In the 1970's I acquired a small amount of 009 items but never got round to building a layout and my stock was boxed up and put away. A recent visit to York Model Railway Show and the rediscovery of of my box of 009 has re-ignited my interest.
I have acquired an excellent Minitrix N205 2-6-2 and would like to put it to good use by building a Lynton & Barnstable 2-6-2 loco from a white metal kit. (My skills do not stretch to etched brass construction and, nearly 40 years down the line, I'm not even sure about my other modelling skills).. As yet I have found 2 such kits to fit this chassis, a Five79 (ex-Chivers Finelines) and a Rodney Stenning, although there may be others of which members may be aware. A Langley Models kit seems only to fit the Graham Farish chassis)
Can any member advise on which they consider to be the better kit, ie produces the better model, or perhaps even recommend any other good 2-6-2 kit for this chassis?
It seems from other postings that the consensus of opinion is to remotor this loco with a Mashima 9/16 motor + flywheel. Where can these be obtained?
And finally, can this loco be converted to DCC?
Re-motoring the Minitrix 2-6-2 with a Mashima 9x16 motor is a good idea but you don't need a flywheel, although I know Richard Powell (probably a member of the Society) fitted a flywheel to a re-motored 2-6-2, in addition to using ball bearings in the chassis block! I'm not sure how to modify it for DCC use.
I obtained Mashima motors from Branchlines and from Roxey models.
Do you know how to go about it? There have been descriptions in the 009 News, one of them by myself. I have added a short description of how I modified the Minitrix 2-6-2.
Here are some photos of the Minitrix 2-6-2 chassis fitted with a Mashima 9x16 motor. Note the original worm has been re-used, and the collar on the motor shaft (a bearing taken from the old motor) fixed at the front by a steel clip re-used from the original motor. The Mashima is fixed at the rear by a bracket bent from a nickel-silver strip which has a big hole to accomodate the motor rear bearing. On both sides there are small holes for the very tiny fixing screws into the rear of the motor.
The square pipe soldered to the bottom of the bracket is to brace the end of the bracket which was weakened by the holes I made in it. Note the bracket is fixed to the chassis with an over-size bolt which uses an existing hole in the chassis block. If the worm doesn't mesh like it should, tweak the nickel silver strip a little so the motor tilts a fraction and the mesh will improve.
(https://forum.009society.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.009dutch.nl%2Foddphotos%2Fpic_0416.jpg&hash=bfd52f95ab4d5165344c6ba6136b0192ce241d6b)
(https://forum.009society.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.009dutch.nl%2Foddphotos%2Fpic_0413.jpg&hash=725acb97cb2a6f0ccdccde9529cb030d41923f4d)
I built the Stenning kit years ago on the original chassis. I found the casting quality very good and, from memory, it came with bolts to fit a retaining plate. Overall I remember it as a very good kit to build although the instructions are long gone. I don't think there was much modification of the chassis required and it still (30yrs later) runs well.
Many thanks Ted
Your photos and advice are much appreciated.
Keith
Thanks Nigel, that's 2-0 to Stenning so far!
I built three of these many years ago & all were sold a couple of years ago through the Society Sales. They were very good models from the footplate up, particularly if detailed etc. Stenning kits still come up occasionally on Society sales (when Bryan is hopefully back in harness)
Paul
Just adding my own six pennyworth - I am surprised that the fundamental difference between the Chivers and Stenning kits has not yet been mentioned! The Stenning kit makes a model based on the original 3 Manning Wardle locos - Taw, Exe, Yeo after their rebuild, ie with the cab upperworks moved to the rear with the distinctive upper cab overhang at the back of the loco. The Chivers model is of the later Southern Railway built Lew, that has a flush cab rear.
Both make up into satisfactory loco bodies and as stated by others will benefit from some detailing. As it comes, the Stenning kit is quite bare particularly noticeable on the tank and boiler tops. I have made a couple of shortened versions of this kit some years ago and both were enhanced by increasing the height of the tanks with a 20thou strip of plastic on the horizontal surfaces. This gives the model a feeling of "relief" that is absent from the original kit and with the addition of some pipes/plumbing the overall impression of the model is transformed quite easily. I have an unbuilt Chivers Lew but it remains unbuilt. It has more detail than the Stenning model and more little parts so I imagine it would require less detail work to finish it.
You pays your money and takes your choice!
Mick
Thanks Mick
This is a good point and certainly one to bear in mind before deciding.
Keith
Having now obtained the Stenning L&B kit from Members Sales I am preparing the parts for construction.
Mick, you say that you have built 'shortened' versions of the L&B locos and I have seen them in some of your photos. I do like the look of these. As these are long locos with a substantial overhang I imagine this shortening will reduce the overhang and improve stability. Are they just the same kit with 'a bit cut out' or are they in fact a different kit? If they are a modification of the original kit I would be very interested to know how to carry out this mod.
I have also aquired a Golden Arrow Southwold 0-6-2T Wenhaston body, ready made up, from Brian, which also fits the Minitrix 2-6-2 chassis. It's not bad but requires a lot of cleaning up (surplus glue) and maybe the tank tops removing and replacing a bit more level, and I'm not sure whether there may be an odd casting missing for fitting the chassis. Does any member who has built this model have a copy of the instructions, especially relating to modification and fitting of the chassis? I note that a very nice example of this model appeared in the recent Sept 2012 009 News, this being what attracted me to this loco.
Any help will be much appreciated.
Keith B
Hello Keith,
I don't think you will have seen photos of my own shortened Stenning kits unless perhaps in an early 1990's 009 News, as I don't remember ever posting photos of them - built many years ago, before digital cameras! I could however be mistaken! However much better versions on the same theme have been made by Adrian Ponting and appear in photos of his Aldbourne layout, which I have snapped many times and photos appear in a number of reports on both my CDs and my blogsite, so I would recommend you use these as a reference point.
The conversion is simply to make the body fit the unaltered chassis rather than having to make extended pony truck swinging arms. The boiler/tank top piece and the sides are shortened by cutting a section out in front of the cab. I can't remember exact dimensions unfortunately. This will not of course result in a Lynton & Barnstaple loco but will give you a considerably shortened Manning Wardle!
Hope this helps, sorry I can't be more specific 20 odd years after I made my own bashed together pair!
Mick
Mick
Thanks for this info. You are quite right, it is on your Roving Reporter CDs that I have seen the photos of the shortened locos and I have wrongly assumed they were yours. My apologies.
Keith
Hi Keith,
Having tweaked the memory buds, I've had a dig through my dusty archives and have come up with a couple of photos that are about 10 years or so old of my two shortened Stenning kits.
Ignore the very unprototypical position of the cylinders in relation to the front pony wheel!
Sir Stephen, the green one was the first built and is simply shortened as described earlier by chopping a suitable length from sides and top ahead of the cab. The tanks have had a piece of plasticard stuck on top of them and filed to about a 45 degree angle along the inner sides to give a bit of relief between tanks and boiler top which is absent from the Stenning kit - it looks too flat for my taste. I've also added bits of wire etc to represent pipes and of course, handrails.
Louise, the crimson lake one was bashed up from a secondhand very cheap and very battered body that was picked up from 009 Sales and therefore started up rough, from which she didn't fully recover! Construction is basically the same as Sir Stephen except I have cut the rear of the cab short to represent a more conventional shape with a rear coal bunker.
Both of the locos feature early examples of my paper strip lining, which is much better (most of the time) on later models! Brass dome and chimney cap were done using a Pilot gold marker pen - much, much better than gold paint, and spectacle frames were slices of brass tube. I do circular frames made by winding brass wire around the handle of a needle file and snipping the windings off to make rings nowadays. I do still have the locos although both are now on the "reserve list", their chassis currently having been re-assigned to other projects!
The inspiration for the short Manning Wardles came from the early days of the 009 Society in a photo in 009 News Volume 6 issue 2, October 1978 of a similar model built for a layout called the Vale of Rhingwern by David Orme. Later on I came across Adrian Ponting's much better examples built in the same style for his Treacle Bolly layout (now owned by Andrew Burnham) and it's successor, Aldbourne.
I hope these snaps close the loops for you and are of some interest at least!
Regards
Mick
(https://forum.009society.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi224.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fdd239%2FMick6126%2FDsc00009-1.jpg&hash=8b3f44f3b17f3bb77ff9ab53f7f23a85337a5546)
(https://forum.009society.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi224.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fdd239%2FMick6126%2FDsc00010.jpg&hash=d6e1f3e49918f4eef833760e34c3332ddee2460b)
Thanks for that Mick, much appreciated. More food for thought!
Further to my previous enquiries regarding bodies for the Minitrix 2-6-2 chassis, does anyone know if this chassis can be 'chipped'?
I'm afraid it isn't obvious to me where to wire one in.
Has any member chipped one of these, if so any help would be much appreciated.
Mnay thanks
Keith
I've chipped one, but I sold that chassis, so I don't have it for reference. I think I soldered the motor contact wires to the plates above and below the motor, and if you look at the pickups there is a section which can be separated from the motor, I soldered the wires to these.
I have one to do at some point in the future so will try and post some photos as and when I get round to it (but it might be quite some time).
Thankyou Tom, I wait with bated breath!!
For your own health, that might not be advisable, like I said, it may be quite a while before I come to do mine. ;D
If you remove the motor from the chassis I think, from memory, it's easy to see the top of the contacts. These will be the points you solder the red and black wires. If you then look at the motor there are two spring steel (?) panels at either side of the opposite end to the worm, I think these clip in place to cover the bushes and stop the springs flying out. These two are where I soldered the orange and grey motor power wires.
The above is done from memory without a chassis in front of me, so details could be a little inaccurate in places, but the principals of the wiring are what I used for mine.
Take the motor out and have a look at how all the pickups and motor contacts fit together, that's how I worked out how to do mine. I'll try to help more if you need it.