Show us your Pugbashes, Nellieboshes, Desmondifications, Jintysteins

[BG John]

       I've been playing around with a Hornby Caley pug ........

 

    Has any body worked out a way of holding the motor in place with out that spring and side plates it hooks on?

 

    If one could dispense with that it would open up all sorts of possibility's to chop it all around. 

I've been wondering that too. It's one of the things that really spoils the appearance. Along with those horrible connecting rods. I asked about them some posts back, didn't get an answer.

 

So:

1) How can we get rid of the horrible motor mounting spring?

 

2) What can be done to improve the horrible connecting rods, and fitting proper slidebars and crossheads?

[sparks]

This is a scratchbuild rather than a modified RTR loco, but it still comes under the 'wierd and wonderful' category, perhaps. This was scratchbuilt by Brian Clarke many years ago and is currently in my care. Officially named 'Dictu Prince', we always used to call it 'Dictu Titty'. It runs superbly, however, as you might expect of a Brian Clarke loco.

 

IMG_0555.JPG

Is this one of the Bagnall locos for the Wotton Tramway?

[kes]

I've been wondering that too. It's one of the things that really spoils the appearance. Along with those horrible connecting rods. I asked about them some posts back, didn't get an answer.

 

So:

1) How can we get rid of the horrible motor mounting spring?

 

2) What can be done to improve the horrible connecting rods, and fitting proper slidebars and crossheads?

Hi - for valve gear and cylinders try Peters Spares from the web - all sorts of Hornby and Bachmann cylinders and valve gear for £3.50 upwards. Usual disclaimer - satisfied customer!  Kev.

[Londontram]

A friend sent me a PM  last night and suggested bathroom silicon to stick the motor in place. on refection I've seen this done but have no idea how effective it is, any one tried it?

 

BG John I've sent you a PM

 

                                  Steve

Edited March 5, 2017 by Londontram

[Huw Griffiths]

A few years ago the 009 society had a competition where people built 'pugbashes' as its so close to 009's roots. In fact a lot of the creations that appear here are from that competition.

Similar fare often features in other scales /gauges as well.

 

The 7mm NGA magazine (and "spin off" beginners' guides) often features similar conversions - typically using various "flavours" of Hornby 0-4-0, "Bill & Ben", Bachmann "Junior", or old (very basic and hopefully cheap) Jouef locos as donor models. At this point I should perhaps mention the late Howard ES Clarke and his "yellow perils".

 

Meanwhile, a number of US websites feature similar "Frankenlok" style conversions of (usually) Diesel switchers - generally referred to as "critters" - a typical donor model being a (supposedly) HO scale Plymouth DDT or MDT switcher, sold by a number of manufacturers over the years. The key to the popularity of this conversion is that this model is very similar in size (and shape) to certain designs of Plymouth in On30. This is reputed to have been a key factor in the appearance of the "On30 Conspiracy".

 

Ultimately, there's lots of scope for conversions like these - in a wide range of scales and gauges - and they can be as easy or as difficult as you want. This is why I reckon they could be an excellent introduction to model making for people new to the hobby - and a rather good "skill builder" for more experienced modellers (and for people like me, who aren't really sure where we stand!).

 

I think they're great.

 

 

Huw.

[BG John]

A friend sent me a PM  last night and suggested bathroom silicon to stick the motor in place. on refection I've seen this done but have no idea how effective it is, any one tried it?

 

BG John I've sent you a PM

 

                                  Steve

Got it, and sent a rambling reply!

Hi - for valve gear and cylinders try Peters Spares from the web - all sorts of Hornby and Bachmann cylinders and valve gear for £3.50 upwards. Usual disclaimer - satisfied customer!  Kev.

I've had a look at Peters Spares, but there's so much variety I didn't know where to start! I'll have to look again.

[BG John]

Here's my P4 broad gauge one. I don't think it looks very good, so I want to rebuild it. The body isn't far off drawings of the South Devon Railway dock tanks, so I'm hoping to make it as near to one of them as possible.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited December 18, 2022 by BG John

[pete_mcfarlane]

A friend sent me a PM  last night and suggested bathroom silicon to stick the motor in place. on refection I've seen this done but have no idea how effective it is, any one tried it?

Yes, I've done it on most of my kit built locos. As well as holding the motor in place, it acts as a resilient cushion so you get less motor noise. A less high-tech solution is to use blutak to hold the motor. 

[Corbs]

My favourite temporary fix is black tac. A bit more tactile than blutac, you can get it on ebay. It's more easily hidden as it's black. Quite a few of my loco bodies are held on this way during construction

[47137]

The best thread I've read on the RMWeb for ages, thank you so much for starting it. I bought a Nellie body at a swapmeet this morning, to be shortened to make some kind of Sn2 engine on a Kato 103 chassis. I first thought about this project most of 5 years ago, and there is masses of inspiration here.

 

- Richard.

 

Edit: Actually, the Graham Farish "Hall" chassis (minus pony truck) looks a better bet for ng in the larger scale.

Edited March 5, 2017 by 47137

[Steamport Southport]

Isn't there some sort of organisation to stop all this cruelty?             

 

 

 

 

Jason

[BG John]

Isn't there some sort of organisation to stop all this cruelty?           

 

 

 

 

Jason

I think we're putting them out of their misery, by turning them into something better .

Edited March 6, 2017 by BG John

[Huw Griffiths]

Isn't there some sort of organisation to stop all this cruelty?           

 

I think we're putting them out of their misery, but turning them into something better .

 

As they put it in "Hot Fuzz": "Bonum commune communitatis".

 

(Apparently, it's supposed to mean something along the lines of "common good of the community". Yes. Right. Whatever.)

 

 

Since I never did Latin in school, I'll just point out that all this "bashing" is "for the greater good".

 

 

Huw.

Edited March 6, 2017 by Huw Griffiths

[rockershovel]

Just picked up the reply to my post, about the "original" Percy being a pugbash-of-sorts.

 

Errors on Wikipedia? Who knew? Hence my reservation, expressed about the accuracy of the information.... Wikipedia is a great starting point, and a good place to find out things about little known subjects, but its lack of review and editing is a definite weakness. The constant, often unadmitted, editing of entries about almost any public figure, frequently by vested interests, sums it up..

 

However.... this thread appears to have expanded the definition of "Pugbash" from its original definition of a model derived from the Airfix L&Y body, to include any model which incorporates any part of almost any small industrial 0-4-0, of any origin, in almost any gauge or scale. So, on that basis, I'd say that the Rev Awdry's models are among the earliest published example of the genre, even if it doesn't use the term. I seem to remember that the Craig and Mertonford layout included at least one loco (Roderick? Ian?) consisting of an adapted HO body on a 9mm gauge chassis, and I'm sure the book includes a picture of a short-lived experimental re-gauged TT scale Jinty?

Edited March 6, 2017 by rockershovel

[Corbs]

Here's a braw wee pugbash for a Tuesday.

 

This one is from Rushby's Railways

http://rushbys-railways.blogspot.co.uk/2010_05_01_archive.html

 

[Dave John]

Aye, very nice. A bit of lining makes a big difference. 

[Daddyman]

Does this count? I really did try to use the Hornby pug, honest! And in fact I'll use the smokebox door and maybe even the safety valve cover. 

 

 

[Corbs]

Another view of Ted Polet's Jintybashes, lined up on Isle Ornsay

[PatB]

I remember an article in RM in the late 70s in whiich P D Hancock described the latest C&M motive power, which was a recabbed Lima N diesel shunter. It looked pretty good but apparently had poor (perhaps non-existent) low speed capability. Mind you, I suspect that P D was probably still using old style resistance controllers so maybe such a loco would be a bit easier to tame these days.

[BG John]

I wonder what I could do with this little lot. I've got ideas for some of them, but not all. Yet .

 

[Northroader]

In the budget today, didn't the Chancellor put a limit on the number of pugs that can be bought, due to uncontrollable demand?

[lanchester]

Yes definitely.

 

One of mine this morning, this was bashing an unused Hornby 'Thomas' which had donated its chassis to my E2 project, and combining it with the chassis from a Bachmann Junior and a BR 4MT pony truck to make something reminiscent of the Lambton tanks, with a bit of 50550 bunker.

 

The only thing I regret on this loco is removing the splashers and not converting it to a straight running plate.

 

 

I wouldn't worry about the raised running plate - looks like just the sort of thing Major Tommy Lawson, Works Manager at Philadelphia, would have done - he was often trying to give old engines a modern image. (I remember him very slightly in his retirement: he modelled or more accurately engineered in as far as I can remember, from Gauge 1 to perhaps 5 inch. I visited him a couple of times with my father, as my own grandfather, Winston Tulip, like his father Samuel before him, was CE of the Lambton Collieries and then for NCB, so we kept in touch).

 

Tommy Lawson's 'pannier tank' conversion/restyling/rebuild, complete with fake Belpaire firebox (see Mountford for a pic, but my books are in store) gives I think prototype permission for almost any strange-looking 'bash'. If anyone out thee can post a pic you will see what I mean!

[Corbs]

Thanks! That's really interesting, I've been fascinated by the Lambton lines. I recently read an online article about the letters your grandfather/great grandfather sent and how they give an insight into the workings of the railway.

 

Is this the pannier tank you mean?

[BG John]

In the budget today, didn't the Chancellor put a limit on the number of pugs that can be bought, due to uncontrollable demand?

The government rarely introduce retrospective taxes, so I should be OK. The blue CR pug arrived yesterday, but all the others have been bought over the last couple of years!

[relaxinghobby]

 

Back to pugs

 

The Hornby Caley Pug

Where you as shocked as I was when you discovered that the model is a stretched version and it’s length is a good 8 to 12 mm over long. I suppose it was originally to get a great big X04 motor in, the technology of the day. So how to turn it into a scale model and cut out a middle section.

 

 

 

The green body is now cut down, about 9 mm taken out of the tank a bit more from the middle of the metal of the cast footplate. This is nice and heavy so I wanted to keep it. In this shortened shape it looks much more chubby and smaller and definitely cuter.

 

The motorised chassis is from the Bachmann Percy saddle tank, a freelance one based on the artist's impression of Thomas' mate Percy in the book but it's not Percy.

 

 

The wheelbase is a bit too long at 30mm and the wheels are oversize for the Caley pug and the cylinders are a bit wide and could foul platform edges. So I went one stage further and got a Branchlines chassis kit. Just two side and the ends soldered together here, it roles well so I might go ahead and finish it. the kit includes cylinders and valve gear.