RMweb Gold Zero Gravitas Posted July 13, 2014 RMweb Gold Share Posted July 13, 2014 Look what I found when going through some old stuff today. It's an old K's Siphon F kit, which I originally put together in about 1977. Most of the original kit is there - but it's missing buffers and the sideframe from one of the bogies (9ft American Pattern). I've decided I'm going to make it into a little project... The last of the Siphon F's (no 1546) remained in service until March 1956, and was one of the two (out of six) that had the American bogies (the other being 1548), so it's slightly too early for my 1959 layout, but what the heck - I'm going to see if I can bring it up to 2014 standards. I warn you now, I'm not the world's fastest modeller, but I'll keep the post updated as I go along. Best Regards, ZG. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheWeatheringMan Posted July 13, 2014 Share Posted July 13, 2014 Look what I found when going through some old stuff today. It's an old K's Siphon F kit, which I originally put together in about 1977. Most of the original kit is there - but it's missing buffers and the sideframe from one of the bogies (9ft American Pattern). I've decided I'm going to make it into a little project... The last of the Siphon F's (no 1546) remained in service until March 1956, and was one of the two (out of six) that had the American bogies (the other being 1548), so it's slightly too early for my 1959 layout, but what the heck - I'm going to see if I can bring it up to 2014 standards. I warn you now, I'm not the world's fastest modeller, but I'll keep the post updated as I go along. Best Regards, ZG. Hi, Nice find!. I've got one (might even be two) somewhere in one of my boxes so i'll follow your buld with interest. One of my layouts is set on the Western Region circa early 1960's but as you say 'what the heck' and I rather like parcels trains. With a little work it can be made into a fairly good model. Wishing all the best and lots of enjoyment with the build - will look forward to seeing how it goes. Regards Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
hayfield Posted July 13, 2014 Share Posted July 13, 2014 I have 3, the last one came with a lot of stuff, just missing the under frame items, but bogies intact. You will finf the K's (American?) bogies do come up on Ebay quite often. Plans should be in "A Pictorial History of GWR Carriages" by JH Russell, and the price of this book has tumbled recently By the way, the kits came with small turned brass buffers Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
hayfield Posted July 15, 2014 Share Posted July 15, 2014 The old K's whitemetal bogies do regularly come up, though the Likes of Comet I guess do them. Might be worth looking at a few photos to see if any had their bogies changed to a different type Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
TEAMYAKIMA Posted July 15, 2014 Share Posted July 15, 2014 Hello I made one of these years ago, but I regret that the kit is dimensionally wrong. K's stretched the sides to fit an (over-long) existing roof and floor moulding which K's already made for another GWR full brake. You can see the result with the centre panelling ... all panelling should be the same but you can see that the centre ones are different to the end ones. What you can do it take two kits ( assuming you have two ) and cut them up and knit the correct bits together to make a far better and now accurate model. It's really quite easy to do ... I am no great modeller and I managed it so it must be easy! I's really a question of how fussy you are. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheWeatheringMan Posted July 15, 2014 Share Posted July 15, 2014 Hello I made one of these years ago, but I regret that the kit is dimensionally wrong. K's stretched the sides to fit an (over-long) existing roof and floor moulding which K's already made for another GWR full brake. You can see the result with the centre panelling ... all panelling should be the same but you can see that the centre ones are different to the end ones. What you can do it take two kits ( assuming you have two ) and cut them up and knit the correct bits together to make a far better and now accurate model. It's really quite easy to do ... I am no great modeller and I managed it so it must be easy! I's really a question of how fussy you are. Hi, You are of course quite right in that the Siphon F was 'stretched' to use the available roof and floor of the Dean full brake. However whilst its possible to see the 'stretching' of the centre panel if looking for it I think that most modellers find it acceptable as it is and actually many people wont even realise whats happened. For its day it wasnt that bad at all (unlike most K's loco kits!). Many years ago I was at the K's factory in Banbury and Melvin Keyser said they had looked at modifying the kit to correct length but the extra cost of a tool for a new roof and floor could not be justified as the sales were not large. Thankyou for your suggestion of the rebuild - must admit it hadnt occured to me but if I do actually have two kits in my box I might have a go. Another thought that has occured to me is could one kit be used to make one side of correct dimensions and then a mould be made to produce resin copies to enable several correct length ones to be built up using the rest of the kit plus other bought in parts I wonder. Regards Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ian Kirk Posted July 16, 2014 Share Posted July 16, 2014 Hi, When these first came out most people were prepared to accept the overscale length as there was so little else about. Cutting up a couple of kits to build a side without the "stretched" middle panel will of course work. If you only have one kit you might consider one other thing that was done with these at the time, reducing the length by one set of doors and the centre panel, and mounting it on a 4 wheel underframe as a Siphon C. Around the same time I produced a kit for this in 3mm, plastic body parts and IIRC Bec cast white metal bogies. I sold almost as many extra body kits as I did complete kits to people who intended to cut them down into Siphon Cs. best wishes, Ian Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
buffalo Posted July 16, 2014 Share Posted July 16, 2014 The old K's whitemetal bogies do regularly come up, though the Likes of Comet I guess do them. Might be worth looking at a few photos to see if any had their bogies changed to a different type Or you could read Slinn & Clarke, GW Siphons, HMRS 1986, together with its essential errata sheets. These will tell you that they were built with 9' volute spring bogies, 1546 and 1548 were fitted with 9' American, probably in May 1916, 1544 with 9' American at an unknown date, and 1545 and 1547 were fitted with 7' heavy duty plate bogies in Sep 1929. The book also includes livery and some branding details. Nick Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
hayfield Posted July 16, 2014 Share Posted July 16, 2014 Nick Thank you, I thought that some might have ended up with alternative bogies Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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