The LNER Encyclopedia

Do any of you wise men out there know of a K in N. it is the one loco style missing from the range that would sell in big numbers. I heard rumours of a kit at one time but have never seen one.
TonyM

I think Foxhunter or Fleetline (forget which) have a K3 kit planned. I live in the US so I haven't seen it, but the story I hear is that a pre-production example is often at their stand at Shows, but even after a few years the kit still has to appear...


Richard

Hi Richard

Thanks for that. Yes I recall that Steve(Atso) mentioned this, I also seem to remember seeing a model on this Forum on the N Gresley coach string and that was from Steve. I shall have to follow it up with, I think it was Fleetline. Will keep folks informed on this Forum. I do not get to many exhibitions as I am in New Zealand.

TonyM

Hi Tony,

Yes, I managed to get hold of a K3 kit, although it was Foxhunter not Fleetline who have produced it. The kit exists but has not been put on general release as there have been no instructions written for it - although Adrian can be persuaded to sell you one on this basis. I did not find this a particular problem, although the tender required some though.

The Foxhunter kit is designed to fit onto a Crab chassis, although I made some modifications to the body to fit a modified V2 chassis (cut the top weight in half, fitted smaller wheels and removed the rear pony) which I think looks much better and well worth the extra effort.

I too would like at least a Gresley K2 but I think I'm going to have to resort to making my own...

Thanks Steve I will chase them up. I think I should be able to build without instructions I know were most bits go. As you used the V2 chassis why did/could you/one not use the V2 tender?

TonyM

Hi Tony,

I don't see any reason why the V2 tender cannot be used. I didn't for a couple of reasons those being that the tender is a late GS design and I wanted one that was a bit more representative of the class, a tender came with the kit and that I didn't have a V2 tender to hand - although you might be able to utilise the additional pick ups in the Farish tender.

Farish Spares sometimes have spare V2 chassis in stock - although you'll have to buy the valve gear and wheels as a completely separate unit. My K3 uses Farish Prairie tank driving wheels - the outer two will slot right into the V2 chassis (although I drilled out the plastic crank pins to take to metal V2 ones) but the centre set will need to be carefully removed and replaced onto the V2 axle with the Gear wheels. The middle wheels are possible to quarter by eye but may require some modest adjustment to get a smooth running chassis.

Speaking of smooth running, the V2 chassis on its own is useless to assess its running characteristics but with the weight on the white metal K3 body it is in a completely different class - Farish really should have used a die cast body for the V2! One other modification to the chassis it to file away around 1mm of the front of the chassis to get better clearance for the front pony truck once the smaller driving wheels have been added.

I know this sounds like a lot of work but it really does improve the overall look of the finished model (and the V2 chassis is much easier to disassemble that the earlier Farish locos) - especially as with some of the wonderful detail included in the kit it would seem a shame to spoil it in my opinion with the Crab chassis.

Just in case you wanted a little more inspiration to go ahead with a K3....