DJ Models 14xx on High Level chassis

[david.themulveys]

001_finished_loco.JPG

Hello everyone welcome to my first posting on the Forum, please bear with me while I get used to the intricacies of BB Code – can’t be more difficult than persuading wheels not to be wobbly, can it??

As a break from various recent adventures with green diesels, over the last few months I’ve been idly building a High Level 14xx chassis in an attempt to hone the personal skills in P4 steam loco chassis construction. So far, so relatively straightforward, given the quality of the kit and the excellent instructions. But then something must have come over me as I decided to have a go at fitting the body from the DJ Models 00 loco onto the chassis as built. This is a record for fellow modellers of what followed….

Unlike many earlier steam outline models, the DJ Models body is made up of several main components, and it is necessary to take these apart in order to modify the body to provide room for the motor supplied with the chassis. The good news is that very little modification to the chassis is required to get the two to fit together. The slightly less good news is that dismantling and modifying the body is not entirely straightforward, so here are some of the experiences I had so you can make use of what I learned the hard way!

I don’t use DCC myself so I discarded the DCC socket and associated wiring to make it simpler to fit the body but I don’t see why this shouldn’t be retained – do feel free to add a comment if you succeed in doing this.

Dismantling the Body

We start with the 00 model out of the box. We can take the body apart by following some simple steps but as can happen with these things there does come a point where we have to be brave and apply a little bit of force (just the right amount in just the right place!!); with luck you’ll find it fairly straightforward having the benefit of the illustrations below.

002_DJM_loco.JPG

To give you an idea where we’re going on this, here are the major components (tanks and footplate as modified to suit the chassis, cab roof and boiler don’t need to be modified).

003_main_components.JPG

So let’s take a deep breath, put the soothing music on (or whatever else helps to manage the blood pressure) and start dismantling the locomotive:

004_DJM_underneath.JPG

1. Unscrew the tension lock couplings and take off the D shaped brackets
2. Undo the screws underneath the couplings and in the centre of the chassis (3 screws in total)
3. Disconnect the front vacuum pipe by levering out gently with eg snipe nosed pliers – until this is done the front part of the chassis is held down by this pipe
4. Move aside the front sandpipes to leave room for the chassis to come out
5. Pull out the injector pipes from the rear of the chassis (they are fitted in the centre of a rectangular area which is part of the chassis).

005_dismantling_body_side.JPG

6. Using two or more small screwdrivers carefully lever out the chassis noting that although it will come away it is still connected to the body by the wiring. This is the part where you just have to guess the right amount of force to apply.

006_dismantling_body_underneath.JPG

7. Unsolder the two wires to separate the chassis from the body. You will find that the motor is retained within the body – to get this out, we have to take the cab/tanks off together with the boiler assembly.

007_underneath_footplate_DJ.JPG

8. Undo the screw under the chimney (on the right in the above picture) – the boiler will now come loose but not free yet – see below.

008_coal_space.JPG

9. Take the coal out by levering at the middle of the bunker edge – the coal should come out easily
10. Undo the two screws inside the coal bunker at the bottom. These hold the cab to the footplate and also secure the cab roof subassembly to the cab sides and tanks.

009_vertical_wire.JPG

11. Pull out the vertical wire on the right hand side of the cab from where it is located in the footplate

010_front_conduit_box.JPG

12. The cab should now come partly free from the footplate but note it is held by a delicate wire at the front- pull this wire carefully out of the black junction box

011_Mazak_block.JPG

13. Carefully lift off the cab and tanks so you can get to at the screws holding down the Mazak block underneath the tank. You’ll see from the photo I hadn’t worked out at the time how to pull the wire out of the junction box as per step 12 so I was having to do one side at a time. Undo the screws and remove the block.

012_motor_removal.JPG

14. Now undo the two silver screws holding the motor down, unclip the motor and withdraw it from its housing
15. Unclip the handrail from the cab roof

013_cab_roof.JPG

16. Now we want to detach the cab roof from the cab sides and tanks unit. As you can see from the above picture, apart from being held down by the two screws we removed earlier, the cab roof is held in place by a tab (upper right). Inside the tank, push on this tab (note this is the one in the middle, ignore the two stubby tabs for the moment), and the cab roof should come off smoothly.
17. You can now push on the stubby tabs and lift out the boiler/firebox subassembly
18. Take off the smokebox door by very gently levering behind the hinges (the door is designed to be removable and is only held by two magnets).

014_smokebox.JPG

19. Withdraw the DCC socket from the smokebox by pushing it into the boiler. This will free all the remaining wiring plus the motor. If you wish to use DCC you may want to retain the socket and wire it into the new motor later
20. Drill out the plastic lug holding a second Mazak weight inside the boiler. Admire the rather nice dome shape on the weight before binning it.
21. This completes the dismantling.

Modifications to the Body and Chassis

015_underneath_HL_chassis.JPG

I decided to make the fundamental assumption that I would try very hard not to modify the chassis (that way if it all went horribly wrong I could go back to the Airfix/Hornby body!!). In fact the only thing I ended up having to do, apart from adding mounting brackets to secure the new body, was to file down a U-shaped bracket designed to support the Airfix cab (see details below). Fortunately, it was possible to do this after I had built the chassis.

So, build the chassis according to the High Level instructions, but when you come to fit the pickups use your favourite method (I used the curly flange wiper method as you can see) but try very hard not to end up having wiring above the top of the chassis as this is likely to make it much harder to fit the body. How do I know?? After many adventures I ended up using the “power bus” method with thick longitudinal wires underneath the chassis as can be seen above.

016_slot_in_tanks.JPG

Now for the surgery on the body. Carefully form a hole using your usual approach (minidrill plus filing or whatever) 11.5mm by 33m in the top of the tanks to provide clearance for the Mashima motor used by the High Level chassis. Chamfer underneath at an angle of about 30-40 degrees to the horizontal to give maximum room for the motor to move.

017_slot_in_cab.JPG

Now cut a slot about 5mm wide in the rear wall of the tank unit to provide clearance for the wiring and solder tags on the motor. Remove the green boss which was used to hold the middle chassis fixing screw and file the area under the cab flat. We will be providing new fixing points at the ends of the chassis but the centre fixing point isn’t really necessary.

[018]

018_hole_in_footplate.JPG

On the footplate, carefully cut away the red inside motion panel (hole must be no wider than the representation of the motion as we’re using this to create a view of the High Level inside motion you have painstakingly constructed). Cut away the footplate in the middle and at the cab end to create a larger hole as shown in the above picture. Keep checking against the boiler and the cab sides/tanks unit to make sure you don’t cut away too much, and test regularly against the chassis to make sure you cut away just enough.

019_underneath_footplate.JPG

At the cab end of the footplate, carefully break away the axlebox subframes and clean up.

Now for the fiddly part. Cut slots in the underneath of the footplate to accept the High Level chassis (four longitudinal slots and one transverse slot), so that the body can sit level on the chassis with the cab (green plastic) tight up against the top of the chassis. You will have to file off the back of the black boss for the chassis securing screw to do this but make sure you keep the thread intact as we will need this to secure the chassis.
At the smokebox end of the footplate, carefully break off the sandboxes and file away any remains to give a flat surface which again should fit snugly against the top of the chassis.

File the back of the smokebox saddle to fit against the motion bracket on the chassis, noting that the motion bracket is fitted at an angle of about 10 degrees to the vertical so we need to file the smokebox saddle to the same angle.

Keep filing until the footplate fits snugly against the chassis – this is likely to take quite a few attempts till things are satisfactory.

020_footplate_brackets.JPG

021_smokebox_end_chassis_bracket.JPG

022_cab_end_chassis_bracket.JPG

I now fashioned a couple of securing brackets from unwanted OO parts from the High Level nickel silver etch and soldered these on to the chassis, one at each end, in such a way as to allow the existing bushed screwholes underneath the footplate to be used. To get this method to work you will need to file down the heads of the DJ Models screws (especially at the cab end) so they don’t catch on the cross member at each end of the High Level chassis.

Modify the chassis to add the securing brackets, file down the transverse U channel across the top of the chassis at the cab end (part 59 on High Level instructions) so that the cab floor will be able to fit.

Ensure (a) the footplate then (b) the cab/tanks subassembly will fit snugly against the chassis before going any further - this is likely to take quite a few attempts till things are satisfactory. Check the buffer heights at each end and either file the footplate a little more or, if necessary, adjust the chassis according to the High Level instructions.

Now reassemble the body with the footplate away from the chassis. Fit the cab sides/tanks to the footplate and add the boiler/firebox unit, securing it with the screw under the smokebox. Lower the cab roof into place and secure with the two screws in the coal space. Replace the coal and the smokebox and refit any handrails, pipework and any wiring you had to disturb to get the body to pieces. Finally reattach the chassis and check everything still works.

All being well you should now have a complete locomotive which runs happily up and down the track. I haven’t done anything about additional weighting yet but there seem to be opportunities to add weight in the smokebox, the tanks and the coal space, depending on what you plan to do about DCC.

While I think of it, I would like to thank Chris Gibbon of High Level kits for checking out the completed chassis and also the members of the P4 group of the Farnham MRC for their support and encouragement in advancing the P4 modelling skills. Thanks guys!!

Meanwhile, has anyone else out there tried this? Any suggestions on how to make things easier or refine the method to produce a better result?

[Knuckles]

Anyone else tried this?

Sort of, check out Captain Kernow's ordeal he had with the DJ 1400. On RMweb, unsure about here.

ALL that just to get the damn body off. Opinions are like rear ends - everyone has one. My opinion is the design is bol%$#s. Waaay too much faffing about. Unfriendly.

I recently buggered my N gauge Dapol 5700 in more ways than one struggling with it. Very similar to how this one is. Will be sending it off to some one who doesn't have sausages as fingers.

What ever happened to a simple screw at one end and a locating tab at the other? Too easy, not enough 'innovation' that's what. Winds me up.

Anyway, before I ramble and whine forever, your chassis indeed looks good and I hope it works out for you. I can't really help other than point you to the Captain.

https://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index ... in-kernow/

Click the link then on the left look at his latest blogs.

He is on here too but only saw those posts in the blogs on RMweb.

[david.themulveys]

Thanks Knuckles

Managed to find Captain Kernow's experiences from your hint - if anyone else is interested it's under "new chassis for Hattons 14xx" on rmweb in three parts.

He seems to have had similar issues to those I encountered, in his case dealing with the Mazak block by extensive use of a Dremel!
Looks as though he ended up with a nice chassis though.

David

[Pannier Tank]

David,

Thank you for sharing your work. Reading your article has given me some encouragement that a High Level Chassis can be fitted to the Hattons / DJM 14xx Model without destroying it. I imagined that there would be lots of glued components that would need to be prised apart; this appears not to be the case.

Well done.

[david.themulveys]

David

You are correct in your supposition yes! The cab/tanks unit in particular seems to be glued to the footplate but that's only because of the pipework/conduits holding it in place as well as the screws.

The whole thing seems to be nicely engineered actually - it looks as though there is intended to be a logical sequence for freeing the relevant detail then unscrewing the major components.

David

[Knuckles]

Would still be easier if things were designed to be less interlocked. Screw and lip - done.

[Captain Kernow]

Managed to find Captain Kernow's experiences from your hint - if anyone else is interested it's under "new chassis for Hattons 14xx" on rmweb in three parts.

He seems to have had similar issues to those I encountered, in his case dealing with the Mazak block by extensive use of a Dremel!
Looks as though he ended up with a nice chassis though.

Hi David,

I've only just managed to find my password for this forum, as I am currently using a different computer, due to some major DIY work at home! Lack of familiarity with this other computer and general clumsiness has already seen me lose a lengthy reply for this thread

I model in both OO and P4 and as I already have a 14XX in P4, the Hattons/DJM model that I bought is intended for a new 'cameo' layout in OO, set in the Welsh Borders (think 'the Presteigne Goods with added Pecketts'). As such, the non-top feed model that I bought will become 1458, which was one of the last 14XXs shedded at Hereford for the Kington and Presteign goods.

I had hoped to have received a decent runner, but this was sadly not to be. The first example went straight back to Hattons, after it got worse with running in, rather than better.

I didn't run its replacement for a few months, but when I finally did so, despite a promising start, it also reverted to type and got worse after running in.

I had already bought a Perseverance chassis kit as a precaution some time ago (the idea being that I would put it under the old Airfix body that I have lurking in my box of kits).

It is, in my view, a testament to the poor design of the chassis that I have been forced to build a chassis kit for this loco, just to run it as an OO model. At least I will have driving wheels closer to scale size, the Hattons/DJM ones are approx 1mm too wide in diameter (for no apparent reason).

As Knuckles has said, I went down an altogether different route to you, when it came to fitting the new chassis. I looked at the delicate conduit runs on the rather lovely 14XX body and decided that I would try not to disturb any of it and simply remove the Hattons/DJM motor from below.

Not having realised about the extent of the mazak block inside the side tank mouldings, it seemed to me that the easiest way to remove the motor would be to use an old soldering iron bit, filed to a knife profile, to slice through the unwanted plastic. This did work, but during the work, I managed to fuse the footplate and cab/tank mouldings together in one place (not visible). As a result, once I did realise how much of a hindrance the mazak block would be, I found that I really didn't want to try to force the footplate and cab/side tank mouldings apart, for fear of causing damage that would be difficult to remedy/disguise. That meant that I would have to use my friend John Farmer's Dremel to remove the mazak, which we duly did (my thanks to John for his assistance during that slightly fraught operation!).

Removing the mazak block meant that I could now fit a larger motor plus a flywheel (it now has a 1220), whereas before the only motor that would really fit was a 1015 and that seemed to struggle.

The aforementioned DIY work at home, which has been accorded a Very High Priority by Captain The Mrs Kernow, has meant that I have had little time to continue work on 1458, although I have now abandoned the High Level LoadHauler Compact+/DriveStretcher 'lash-up' driving the front axle, in favour of a standard LoadHauler Compact+ driving the second driven axle. In fact, the new gearbox was assembled and installed this afternoon and will, in turn permit an easier configuration of pick ups.

I was planning to mention this work on this forum, but hadn't got round to it. I think I was planning on having a completed, running and painted/weathered chassis to show folk, but the DIY has got in the way.

As you may have seen from my RMWeb blog, I decided to modify the profile of the Perseverance side frames, to fit the Hattons/DJM body. Presumably you have had to modify the body, due to having already built the chassis? (very nice work, by the way).

If I was going to do this again (and Heaven help me, I might have to, because I have bought another, top feed example in the Hattons sale, to become 1420), I would definitely dismantle the conduits and remove the Hattons/DJM motor and mazak block in a decent, civilised manner.

I am undecided whether to replace the buffers, as they are quite stiff, despite being meant to be sprung. If I were doing one in P4, I'd be even more tempted to do so, especially if the loco was going to end up shunting the Presteign goods.

As such, your extensive notes could come in extremely handy, so many thanks for taking the time to post them.

[david.themulveys]

Tim/Captain K

This is really interesting thanks very much for replying in so much detail.

Have had a soft spot for the New Radnor and Presteigne branches ever since seeing the photos in GW Branch Line album, and the Jim/Mike Clemens video on Railways of Herefordshire really conveys the atmosphere so will look forward to the news on how that's progressing!

I haven't tried running the loco in OO; the motor does look rather small I have to say and I was a little put off by the statement you shouldn't run it with a feedback controller so never got round to it.

As you say, would be better not to disturb the conduit runs but can't have everything I guess. From your postings I gather you had more freedom to choose the motor configuration than I did - as you surmise I built the chassis first then decided to go for it and try to fit the DJ Models body knowing I could fall back to an Airfix one with the upgrading kit applied if I had to. Meant that I just had to keep cutting till the motor fitted (luckily it was all possible!!) whereas I gather you've been able to look at lower profile options hence cutting the Mazak out from the bottom and you were able to modify the chassis profile as well (in the case of the High Level chassis again I was totally lucky in that it basically does fit under the footplate after the various filing activities on the body especially under the cab and having fixed part 59 as mentioned).

Very grateful to you and your fellow club members for regularly bringing the Devon Riviera test track along to Scaleforum by the way - have tested one or two things on it now, not many opportunities to get access to a P4 track on that scale.

Eagerly awaiting "Hattons 14xx Part 4" on Rmweb!

David

[Captain Kernow]

Eagerly awaiting "Hattons 14xx Part 4" on Rmweb!

Thanks, David.

I have now updated the blog - http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index. ... xx-part-4/

One thing that is clear to me, having built the chassis rigid (I was kind of steered down this route by earlier decisions of my own), is that this would probably have been rather easier in P4, as the greater clearances between the frames would have ensured that I could have compensated the chassis right from the beginning.

[david.themulveys]

Tim/Captain K

All looks very good, like the picture of the future 1458 on the rolling road especially. A lot of chassis building experience behind that I suspect.

Just need an open merchandise wagon with a few sacks in it and a Toad, a (very) judicious application of static grass to the track then you have the Presteigne goods in its last days!

I guess the frame clearance issue is a good example of a closely guarded secret known only to P4 modellers - sometimes things are actually easier in P4 than OO...

Fellow modellers

So that's two DJ Models 14xxs with a new chassis now known to be out there - is anyone else starting on a similar exercise, if so do tell us how you get on!

BTW does anyone know (a) if any of our suppliers do the auto gear required to couple a 14xx to an autocoach (eg the Bachmann 1950s variety) and if so (b) have you by any chance developed a nifty way of making it removable so you can use the 14xx at least for other things? Did you get away with jsut replacing the coach wheelsets with P4 ones or did you find you had to do a bit more to get good running on average track?

David

[Andrew Ullyott]

Not a DJ Models, but I did convert an old Airfix auto tank to P4, details on RM Web here:
http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/blog/12/entry-15445-14xx-1454-ready-for-service/
I also did the auto trailer using the Dart Castings kit. This also includes the fittings for the auto tank.
http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/blog/12/entry-15492-wr-ex-gwr-a30-autotrailer/
Hope that helps

[david.themulveys]

Yes it does indeed, thanks very much Andrew. Learnt quite a bit reading your notes and also some very interesting related links on all sorts of things.

I followed up the references in your post to MRJs 9 and 17 which fortunately I managed to find in a big pile of old mags at the bottom of a cupboard and were most helpful. This also led if anyone's interested to finding a useful photo of how the 14xx and the autocoach were coupled together (in Ian Rice and Rod Neep's 14xx article in MRJ 1). Someone familiar with the real things will know more but it looks as though the regulator control may have had a hinged rod at the luggage end of the autocoach engaging with a slot in the mechanism in the loco or on the front of another autocoach, perhaps being held in with a pin on a chain or whatever. MRJ 9 has a photo of Mike Clark's model of the A28 which has a rod at the non-driving end to represent this. Guess the 1950s A38/A43 trailers must have been the same or they wouldn't have coupled with the 14xxs.

Now to investigate how to convert a Bachmann A38 to P4 - anyone out there done this already?

David

[Noel]

Guess the 1950s A38/A43 trailers must have been the same or they wouldn't have coupled with the 14xxs.

All GW and WR autotrailers and auto fitted locos used the same system. Autotrailers inherited from constituent companies either ceased to be autotrailers or were converted to the GW system. The only constraint was that all vehicles had to be the right way round, as the rodding was offset from the centre line; locos had the offset to opposite sides at each end, but coaches did not, so that a loco coupled to the driving cab end couldn't work auto. With only a single coach it was usually more convenient to couple to the cab end of the loco. The maximum the system could cope with was two coaches at each end of the loco.

[martin goodall]

When I had a good look under an autotrailer some years ago at Didcot I was amazed at how crude the GWR design of the operating rodding was. It was notoriously difficult to control, which is why some loco crews left the auto gear unconnected, and with the loco propelling relied on the fireman to drive the engine, responding to bell signals from the driver. Not only was this strictly against the rules, but it also led to some embarrassing mishaps.

The crude design of the rodding involved a significant loss of motion, and as Noel has pointed out, crews preferred to propel bunker-first, as this shortened the length of the rodding that had to be moved. Anecdotal evidence suggests that when propelling two trailers, the lost motion in the rodding was so great that the regulator in the trailer cab had to be wrenched right over to get the loco to move at all! (Pity the poor driver on the Plymouth area auto trains, with two 70-foot trailers each side of the engine, which would have to propel chimney first in one direction.)

[petermeyer]

David,

Which size Mashima motor did you use in the High Level chassis please?

I managed to use an old Sagami 1428 (I think) for mine in my etched GWR class 517 as I didn't need to shoehorn it into a DJH body. Still just protrudes a bit into the cab area but I can cope with that.

Cheers

Peter

[david.themulveys]

Noel/Martin

Thanks very much for those notes - some very useful insights into the system and some of its limitations!

Peter

Ah, I didn't specify the motor myself, I just used the one Chris Gibbons recommended to go with the chassis as intended to fit in the Airfix/Hornby body.
So, I looked on the motor just now (see picture below) but it doesn't give the type unfortunately (is there anyone out there familiar with the Mashima motor range who can give us chapter and verse?). It came with a shaft at both ends but I cut off the one at the flywheel end as per the High Level instructions to allow the motor to fit in the body.

023_Mashima_motor_HighLevel_14xx_chassis.JPG

David

[Enigma]

I've just completed a High Level 14xx chassis for my Airfix body and used a 1224 motor 'flat' so as to allow easy fixing and removal. I first tried a Mitsumi which had to be fitted at the 45 degree angle but this seemed to foul the chassis and impeded suspension movement. This meant partly dismantling the gearbox to change the motor mounting 'plate' for the smaller fixing screws but not to difficult a job using some aluminium hairclips as heat sinks. It all runs very nicely now.

I notice that you too have had to file a 'slot' upwards in the gearbox sides to allow the motor fixing screws to be fitted and tightened. Possibly a slight error on Chris's part?

[garethashenden]

Noel/Martin

Thanks very much for those notes - some very useful insights into the system and some of its limitations!

Peter

Ah, I didn't specify the motor myself, I just used the one Chris Gibbons recommended to go with the chassis as intended to fit in the Airfix/Hornby body.
So, I looked on the motor just now (see picture below) but it doesn't give the type unfortunately (is there anyone out there familiar with the Mashima motor range who can give us chapter and verse?). It came with a shaft at both ends but I cut off the one at the flywheel end as per the High Level instructions to allow the motor to fit in the body.

023_Mashima_motor_HighLevel_14xx_chassis.JPG

David

The numbers denote size. The first two are diameter, the second two length. All in millimetres. So a 1020 is 10mm wide and 20mm long. A 1432 is 14mm wide and 32mm long. Et cetera.

[david.themulveys]

Thanks Gareth you've solved it!

Peter the motor is 14mm wide and 20mm long so that makes it a 1420.

Enigma yes indeed - not sure how the problem arose but I found that when I tried to tighten the fixing screws the gearbox wouldn't align properly with the motor and after a bit of thought I traced it to the screws pushing on the side of the gearbox forcing it out of line hence the elegant notches filed in the side of the gearbox.

David

[Captain Kernow]

I am currently running my second Hattons/DJM 14XX in, on a circle of OO track.

Initial indications are not promising.

A replacement chassis kit is standing by.

[david.themulveys]

Tim/Captain K

It may be that you are the first person to re-chassis two DJM 14xxs in that case!

Will be educational to see how you tackle the second one.

In case you were wondering about the conduits, managed to get that wire back into the conduit box in front of the right hand tank BTW - bit of a fiddle to get it back in but then just held it in with a tiny amount of superglue applied with the traditional cocktail stick (using one's third and fourth hand of course).

David

[Captain Kernow]

Tim/Captain K

It may be that you are the first person to re-chassis two DJM 14xxs in that case!

Will be educational to see how you tackle the second one.

In case you were wondering about the conduits, managed to get that wire back into the conduit box in front of the right hand tank BTW - bit of a fiddle to get it back in but then just held it in with a tiny amount of superglue applied with the traditional cocktail stick (using one's third and fourth hand of course).

David

Thanks for that tip, David.

You may rest assured, by the way, that I will be following your example, rather than my previous one, should I need to dismantle the body of this second 14XX, to fit a new chassis!

[Hardwicke]

Not a DJ Models, but I did convert an old Airfix auto tank to P4,

I converted my Airfix 14xx with new rods and Ultrascale wheels. Airfix plunger pickups were eased further out and it has run beautifully ever since (20 years). Original chassis, gears and motor. Iain Rice detailing parts (Chimney and smokebox door).

[Philip Hall]

I once put Ultrascale wheels on an Airfix 14xx (I still have it) and fitted the full panoply of Riceworks bits, so that it did indeed look like a 14xx. The pickups were like brakes on the wheels, so I replaced them, but it still ran like a bag of nails, and the motor looked like it was the culprit. So I replaced the motor with a TA12 round can motor in a bed of bath sealant and mounted on the end of the universal joint. It still sounded like a concrete mixer full of granite boulders but ran reasonably.

This thread has been very interesting, not least because it has told me that one conversion I should most certainly turn down (if asked) would be this one!

Philip

[steve howe]

I once put Ultrascale wheels on an Airfix 14xx (I still have it) and fitted the full panoply of Riceworks bits, so that it did indeed look like a 14xx. It still sounded like a concrete mixer full of granite boulders but ran reasonably.
Philip

I have the modified Airfix body running on a High Level chassis. The chassis kit was a joy to build, but took ages! due in part to the extent of detail it incorporates. Interestingly although it runs well, the loco is much noisier than any others, and I am wondering if it is to do with the resonance of the plastic body. Having said that I have three ex. Mainline panniers running on Perseverance chassis with High Level drives and they are all pretty quiet

Steve