Brettell Road

[Philip Hall]

Jim, it's quite amazing what you achieve with some of these ancient castings. Seems to be something of a speciality of yours. I will have to start digging around to see what I've got buried - and then to realise that they might actually be usuable!

Philip

[martin goodall]

I second Philip's remarks. It was seeing what Jim has done with this old K's kit that made me keen to take up Jol's offer. I did have misgivings about the original castings for the upper works (although I have not seen the kit parts in the flesh yet), but Jim's substitution of brass section is an eminently practical solution. Not exactly 'a 5-minute job' but clearly worth the time and effort.

[jim s-w]

For info I used 1.2mm and 0.8mm L section brass for the frame. (These are best guesses) The 0.8 coming from the left over bits when you use it for tie bars on 10ft wagons, the old adage of never throw stuff away! Knowing what i know now if consider seeing if I could get the floor lower than it comes in the kit but at the very least scribe the planks on before I start.

I certainly enjoy trying to get something half decent from old kits. I have another ks kit to look at which is the 24.5t coal hopper. Apparently its the prototype so it's unique but also somewhat significant as I'm led to believe it became the test bed for the technology used in merry go round hoppers. Problem I'm having at the moment I'd finding a picture of it!

[jim s-w]

The Great British Locomotives Jinty.  The model that started this whole diversion into the late 50s era. When they first appeared (as part of a magazine series) they were so cheap that I brought a second one just so I could do a before and after picture.

Recently I dug it out but I didn't want to just do another Jinty so my focus has been on its predecessor, the Johnson designed Midland 2441 class. Just for a little bit of clarity before we go any further both classes were referred to as Jinty's or Jocko's so going forward, if I mention Jinty's I mean the later LMS Fowler 3f.

So the 2441 class.  The Midland built 60 of these which were considered as heavy goods tank engines.  They were later rebuilt by Fowler which made them look very similar indeed to a Jinty.  Initially there were 2 distinct types. with or without condensing apparatus. For those interested in these locos theres a good book on the subject, Midlands Engines No.5 by David Hunt, Bob Essery and Fred James (ISBN 1-874103-94-1)

The Model

Work required can be broken down into 2 areas.  Stuff you might want to do anyway and stuff you will need to do to depict the 2441 class. Let's start with the stuff you might want to do anyway.

The handrails need replacing as do the lamp irons. The Chimney is a bit naff as are the safety valves and whistle.  The coal rail is too chunky and the buffers are somewhat generic. The steps would benefit from something a little more refined.

For the 2441 specific bits the smokebox needs to be shortened and its saddle is a different shape. The Dome is also a different shape (more rounded) although I believe some had the more flattened off type. The front splashers are different too. The biggie is the tank sides which are taller and drop down by the cab area to be a little lower than a Jinty.  The bunker is also lower and squarer with no overhang. The footplate is actually a little longer on these locos and the fairing at the ends is different.


So let's start with the footplate.  The body of the model separates into 3 parts.  The footplate, tank sides and bunker. The boiler, smokebox and tank tops and the upper part of the cab. Handily everything is plastic so carving it up is easy. I believe that the Bachmann Jinty has a cast metal footplate so it might be a bit more tricky.

The tank sides and bunker are from 30thou plasticard topped with microstrip.  The coal rails come from my spares box (Brassmasters 1f etch) and the steps are from Mainly Trains.  Splashers are also from Brassmasters (1f again) and the buffers and vac pipes are from Lanarkshire models. The lamp irons are from Stenson models.  You can see at the back of the footplate where it's been lengthened.


Not a lot to do the cab. New rear spectacle plates from Mainly trains.


The Boiler.  I cut the smokebox back and remounted the front piece (which is separate).  It seems that the condenser fitted locos had the handrail below the upper hinge like a Jinty but the others has it mounted above the hinge.  Chimney is from my spares box (Brassmasters Jinty detailing kit I think) and the safety valves and whistles are from Markits. The top of the dome had been filled and blended into a new shape.

When it comes to the tank tops, the drawings show the filler caps to be more central and they certainly would need to be on the condensing locos as theres a big pipe in the way.  However pictures of the non condensing ones show what looks like the bracket at the front of the tank indicating that they might be at the front as seen on the model.


A little bit of fiddlyness for the ejectors. The moulded one is a bit clunky and I believe depicts a combined large and small Ejector. When I did my other Jinty I used a cast detailing part for this from (I think) London Road Models. Some 2441 class locos had these.  The fiddly one depicts an earlier type and is cobbled together from 0.4mm wire with 0.6 and 0.8mm tubing.


The assembled loco (so far)  The chassis is a High level Jinty with the frames altered to be shallower. Otherwise it's built as per the kit. I didn't go for working inside motion as you really cant see it at all on these locos.

[nberrington]

Inspiring stuff as usual Jim. That looks like a proper locomotive now.
As a "heavy goods engine", are you up for one of Chris' new 1626 coreless motors and a 1:120 humpshunter gearbox?

[Phil Eames]

Hi Jim

I've just listened to this and I understand your layout a lot better

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001hph9

But a bolshie lot, surely not?

Cheers
Phil

[jim s-w]

Inspiring stuff as usual Jim. That looks like a proper locomotive now.
As a "heavy goods engine", are you up for one of Chris' new 1626 coreless motors and a 1:120 humpshunter gearbox?

Apparently these were considered the midlands most powerful tank engines. Probably why 4 went straight to Bromsgrove for duties on the Lickey. However while Brettell Road isn't flat either it isn't big enough for big trains so I I've gone for a smaller motor to give me more room for a stay alive decoder.

Chris includes the gearbox in his chassis kit although I've modified it a little bit to make the motor sit lower.

Cheers

Jim

PS thanks Phil.

[jim s-w]

My 2441 tank is now done.  Heres some images

I will need to straighten that station lamp.  It's amazing how things are so obvious in a photo but equally so invisible to the naked eye!


Crew by Modelu which is pretty much standard these days

Lurking

[Albert Hall]

Nice looking loco Jim and I like the finish. There are two things in the penultimate shot which I think are really striking and those are the flow of the pointwork and the weathering of the ironwork on the overbridge. Both completely believable.

Roy

[Lord Colnago]

Super stuff Jim, very atmospheric. I'm always amazed at how quickly you get things done.

John.

[jim s-w]

Thanks Chaps

I find that if i don't do things quickly they tend to stall and don't get done at all John. My website actually helps as I like to keep projects together so it it encourages me to finish one before I start on the next*. Case in point is my Duchess build where, because its on its own workbench its kind of got stuck but I have just picked it back up again.

*not strictly true as projects are always overlapping each other.

Cheers

Jim

[jim s-w]

When my friend Tom kindly gave me the Ks kit for the Coral glass wagon (featured earlier) he also gave me another Ks kit for the 24.5t coal hopper.  Further investigation  showed that this was a kit that was based on the prototype B333000 which was not really like the production ones in that the ends were different.  I suppose back in the day this was your only option however now you can buy 24.5t hoppers ready to run this strange little oddity might have a little value as something different from what everyone else is doing.

B333000 was one of 2 prototypes and was built at Shildon. The other B333001 was built at Ashford and it seems to heave been this latter example that influenced the production run. I believe B333000 was later used for experimentation of the automated doors used for MGR trains but photos of it are rare as hens teeth.  Simon Bendall kindly supplied the only picture I had to work from.

So, breaking a golden rule I have had to make educated guesses about some of the details of this wagon. The underframe in Simons picture is very dark and looked to have been modified in some way. It was claimed the Shildon design was basically a taller 21 ton hopper and the lack of outer discharge doors kind of backs that up. So getting hold of a parkside 21t kit to use as a guide I set to work.



The hopper had some chunky mouldings on the inside of the corners that gave quite a positive location.  But as I wanted it to be empty they had to go.  I replaced the W Irons with Bill Bedford sprung ones (from my nearly depleted stocks) and Wizard model axle boxes.  These were soldered in place as supplied and when I was happy everything was square the centre of the w irons was cut away to give an open floor. The end platforms were replaced with a bit of brass as the moulded ones sat on top of the solebars and were too thick.  The kit had no hopper doors so these were made from plasticard using a parkside 21t hopper kit as a guide.

The finished wagon (well almost finished - I haven't added the door mechanism handles yet) is a bit of a heavyweight in that its 78 grammes.  About 50% more than my usual target of 50g.



The parkside kit built up.  This is the opposite of the Ks kit as while i added some lead overlays to the inside lower hopper its a tad light at only 38g.

Moving away from hoppers I've also finished of the construction phase of this...



A David Geen milk tank which I was told by the man himself when I brought it was the last one!  This uses a Rumney models chassis and has, to be honest, been a bit of  slow burner.  Its one of those kits that I just seemed to struggle to get any enthusiasm for but I'm pleased with it now it's done. I thought the hopper was heavy but this weighs in at 88 grammes!

[Tony Wilkins]

Hi Jim.
I have 7 of those Ks hopper wagons in my unbuild collection. Purchased in the days before we knew better, I had no idea it was a one off. I had intentions of making 21t hoppers out of them until the likes of Airfix produced their RTR riveted version showing how different they were.
Oh well. Back to the drawing board.
Regards
Tony.

[jim s-w]

Just a super short post this time. The wagons featured last time are done and can be released into the wild.





Is it just me or do metal kits always just seem a bit 'meh' once they are painted?