Blog- N-Gauge LMS Layout - A Tender Behind- or Basic Imporvements to Farish Fowler tenders (Stage1)

[RSS Fetcher]

As mention in a previous entry I have started some work on improving the appearance of the "stretched" Fowler tenders on my fleet of Farish 4F's. The aim for this is to produce some basic improvements that do not require either a complete rebuild with a scale tender or shortening of the existing one the relevant amount.

 

My reasons for this are as follows

 

1., Like most things I do, as soon as I have started on a project they are announced RTR (so I can see scale Fowler tenders becoming available once the new 4F is released). I cant be the only one this happens to on a regular basis, I'm sure my modelling bench is bugged.

 

2. We N gaugers have put up with the oversize tender for years so its almost accepted (I can hear the cries of outrage now), I can almost ignore the length but the almost flat filled to the brim coal load and the position of the ventilators has annoyed me for years. I like my tenders to look as individual as the locos, I mean we re-number and detail or engines then weather them, just for most to be ruined by having exactly the same amount of coal....hhhhhmmmmmmmmm

 

3. There may be a remote chance of me looking at DCC and so would rather spend the money on chips, or more likely would rather just save the chip money and buy more DC loco's, tough decisions or what?

 

Anyway the first step was to pluck up the courage to drill out the existing tenders, picture of the annoyance

 

 

 

once the original coal loads had gone its a simple task with a file to smooth the sides flat and thin a little, once I got going I found this quite relaxing, I must be mad

 

Once this was completed a little research gave me the rough level of the water tank, so I could then work out where to fit the plastic formers that would eventually hold the new somewhat depleted coal loads.

 

 

 

I know some of you may think these levels are too low and the space left for the water tank may be too small, but when the coal loads finally go in tey will be on shaped formers and so I may be able to hide the potential mistake. I visited the NRM yesterday to look at a fowler tender but got some very strange looks when I was trying to work out the dimensions.

 

Well there you go with the progress so far plus you can also see the poor weathering on the fleet so far, I think they need to be a little dirtier, in my next entry on the progress of this improvement I will look to the re-positioning of the ventilators and the fixing of the tender cross brace/fire iron rack. Then all I have to do is add crews to them all, and vac pipes, glass in the windows, coupling hooks...............what have I started??

 

As ever Happy Modelling

 

View the full article