Corbs

Thanks! I have signed up for an account. This isn't a huge update, but I am quite pleased with it. I got my new kit from Micron in the post yesterday and soldered something together before I realised I was probably too tired to be doing soldering. The new receiver can fit in the bunker (with a handy slot I cut in it) and I'm going to mount the switch and charging port into the body. The only thing left is the battery, which will need to go in the cab, but I should be able to hide it with some crew members.

Good job

It looks really good, but trust me, get it sanded and get some primer on it and you'll feel like finishing it. I'm always desperate to get paint on my cut and shuts as until then it looks like a combination of the component pieces. Primer reveals it as a whole loco Do it, and report back to this thread.

Stunning layout. I love the way the line weaves between the buildings.

Yes it got a bit stuck, the cylinder is only held on with black tac while I measure things up

Two things arrived in the post today, destined to be the coaching stock of the TK&F....

Since I've now committed to 'doing it properly', I've placed an order with Micron Radio Control for a USB charger, a suitable battery with connectors, and will wire it all up when those arrive. Once it's working, I'll post up a price list of what I've used so anyone can use it as a reference if you want to convert a 009 loco cheaply.

I think the Peckett looks brilliant. I love the fleet livery.

I'm pretty sure they got the idea from me. Life imitating art and all that....

Locomotive exchange - 60103 gets a holiday across the pond again and we get 4014 fresh out of overhaul? Of course all the steam sites in the UK would need to donate the coal just to run it for one season....

Mixed news. Good: Here's a demo of the inertia control on the deltang controller and receiver. Bad: Just tried to charge the battery using the charging ports from the helicopter, connected the leads the wrong way around. Whoops, it's dead now. I found some more bullets to bite, and have ordered some proper gear from Micron radio control.

Right. That helicopter post ^ is daft nonsense. Helicopters don't have up and down control. They just have up - gravity takes care of the down! However, the helicopter yielded a nice small battery. I thought, 'why not bite the bullet and try the deltang kit you have in the drawer?' I used the switch and charge socket from the remains of the car, and spliced the helicopter battery in to the deltang Rx using a bit of brass strip for now. Read the instructions carefully, it switched on! Managed to bind the transmitter and receiver together, and......

Received a suitable tender in the post today and grabbed the last bit of sunlight to pose it withe the Mikado. I think the front needs to sit down a bit more.

I may have stumbled upon the solution, found an old John Lewis RC helicopter in the cupboard. The controller has some very dead AA batteries in and it seems I have run out of them so need to buy some before I can test it. BUT it has speed control, and the battery and circuit board are smaller.

Sounds great! Some wire rationalisation later, and a hole drilled roughly where the firehole door should be, and I can fit the body on! I think in the final iteration, the small deltang transmitter will fit where the saddle tank weights were, and the battery will go in the cab.

Ah, slightly better in a more stripped down state (I don't think it could actually pull the skin off a rice pudding but the cat thinks it's very fun)

Yeah it's just a low cost test, I'll probably fit deltang gear in the end (I have most of it and it'll be easier to squeeze in) but i wanted to see if it could be done. It's just forward and reverse

I've long wanted to do a battery powered/radio control loco project, especially in 009 as I've seen so many lovely looking 009 layouts that have running issues, often it seems down to limited pickups etc. BUT this thread isn't for debating the merits of BPRC, it's to see if it can be done! I bought a Bachmann 'Skarloey' and removed all the weights inside. Then I bought one of these BPRC cars for £7.49 http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/142219241446?_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT Then I chopped and soldered some wires. Then this happened.

Rough test of the V2 valve gear and cylinders on the P2. The cylinders are just held in with black tack, the motion bracket is in a piece of plastic tube pressed on to the P2 bracket

I've more or less finished (aside from some small details) No.301 'Thomas Allen'. I must once again commend Gavin AKA Knuckles for his work on this 3D printed kit. It was very very good and I'll be ordering a FUD Furness Railway Sharpie fairly soon. The link to the kit is here: https://www.shapeways.com/product/7AM533ZSJ/lb-scr-e2-extended-tanks-body-fud?optionId=57539148 I'm a bit ham fisted so care needs to be taken with some of the smaller fittings, but the quality and attention to detail is superb. I compiled the build into a blog post.

Here's the full story of the making of NWR No. 301, hero of the Railway Series books and the subsequent TV series. I've combined all the previous blog posts into one. FACT SHEET NWR No. 301 NWR Name: Thomas Allen (Thomas Allen was a real life Manx author, my rationale is that the newly formed NWR wanted to draw on local heroes for names for its locomotives) Wheel Arrangement 0-6-0T Builder London, Brighton and South Coast Railway (1915) Class E2 Purchased by NWR 1919 History The loco that became 301 was built in 1915 as LB&SCR No.106, but was requisitioned by the war department to work on the building of National Shipyard (North) No.1 and No.2 in WW1. Originally the whole batch of extended tank versions was to be sent, but this was cancelled when an order was placed for smaller locos more suited to the port environment. ‘Thomas Allen’ had already arrived by this time! It seems the LBSCR did not want it back at the end of the war (having already built a replacement No.106), so it was sold to the NWR. Apparently the LBSCR thought that it would be in such a state when they got it back that they would effectively be building a new one anyway! FULL BUILD THREAD BELOW Unsure why I've been putting this one off for a while. It's one I would quite like to get 'right' in this interpretation of fictional locomotives from children's stories. Anyway, ebay provided me with an old Hornby LBSCR E2 loco a while back, complete with tiny flanges, jerky running, a mismatched smokebox door, and of course, traction bands. After reading about another chap's 'rebuild' of a similar model, I trawled ebay again for a china-made Hornby 0-6-0 chassis. Of course, this wasn't really all that hard, with a model aimed at children. I imagine quite a lot end up like this! Perhaps rather oddly, this is in fact the first 'Thomas' I've ever owned, although I did have a clockwork 'Percy' a long, long time ago. 2009-made so relatively new, am yet to check the running, but firstly, off with that rather play-worn body. The two chassis side by side. And trial fitted under the intended recipient. Tank extensions need to be added to bring this one into line with the 2nd batch of locos. This chassis also has the effect of lowering the bodyshell somewhat. Total spend so far, about £25.... At last we come to the titular character of the television show, and the big star of the books. I've previously mentioned I salvaged an old Hornby E2 body to butcher into one of the later LBSCR E2 locos, on a china-made 'Thomas' chassis. Since I wished to make a good job of this, I wanted to get my eye in on some other locos first, so I've ended up with 106 'Perseus', 503 'Col. Henry Regaby', 704 'Duke of Gordon', 705 'Westlin' and 805 'Suddery Cathedral', before 301 'Thomas Allen'. In the meantime, Knuckles had started up Sparkshot Custom Creations, making amazingly accurate 3D printed locos, including the E2 with the larger tanks. It was clear that this was the way to go! I finally bit the bullet last week and ordered one of the proper E2 bodies in FUD, which arrived yesterday. Unwrapped it to have a look - I had no idea 3D printed models smelled like marzipan! The detail is exquisite. Here's the body alongside the chassis and the older E2 body. When you compare them it's evident where Hornby adjusted the dimensions - stretching the running plate up, and the body shorter. As it is, the underside of the boiler fouls the chassis block somewhat. While SCC makes chassis kits, I wanted to stick with the Hornby one, for a few reasons. 1. I already had it 2. It's cheap 3. I am scared I got the old razor saw out and managed to hack a chunk out of the chassis This allows the body to come down a bit. Now, it is prevented from becoming level as I need to remove material from either the underside of the body, or the top of the chassis. I'm tempted to strip down the chassis to its bare bones, take it to the workshop along with the P2 I'm working on, and use the grinder to chop the sections out. Possibly it may be easier to chop a section out of the body, but I am wary of weakening it too much. Here it is posed along with the 'Thomas'-derived 0-6-2T NCB loco I made a while back, from the loco that donated its chassis to this project. Exciting stuff! As previously mentioned, I'm using the Hornby China-made 'Thomas' chassis for this, partly as it's such a good runner. As the excellent body from SCC is designed to fit a printed chassis of the correct dimensions, a bit of modification was necessary. Even with the chunk of chassis removed, the body sat very high. Today I opted to chop a chunk out from under the smokebox, where it will be hidden. Overall this enabled me to get the body level, but it was still quite tall, as evidenced when placed alongside the vintage E2. Note the difference in buffer beam height (and please look past where I've clumsily broken one of the front steps!) It towers over the suburban carriage in this pic. It becomes evident why Hornby chose to stretch the curve in the running plate in the way they did. However, Gavin has handily made the cab floor nice and thick (very strong), so after switching the dremel head to a sander I was able to reduce the height at the rear. Chopped a bit more out of the front, too. Getting closer... I am satisfied with this - note the buffer beam heights compared to the earlier photo. Now I just need to finalise the body fixing, clean up the underside, then the fun part can begin! Bonus couple of pics of 301 coupled up to 106. Quite a size difference! Made a bit of progress on No.301 (apart from dropping it and snapping the steps off - aaargh clumsiness strikes again!). The frosted-ness of FUD makes it quite hard to see what you are sanding, so after a good scrubbing (as per Knuckles' tutorials) I gave it a couple of splats of my favourite filler primer and left to dry overnight. Hopefully this shows there is not too much sanding to be done, and also shows the fidelity of the 3D printed model far more than the 'bare bones' look. I love having proper liveries on my freelance railway, and by proper I mean having a set style that works across all the locos and stock. It's always great parking up two engines side by side and having them obviously belong to the same company, albeit fictional! Both No.301 and No.5 are in the initial paint stages while detailing still needs to be carried out. Final stages of primer here Then Vauxhall Regatta Blue as per the other NWR stock, with brushed on black details. A size comparison between Thomas and Percy, Thomas is one of the best runners in the fleet, very smooth and powerful. Not bad for a childrens loco chassis. I really don't like doing lining but I quite like how this came out. Needs some Klear to seal it in before I can add the dullcote.

Thats such a shame to hear you've got problems with it. They look so lovely.

Thanks John and Giles! I have to admit I did buy a Bachmann Skarloey after joining NGRM. Who knows, maybe the inhabitants of Brookford will crop up in unusual places in the future....

Forgot to add - I'll try and get an episode out every Tuesday until the completion of 'The Party', then we have some more stories in the pipeline, some of which may not have been featured online before

Thank you! Since the two tank engines are near completion, my attention has turned back to the P2/4 'what if' project. I finally summoned up the courage to glue Graeme's smokebox and frame extensions to the 'Tornado' bodyshell. Then, some blending, filling, sanding, filler primer and finally black.