Atlantic's works: Portable layout update

[2002EarlMarischal]

Hi,

Having been a guest on the forum from time to time and a keen LNER fan most impressed by the stunning modelling work shown, I thought it was about time I registered! My modelling skills are poor sadly, but I would like to "tag along" with Atlantic 3279 and help make a batch of W1s viable. The latest Hornby A4 would be my favoured donor.

Jim

[Atlantic 3279]

Thanks Earl Marischal, good choice of name, second only to C o' t N!

The Rubicon has now been crossed as I have acquired a donor A4 loco for a prototype, although I won't reveal which version I went for just yet. I've also considered an alternative and possibly even easier approach to the cab and rear frames. I want this to remain a genuinely simple project. All will be reavealed in (hopefully relatively little) time.

[mick b]

look forward to seeing the build

mick

[Atlantic 3279]

For reasons that are no doubt endlessly debatable my final choice of donor loco for the 4-6-4 (or 4-6-2-2) project was the Hornby Railroad Garter Blue model of Falcon, which on inspection in the shop actually differed from the Hornby website picture in a number of positive ways, such as having a corridor tender (of sorts), the right shape of chimney, the right shape of parabolic cuves lining out the smokebox sides, sandpipes, and buffer beam fittings. The only unwelcome difference is the chunky valve gear in place of the fine stuff that is illustrated, but on a fully valnced loco much of this is at least hidden.

I now have a succesful running 4-6-4 chassis, and the tender top has been chopped around quite a bit above the side beading to eliminate the ridiculous extra 6" of upright side that the old Hornby moulding included as part of what should be the "turned in" coal plates. I've also altered the curvature of the front and rear coalplates and the top of the tender rear itself. I've delayed a start on the body pending the work on the tender and the proving of the chassis, as up to this point it is still possible to "chicken out" and return the thing to Pacific configuration with unaltered body. I also wanted more time to consider the cutting of the cab, and just how many of the whitemetal parts from Dave Ellis at SEF to use.

EDIT 4/4/10 - Tender modification images deleted to save space - contact me for copies if you're interested.

EDIT 4/6/10 - Tender modification images will now appear in new topic "Modifying/Improving the Hornby Railroad Corridor Tender"

[Atlantic 3279]

And:

[Atlantic 3279]

Post deleted

[Tom F]

looking very good so far, I'm very impressed! Keep it up!

[Atlantic 3279]

Quick update, without more pictures just yet. I've reattached the "live drawbar" in a position that I hope will give a reasonable looking gap between loco and tender, and have again test run the chassis + tender through my tightest curves and crossovers. In reverse, i.e. when pushing the tender and thus at times putting more side thrust on the rear bogie, this revealed that the chassis of this loco is live to the left hand running rail , a fact betrayed by stalling, arcing and a glowing overload LED on the controller every time the rear bogie wheels deflected hard to the right! This was a real surprise to me given that the wheels are insulated both sides, pick-ups are provided both sides, theres a mounting point for one of those infernal chips, there's separate wiring to both "poles" of the live drawbar, and I think there's wiring to both brushes of the motor - so why is the chassis live? Is it a cheapskate's motor with only one insulated brush holder? Once I insulated the inside face of the right hand trailing frame all was well again, better in fact for the added pick up via the tender axles. I had considered discarding the live drawbar and maybe the tender pick-up too, in favour of some rear pick-ups on the rear bogie, but decided to exploit what was already provided. I've also arranged the height of the drawbar to be just enough to get the tender when coupled-up to press down a little on the rear bogie, via the slightly springy brass pivot arm that carries both the bogie and the drawbar . The rear bogie shows no sign of wanting to leave the rails and no tendancy of its wheels to lock and skid, but just to be sure of no trouble I may still add some light springing to get some of the weight of the rear of the loco onto it too.

I've also now more or less settled in my mind my firebox and cab cutting/extension strategy, having thought through the potential difficulties involved in several different approaches.

[Atlantic 3279]

Sneak preview of maximum extent of yesterday's achievements: Firebox extended over inner sleeve of plastic, rear edge of cab roof cut back slightly and new foundation layer for much extended roof installed, one Finecast cab side trimmed to fit snugly and perched in place.

[52D]

I see she still carries her former identity but none the less conversion is starting to come together.

[S.A.C. Martin]

Very nice work on the W1 so far Atlantic - where did you obtain the cab/cartazzi sides from? It works quite seamlessly in my view, this is a kit bash I'm tempted to do after finishing my pesudo J17.

Kind Regards,

Simon

[Tom F]

Sneak preview of maximum extent of yesterday's achievements: Firebox extended over inner sleeve of plastic, rear edge of cab roof cut back slightly and new foundation layer for much extended roof installed, one Finecast cab side trimmed to fit snugly and perched in place.

STA74397st.jpg

I hadn't seen this picture Atlantic!!! Very nice

When it's done could you take some photos along side a regular A4 to get a feel of the size difference?

[Atlantic 3279]

where did you obtain the cab/cartazzi sides from?

As per posts above.....

one Finecast cab side

the whitemetal parts from Dave Ellis at SEF

[S.A.C. Martin]

where did you obtain the cab/cartazzi sides from?

As per posts above.....

one Finecast cab side

the whitemetal parts from Dave Ellis at SEF

Damn my speed reading

Thanks chap!

As I say, its looking wonderful. I wonder if a similar rebuild could be acheived using a Bachmann A4 as a starting point (having a spare A4 chassis around has its benefits perhaps!)

[Atlantic 3279]

Hi again Sim: Sorry about the brevity of the previous rushed lunch-hour reply. I don't see why you couldn't do likewise with the Bachmann A4, some details will no doubt differ but solutions to problems can no doubt be devised. I considered starting from the Bachmann A4 myself, notwithstanding a slight dislike of some its chunkier body details like the dome cover and the side acces panels, along with the daft representation of the turn-in at the front of the tender sidesheets. The trouble was that I didn't at that stage have a loco I was willing to cut up and the Bachmann model is dearer to buy than Falcon. I also had slight reservations about the longevity of Bachmann's plastic axles but I may since have found a very cheap simple solution to the eventual failure of those too, AND I've been GIVEN a Bachmann A4, too late of course!

Tom: I'll try to shoot some finished pictures alongside my Bachmann Peregrine, also in Garter Blue. In the meantime my own (adapted A4) working drawing may give you as good an impression of the degree of enlargement as you'll get. All the red-shaded areas of cab and body are added material, take those out and it collapses back to A4 dimensions. One omission is that the original W1 bogie wheelbase was 6'6", i.e 1mm longer than the A4's in this scale, but for a post 1955 model you still be strictly correct if you keep the standard Pacific bogie, which I shall do anyway whilst cheerfully ignoring the discrepancy.

52D: Thanks for taking an interest.

By the way, the eventual decison to use Finecast cab sides (and I ought to have bought the matching crew seats too but didn't realise the need at the time) was for the sake of combining simplicity of conversion with best chances of final tidy appearance. Lots of cutting/extending/joining of the existing sheets would have been tedious and might have left visible joint lines somewhere or other. The deluxe answer would have been to cut and detail full new sidesheets. I hope my Finecast sides which go in leaving just one straight vertical joint to hide near the leading edge will be the best comromise.
I've also decided that some side-stops on the rear bogie frame might be a better answer than letting the bogie wheels rub against the insulated inside face of the outside frames.