Heather Kay
Western Thunderer
As noted in another thread, I have been persuaded by Best Beloved to try and complete an Ivatt 2MT 2-6-2T that he began back in the last century.
The etches came to us via Dick Bollen, formerly of Shedmaster Models. He'd been planning an Ivatt tank for his range, and we were lucky enough to acquire one of the test etches from him. Sadly, the kit may never appear, though Laurie Griffin - who took over the Shedmaster range - has castings in his extensive range, so you never know.
Most of the detail parts came from various sources. The chimney and dome were turned for us by Graham Baseden. Home of O Gauge - remember them? Sorely missed - was scoured for stuff like buffers, firebox and cab fittings, lubricators, injectors and so on. Other parts were fabricated from scratch, or plundered from the bits box.
The loco BB was modelling was a specific member of the class, number 41222. It was a Bletchley loco in the late 1950s, and was found regularly on the Newport Pagnell branch: indeed, it was the loco that pulled the last passenger train on the branch in 1964. The loco ended up in Carlisle as station pilot - which happily provides us with some excellent colour broadside views taken in the mid-1960s. 41222 was motor-fitted, to operate with LMS and BR pull-and-push trains.
We had got as far as painting the boiler/firebox/smokebox assembly, and the motor-fitting gear had been scratch-built when I made the mistake of persuading BB to acquire the Laurie Griffin castings as they were the right ones for the job. It all kind of went a bit wrong from there.
I've been assessing the loco, which has languished in its box for over a decade. I've been looking at what needs repair or replacing, and what needs to be acquired to complete the project. I'm dong this while I pluck up the courage to start the JLTRT Mk2 I have to build for Pete Waterman's trade stand, and while I await three white boxes from the same company to begin a commissioned set of coaches.
Here's the sort of thing I'm trying to sort out. The cylinder wrappers weren't bent properly to shape originally, so they are under tension - and have broken free along the top edges. Of course, I can't simply take them off, reshape and refix. Nothing so simple. The wrappers appear to be integral parts of the cylinder mounting system, so I'm currently trying to find a foolproof method of holding them and resoldering without everything around them dropping off. I am open to suggestions.
The bunker ladder collapsed while I was cleaning up solder and flux deposits. I managed to repair it by carefully cleaning everything up, tacking the two verticals together, marking out and drilling new holes for the rungs, and using an ad hoc balsa jig to reconstruct it. It's not perfect, but I think it'll be okay.
Best Beloved has completed the rat's nest of pipes that come out of the lubricators in front of the side tanks. I think he'd used Evo-Stik to fix them, because they literally fell out as I handled the body. I've cleaned things up, tweaked the pipes a bit and will glue them back on before I begin to assemble the fiddly motor-fitting bits.
Chunky castings from Laurie Griffin for the motor-fitting bits. I've fitted the copper wire, and drilled the required holes to lose them below the footplate. I tried soldering them together, but it was beyond my skills to get things square. I shall glue the baseplate to the footplate, and most likely glue the upright valve/pump doodad to the smokebox, so the minimum of damage will be done if it's decided to remove the boiler assembly one day. The vac pump arrangement will be fitted once the supports are fitted to the smokebox. All a bit fiddly, but it'll look great once it's done.
I found a pair of these tank overflow/breather pipes in the box. Presumably they're from Laurie's range, and I guess we bought them at some point.
There's a little damage to the smokebox wrapper where the original scratch-built fitting gear was removed. Happily it will be hidden by the new gear going on. The dome and chimney were turned up for us many moons ago by our good friend Graham Baseden, a professional modelmaker of some repute, now living in the West Country. The top feed probably came from the Home of O Gauge. The safety valves had been fabricated by Best Beloved, but I felt they were a bit too skinny. I had a pair of turned Ross pops in my Fowler Dock Tank kit (another started kit that may take its place on my workbench through the summer), so I'll replace those when I see Laurie at the S7 meeting in a couple of weeks.
I actually have a fair shopping list of bits I need, like cabside draught screens and tank top stays. I'm sure a few other bits will be found necessary as well. We'll be bringing the carcass of 41222 along to the show. It might even be persuaded to trundle round the test track for a while.
The etches came to us via Dick Bollen, formerly of Shedmaster Models. He'd been planning an Ivatt tank for his range, and we were lucky enough to acquire one of the test etches from him. Sadly, the kit may never appear, though Laurie Griffin - who took over the Shedmaster range - has castings in his extensive range, so you never know.
Most of the detail parts came from various sources. The chimney and dome were turned for us by Graham Baseden. Home of O Gauge - remember them? Sorely missed - was scoured for stuff like buffers, firebox and cab fittings, lubricators, injectors and so on. Other parts were fabricated from scratch, or plundered from the bits box.
The loco BB was modelling was a specific member of the class, number 41222. It was a Bletchley loco in the late 1950s, and was found regularly on the Newport Pagnell branch: indeed, it was the loco that pulled the last passenger train on the branch in 1964. The loco ended up in Carlisle as station pilot - which happily provides us with some excellent colour broadside views taken in the mid-1960s. 41222 was motor-fitted, to operate with LMS and BR pull-and-push trains.
We had got as far as painting the boiler/firebox/smokebox assembly, and the motor-fitting gear had been scratch-built when I made the mistake of persuading BB to acquire the Laurie Griffin castings as they were the right ones for the job. It all kind of went a bit wrong from there.
I've been assessing the loco, which has languished in its box for over a decade. I've been looking at what needs repair or replacing, and what needs to be acquired to complete the project. I'm dong this while I pluck up the courage to start the JLTRT Mk2 I have to build for Pete Waterman's trade stand, and while I await three white boxes from the same company to begin a commissioned set of coaches.
Here's the sort of thing I'm trying to sort out. The cylinder wrappers weren't bent properly to shape originally, so they are under tension - and have broken free along the top edges. Of course, I can't simply take them off, reshape and refix. Nothing so simple. The wrappers appear to be integral parts of the cylinder mounting system, so I'm currently trying to find a foolproof method of holding them and resoldering without everything around them dropping off. I am open to suggestions.
The bunker ladder collapsed while I was cleaning up solder and flux deposits. I managed to repair it by carefully cleaning everything up, tacking the two verticals together, marking out and drilling new holes for the rungs, and using an ad hoc balsa jig to reconstruct it. It's not perfect, but I think it'll be okay.
Best Beloved has completed the rat's nest of pipes that come out of the lubricators in front of the side tanks. I think he'd used Evo-Stik to fix them, because they literally fell out as I handled the body. I've cleaned things up, tweaked the pipes a bit and will glue them back on before I begin to assemble the fiddly motor-fitting bits.
Chunky castings from Laurie Griffin for the motor-fitting bits. I've fitted the copper wire, and drilled the required holes to lose them below the footplate. I tried soldering them together, but it was beyond my skills to get things square. I shall glue the baseplate to the footplate, and most likely glue the upright valve/pump doodad to the smokebox, so the minimum of damage will be done if it's decided to remove the boiler assembly one day. The vac pump arrangement will be fitted once the supports are fitted to the smokebox. All a bit fiddly, but it'll look great once it's done.
I found a pair of these tank overflow/breather pipes in the box. Presumably they're from Laurie's range, and I guess we bought them at some point.
There's a little damage to the smokebox wrapper where the original scratch-built fitting gear was removed. Happily it will be hidden by the new gear going on. The dome and chimney were turned up for us many moons ago by our good friend Graham Baseden, a professional modelmaker of some repute, now living in the West Country. The top feed probably came from the Home of O Gauge. The safety valves had been fabricated by Best Beloved, but I felt they were a bit too skinny. I had a pair of turned Ross pops in my Fowler Dock Tank kit (another started kit that may take its place on my workbench through the summer), so I'll replace those when I see Laurie at the S7 meeting in a couple of weeks.
I actually have a fair shopping list of bits I need, like cabside draught screens and tank top stays. I'm sure a few other bits will be found necessary as well. We'll be bringing the carcass of 41222 along to the show. It might even be persuaded to trundle round the test track for a while.