Atlantic's works: Portable layout - Scenic details next

[Manxman1831]

Just what I thought earlier today 2002. I'll try to take a suitable picture some time. I may throw in one of those piffling little 9Fs for comparison too. Bear in mind when assessing the comparison that Although the Baldwin tender is modelled to full scale, the costs of potential "starting point" locos persuaded me to reduce the length of the loco itself to 7/8ths of what is should be.

Only a technicality, but the oft-mentioned "big" 9F may have lots of coupled wheels but isn't a huge loco. Okay, the boiler is jacked up to the limits of the loading gauge so that a decent depth of firebox and ashpan will squeeze in over the 5' 0" coupled wheels, but that boiler is both slimmer and shorter than those of the Brits - themselves somewhat cut-down Pacifics compared to the pre-nationalisation 8P types

I bet you don't have a Robinson 9F to do that shot with... oh wait, I bet you do.

[Atlantic 3279]

No GCR 9F in my collection I'm afraid.

Looking at the cab on the putative GC 2-10-2, would it have had those large windows, or would we have seen something more akin to the 8M/O5?

I drafted this some time ago. Just supposing that the initial Baldwin proposal had been accepted and a trial loco or two built, resulting in the GC greatly liking the boiler and running gear, generating a desire to order more locos, but not with such an alien appearance. Some Gortonising changes to the follow-on order might have been stipulated, including a GC cab and a running plate bracketed off the frames below boiler level - maybe Gorton would even have preferred one of those then fashionable top-feeds:


Does the above image put anybody else in mind of The Great Bear?

More to follow as the evening progresses. By the way, following my last emergency image-thinning session on imageshack, I don't intend to allow the problem to build up to such a level again in the near future. A proportion of recent images will disappear some time soon, so if anybody wishes to preserve particular favourites a download would be wise.

[Atlantic 3279]

Firstly a surprise. Whilst this beast may well in due course fall into line with my usual late thirties LNER livery regime, here's a view of the previously plain right side, now temporarily equipped for attempted stealth missions on 1950s layouts:

And now, for those gentlemen who worry about size (and remember that my latest one would really be longer by a factor of 16/15)....

Versus the P1:

The BR 9F and Gresley's Mountain:

With its GC bedfellows, Class 1 (B2 or Sam Fay) and 8K or LNER O4:

And finally against one of the time honoured "satndard" British Goods engines:

Shortly, I shall even try to cater for SACM's wishes via that U-tube thingy*.
I really ought to have been spending time this afternoon on things other than more photography, but I suppose I felt like it at the time. At least I've got some small resin castings poured and curing!

* Here we go:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vYOOihP8 ... ture=g-upl

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p6z-9lb0 ... ure=relmfu

[2002EarlMarischal]

Well that certainly put things into perspective. Many thanks for the comparative photos. Interesting that it doesn't look that huge against Gresley's mountain.

Very high "drool factor"; nice to see some old favourites again!

[Atlantic 3279]

Tea drinking time now, methinks.

[manna]

G'Day Gents

A very nice conversion, and compered with the R1 mountain, not as big as I thought it would be, the line drawing was more in line with what I thought you would end up with, especially with the love of low running plates in that era.

manna

[Manxman1831]

Seeing your B2 in green has got me thinking... (I can already hear the wallet heading for the hills, screaming) How much work would it take to alter the Sir Sam Fay kit into a B3? Now to get drawings produced for that conversion... after my Reid-Ramsey build.

[Atlantic 3279]

A job I have in mind for some future date too. I picked up a reasonably suitable GWR 2-cylinder style casting for both cylinders and the stretcher a few years ago. Making and aligning the complex shape of the remote slidebars to a good standard may be a challenge. Ask Roy Jackson, if you dare, about the trials and tribulations of GC four cylinder slidebars if you happen to get a chance, I gather he has been swearing at a set or two recently.

[S.A.C. Martin]

Just to say, thank you for pandering to my whim Graeme - it really is a magnificent beast in action, mind!

Given you say it's only 15/16ths of its actual scale length, it's even more impressive.

Will say this - I do prefer the Great Central branding compared to the BR one for this particular locomotive. Something about the BR cycling lion doesn't sit quite well on that engine. Regardless, it looks fabulous.

[Atlantic 3279]

Don't know whether I care for the early BR branding either, but it's certainly different, and a temporary means to an end.

I found myself tinkering with the Baldwin again today. I felt that with all the American toys removed from the area under the running boards there was that bit too much daylight under the boiler, emphasizing the presence of a gearbox that shouldn't be there and the under-scale wheels and associated too-low bar frame tops. Also there was an unrealistic amount of daylight above the rear truck, whose exposed pivot point looked, well, shoddy and toylike. My drawing, albeit somewhat sketchy, certainly seemed to show something like plate frames sloping upwards under the firebox, and by the look of it two or three transverse (plate) stays connecting the bar frames at intervals to the underside of the boiler. I've added a basic representation of the largely conjectural appearance of those stays, in plastikard, and have boxed in the area under the firebox in the same material. The taper of these added frames, in plan view, allows the rear truck to still swing to almost its original extent before the wheels touch the frames, giving far more freedom than is needed for just a 3 foot curve radius. The taper is well concealed by the fact that the frames are tucked away under the wide firebox, masked partly by the truck. They have sloping lower edges anyway so the fact that they are not parallel to the sides of the loco isn't immediately obvious even when they are seen.

[Atlantic 3279]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QkWKhTjf ... e=youtu.be

[52D]

viewtopic.php?f=11&t=7241
Atlantic can i draw your attention to this topic and ask you to run your eye over the loco and to make a few comments on possibilities for a model.

[Atlantic 3279]

I'll have a look at that over the next few days. I'm sure somebody, somewhere, has already suggested starting from a D49 for such a loco, which (at a glance) looks a reasonable idea for body and tender, maybe cylinders and bogie too. There's a bit to do in respect of length (two D49 shells cut & shut?), coupled wheelbase, articulation bogie and rear tender bogie of course. Loco drive would presumably be the only realistic option.
Was one of the old NER "Z" (C7) class also modernized to a similar appearance but without articulation? Memory doesn't serve fully on that score at present.

Further thought after a few minutes....
Would it be possible to avoid building a bespoke loco drive unit by using the chassis from a loco-driven Gresley pacific, B17 or B1, but removing the third coupled wheelset? Cheap-ish spare pacific chassis do exist, the B17s aren't even out yet of course, and the B1 would need bigger wheels (for Bachmann, say ex-A4?). Motor width may well be the snag however if a pacific chassis is used in this application, as Earl Marischal has discovered with his 4-8-2 project in which the motor must sit in a narrower part of the boiler.

[Saint Johnstoun]

Attached are drawings of the actual C7 rebuild with lenz poppet valves and the proposal to rebuild with outside valve gear and derived 2 to 1 gear for the centre cylinder.

NER Class C7 rebuilds.doc

(190 KiB) Downloaded 77 times

[S.A.C. Martin]

My first thought was that the Hornby Railroad 4-4-0 chassis from under their D49 could be useable. The reasoning behind this is because the rear driving wheelset can be moved forward into the closer position (which is how they use the same chassis for the Great Western County 4-4-0).

Stretching the D49 body backwards, whilst moving the rear driving wheels forwards might give a half decent representation when coupled with a bogie and suitable tender.

You would need a set of appropriate coupling rods, but other than that it could be an easy modification to the Railroad model.

EDIT:



I think I may be wrong, and it's the front drivers which move backwards. Either way, as I found out with my D class bash, it's a great chassis for modifying and has a lot of potential.