Finished the Y7!

[richard]

At last! Took over a year, although I did keep stopping for various reasons - working on other projects, waiting for stuff to arrive,etc.

As a recap, the kit is the Connoisseur Y7 0-4-0T. It is finished as an early example with Ramsbottom safety valves, and early number and Worsdell era colours and lining. Modifications include the fitting of smokebox lubricators (FourTrack LNWR examples but don't tell anyone...), sprung buffers (again, FourTrack), and dumb buffers. Dumb buffers are technically not correct for an NER green Worsdell-era Y7, but they match my intended "what if" (what if a Y7 had been loaned to the Aberford Railway - similar tothe way one was loaned to the North Sunderland).

Anyway, here are the pictures. I should add some coal on the side tanks against the cab sheets. The couplers should probably be dulled a bit.

Of course I know where the mistakes are. Probably the biggest visual thing I'm not currently happy with is the Ramsbottom valve cover - I can't find any decent brass paint. They either have the wrong colour or the wrong texture. The one I ended up using is the right colour, but the texture is too "granular".

With the airbrushing, I think I should added more thinners in with the green. Also a bit more yellow to lighten the Phoenix "NER green".

And the lining is arguable. I have seen three different variants of Worsdell era green side tank locos. It could be argued that the fronts of the side tanks and the rear cab sheet should be lined, but felt they would not fit due to the pipework and lamp irons, respectively.

Richard

[Malcolm]

Very, very nice Richard.
I really like this one.

Malcolm

[rob]

Looks great Richard-I imagine it must be a bit frustrating waiting for bits etc to arrive from the Uk too,whats the next in line?

[wehf100]

Looks great, safety valve issues notwithstanding. I have always felt nothing looks quite like brass than real brass, I believe Alan Gibson range of lost-wax brass castings are available, and something in there may serve?

That said, I think the loco is a little stunner as it is!

Will

[richard]

Thanks!

Just looked on the Alan Gibson site (a manufacturer I hadn't looked at before) and can't see any NER parts.

FourTrack might have a brass valve cover but I don't see the loco parts on his site. If he did, then Gladiator will probably stock them now? I'll look at my catalogue which I have filed away - definitely something to note for next time.
The Connoisseur kit uses whitemetal castings. As whitemetal castings go, they're pretty good - they beat most of the Langley N scale castings!

What is next?
I've started a V1 brake van (Connoisseur) and I've been collecting parts to try my first scratch building - some NER P2 hoppers. These will be plastic with some Slaters parts.

The next loco?
I think I have finally found a motor/gearbox combo for the Slaters 0-4-0ST MW but I hear it isn't a beginners kit - that will be loco No. 3 (my "inspiration" ran MW 0-4-0STs).
To build experience I'm thinking of an 0-4-4 or 0-6-0. I like the look of early Fletcher & Bouch but only know of the Fourtrack/Gladiator BPT (G6). The Connoisseur G5 is also tempting, but I think in the interests of widening my abilities, I should try a different manufacturer. So I'm thinking of one of the large Manning Wardles from Agenoria and finish it as an EWYUR example. I need more research but this will probably require some cab modification. It looks like they have two large MWs - one looks a better match but has the wrong cab.

If I had the time, space and money, I'd probably build up to a P2. As it is, I'll probably aim for intermediate sized NER locos. Eg. if someone was to produce a kit of a Bouch Long Boiler or a Fletcher 2-4-0 [the Fletcher 2-4-0 would be hard to justify but it would look good].
That's looking a few locos ahead, so who knows what I'll do - something normal like a J21 or perhaps a Jenny Lind just to freak everyone out! <grin>


Richard

[wehf100]

Hi richard,

re the Manning Wardle K and F class slaters kits, I have recently purchased a built K class (super little engine by the way- an ebay purchase very badly described by the vendor- it went for less than the cost of a new kit-less motor!). Dissasembling it for a repaint shows it to be pretty simple in construction- no harder than anything else I have seen in this scale. Obviously it's difficult to tell how parts fitted on a built-up model, but it was a neat model and sub assemblies seemed well designed (they certainly disasemmble easy enough)

The only problem is the model was designed around a Faulhaber motor/gearbox (which mine has). When this became unavailable slaters said a RG4 would be a drop-fit. With this now unavailable they told me any larger 4mm scale motorgearbox with 1/8'' axle fitting would be do-able. Looking at the design there is probably room for any type of gearbox you could mention- just be careful about the diameter of the motor itself as mine is a very tight fit (almost push fit) in to the tiny diameter boiler barrel.

Hope this helps a bit- the best I can offer I'm afraid. I do have the original instructions which I could scan for you if you needed?

Will

[richard]

Thanks Will. My motor information is from their catalgoue where I noticed a footnote giving two motor options (I forget which they are off-hand - probably include the out of production one you describe).
I was going to go for the 0-4-0 "F" (and pass it off as a "H" or "I" - not to be confused with the other Manning-Wardle Class I which has more wheels!). Do the instructions look like they cover both versions, or might be close enough that they are very similar?

Richard

[wehf100]

Hi Richard- I believe the K and F were pretty much identical but with different wheel arrangements- hence the Slater's 'duo' kits.

Here's my K class, I'll see what I can do about the instructions-






And here's what she'll become- plates on order from Guilplates as we speak. I'm looking forward to the triple-colour lining= not!!

[richard]

Thanks for the pictures.

I see a made-up 0-4-0 is currently on EBay for less that the cost of a kit. Tempting, so I got the book out, and I see my target prototypes have quite a few differences. I knew they were slightly larger 0-4-0s, but thought it would be easy to fix the detail parts. It might be too difficult to modify a made model enough. I'll mull over it.

One big difference I'm seeing are the smokeboxes. The two Slaters kits have the flip open smokebox door. One of the Aberford examples had this, but it looks like the others had the more conventional swing open with screw handle (ie. like the early Y7)..


Richard

[wehf100]

That F class looks very sweetly made- it'd be a terrible shame to have to repaint/re-model it!!

S&D models (http://sanddmodels.co.uk/) make a white metal Manning Wardle K and 'Old' I class, and sell a lot of their different fittings as seperate castings. May help if you were to attempt a kitbash of the Slaters F class.

The MSLR/GCR also had a couple of these H class engines as dock shunters (one later involved in building the London Extension) and they were quite squat, powerful-looking machines compared to the delicate F class! Maybe a bigger boiler tube would create a good impression, but I bet you would end up changing a heck of a lot of the Slaters kit to keep everything in proportion. scale drawings for the H would be essential!

Will

[richard]

The NER also had some but they didn't make it into LNER ownership (I think they had a hard life - they were more-or-less replaced by Y7s). A NERA journal from last year has an article on them (back issue waiting for me at my parents). There was a follow-up earlier this year and that includes a photo of a scratch built one.

I'll look at the S&D models site - it is looking more likely that kit-bashing is in order.
I was originally thinking of just just accepting the real engines were a little larger and just finishing the loco to look right - eg. the right cab, valves, running plate boxes.


Richard