Atlantic's works: Portable layout - Scenic details next

[Atlantic 3279]

Hi Rob - The tedious details regarding turntables are partly analysed in previous posts.

[S.A.C. Martin]

As I said in my email chap, WOW!

Double chimney I think for the best looker, although arguably there's something about that single chimney look that separates it somewhat from being simply a "stretch mallard"

Looks absolutely terrific, what a stunning specimen.

[davidwest]

I'd go for double too. Asthestically on such a big engine may look more imposing.

With one provisor, Kylchaps I think were originally built under license. One of the reasons it took so long for the cash strapped LNER to adopt them. No license fee required after WWII.

So you could go either way.

[Robpulham]

You never cease to amaze me what you achieve by cutting and shutting RTR Graham, lots of people don't reach the quality you do when building kits. What will you top this one with I wonder?

Keep them coming!!

[Churchill8F]

I will admit this, I've been following this thread for a while as I found it via google, and I've only just signed up here. But that is pure awesome, really like how flawless it is, and the fact it would look the part if it was full scale.

Absolutely brilliant!

[Atlantic 3279]

The 80:20 rule of time vs results is alive and well. After rapid progress with the "big" parts of the loco last week/weekend, I spent nearly three hours this evening on just a couple of "small" jobs: Devising and executing a mounting for the live loco-to-tender coupling, so as to get a respectably small gap between the two units but still keep 2 foot track radii within the capabilities of the beast. Also sorting out an annoying refusal of the body to fit on the chassis without leaning to the left (factory-fitted trouble around the front mounting screw!) and an equally annoying tilt in the rear outside frames, due to slight inaccuracy in my rear chassis extension.

[mistahjim]

I continue to be amazed and impressed by your many and varied uses for the Railroad A4! Certainly looks good from where I'm sat.

re: the name, certainly no shortage of subjects in that department, but the battlecruiser names always felt more evocative to me than did any of the battleships, with the possible exception of Warspite.

[Atlantic 3279]

A good point.

Another possible name series occurs to me - a revival of the City names off the withdrawn Raven A2s, possibly some others acquired from the B3s, and maybe Edinburgh, Cambridge, Manchester, Nottingham, Leicester and others thrown in for good measure. I suppose some might think these too close to some of the Stanier Pacific names and too near to duplicating some of the Football team names on the B17s, but they'd be suitable names for imposing pieces of motive power.

[S.A.C. Martin]

A good point.

Another possible name series occurs to me - a revival of the City names off the withdrawn Raven A2s, possibly some others acquired from the B3s, and maybe Edinburgh, Cambridge, Manchester, Nottingham, Leicester and others thrown in for good measure. I suppose some might think these too close to some of the Stanier Pacific names and too near to duplicating some of the Football team names on the B17s, but they'd be suitable names for imposing pieces of motive power.

Or...because it's a mountain class locomotive (4-8-2) - name it after one of the mountains in Britain?

Ben Nevis, for the LNER's scottish connections?

[Atlantic 3279]

That's true enough, but the class wouldn't be able to include many locos before ALL names of English mountains in even the widest interpretation of LNER teriritory were used up (a disadvantage for a loco type that might do much of its work in England) and there may not be too many mountains in the LNER's Scottish territory that are customarily known by their "English"* names rather than by Gaelic ones. Whilst some of the Gaelic names have accepted spellings in English, we all know what a knot the LNER got tied in when initially naming McCailin Mor........

*Before any Scots get offended or pull me up on a technicality, I know that the version of the language (usually known as English) that is spoken by the majority in Scotland has every historic right to be called "Scottish" and not simply regarded as a dialect of English, but I suspect few readers would realise which language I meant if used the term "Scottish".

[S.A.C. Martin]

That's true enough, but the class wouldn't be able to include many locos before ALL names of English mountains in even the widest interpretation of LNER teriritory were used up (a disadvantage for a loco type that might do much of its work in England) and there may not be too many mountains in the LNER's Scottish territory that are customarily known by their "English"* names rather than by Gaelic ones. Whilst some of the Gaelic names have accepted spellings in English, we all know what a knot the LNER got tied in when initially naming McCailin Mor........

Fair enough Graeme - a very good point.

In which case, perhaps a return to the old bird names/racehorses themes, beckons?

[Atlantic 3279]

Back to the model!

A couple of views of the right hand side, with tender coupled up but body alterations still "in the rough". Aplogies to Tom Foster for borrowing his nice super-detail limited edition tender for the second picture. Doesn't it look so much more sleek than the Railroad version?

LHS with that nice borrowed tender:

A glimpse of the arrangements for the rear Cartazzi unit, pick-ups, brake shoe (ex Finecast A2) mountings, long body mounting lug to facilitate rearward re-location of cab if decided upon, and mounting tongue for live rear coupling. As it does nothing, the axle of the flangeless wheel set merely passes through a couple of loose wire loops soldered to the rear edge of the frame extension piece.

Arrangements seen from the side. I've moved the motor leads off the top and down onto the side of the motor, as the backing-pieces within the top of the boiler otherwise rest on the leads and the body won't go down fully.

Body joints and extension pieces have now been extensively scraped, filed, wet-sanded, filled, further wet-sanded, primed, and yet again wet-sanded to desired profile and smooth finish. So long as the fresh primer doesn't sink too much overnight I may be able to add things such as cladding bands, sand-filler hatches, and lines of studs / nuts / rivets at the next session.

[mistahjim]

A thought has just occurred to me; given that you have just proven that the current Hornby Pacific chassis is suitable for extending to an 8-coupled pattern, how would you rate the feasibility of using one as the basis for a P1 or P2 or similar?

[Atlantic 3279]

Even if not technically difficult to extend to eight coupled, and feasible to re-wheel to a different size, the wheelbase is significantly out in both cases so I can't see much of a "scale model" emerging.

Stretched Pacific wheelbase = 7' 3" + 7' 3" + 7' 3"

P1 = 6' 6" + 6' 0"+ 6' 0"

P2 = 6' 6" + 6' 6" + 6' 6"

Added 17/6/10 The most suitable chassis around which to build a P1 is in my opinion still an O2 kit chassis, such as the PDK item, maybe Nu-Cast, or if you like a challenge then the ACEproducts version. If Bachmann are kind enough to make the back end of their A2 chassis the right shape and construction then it may be possible to hack a lump off that and extend it as I've done above to produce a P2 chassis, but you'd have to alter the front end (plus alter the length of the valve gear too) and would still need the body, so the advantages over doing the lot from a Nu-Cast, Pro-Scale or forthcoming PDK kit would surely be questionable?

[mistahjim]

Ah, I had neglected to consider the wheelbase issue, quite right. Hmmm, something to consider.

Any further ideas re. a name for this beast?