The Fatadder

Sadly high level dont do a chassis for this one, only the collett and dean goods The new chassis for this will be from comet (unless HL do something in the meantime Chassis wise the collett, 57xx and 58xx are all ahead in the list

That is the plan and would be included today if I had my camera with the photos when I went to Devon Now waiting on my Eileen's order with some plastic for the boiler

While I am yet to find a photo in GW days, a lot has been written mentioning 43xx Mogals working on the Cheddar branch. My original plan was to go for the Mitchell kit, however until I am more accomplished at fabricating more complicated shapes (such as those on the tapered boiler and the firebox) As such, (and given that I have a mainline body) I've made a start on trying to improve it. The first question (that is still unanswered) is going to be which loco to model. I'd have liked to have done one of the later version with the Collett goods style cab, but while Russell implies that not all of these were fitted with the heavy weight buffer beam (and Red route availability), I would rather have something more typical. Which takes me back to the model as built. Comparing the model with the Russell (figure 266, page 106), the key dimensions appear pretty close. First thoughts was that there is not enough of a curve on the firebox, (this was an easy job to rectify with a file and some wet&dry) The missing underside of the boiler was the next area to see attention, a bit of a risky job given I realise I could be causing later issues with the chassis). I have carefully chopped the boiler off the firebox / running plate. the aim is then to add a new lower section, either from plasticard and filing to shape, or to buy a suitable diameter of plastic tube.

Its in their laser glazing range. As for the B Set, Once I decide how I am going to do it I will think about getting the glazing done (assuming Shawplan dont get it done first). I am still debating whether or not I will just make replacement sides to get the door handles correct.

Thanks, will keep an eye out for that book

Is there a list anywhere of which castles had the Hanksworth tender with G crest W branding in '47/48? I've just seen the photo of 5022 in Russell described as 1948 Condition, which got me wondering if there were any other low numbered castles that got one. My thinking being that I want the loco from Wellington Castle to use for my Nunney Castle along with the tender from my Tintagnal Castle, which leaves me a low numbered loco and a Hanksworth tender to find a use for.

Took about an hour in front of the TV to remove the original handrails, and I've probably spent about the same so far on trying to clean up the mess thats left behind, and still not quite happy with it. Going to add the missing corner pieces on the verandah and then at some point (hopefully sooner rather than later) add a coat of primer to show up exactly where more work is needed. Certainly some rivet detail has been damaged in removing the handrails, so will need to replace with Archers transfers. Fingers crossed after all this Bachmann announces a new one in their new years plans....

Going to need to model a couple of break vans for Cheddar, a topic on which I havent much research yet. To start with I have an old Bachmann 20t model The first thing to go were the moulded on hand rails, a pig of a job carefully carving with a new scalple then finishing off with a square ended blade. At the same time I removed the moulded on lamp irons, and the break shoes. The planed work: New sprung W Irons (just need to confirm which type) New hand rails, still debating which method to use, draw it up as a flat etch (and hence avoid the issue of fabricating the shape) or to solder up from brass wire. Either way the distinctive mounting brackets will be included on my next etch New break gear New lamp irons, New chimney (from brass tube) Shawplan glazing A few other details on the end I am debating about modelling the door open and including more internal detail. Its my assumption at on a hot summer's day, the guard will be wanting to try and get it as cool as possible in the van, so the window hatch and door would be open. Going to try and work out which other break van diagrams can be used on Cheddar. Hopefully I can justify a few more different versions....

If anyone is interested in renumbering or rebranding The logos came off mine without a mark after applying Microsol letting it disk for a couple of minutes and then rubbing off with a cotton bud

Chop off the NEM coupling bits, under which is a large square gap behind the headstock with plenty of room for a coupling (and spring behind it should that be your preference) Will have to start hunting for photos of at least one which survived with the earlier logo fingers crossed. Not a massive fan of the shirt button... Will need to stock up on more transfers as well, after finishing the Horsebox I now only have 2 more sets of transfers left (and a Fruit D and Siphon G awaiting paint.)

Thanks for that, So I assume for a late 40s layout the vast majority of brown stock should have the shirt button logo. Will add the new shirt button logos this afternoon.

A quick question re liverys, Would the shirt button (in the correct position) or the G W as per the 2012 release be more suitable for running in the late 40s? I have just removed the original logos from my model, planning to move it as per the photo of 546 in Russel, however before adding the new transfers (I found a sheet of HMRS transfers purchased in the mid 90s that have both versions) Still need to respray the ends and add new break shoes to replace the bits lost when I converted it to P4. Half tempted to change the number as well (certainly will do if the branding needs to change) though if it needs to keep the shirt button I will stick with 546 given thats the only photo I have found.

Thanks for confirming the worst, I had been expecting it Hopefully the post war release in the 2012 range will be more suitable, else will start looking for conversion bits

My fiancée gave me a gwr 5011 for Christmas with the request that I renunbered it to 5029 Nunney Castle, (the place where I proposed) Naturally I want to get th model accurate, and knowingbthat castles are something of a mine field, what needs changing? I am also debating changing the gw logo to the post war type o get it o fit in with the rest of my gw stock (even if it is far to big to run on cheddar

I think that would be very sensible if they intend to continue with this mix of low medium and high quality releases

Didn't Hornby come out and say with the pendolino and javelin would be lower quality train set models ? Whereas with the vep the combination of bring in the standard range and a high price gave the expectation of a quality model. Customers expectation is typically that a high price will be high quality, hence so many people feeling let down

Not tested yet, but given the Bachmann rods need work to get them fitting correctly, I figure that I may as well get something closer to scale to fit Unfortunately until I get round to spending my model budget on a Gibson order rather than being distracted and spending it on other bits (this months went on the Russell books) I can't test them

Very useful they look too Though I only found out about them after purchasing the Mitchell set, I will be using the ultrascale weights my spare set of Mitchell rods and the perseverance pony trucks on my next Bachmann conversion (assuming that this one works reliably enough that I don't buy a comet chassis for it)

While I still havent got round to placing my Gibson order for the crank pins, I have made a little more progress A couple of weeks back I found a couple of perfect components for this project from Ebay, This comprised a set of Mitchell designed conrods and balance weights from the Churchward Models kit, a set of nickel silver components (including conrods and pony trucks) from a Mitchell 44xx kit, and finally a set of Perserverance pony trucks from a 45xx. So, the balance weights are now fully fitted (to both 5512 and 4573) Much easier than my original thoughts of fabricating from plasticard! The con rods are also a huge improvement over the overscale originals, and also avoid the need to have to solder extra washers to make them fit. These are now soldered up ready for fitting once I get the crank pins. Finally the pony trucks. These are a bit of an odd design with the tab much smaller than the slot (I also cant understand why not just etch it as a fold up unit, this extra work for the sake of saving 10p's worth of metal seems a bit silly). Anyway, they have now been soldered up, fitted with 2mm ID bearings and are ready for paint. They differ slightly to the Churchward 45xx part in having the pivot mounted slightly lower. This point is of particular importance as while the etched parts pivot mount is on the top, the Bachmann part is mounted from the bottom. The plastic mount Bachmann use was removed when I rebuilt the chassis block, this means that the pivot can be mounted direct to the metal block, which conveniently mounts the new etched part in exactly the right position. The only problem is that I now need to work out how exactly I am going to attach them, I will try screwing into the block. If this doesnt work, I suspect the alternative is having a bolt through the whole chassis block. Will have a look further over the weekend, (when I also plan to get the chassis painted black). One other modification I am going to make over the weekend is to the cylinders, The Mitchell etch includes all of the cylinder parts, so I plan to use the outer bits to add the missing sections on the Bachmann cylinder. Then its back to either design work on 2220 or soldering on 4573 Bachmann behind, Mitchell in front. Wheels are only fitted to one side as it needs to be painted prior to fitting on the other wheel.

Another edit, re new tender information, and the removal of a few bits off the side.

A little further progress over lunch, I have now fitted 20thou by 10thou strips either side of the pipe cover, then covered the area in filler (Squadron white) It was then sanded back to get to the desired shape. I am really pleased with the result, and will definitely be repeating the process on my second Collett when I come to build it (assuming I go down the Bachmann/Mainline route again.) I have also fitted the High Level cast boiler lower section. It still needs a bit of filling to get the radius to match in perfectly with the rest of the boiler. I have made up a couple of lead weights to fit in the resulting gap inside the boiler (leaving enough space next to the firebox to fit a decoder.) I've updated the above with an extra photo

Having fitted extra spacers to the top of the sides, the next task was fitting the roof. For the first coach (a very late production example of the kit) the roof appears to be much thicker than the earlier production kit that I sourced for the 2nd coach. As a result of this thickness the fit is very poor. a combination of reshaping the ends curve, and thinning the outer 5mm of the roof (careful filing and scraping with a square ended knife blade) I got the roof to fit. However the rail strip was not close enough to the sides, to rectify this I fitted a length of 20thou evergreen strip the length of the side. Once glued in place filler was added to sort out any gaps, blend in the gap between sides & ends and to remove the dips in the sides (a result of the moulding process). Later today I will hopefully solder together the Ks bogies (purely as a test fit until I upgrade to a better quality casting & Bill Bedford springs. I had planed to spend my lunch break from revision today working on the other coach was let down by somehow ordering the wrong grade of brass strip from Eileens (not entirely sure how I managed to order 4mm by 0.2 when I wanted 4 by 1. Still, sure I will find a use for it and I will need to make another Eileens order sometime soon anyway to get the springie bits. Unfortunately without the reinforcing brass I cant do much more than just tidy up the mouldings for the sides. Still need to buy seats and make a sub floor, but I havent quite worked out how I am going to do it yet.

Following on from my thread here requesting details of the class, Its about time I described the work completed so far on my Collett Goods. So far the majority of effort has been spent preparing the body shell, a quick overview: This model had already been fitted with sprung buffers, which were removed to be replaced in the new buffer beams. The pipe runs down the side were removed, unfortunately this took the rivets with it so these will be replaced later on. Removal of moulded hand rails, (on one side the cabside hand rail had already been done so this had the holes filled as I am modelling 2220, which was built in the war without cab windows or handrails (though the former were added post war) Removal of bonnet top cover and top feed, the original bonnet top cover was cut down to get a flush boiler top. The lower pipework was also removed so that it can be replaced in the correct position further out on the splasher.) All buffer beam detail removed ready for a new etched buffer beam with the buffers in the correct position. Filed down the boiler bands, and smoke box door brackets to get a thinner more prototypical thickness and to get the curved moulding to be more prototypically flat. Removal of raised cab side number plates Removal of other moulded on parts Paint stripping on cab sides So far I have fitted the new top feed, and the upper section of pipe, the brass bonnet cover will not be fitted until after painting. The new upper pipe cover was made from evergreen rod, while the exposed lower pipe will be brass (or ideally copper) rod one size smaller than the plastic. this will be fabricated to shape and have a square of brass fret soldered on as the joint between the two pipes. this multi meterial approach means that the upper section is easy to glue in place, while the lower section is the right colour and is easy to bend. Once dry (probably at my next revision break), 2 lengths of 10thou by 20thou will be fitted either side of the evergreen rod, with the lower gap between the rod and the strip filled to get the correct _n_ profile, Still to do: There is a massive amount of work still to do on this project including: High Level Chassis kit Fit 247 Developments boiler back Need to research what chimney type 2220 had, I suspect cast iron given there was a war on. I think the model currently has a copper caped version so this may need changing. New steps, the moulded ones are just two thick. So far havent found anything suitable so will probably add it to my etch. New cab, one potential improvement I am considering is to etch new cab sides, both to reduce the size width and to replace lost rivet detail. Its a bit of extra work on CAD but tbh wont really add to the cost and should make quite a difference. With the cab chopped up adding interior detail will also be much easier. Tender - Still undecided on this, I really don't like the Bachmann moulding. Given that so much rivet detail is lost under the moulded on lamp irons. Having now identified that my prototype photos have a Collett 3000 gallon tender, and researched the etched options available I haven't managed to find anything suitable. So unless Bachmann improved the tender when they did the updated release (I havent found a clear photo yet but it appears to be the same) I'm a little stuck. One option I am considering is to etch the lower rivet line for retrofit and using transfers to replace the other missing rivets. Sounds a very time consuming option, particularly as I require 2 of these locos for the layout. Will keep looking and see if I can identify a Bristol allocated 22xx that has a 3500 gallon tender for the second loco I think... Edit: One extra task that has now been added is to replace the flat bar that goes from the cab to the chassis with brass. The original has been carefully removed, the plan being to fabricate the replacement from two strips of brass with a boss between them as per the prototype. the inner section will be soldered to the chassis frame. I have also been looking at the other linkage above the footplate, the wire that was originally on the model has been removed, and I will include a replacement with the correct rectangular profile/rivet detail on my etch sheet. Again if anyone can think of any other areas that the Mainline model needs to be improved please let me know, With this project (and the 57xx Pannier that will be following it in the new year) It is my intention to bring the models up to match the standard of the latest RTR / kits. A couple of photos: The planed etch for the buffer beams The model so far Edit: Another photo showing the completed work on the pipe cover and the lower boiler fitted

Should have added that you can get to parts 1 and 2 which felt with modifying the chassis and increasing the frame width by clicking on 5512 on the index to the right of the blog