Large Atlantic in N scale

[Cock o' The North]

What's this? A Minitrix Atlantic?

[chaz harrison]

Very nice. Convincing front end. Does it run well?

The Atlantics are horrors to model, the drivers are so close together on the prototype that it is impossible to model one without compromise in (for instance) 7mm finescale. I suspect 4mm is as bad. P4 & S7 should be OK (?), although the space between the flanges will be virtually non-existant.

Chaz

[Cock o' The North]

Thank you. I was being obtuse however! The only thing Minitrix about this is the box! It was actually built on a Peco Jubilee chassis with home made coupling rods and cylinders / connecting rods etc. from a 2P if I remember correctly. It was a while ago now that I made it.

Having the Peco tender drive also, it does indeed run very nicely indeed. The coal is piled up rather high to get over the mechanism but I think it works reasonably well.

Indeed the wheel spacing is always an issue and I was surprised at how well this one actually looks. Normally they just don't look right if the wheels are too far apart, and as you say, normally the flanges on model wheels don't allow correct spacing. I think in this case it must be a lucky combination of wheels which are a bit small and N scale flanges which are a lot too big, giving the overall impression of bigger wheels closer together. It certainly seems to work reasonably well and the central step hides the wheel interface area anyway. It captures the atmosphere of the prototype anyway.

The last picture is not too flattering as it is probably four times life size!

It, along with some other scratchbuilt N scale models, (V2, A2, GNSR 4-4-0, and some from lesser railways(!)) are living in boxes currently, hence these pictures, as I am in the not very nice position of not having space for a layout due to family and other interests, which is a position I never thought I would be in, but there we are. Retirement and kids leaving are somewhere on the horizon!

I did buy a Fleischmann 2-8-2 a long time ago with the idea of making it into a P2. That proved a challenge that has not been surmounted yet, due to all sorts of dimensional issues!

[Atso]

Wow that is an exceptionally good looking model which puts my own n gauge efforts to shame!

Interestingly I've just bought some spare Farish Jubilee wheels and rods for just this purpose...

Have you got any more pictures of your locomotives and details of your construction methods?

[smudger]

Oh wow! That is superb. Please do tell more about its construction. A C1 is at the top of my list for desired locos in N.

Alan

[richard]

It is a good model. You should make them RTR


Richard

[Atlantic 3279]

Lovely! It had crossed my mind that (notwithstanding the wheelbase issue) a molested B1 or A4 RTR mechanism would also give a shortcut to a C1 in OO gauge, and would be more accurate still for a GCR or NBR Atlantic. I'd actually had C1 No 3279 in mind, which would never look exactly right as it didn't have those middle steps to hide the wheelbase problem. That may be a way off now, as although I have a donor A4 chassis, I've also picked up (along with others in an auction lot) a largely finished, nicely built, second DJH "standard" C1 to finish, paint and add to my collection.

[Cock o' The North]

Thanks for all your positive comments! I have been trying to remember how it was built, and my mind is rather rusty as it was built about 15 years ago. Due to a family I haven't done any modelling since, (and I never thought I would say that, but children and models definitely don't go together), and so the mind is rather rusty. My eyesight was better in those days too, and I never needed a lens to assist, but now, I have a job to focus on it. Oh dear!

Having taken another look at it, I can offer the following.

The Peco chassis just had its rear wheel set removed, together with the cylinders and valve gear. The cylinders were replaced with a pair of cylinders from a 2P, and I am even having a job in remembering what stable that was from. Was it Lima? Yes I think it was because the rest of the 2P chassis formed the basis for my GNSR No. 49, for which it seemed admirable. I am not sure though, and I think its tender drive is from a Lima 4F, so whose was the 2P actually?

I am pretty sure that the connecting rods from the 2P were used, and definitely the crossheads and slidebars etc. The cylinders fitted easily if my memory serves me right, and looking underneath, there is a screw going up through the middle where the blastpipe would be, fixing the cylinders to something, presumably the chassis, I can't quite remember. I made up my own coupling rods so as not to cut the original Peco ones, such is my regard for preservation!

The trailing axle appears to be mounted loosely in a fixed truck bent up from some thin stainless strip, but thin brass would more likely to be the order of the day. It is a narrow truck so the wheel set has ample side movement but it doesn't swivel. It mounts under where the rear driving wheel set from the Jubilee would have been, and appears to be fixed via the tender connection screw. The frames for the truck are side frames only, separate from the truck, without bearings and are fixed to the running plate above. Bits of plastic form the various axle box and spring details.

I seem to remember drawing the loco out to scale and finding that the chassis was just the right length overall. I did add front frames curved over the front bogie, ending in line clearers, and added drain cock pipes to the bottom of the cylinders, using plastic rod.

The basis for the whole loco is the boiler, and this was basically a brass tube, (inexplicably just the right size when rolled with thin plasticard), and so, as this suggests, an outer skin of plasticard was rolled over it. The firebox sides were sliced out of the rolled section so that the sides didn't actually roll, but stuck out at the right ange, as you can imagine. The front of the firebox would be a filler piece and the edges rounded off using the thickness of the plastic. The smokebox obviously is a further rolled section over the boiler. The door is thick plasticard filed and shaped to a dish shape. Strappings are plastic strip and rod for the hinge.

Plasticard as you will have guessed, is the main material for this one, and so after the boiler, the cab, splashers and smokebox saddle were all key in being assembled together in order to keep the running plates solid.

The beaded edges to the splashers are basically the rounded tops of the splashers overlapping the sides slightly. Rivet detail in the smokebox saddle is made by pushing the point of a somewhat blunt scalpel into the outside, or finished side, of the workpiece at a diagonal angle upwards somewhat. Pushing it in makes a corresponding lump protrude above the depression.

Beading on the edges of the cab is paper strip and this forms also the lining. If you draw a black line with a technical pen and then slice the drawn line out with a sharp scalpel, you end up with a thin black line with white edges. Slice down the edges of the line and just outside of it to increase the width of the white outer bands. This is used for lining. In pictures of the real thing, it always seems to me that the black is a bit more prominent than the white, but in proprietary models the white is usually more prominent. This has never seemed quite right to me, thus the idea of cutting out a black line and using the edges of the paper as the white bands. Where there is a black bead with a single white line on the inside of it, the outer edge is blacked in with the pen. The thickness of the paper makes up the bead or band thickness fine enough. Single white lines are just very thin slivers of paper sliced out with the scalpel, which are then stuck on with Pritt I think it was. This doesn't sound a great idea, but nevertheless they are still there now! I may have spray varnished it at the end, but I can't remember.

Hand rails are plastic rod. The knobs were inserted into drilled holes and stuck probably with superglue rather than solvent. These are merely short pieces of plastic rod. Similarly the rails themselves. Small blobs of superglue on the ends of the "handrail knobs", secure them in place. The same was true for the smokebox handles which are also separate pieces of plastic rod. The first being drilled into the door, and the handles blob superglued to that.

Chimney and dome were turned up from plastic tube and bar respectively, on a Unimat 1 toy lathe, although this is academic as hand tools were used to do the forming, i.e. needle files, as the pieces spun.

I can't think of anything else to add at the moment. If I do, I will add it.

I hope this is all helpful and gets some enthusiasm going to make some clones! Basically my philosophy is that it should be possible to detail in N scale to the same degree as in OO scale. It is just a bit smaller, that's all. By and large I found this to be true, and sometimes smaller is easier and sometimes you only need to create an impression, (handrail knobs as described above for example).

I will add some pics of No. 49 soon, and also A2 60526 "Sugar Palm" which was made mainly in brass, just for a change. Oh, not forgetting V2 4774.

[TonyM]

Hey I`m with Alan(smudger) an Atlantic has been top of my wish list for more years than I care to recall. I have tried Dapol, Union Mills and Bachman/Farish but to no avail. Dave Joanes at dapol was the most responsive but I am not holding my breath, I think I would turn puce.
An Atlantic, or maybe more, would be the icing on the cake for me and my 1930s LNER layout. I like to think it is somewhere on the ECML and would go well with my stable of Pacifics (3xA4s,3xA3s), 2x V2s, 2x B12/3s and 4x D20s one still in NER livery as an Rclass plus a kit built D11.
TonyM

[smudger]

I did ask Allen Doherty of Worsley Works if he'd do one of his scratch-aids for a C1. He said he had too much on, but I'm sure if more people mentioned they'd be interested, he'd consider it. He'll produce N gauge and 2mm versions and I'm sure he could produce the N gauge version with the splashers to match a commercial chassis. I think for prototypes like this a scratch aid kit is probably the best we could hope for. So if anyone wants to follow the OP's approach, but wants a short cut for the body work, then give Allen Doherty an email.

http://www.worsleyworks.co.uk/WW/Email.htm

I've already provided him with a diagram.

Alan

[wehf100]

Thanks for posting pictures and details on how you built this. It is a superb little model! I have always fancied having a crack at a Worsley Works C5, but on N gauge chassis, using a Union Mills tender as the power bogie. It has always been making a nicely running chassis for the loco (plus motion) that was putting me of. Some interesting ideas here to have a think about

thanks

Will

[Atso]

I hope this is all helpful and gets some enthusiasm going to make some clones! Basically my philosophy is that it should be possible to detail in N scale to the same degree as in OO scale. It is just a bit smaller, that's all. By and large I found this to be true, and sometimes smaller is easier and sometimes you only need to create an impression, (handrail knobs as described above for example).

I will add some pics of No. 49 soon, and also A2 60526 "Sugar Palm" which was made mainly in brass, just for a change. Oh, not forgetting V2 4774.

I've just revived my own C1 project based on the account of your own build although I'm using the Farish Jubilee as a starting point. Any chance you've got some pictures of your other locomotives - I'm sure I'm not the only one looking forward to seeing them!