Hornby M7 Questions and Variations (Was Chassis)

[John M Upton]

Hello

 

From a numerous pile of parts I have been through a bit of Frankensteining, putting together a Hornby M7, this being the variant minus wing plates (carved down to the correct profile) plus curved wheel arches (swapped over from an already heavily caniballised body shell which was the only model so far produced by Hornby with these) and the result after much cursing and swearing was uttered applying the lining is this:

 

 

Unfortunately when I started to look through the chassis and bits thereof I have in my parts bin I discovered they are all of the long frame variant.  So here is the question, can a Hornby long frame M7 chassis be converted into a short frame one? 

 

Edited July 20, 2014 by John M Upton

[34theletterbetweenB&D]

Offered as encouragement, because I don't have direct experience of having done it. 

 

By looking at the chassis of a long frame model, I cannot see a reason why it should not be readily modified to fit in a short frame model. Cutting off however many millimetres are required from the forward extension of the chassis block is I should think going to remove the front body screw location. But if the rear body screw location is still in place, that one alone will hold body to chassis for all normal handling purposes.

[bbishop]

John,

 

377 is a long frame M7, without wing plates and the sand containers below the running plate.

 

Bill

[Horsetan]

Is that a 94xx I see in the background?

[John M Upton]

Looks like I wrote down the wrong number. Some renumbering is now in order!!!

 

And yes that is a 94xx in the background, an old Graham Farish OO scale cast metal bidy I found in box of bits. Stripped it down and treated it to a respray and am going to try fitting it to a chassis at some point.

 

After I have sorted out the M7 booboo though...

[John M Upton]

Well following that embarrassment the Depot Manager has handed the sign writer a Form 1 and told him to go and do it again....

Next to attach a whistle and then get hacking at the chassis bits - Eeeekkk!

[John M Upton]

Just an update for you.  I shortened the chassis through the delft application of a precision instrument (all right then, a hacksaw) and also had to remove the plastic tube on the front underside where the screw normally goes in and voila, it fitted.

 

 

Nice little project, I am getting into Frankensteining quite a bit and would like to do a long frame wingless below the plate sand box version but Hornby only produced one model with the round splashers and its a little scarce.  The round splashers for this one came from a already heavily cannibalised body I bought by chance for a fiver earlier this year on the 'it might come in useful' principle.

 

30321 joins my previous M7 bash project which was plain black short framer 30243 with BRITISH RAILWAYS lettering also put together from bits and bobs scrounged from Ebay and other sources:

 

 

[P.S.  If anyone has a set of Hornby M7 round splashers lurking in their bits box that they don't want, send me a PM and we could either swap for some of the bits in my parts bin or indeed some cash could change hands]

[John M Upton]

Okay, I have renamed the topic to reflect further now non chassis related M7 questions.  Buying that Book of the M7's is proving addictive and expensive!!

 

Looking at the oddball of the M7's 126 with the super heated boiler I am wondering if the boiler and fittings from a Hornby T9 could be adapted and then fitted to a hacked about M7 to try and recreate this variant?  I know it was withdrawn before the war (despite the normally excellent SEMG site saying it was withdrawn in 1963 with BR number 30126!!!) but I fancy having a go at it and modelling it in BR lined black as if it had survived to the end of BR M7 operation.

[Guest Belgian]

Okay, I have renamed the topic to reflect further now non chassis related M7 questions.  Buying that Book of the M7's is proving addictive and expensive!!

 

Looking at the oddball of the M7's 126 with the super heated boiler I am wondering if the boiler and fittings from a Hornby T9 could be adapted and then fitted to a hacked about M7 to try and recreate this variant?  I know it was withdrawn before the war (despite the normally excellent SEMG site saying it was withdrawn in 1963 with BR number 30126!!!) but I fancy having a go at it and modelling it in BR lined black as if it had survived to the end of BR M7 operation.

The rebuilt/superheated M7 had more in common with the forthcoming 700 goods as they both had one foot shorter fireboxes than the T9 and the boiler was pitched higher than the T9s as well. The only visible result of this higher pitch is that the chimney was shorter so a T9 one would look a little out of kilter if used.

 

I know, I tried to 'do' a superheated M7 once, from a Wills kit. The worst bit of a conversion is raising the cab height and the different arc of the cab roof.

 

Jeremy English

[John M Upton]

Early days for the 126 project but I have removed the boiler from a Hornby M7 and put in its place a stripped down boiler from a Hornby T9:

Looks the part so far at this first test but there is still much to do including shortening the boiler and changing the funnel.  Any suggestions for the latter?

Edited September 10, 2014 by John M Upton

[34theletterbetweenB&D]

Fine bashing project, even if the subject looks all wrong! Wasn't this the M7 variant that was found to be unstable?

[bbishop]

Yes, after running amok, it had to be committed to Bethlem Royal Hospital.

 

Bill

[Guest Belgian]

Early days for the 126 project but I have removed the boiler from a Hornby M7 and put in its place a stripped down boiler from a Hornby T9:

P1050162.JPG

Looks the part so far at this first test but there is still much to do including shortening the boiler and changing the funnel.  Any suggestions for the latter?

I think the chimney (funnel - a lovely word!) that used to be supplied for the Wills T9 kit is a little shorter than the Hornby one. You can probably get one from South eastern models who took over the Wills kits.

 

Of course, if money is no object (!), the forthcoming Hornby 700 has both the correct boiler and correct pitch for the M7 rebuild - and thus the correct chimney height. The M7 is really a tank version of the 700 with its rear drivers removed and a bogie to replace it (they are identical from the front to the crank axle) and putting M7 side tanks on a 700 might be a simple job, although, of course, we haven't yet seen a 700 model to take apart!

 

JE

[John M Upton]

As it seems Hornby will probably never do some of the variants, its been swapsies time again.  The round splashers from the only model issued as such has been swapped onto a long frame model to produce a wingless, round splashered long under frame push pull fitted 30378:

 

 

The Push-Pull apparatus was fitted quite late in 30378's career apparently (there is a photo of it with said equipment at Haywards Heath of all places on Flickr) and the choice of number was influenced by whoever posted that glorious You Tube video of Guildford Station and Shed a few weeks back on here which shows 30378 at work and therefore qualifies for my line as it must have been to Horsham at some point.

 

Of course now I have a short framed loco with the sand box splashers from the donor for 30378 so tonight its the tedious job of applying the lining transfers again!!!

[John M Upton]

The reboilered M7 126 has been a long term project cobbled together from bits mostly sourced from stripped demics but at last it has reached the stage where there is something to see:

 

 

After a lot of trial and error (mostly error!) it has now reached this stage where there is still much to do with filling, filing and sanding before it is ready for final assembly and painting.

 

The boiler is not quite right, it's still the T9 boiler as opposed to the very similar 700 type but for this mash up it is visually close enough for me.  The cab proved a lot trickier than I had thought it would, in the end I had to completely cut out the cab sides, wrecking them in the process, and then splice in cab sides recovered from my big box of stripped demics set higher up as the whole upper cab assembly was raised up on 126 due to the higher mounted boiler.  The front and rear cab faces were also raised by the same amount.

 

Lots of filler still to be sanded down and probably refilled again but it is at last getting somewhere!

Edited August 21, 2016 by John M Upton

[John M Upton]

...and in case you were wondering what a box of demic M7's looks like....

Edited August 21, 2016 by John M Upton

[DCB]

What happened to the Farish 94XX.  I have one on a Triang Hornby chassis with Romford wheels rebuilt 30 years ago which usually works as my passenger pilot and is waiting to be retired as it is much too narrow the 94XX is a massive beast in the flesh.  

[rogerzilla]

I've just acquired an old Hornby M7 from eBay which someone has painted (quite nicely) in matt black with "Southern" sunshine lettering.  I cleaned up the X04 motor and fitted a neodymium magnet and it runs quite nicely, although it's pretty noisy.  The only real issue I have with it is that the rear bogie isn't a "proper" bogie (like most railway models) and the rear of the body swings out to a ridiculous extent on curves, hitting things that even the front of an LMS Duchess avoids!  Has anyone managed to modify the pivot point?

[SRman]

I've just acquired an old Hornby M7 from eBay which someone has painted (quite nicely) in matt black with "Southern" sunshine lettering.  I cleaned up the X04 motor and fitted a neodymium magnet and it runs quite nicely, although it's pretty noisy.  The only real issue I have with it is that the rear bogie isn't a "proper" bogie (like most railway models) and the rear of the body swings out to a ridiculous extent on curves, hitting things that even the front of an LMS Duchess avoids!  Has anyone managed to modify the pivot point?

 

I can't answer your question re the pivot point - I would think that it would be a major re-engineering project - but the noise level can be reduced if you pack the body with something to deaden the amplifying effect the hollow body has. I used to use a heap of Plasticene, which had the added benefit of adding some useful weight.