Atlantic's works: Portable layout - Scenic details next

[john coffin]

actually Graeme I agree, but you know how pedantic some people are?

[nzpaul]

Hi Graeme
Great to see the thread return to loco building, your work continues to provide me, and I'm sure a few others, a benchmark to aim for. Just out of curiosity, how has the resin chassis loco worked out as far as performance goes? Not that I'm looking to replicate it, but just interested to know if it has been a successful/worthwhile exercise.

Cheers
Paul

[earlswood nob]

Good morning all

I think it was Peter Denny who said that if the difference couldn't be spotted at a distance of three feet, then there was no need to worry about it, or something similar.

The thickness of a resin (or white metal) sidesheet is more than 0.5mm, and we accept those.

Earlswood nob

[jwealleans]

Graeme will no doubt confirm but insofar as operations on Grantham go we've had no problems arising from the resin chassis at all.

[Atlantic 3279]

The resin chassis units in the J6 models are doing the job well enough so far, but with running restricted to about three weekends in total to date I'm not drawing any conclusions.

[LNER4479]

I concur that the running of the J6s - and the J2 - has been exemplary to date (minor fettling 'tweaks' aside).

I was hoping to post a 'proof if proof were needed' photo or two; however, the locos seem to have been extraordinarily camera-shy both during the 'dress rehearsal' and at last weekend's Stafford show. I blame 'sir' (Mr Wright) for the latter - typically mainline photter, only pointing his camera at the big stuff and letting the bread n butter workhorses pass by unrecorded

We'll try and make amends at Nottingham...

[S.A.C. Martin]

An excellent bit of variety from the same base model. Good to hear about the excellence of the resin chassis too.

[Atlantic 3279]

A consultation with Mr Wealleans and his copy of Yeadon vol 37A on Sunday revealed that I should have used full sized numbers on the cab sides of the J2, so a little alteration will be in order before the Nottingham show weekend.

After lots of demands on my time from other nuisances (like earning a living at work) and umpteen half-baked excuses too, I've finally finished deliberating on the matter of an alternative style of GN tender. Malcolm Crawley's published notes, Paul Craig's reproductions or interpretations of original Doncaster drawings, the Isinglass drawings for the various ex-GNR 0-6-0s and plenty of photographs all served to make me utterly confused at one stage, but I think I've arrived at something sensible, adequate and simple as a means of portraying the earlier versions of the Ivatt tender in the condition typical of such tenders in the 1930s and later. I actually got on with the business of cutting some new side frames with equally divided wheelbase last night. I already have moulds for the axleboxes/springs. Once the frames are detailed up then I can try a dummy assembly run with a basic drag beam, rear buffer beam, simple soleplate from plastic sheet, a marginally altered "later class B" tank/bunker moulding, a couple of added toolboxes and a substitute rectangular water filler.

London Road Models do a couple of very nice looking Stirling tenders for anybody wanting more variety. I'm certainly not wasting any time and effort on trying to make a model of one of those by other means!

[earlswood nob]

G'day all

The London Road tenders look very good.

The Type D and the R13 are ideal for J3/4 locos.

Also the Q3 ran with a Type D for most if not all of its LNER days.

Earlswood nob

[Woodcock29]

Hi Graeme

That's good news about the tender. I'll certainly need to get some bits from you in due course.

I have a LRM D type for my J3 which I'll build once I get some J6 bodies from you so I can replace the Ks boiler. I'm still planning on making a J1 from one of your J6 bodies as well as a J2 but will use brass chassis for both.

I think it will be good to get back into loco building - currently I'm still building GN coaches and also improving my Heljan O2/3 which is currently in bits having been fully disassembled! I've also got to finish my Hornby J50 renumbering - it will become a lined one that somehow kept its lining well into the 30s!

Woodcock29

[john coffin]

Thanks for the words graeme, but actually my drawings are DIRECT copies of the relevant GA's that were available to me at the time, hence our discussions about the vacuum arrangement re R14/5. Malcolm would not let me add or subtract anything from the drawings, hence there is little detail of tool box location. Indeed, I have spent much of the last 14 months getting more and more photos to try and be able to explain the positioning of those pesky blighters. Hopefully over the next month or so I might get some words formed and make them available.

Just for interest, there are in fact at York 3 different versions of R13, and we are still trying to determine when the ones I drew were actually built, and why, so 150 years later there is still stuff to find out.

Paul

[Atlantic 3279]

I should clarify what I meant by the word "interpretation" in connection with those drawings. I'm sure there was no deliberate departure from what was evident on the original, but bearing in mind that some of the originals may be in rather imperfect condition, complex in many areas and possibly subject to annotations and alterations, then even an attempt at a direct copy of what is thought to be the original form of the drawing could be described as an interpretation.

[earlswood nob]

Good morning all

I'm always interested in more information which hopefully will improve my modelling.

I notice that Woodcock29 is waiting to reboiler the Kays J3 with a J6 boiler. Does this indicate that there is a problem with the original J3 boiler?

I was under the impression that the J6 had a longer firebox than the J3.

Earlswood nob

[john coffin]

Graeme,
no worries, I agree with your use of the word interpretation as you have now explained it, and no problem as far as I am concerned.

It was the only way to produce a set of drawings that kind of explained the evolution of the GNR tender since 1850 in a form that
might well be usable for modellers and those who are actually interested, yet have no access to the originals.

Thanks for the comments about my Stirling R13 tender.

paul

[Atlantic 3279]

After some discussion of the ex-GN 0-6-0s with a fellow modeller at Nottingham show last year we placed my Ks J3 beside a scale J6 and found the boiler diameters visibly different, confirmed by measurement, yet the diameters should be the same. After further checking I've re-classified my Ks loco as J "three and a half" since both the boiler diameter and boiler pitch seem to be intermediate between expected figures for the J3 and J4 classes! The firebox is indeed shorter on the J3s to suit the earlier/smaller version of the "standard" Doncaster 0-6-0 wheelbase.