Atlantic's works: Portable layout - Scenic details next

[Atlantic 3279]

Just setting off for Walton Girls' High School in Grantham now, for set up and two days on Gamston Bank.

That is indeed a five car GN lines steel set, 1935 vintage.

My P1 will triumph when I've finished "looking" at it......

[Flying Fox 34F]

Graeme,
It was a pleasant surprise to find you working on Gamston Bank at Grantham on Sunday. Your T shirt gave you away. The models are even better in the flesh!
To everyone else on this thread, may I say hello! I have read all 190 pages of this thread in the last week. This followed on from reading, Grantham, the Streamliner Years on the RMweb. I confess that i'm biased to the LNER and Grantham as I live and work here. My day job involves me trying to get the trains running again, when something or someone has stopped them. Mind you last week was the icing on the cake when i was shunting Mallard for the Festival of Speed and even more delighted to do it all again when she left on Monday for Doncaster.
Back to the thread, Is it possible to use a current V3 chassis to build a K2?

Paul Mellor, 34F

[Atlantic 3279]

Hi Paul, and welcome. Given the similarity of wheel size and wheelbase I suspect a K2 is a possibility if starting from a V3 chassis. The boiler certainly ought to be big enough to house the motor. I haven't tried it, although I did a K3 that way over 15 years ago. The K2 if done as faithfully as possible would require alterations to cylinders and valve gear, but I've no doubt that could be done. For the pedantic, would the balance weights be in the right places on the wheels? Do you consider the thick rims of the early Bachmann wheels on the V3 to be acceptable in appearance - they are less obvious when painted black to match the spokes but they don't look good by modern standards.
An "easy" K2 is somewhere on my hitlist, but it seems to have slid down from top position.

[earlswood nob]

Good morning all
I see you have managed to increase the weight of the P1 to 500g. If pulling power is linearly related to weight then it should handle 50% more wagons.
It amazes me how you managed to get so much weight into a plastic body. Do the footplate crew wear lead boots?
Earlswood nob

[Atlantic 3279]

Ah, well, I've replaced the usual footplate crew with a couple of grossly over-fed, under-exercised, alco-pop guzzling modern young women, complete with bright orange spray tan, Miss Piggy drawn-on faces, bee-hive hair and frocks two sizes too small.

No, seriously, it is quite a capacious body into every corner of which I've crammed lead shot, and there's possibly 3ozs in the tender.

[jwealleans]

Wot no tattoos?

[Atlantic 3279]

Doh! I knew I missed something out

Well, erm, as it turns out, following some attention to shoddy sudden height undulations in my trackwork I've been able to create scope for longer goods trains to be hauled around my layout without immediately reaching the point at which extreme tension in the fixed-height tension-lock couplings combined with no springing of wheels leads to wagons being lifted of the rails on curves. In consequence I've been able to haul 75 (no whitemetal though) around the layout with my recently looked-at P1. At that train length there are brief moments when the loco has turned through more that 180 deg compared to the brake van, i.e. loco entering third 90 deg bend before brake van is clear of first bend, so there's a fair amount drag from flanges and from inside and outside wheels trying to revolve at two different speeds on curves. In places the loco was even able to cope with 85, but adhesion totally failed in other places.
Two or three plodding full circuits was enough to prove the point, and to begin to warm the motor up a bit!

[drmditch]

Is there a picture of this Marvellous Mikado?

(Ah - just found one here! viewtopic.php?f=3&t=9076&p=89667&hilit=P1#p89667 )

[Flying Fox 34F]

Graeme,
Thanks for the suggestions re a K2. I'm not too worried about the wheels. I could mess about with them later, but at least you have confirmed my way of thinking. As for cylinders and valve gear, the full size B1 cylinders were off the K2! I would consider using B1 parts. I'll start gathering parts and look at my Isinglass drawing tucked away in the loft
Paul

[Atlantic 3279]

I think the need for double slidebars on the K2 and matching new crossheads are probably the awkward aspects of the conversion.

[Atso]

I think the need for double slidebars on the K2 and matching new crossheads are probably the awkward aspects of the conversion.

Would these do for the K2?

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/X6445-Hornby- ... 1e7cca1940

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/X6444-Hornby- ... 1e7d2c167f

[earlswood nob]

Good morning all
The V1 rods and valve gear are fine, if they are anything like accurate. All that needs changing are the slidebars and crossheads to the twinbar version like the cylinders you have shown. The GWR conrods would be too long (I looked at them as a possible GCR Q4 replacement) and the solution would be to fix the GWR crosshead to the V1 valve gear if that's possible. I have never messed around with RTR valve gear so I don't know if the fixings are the same. I merely produced a database (small) of rod lengths to be able to use/convert Comet valve gear to other models.
Earlswood nob
PS I forgot that the K2 had a rather prominent bracket supporting the ends of the slidebars.

[Atlantic 3279]

I don't think I can add anything to the reply immediately above.


Determined efforts to get other jobs out of the way, and the return of darker evenings (booooo!) have at last given me a chance this evening to do some more work on something I promised John White a long time ago. Here are the basic elements of Wolf of Badenoch, in late life. Many details will have to be added or altered of course. The cab is something I showed earlier in the year - my V-fronted resin casting sawn back to imitate the cut-back cabs of the real re-boilered A2/2s. The smokebox is a trial of a new approach in this case. Instead of using the A2/3 extension ring, which would have fitted, I've un-stuck the separate Bachmann Peppercorn A2 smokebox and fitted my longer A1/1 smokebox with a few mil sawn off the front. This avoids the need to blend in a joint part way along the smokebox wrapper, but material has to be removed from the underside of the A1/1 box in two or three places to make it fit. It does offer the additional benefit of a better representation of the superheater side covers.

[Atso]

Excellent work as always Atlantic! Looking forward to seeing this one finished even if it is a Thompson rebuild!

Also, I've just read part three of your article on the W1 in the Model Railway Journal. It was a very good read and has given me some ideas on future projects.

[will5210]

Very neat work, as usual!