(https://i.imgur.com/boNVoxK.jpg)
Bachmann brought out "Emily" in its Thomas range in "N" scale in December 2024 and I bought one because it looked as if it might make an interesting 009 loco in the vein of "Gazelle" (which was standard gauge, of course)
(https://i.imgur.com/XtoGNOI.jpg)
Bachamnn Emily
(https://i.imgur.com/vmjA3P4.jpg)
Underside view
Mechanically, the front bogie is split into two – a two-wheel pony truck and a pair of small driven wheels, making the chassis a 2-4-2, or even a 2-2-2-2. The front pony truck may be dismounted to make the chassis a 2-2-2.
I showed the loco at a Zoom meeting of the 009 Oldham group, and David Hurst got bitten by the bug and set-to designing bodywork to fit on the chassis. This is my account of putting one of his kits onto my chassis...
(https://i.imgur.com/5SrEfzV.jpg)
A couple of David Hurst's prototype prints (photo - DH)
David's design allows for the body to be made up as a tender loco, a tank loco, or a saddle tank (not illustrated here) – and with the option of making a 4-2-2 or a 2-2-2. In addition thare are two options for the cab.
I chose to make it up as a 4-2-2 tender loco. This required a Peco GR-106 coach bogie to be fitted under the new tender.
There are quite a few pieces in the kit of parts; boiler and cab front, smokebox and cylinders, smokebox front and frame front, smokebox door, dome, cab, splasher sides, tender chassis, tender body, water filler cap, brake and so on. The material may be stuck together with plastic solvent.
Disassembling the N-gauge model.
The tender is coupled to the body with a spacer (drawbar) which is screwed to the underside of the body and the tender; just unscrew one of these. The spacer is no longer required a sit is too short for the new body.
There are six screws underneath the main body, two hold the smokebox and the other four hold the rest of the body. The front two (smokebox) are different to the others; they go through the plastic into the chassis whereas the others go through holes in the chassis into the plastic of the boiler and so are self-tapping. I stuck my ones onto a piece of card and labelled them.
The cylinders on the new smokebox piece need to have holes drilled to take two lengths of wire each to make the new slide bars (the holes for the piston rods are already there); I couldn't do this and made a bodge of it. David came to the rescue, thankfully. The best way to put the crossheads back on the slidebars is to unscrew the tiny (six-sided) nuts on the drivers to release the connecting rods. Don't put them back until later – just check they fit on the slidebars freely.
I then put an undercoat on the parts. At this stage I had not decided on what colour the loco would be, and used a matt green (which looked terrible).
(https://i.imgur.com/npBuMAQ.jpg)
I assembled the front section as a unit; the smokebox/cylinders, the smokebox front/engine front, smokebox door and chimney, and painted it Tamiya XF-86 (Rubber Black). It was then fitted to the chassis.
I next fitted the cab to the back of the boiler assembly, and the dome to the top of the boiler barrel. After a dry run, I decided to drill the four fitting holes in the chassis to clear the screws as I found they were a bit tight. I also opened out the holes in the boiler print a little to a depth of about a millimetre to freely take the screws. This made putting the screws in much easier, as space is very limited. I then replaced the connecting rods and checked it still ran.
I made a new drawbar to go between loco and tender – from some thin 4mm wide styrene strip with two holes a suitable distance apart. I stuck a couple of small pieces of lead strip under the tender chassis either side of the mounting for the Peco bogie attachment, then assembled the tender.
(https://i.imgur.com/0Ju8fTC.jpg)
I decided the loco would look good in blue with brass detailing, so the main colour is Tamiya XF-8 (Flat Blue).
It is still waiting for suitable crew.
The loco weighs 44g with tender, so it won't be able to pull much – perhaps a smallish Director's coach? A new project?
(https://i.imgur.com/2l6ATWs.jpg)
I took the loco to the show and 009 Society AGM in Rainhill on Saturday 12 April. Charles Insley kindly let me give it a run on the "South West Lancs Light Railway". The loco had no trouble pulling a few coaches - it did tend to stop on a tight-ish bend at the rear, when the footplate rubbed against the front edge of the tender footplate. I just need to slacken the drawbar a tad.
Art imitating Art?
Brian Meldon found some photos of the narrow gauge "scenic railway" at the Glasgow Garden Festival (in 1988), where the motive power was provided by three steam outline (but diesel powered) 4-2-2 locos looking remarkably like the body I used.
Here is a link to the relevant section on the GArden Festival "archive"
Glasgow Garden Festival - trains (https://www.glasgowgardenfestival.org/object_record/festival-trains/)
That's interesting. I must have seen the railway, but I don't remember at all! I remember going up on the observation tower ride see in one of the photos, meeting a colleague at the exhibition, the talking cactus from the Aberdeen Duthie Park exhibit, being very lucky with the weather and some local children being really excited by how much the piglets in the model farm section had grown (I understand that local residents got some sort of season ticket) - but not the trains!
We went with a locally organized coach party and stayed overnight at a hotel. I remember the hotel did a touristy Burn's Supper type evening meal and host/MC presenter (expecting tourists) said something like "and where are you from?" When the answer "fae Aberdeen" came back he said (taken aback a bit) "Oh! Do you want me to continue?" The group said yes along with fair number joining in the Address to a Haggis. Someone may even have contributed the lesser known version (http://moreteavicar.me.uk/ode.html) (or I may have just made that bit up!)
Yes - m'lady wife and I spent one very long day at the Festival - and I can't remember the railway, either.
We stayed down the coast with friends of C's
Also see this link to a 2023 photo at Rusutsu Resort railway in Japan: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Rusutsu_GlasgowTrain_202308.jpg
"https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/57/Rusutsu_GlasgowTrain_202308.jpg"
The loco now has a crew. I tried a few from my box of people, but 4mm scale were a tad too tall. I found a couple of likely lads on Modelu's website and ordered them in H0 scale. Thye duly arrived, I checked they looked OK, painted them and fixed them to the footplate.
(https://i.imgur.com/QDEeOwE.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/Kr0usXi.jpg)
I am now kit-bashing a Chivers Innisfail coach into a Director's Saloon to travel behind the loco.