Atlantic's works: Portable layout update

[Atlantic 3279]

Orrrrrrr......

Right side close up of chimney-fit

Another look at City of York

No, maybe Eboracum / Jorvik is boring, perhaps it should be Lindum Colonia

Or for the unrelenting

And here's a close up of the fit of the chimney at the front

[Atlantic 3279]

Here's that backhead spacer again, edges now painted

And a couple of views of the model cab filled with firebox to the extent indicated in the RCTS drawing of the first 4-8-2 scheme. Where would the crew and the reverser go, and would the crew be able to work or at least tolerate the conditions?

[Atlantic 3279]

I've also been moving towards the goal of tidying up / finishing of the O1 and O4/8 conversions that I started to show over on the "Bachmann Announce O4" thread. I finally got around to making some rear sandboxes, from three layers of 60thou plastikard and a slice of 3mm (or 1/8th inch?) platic rod, a pair of which I glued onto a brass stretcher:

This fits over the frames neatly behind the motor:

Looking more or less like this on the O4/8

Or in closer view like this on the O1

Now was somebody at Gorton having a bad day when this one was turned out??

Actually, that just illustrates the point about my work on these O4 variants. I've only bought one O4 on which to experiment, and all of my bits and pieces are "bolt on" reversible substitutions on the unaltered factory chassis.

For completeness, here's how the underside of the front end of the O1 body finished up with chassis mounting point and dummy frame profiles added

[S.A.C. Martin]

Indefatigable for me

What an inspiration your thread is Graeme. Truly astonishing work, 24/7. The O4 mods just blow me away, frankly.

Not sure I have any superlatives left, so I'll bid you good night and hope to one day be half as good a modeller as yourself.

[davidwest]

Excellent work there Graeme!

[Robpulham]

Ditto!!

[Atlantic 3279]

The 4-8-2 (R2 class, possibly - think about the withdrawal of all the R1s before 1939 and the position of the letter R in the midst of the 8-coupled designation letters in the LNER system) now at last has a number and a generally "finished" appearance save for cab internal details and cab glazing / window frame paintwork. I've lightly stuck a name on each side of the smokebox, indecisively going for a different name each side!

[Atlantic 3279]

I've also tidied up some details and treated my alternative superstructures for the Bachmann O4 chassis to some black paint. Here are some comparitive views of the Bachmann O4 body and the substitute O4/8 cab, boiler, saddle and reversing rod:

And here's the O1 option, now really only lacking a number and muck:

[mick b]

Superb work

[davidwest]

Great looking result!

[S.A.C. Martin]

Just - wow

[Atlantic 3279]

Here's some of the work I'm doing towards turning the Bachmann ROD tender top into an ex-GC version. Firstly a view of the original Bachmann top rear, plus the master I've made for the new filler and water pick-up covers, which I hope in due course to duplicate in cast resin. The Bachmann cast metal "coal" is also seen belly-up.

After scribing across the base of the rear coal plate from front and rear, and then chopping each side with side-cutters, I was able to snap it cleanly free, and then remove the water filler cleanly too with the side-cutters, squashing the filler somewhat in the process....
It's interesting that Bachmann mould supporting ribs for the coal plate on its front face, as all photos I've seen of ROD tenders from the rear show the ribs very clearly on the rear face

With scrapers and abrasives I cleaned up the top of the tank where the filler and coalplate had been. The filler hole will have to be patched as the new fittings won't completely cover it. I've deliberately left a trace of the edges of the rear coalplate on the inside faces of the side coalplates so as to suggest the presence of a fourth set of supporting stanchions - Bachmann having been kind enough to mould the other three sets very nicely (as well as all of the panel flanges, overlaps and rivet lines).

[Atlantic 3279]

Next a quick trial of my master for the main "boxes", which revealed no problems with size or fit:

I then made in plastikard some rough patterns for alternative new rear coalplates, and for the additional covers for the waterscoop linkage that connects to the "ship's wheel" that should sit on the top of the front bulkhead.
This is my dry-run for my interpretation of a post-1917 built tender top:

Earlier tenders appear not to have had the luxury of a proper full-height rear coalplate, only the waterscoop top covers and a small piece of plate on one side having any restraining influence on the coal. Predictably, most pictures of these tenders well-coaled-up show the coal burying the front of the covers and the small side plate. This is roughly that pre-1917 arrangement, and half-covered in coal it would be very convincing:

For the pedantic modeller, I believe the exact pre-1917 arrangement would actually be as shown below. One of the front "boxes" of the waterscoop covers was narrower, producing a notched or inset front corner appearance, and the hinges and handles on the front two hatches may have been reversed. These details are marked in red on this image:

[Tom F]

Great work on the tender Graeme, really fascinating as I didn't no of the variations on tenders.

Looking forward to watching this unfold How many variations are there on these tenders....too many to model them all?

[Atlantic 3279]

That's a quick reply Tom! Dunno the number of variations, I'm certainly not "THE" authority on these matters, but I'm just going by photos and drawings that I happen to have.