Edgware GN. What next.

[Blink Bonny]

Love the Drewry shunter, Manna. Nice to see you're holding the fort "down under."

[manna]

G'Day Gents

Not a full blown update today, just thought I'd let you all know that I'm still plugging away on Edgware, I've had a lot to do on other non railway related projects, so there's not been a lot of time to build Edgware, but....... I've had a bit of time to spare, so the water tank is slowly taking shape. Also fitted the gutters and drainpipes to the good shed.

manna

[manna]

G'Day Gents
The water tower is now 99% complete, only a little more weathering to do and a ladder to be added, the weathering will be done whilst I've still got it on the workbench, the ladder when I get to the scenery bit !! Piccy time


manna

[manna]

G'Day Gents

After all the excitement !! of Edgwares buildings, I thought it was about time to press on with a few outstanding projects that have been sitting on the back burner for to long, the first was picked up off of E-Bay for a fiver only a few weeks ago, but it will be a quickie, so I'm doing that one first. It's.............. a LIMA J50, and a nice little runner, at 200mph, but I can get it down to 20mph with a short train on.

First thing was to separate the body from the chassis, as is the norm, and after removing the luscious green paint with brake fluid, I cleaned the rest of the body, added a few bodyside patches, to simulate welded tank repairs (see pics) I took it over to the shed to give it a nice grey under coat, 24 hours later I bought it back inside and started to add the rest of the detail, I find with the grey under coat I can see what I'm doing.

You can see from the pics, That I've added lamp irons a regulator control lever and one ejector pipe under the cab steps, I'll do the other one tomorrow, there's a better looking whistle and a vacuum pipe running along the edge of the running board.

I've pick this engine 68903 as I have a picture of her doing a stint at Kings Cross, (Number 1 shunt) and is vacuum fitted and has a steam pipe.

This how it looks now, half done.

[Blink Bonny]

Ay up!

I shall watch this prooject with interest, Manna. I too have a Lima J50 'cept mine came resplendant in...

...wait for it...

LMS red! With two generic Continental coaches in red and cream, lettered LMS.

Such was the stuff of dreams...

[Atlantic 3279]

Looking good. I see you've already added some stuff inside the keyhole in the tanks to make that look a bit better, along with removal of needlessly duplicated works plates (only one position is correct for each loco batch of course, why Lima modelled them all is a puzzle). The lamp irons and other metal fittings help the job along too. When I did my Lima body (which went onto a new chassis based on Perseverence frames and a Mashima 30mm flat can motor, as I'd decided the Lima mechanism was terminally awful and well beyond any reasonable attempt at a conservative "upgrade") I came to the conclusion that the cab shape and spectacle position are only strictly correct for the locos built by the GN or the first LNER batch to the GN drawings. Later ones had more rounded cab roofs to pull the eaves "down and in" within the group standard loading gauge, and this made the spectacles look bigger - maybe they were bigger too?
As an extra touch, it isn't that much extra work to add the missing inset to the plate framed steps - for example you could cut off the approriate lower portion of the steps, stick an intermediate length piece of plastikard to the back of the surviving top portion, file a slope onto the outer face of those parts, then stick the lower part of the steps on gain, behind the pieces that you've re-shaped. Just make sure you leave room for the coupling rods..........

[manna]

G'Day Gents

While I was waiting for the glue to dry! I thought I'd have a go at rewheeling my old K's J3, it's sat on the bench or in a box for 20 years, so it's high time I pulled my finger out! after receiving a nice little parcel from 'Mainly Trains' with the axles and cranky things, it was off with those horrible D axles and wheels, already knowing about the gear wheel which will only accept a D axle, as I wanted to keep the original motor and gearbox, I'd worked out a cunning plan to get round it, ......I ground down a Romford axle to fit the gear wheel, and it worked !!! the other wheels and axles, straight in no problems, so now I have a very sweet running chassis and not one wheel wobbles !!

BB A RED!!! J50 what were they thinking

Atlantic, tried what you said about the steps.........err, now I'm trying.......a solid sand box and brass steps over the sand box

manna

[Atlantic 3279]

I suppose that delivery cost and distance might be a problem, but noting elsewhere that the Chris Parrish / Puffers / Perseverence range appears to have come back to life, you could now make a new chassis for the J50 without enormous parts cost and difficulty, getting rid of the horrible Lima features entirely but preserving true wheel spacing.

[manna]

G'Day Gents

That's always a thought, although I was thinking it might be a good starter 0-6-0 chassis to scratch build all I will need is the wheelbase spacing, which shouldn't be to hard to find out

manna

[earlswood nob]

Hi to all fans and construction dummies like myself
Suggestion for J50 chassis is the Comet N2 chassis which has the correct wheel spacing and only needs the rear frames trimmed.
For the J3 chassis you can use the Mainly Trains J52 chassis which just needs the rear guard irons removed.
Now to disassemble a set of valve gear as I had made two left handed sets.....told you I was dummy!
Earlswood Nob
(A signal box near my birthplace)

[manna]

G'Day Gents

Thats the sort of thing I do to Earlswood Nob

Just given me a thought, wasn't the N2, the tank version of the J1

Thought I'd give you a little update on the J50, I've fitted the new steps over the sandbox's, bit fiddly though, but no burnt fingers, it's also been painted and numbered, although I think the numbers are a tad small, didn't have any 8's or 0's left in the next size up ?? see what you think !

The chassis hasn't been touched, except a coat of black paint.

manna

[Blink Bonny]

Ay up!

That looks good. Photo evidence is that those small Nos are correct but they always look a bit strange to my eyes!

My own Lima J50 is now very nervous...

[manna]

G'Day Gents

It's been a public holiday here in South Australia, which has given me a bit of time to have a go at the J3, I've been filling gaps up in the body, joined the body to the running plate and fitted some of the hand rails, the coupling rods were fitted last weekend, so at last were on the home stretch, I had to re drill some of the holes for the hand rail knobs as they were way out of line, see what you think !

manna

[Blink Bonny]

Ay up!

Yer handrails arew nice and straight but I reckon the chimney could do with a bit of filler to just "seat" it down on the smokebox.

Looking good!

[manna]

G'Day Gents

Haven't done a lot to the J3, just little bits here and there, but the chassis is running quite well, but I haven't cut the crank pins yet so I can;t run the chassis with the body on, maybe at the weekend

The body has had a coat of grey paint, and 24 hours to dry, and I've just been out to the shed and given it a coat of Dulux, flat black, although it's as shiny as! at the moment, here she is in grey

Manna