharing the superb photo collection of island O2's. Barry

I have recently acquired a South Eastern Finecast O2 class kit and intend to build it as one of the island examples. I am of course aware of the IOW modifications but Is anyone aware of any other significant detail differences between the IOW engines? I have a feeling at the back of my mind that there was a difference in cab height for some O2's but I can't be sure about this. When I built my G6 using the same kit I had to heighten the cab slightly to accord with the G6 dimensions. Any information gratefully received. My chosen period is c.1961. Barry

Both 1366's now completed and running satisfactorily and here are the two little chaps waiting to be painted. The weather will have to warm up before that can happen though! Barry

My Hornby model of "Cadbury Castle" is missing its detailing pack for the brake rods etc. Can anyone help?

It's certainly a trip down memory lane revisiting some of these old kits. It makes you realise what a struggle it was to make them go and I can't say that I miss hefty brass frames and the difficulty in getting motors to mesh and stay meshed! My 57xx locos are a mixture. The two 'flat cab' ones are Bachmann examples repainted and detailed and for the 'round cab' variant I have used 3 Bachman plastic bodies on Comet chassis kits. There are 2 others from K's kits as shown. Forgive the poor quality shots which were quickly taken with my mobile phone camera. My other 57xx is a condensing tank which uses the k's bodyline kit on a re-wheeled tri-ang jinty chassis. In the foreground is 3737 which is a s/h K's kit dismantled and re-worked. It has a chassis modification to anchor the K's motor in place and stop it pivoting on the chassis spacer and disengaging. A classic bit of bad kit design! This is 4624 which is another s/h k's model, picked up for £5 and similarly dismantled and rebuilt. it sits on a Comet chassis and the middle splashers have been carefully cut out and replaced in their correct position. The Comet kit has the correct spacing but the K's kit has a slight inaccuracy and the wheel base is the same as that of the ubiquitous tri-ang jinty. As a point of interest. 3737 and 4624 double headed the Royal Train from Weymouth to Portland in 1959 on the occasion of the visit of the late Queen and the then Prince Charles to visit the naval base and take a short cruise on HMS Eagle. Barry

Excellent photos which are new to me. The building in the backgound at the ferry terminal is the Ritz Theatre. Of largely wooden construction it survived the war intact but burned to the ground in a disastrous fire in the early 1950's. The skyline behind the shot of 1367 with the up boat train was considerably changed by wartime bombing. 1367 was the longest serving member of the class at Weymouth. Barry

My workbench is a bit like Swindon Works erecting shop at the moment! A brief update on the second loco (1366) which now has the body completed in a similar manner to 1371. I am still awaiting the arrival of some bits so I can't finish the chassis at the moment but I have assembled the High Level gearbox and motor. As a fill-in project I have turned my attention to a partly assembled Keyser 4575 kit which I picked up on Christmas Eve for a very reasonable price. More on that at a later date. Barry

A bit more progress to report on the first kit (1371) which is now complete and ready for the paint shop. I think that the 1366 is one of DJH's better kits and it went together quite well, although a certain amount of fiddling was necessary to persuade the pannier tank assembly to sit neatly against the cab front. I replaced the cast smokebox door handle with a turned brass one and drilled out the chimney. I also added injector overflow pipes, fashioned from wire and lamp brackets. I notice from the photo that I have forgotten to add the spare lamp brackets, so will have to add these shortly. I didn't like the rear bunker fire iron hooks that came with the kit so made my own from wire. Surprisingly ,the kit did not include rear cab window grilles so I added these from the Mainly Trains etch. They are not exactly correct but are much better than anything I could have made. My other 1366's have each been fitted with a shunter's step and bell for Weymouth tramway working but as 1366 and 1371 were allocated elsewhere in the period I am modelling they will not receive these local additions. I have managed some work on the second loco (1366) and have assembled the cab and cylinder assemblies. The motor and gearbox arrived from High Level this morning so assembly of those items will be the next job. Barry

I've managed some work on the two 1366's during the festive break. The first one (1371) now has a working chassis with a High Level RR+ gearbox and 1020 motor. As this seemed to perform quite well I have ordered another set for the second loco (1366) . As this won't be arriving until early January together with some other bits, however, I won't be able to progress 1366 much further and will therefore move on to complete the the body for 1371 in the meantime. Barry

I like 57xx's as well but have only managed 8 to date. - which is probably enough! Barry

The quoted tractive effort of a 1366 was 16,320 lb as opposed to 14,835 for the 1361 class. The fact that 1361's stay was brief was a bit surprising as 1363 had worked the tramway 10 year's previously in 1949. However there is no doubt that trains had become heavier in the intervening years and I understand that crews considered that 1361 was not strong enough. It may have been the case of trying to find more work for 1361, which had been displaced from Laira, but sadly after leaving Weymouth it went for scrap.

Great photos Phil and thanks for sharing them. I particularly like the shot of 1367 which was recently ex-works if I recall. Note also the Cosens paddle steamer "Consul" in the background. The shot of 1369 is also of interest as beneath the grime it was still lettered "Great Western" and didn't receive the BR totem until it received a general overhaul the following year. When 1370 became the first of the class to be withdrawn it was initially replaced by 0-6-0ST 1361 but this was considered to be underpowered and was sent away again after about 6 months to be replaced by 1369. Indeed they did. WADMES was Weymouth and District Model Engineering Society. Barry

The GWR 1366 locomotives are one of my all time favourite classes. They were an everyday sight in Weymouth when I was growing up and the harbour tramway, on which they worked, ran past the bottom of the street in which we lived. It also ran past the playground of my junior school so I saw plenty of these little tanks in action in my formative years. I acquired my first DJH 1366 kit about 25 years ago and went on build 3 more so that now I have 1367,1368,1369 and 1370 which were the locomotives in use during my spotting days. All the 1366 class had spells on the tramway, however, and from time to time it occurred to me that it would be fun to complete the entire class by building 1366 and 1371, the latter being the only member of the class I didn't see. The cost of new kits plus motors and wheels was a deterrent though and I never seriously pursued the idea. A few weeks ago, however, a chance e-bay search found no less than 3 unmade 1366 kits for sale. I secured one of them after some frenzied bidding and to my surprise a short while later a 4th appeared from the same seller. I managed to win this at a lower price and as the only bidder so I was in business. I estimate that the kits date back to the early 1980's and a bonus point in their favour was that they both included Romford wheels , albeit of the old type, and MGS D11 motors. The latter are new units and quite serviceable but High Level gearboxes and motors are my preferred choice these days so the D11's will probably be sold on. As can be seen, I have made a start on both kits but work is now paused whilst I await for my first gear box and motor and balance weight and axle covers etch. With the current state of postal deliveries it could be quite some time! More to follow in the new year. Compliments of the season everyone! Barry

Thank you, John. Some of these old kits are great fun to play around with! Barry

I am interested in the use of the n20 motor which seems ideal for a small 4mm shunting loco. Can I ask what rpm motor you used Mike? Barry

I have now finished the D15 as shown. It was quite an interesting exercise in upgrading an old kit and whilst the result is far from perfect, I am quite pleased with it. There was rather more work than I had originally anticipated but I got there in the end. Now on to the next pre- Christmas project ! Barry

Thanks for the information, Bill. I hadn't realised that there was a non-standard spare boiler. However, I intend the model to be 30465 as I have a good photograph of it in 1955 with the normal dome mounted safety valves. Barry

After a couple of modelling diversions to rebuild secondhand kit built loco acquisitions, I have finally got round to tackling the Bec LSWR D15 kit that I purchased last year. I didn't see any D15's in service as the class was extinct before I started spotting, but I have always thought that the D15 was an attractive design. My interest was aroused when Bec produced their kit in the late 1970's but it was never a high priority and with the passing of time the kit disappeared from the market, never to be seen again! I was therefore delighted to be able to obtain an unmade kit on E bay last year. The Bec model is a typical 1970's kit which builds into a quite reasonable representation of the prototype whilst lacking the refinement and extra detail of more modern white metal and etched kits. I found it to be something of a curate's egg of a kit which involved a bit more work than I had originally anticipated. The kit's worst feature in my opinion is the chassis, which is a somewhat flimsy white metal assembly without brass bearings. I thought that it would inevitably give trouble, so I discarded it and purchased a set of Alan Gibson T9 mainframes which I trimmed to the dimensions of the white metal chassis and assembled using spare Comet frame spacers. Markits wheels, High Level gearbox, Mashima motor and Mainly Trains brake gear. The etched coupling rods from the kit were used to complete the job. The chassis still needs weighting at the rear to balance the heavy front end of the locomotive body. I built a Comet internal tender frame which I compensated and added to the tender. I will not go into too many construction details of the kit as I am aware that this kit has been covered on this forum by more skillful modellers than myself, but I did experience some difficulty with the boiler. After assembly for some reason the top of boiler holes for the whistle dome and chimney were off centre, and, worse, the handrail knob holes on one side of the boiler were higher than the other. I could think of no logical reason why this should be, so I made the necessary corrections. The boiler top holes were easy enough to adjust but in the case of the handrail knobs I filled in the holes on the LH side and re-drilled holes at the correct height. Not being familiar with this locomotive type I discovered at a late stage in assembly that the cab cut outs changed in Southern railway days to the much smaller design with which the class ended their days. The Bec kit portrays the original design, so I grafted in chunks of white metal cut from the redundant chassis and shaped these to resemble the later appearance. i suspect that it's not perfect but was the best that I could achieve. In their final years the class carried stove pipe chimneys, so I fitted a Markits one. The kit was designed for an XO4 type motor which intruded into the cab so no backhead was provided. I therefore cobbled up a representation from bits and pieces loosely based on the T9 cab. It is only an approximation, but I hope that with a crew masking most of it the effect will suffice. Both locomotive and tender bodies have received the usual lamp brackets plus small amounts of extra and replacement detail. Vacuum and clack pipes are from Markits. This then is progress to date. There are just a few final bits to be tackled before the paint shop beckons. Barry

Not sure. I assume that it had been sent down as a substitute for a 28xx class which usually worked the WR goods trains. It was unusual to see a 72xx and I came across it one day in the summer of 1960. If I remember correctly, it had just come off shed and was attached to a tank wagon. My snapshot is attached. Thank you for your kind words, John. I think we share an interest in rehabilitating basket case models! Barry

Anyway, for better or worse the 72xx has been completed and is now wearing BR livery as well as being re-numbered as 7208. This was one of the handful of engines of this class that I saw in service, and I still have the poor snapshot I took of it at Weymouth in 1960. It was a bit grubby on that occasion but a later photograph that I have seen of it at Swansea East Dock in 1962 shows it in much cleaner condition with the later BR crest. This is what I have tried to convey with my version. It's been quite an interesting exercise in breathing new life into an old model and has given me a Portescap motored loco at a very cheap price. My only extra costs have been for Comet cylinders and motion parts, a set of Gibson buffers, a cab back head and a set of trailing bogie wheels. I thought that would be it in terms of rescuing old kits for a while, but I have just acquired an assembled Craftsman Lord Nelson at a very reasonable price. A substantial rebuild will probably be required and I will be looking to pick up tips from DLT's current thread on the same subject. Barry

You're quite correct Mike but unfortunately this is the chimney that was fitted when I acquired the model. Ideally, I would like to have replaced it with a decent turned brass one, but I had nothing suitable in my spares box and I am not sure where a suitable one could be obtained. With the demise of so many suppliers it is becoming a very difficult business to source boiler fittings these days! Barry

After giving the loco body a detailed examination, I decided to take Hayfield's advice and not use the Dettol bath on this occasion. In the past I have stripped down many white metal kits but, almost without exception, they had been poorly made and badly painted. The 72xx , however, does not come into either of those categories. The original builder made a neat job and the paint was a smooth, thin application which did not obscure detail. It would therefore have been rather pointless to go back to basics again, so I decided to repair the damage, replace any missing bits and add a small amount of extra detail. The photos show the current state of play. Apologies for the quality as they were quick snaps using my mobile phone camera. I replaced the bunker handrails and added a couple of extra ones on the boiler near the filler caps. All the lamp brackets were replaced by ones made from office staples and I also replaced the missing vacuum pipes. Annoyingly, one of the Slaters buffer heads was missing and as I didn't have a spare, I replaced all four buffers with a Gibson set. Both front steps were missing, as was the rear LH under bunker one, but fortunately I found replacements for all 3 in my spares box. The rear step is a white metal casting almost identical to the surviving one on the RH side, whilst the front steps were cut down from a scratch-built pair I originally made for another project. No sandboxes were present on the model as acquired so I added these using a pair of castings cut from a Tri-ang 2-6-2T chassis in the early1960's and waiting for a use ever since. At last, their moment has come! I added rear window bars and a rough representation of the bunker door on the cab rear. I drilled out the chimney to a better depth and drilled the safety valve bonnet to take 4 wires to represent the valves themselves. As no backhead was present I obtained a casting from 247 developments and after painting this will be installed together with a cab floor. The hallowed Great Western lettering has been removed together with the number plates prior to "nationalisation" of the model. Barry

My latest project has come about as the result of an unplanned acquisition during the summer. The model in question is a quite neatly built white metal GWR 72xx kit (which I suspect is a k's product) with some minor damage but fitted with Romford driving wheels. Although it was described as a non-runner, I thought that at the asking price of £41 it was well worth a punt. My confidence was justified when I dismantled the model and found that the chassis was powered by a large Portescap motor. Even better, when I cleaned the small amount of rust and crud from the axles and applied leads direct to the motor it ran very smoothly indeed. Given that even SH Portescaps are currently commanding quite high prices on E-Bay, I felt that I got something of a bargain. I began the revival of the model with the chassis, and immediately decided that the white metal connecting rods had to go. However, when examining them I also discovered that they were a few MM too long, and that the slide bars and white metal piston rod were too short - presumably to compensate. I decided on replacement of the lot and purchased a Comet GWR 2-cylinder set. The new cylinders and connecting rods have now been fitted and show an improvement on the originals in my opinion. I remade the pick- up arrangements with finer wire and the beast now runs once more! The model came with white metal brake hangars and ideally, I should like to have replaced these with etched ones. Since this would have involved completely dismantling the chassis in order to drill through for the carrying wires, however, I took the easy way out by making a rough representation of the brake rods from wire and scrap brass. The overall effect is there and once painted matt black very little will be seen in any case. One of the rear driving wheels had lost its balance weight but I found a suitable replacement in my spares box. Both sets of pony truck wheels were undersized, and replacements have therefore been fitted. The next job is to move on to the body, and it seems a shame to disturb the quite neatly applied GWR green livery. However, since I model the BR era the green livery has to go, and the Dettol bath beckons soon! I hope to have news of further progress in the next few weeks. Barry

As far as I can remember the grey was a standard Humbrol tinlet. I went for a light grey that seemed the best match but after all this time I am afraid that I have no idea of the number. It seems that opinions vary but it's too late now as my wife has already bought it for my birthday! I will see how I get on in due course. Barry