Atlantic's works: Portable layout - Scenic details next

[JASd17]

Hi Graeme,

What a strange looking machine, That 'dome' for a start. Did Gresley also have some reservations about the V-fronted cab? According to O S Nock, Thompson thought it was a factor in a fatal accident.

I was lucky enough to meet Mr Nock on one occasion, at Millbrook House, in Birmingham. I have been unlucky enough to read many of his volumes too.

Totally agree about the Green paint!

John

[Nova]

How does the V4 compare to your own GNR Prarie I wonder

[Woodcock29]

Graeme
The V4 looks like a good buy. I got a part built one a year or so ago for about £30 from a deceased estate here in Oz. The body and tender are built to a very high standard and already primed - I just need to replace the handrails and build the chassis and I'm going to get some Markits driving wheels for it as it has very old Romfords in the box. But I'm not sure where it is in the priority list, but I suppose it wouldn't take too long and at present I'm trying to finish off part built projects, my next on the list being a Q4.
Andrew

[Atlantic 3279]

Perhaps a photographic comparison of three 2-6-2 types, in due course?

The loco certainly runs very smoothly but for total satisfaction I'll have to add more pick-ups. American pick up through three coupled wheel on the loco and three (more truly two and a half) on the tender isn't quite good enough on imperfect track.

One or two cosmetic jobs might get done as part of a repaint. There's a strange ridge across the width of the heavily painted front buffer beam begging for attention. The running plate isn't quite level under the left side of the cab and firebox, but I'm not sure I want to tinker with that - it might involve a lot of risky interference with structure and with currently crisp detail on the castings. There a slight departure from the true curvature at the rear edge of the cab roof, but hardly anything really.

The turned, sprung buffers, the vac pipes, the screw couplings and the (by the look of it) Gibson pony wheels, on top of the neat general construction, all suggest to me that the builder actually cared about how he built locos, and understood what a good result looks like. The whole thing appears to be soldered rather than glued, and almost as neat on the inside as the outside. The pony trucks pivot on proper shouldered screw fixings and the chassis-to-body fixing screws seem to observe proper engineering principles. I'm yet to spot a bodge anywhere.

[Atlantic 3279]

Poor upper first image of the Bantam Hen - sorry, no time for better at present:

[nzpaul]

That V4 will look lovely in green, looking forward to seeing it in it's proper colour.

Cheers
Paul

[Atlantic 3279]

An update on resin supplies if any others are having a go:

For the last couple of years I've been buying 1kg quantities from Abacus Technologies, of Rowley Regis, W.Mids. I am told that Abacus has gone out of business.

The resin I have been using was Rampf "Raku Tool", PF3700-1 and PH3970-1. It is evidently some time since I last needed to buy, in anticipation of starting the P2 castings last year, as my almost used up current bottles have November 2016 expiry dates! Regardless of that, the bottles have been open for some time, have not lived in the fridge or an inert atmosphere, yet are still producing good castings of some wagon loads required by a co-conspirator.

Thanks to a suggestion that came my way as a result of an unbelievable coincidence about ten days ago, I've managed to find a new willing supplier of 1kg quantities of Rampf Resin. Their lists for the right sort of product referred only to PF3700-2 and PH3977, but examination of the data sheets suggests to me that the main user-relevant technical characteristics of these are the same as previous resins. These have come from John Burn & Co of Birmingham. I'll try to remember to let you know how well I get on with these. I wonder if they are simply the updated versions of the resins I was using? I'm not entirely sure whether J. Burn will supply to private individuals, as for simplicity when completing their on-line enquiry form I used a valid company name in one of compulsory fields. Should anybody else encounter a problem perhaps they will let us know?

[Atlantic 3279]

Those P2s raise their ugly heads once again.....

I've often though that Hornby could have made a better job of the pipework and additional fittings that are connected to the actually rather nice (best I've seen) moulding of the ACFI pumps on the model of Cock o' the North. Comparison of the model with a part of a scanned picture of the real thing illustrates some of the failings: One pipe is too thin, the bends are too angular, one pipe has a double-bend missing, one quite chunky pipe is missing altogether, the valve on the side of the boiler is too square/angular in shape and too plain, the item on the running plate behind the main pumps is moulded as a plain rectangular box when it should be cylindrical with a castellated look to its top - presumably due to the presence of an array of large nuts.

A larger, clearer version of that picture of the real thing appears in Andrew Hardy's book on Gresley's Class P2 Locomotives but is marred by the fact that it is printed across two pages, crossing the very tightly bound spine of the book...

At first I'd though only of altering that smaller fitting on the running plate, and had cut some parts to give it a curved outer face and the castellated top, including the delicate band of white-black-white lining (which was to be a sandwich of plasticard discs of the appropriate colours).

I then remembered buying this item some years ago, probably at Doncaster show when it still catered for modellers who actually want to build things rather than buy boxes....

The pipework is much more realistic, as is that small cylindrical fitting that goes aft of the main pumps, but the representation of the main pumps isn't right. They shouldn't be boxed-in and the square ends are wrong. It must have cost a small fortune to make and assemble all of those machined parts!

I've had a go at using the pipework (suitably adjusted) and auxiliary parts from the brass item in conjunction with the spare pump moulding that I liberated from Earl Marischal. I'm now trying to decide whether this approach is going to give the right result if I fit it to the loco.....

[Manxman1831]

That new pump sure looks very different to Hornby's offering.

[Norton Wood]

Hi Graeme,

I was at Warley over the weekend and inquired about your resin kit for the P2 fitted with the A4 Bugatti Nose and walsharts valve gear, you asked me to contact you via the LNER forum, I was wondering if I could order a P2 conversion kit from you??

If you would like my email please let me know

Thanks very much

Tom

[jwealleans]

For those who didn't make Warley, here's the thread owner looking debonair just before he started splashing it on all over.

[Atlantic 3279]

Hi Graeme,

I was at Warley over the weekend and inquired about your resin kit for the P2 fitted with the A4 Bugatti Nose and walsharts valve gear, you asked me to contact you via the LNER forum, I was wondering if I could order a P2 conversion kit from you??

If you would like my email please let me know

Thanks very much

Tom

Hi Tom,

Can you send an e-mail to the address on the card that (I hope) you picked up please? That makes it far easier for me to attach the necessary details in a reply to you, and it keeps our e-mail addresses off the parts of the forum that get scoured by robots in search of addresses for their masters to bombard with spam.

[mick b]

For those who didn't make Warley, here's the thread owner looking debonair just before he started splashing it on all over.

IMG_1297.jpg

Ohhhh. Brut 33

[Dave]

Now that could frighten children

[jwealleans]

You’re a rotten lot. Ours was a tiny corner of fragrance and harmony amid the hurly-burly.