The loco on the Cover of the April 2016 009 News

[B.Meldon]

Here is the story behind my 0-4-0 loco 99-4537 that is on the cover of this months 009 News: (As seen on NGRM on-line)



This small loco is actually the second of two almost identical scratch built bodied H0e locos I have built.

Back in 2001 the idea was to build a loco that closely followed the outlines of the M & F 0-6-0 kit that I had just finished building. Even back then the M&F 0-6-0 loco was difficult to come by and also expensive.
We had a stock of the Bachmann 0-4-0's that were very reasonably priced and appeared to work quite well when new so I produced an outline drawing for a scratch built body based on the M & F loco but shortened to fit the Bachmann 0-4-0. In fact the cab and the tanks are identical in size and shape to the M & F loco, only the boiler is reduced in length.
The body construction, like all my locos, is in tin with plastic tubes for the boiler, and some fittings. All fixed together with Super-Glue. The lamps are from a Roco BR 80 N gauge body, the domed safety valve is an Egger brass bell, the chimney was a broken Liliput 0-6-2 item and the smoke box door was from a GF N gauge loco body. Here is a phot of the finished loco:



This loco proved to be very successful on the layouts however the Bachmann chassis do not last long and it required replacement after a year or so. This was not a problem as they were cheap and easy to obtain at the time. The next problem was a burnt out motor. The chassis was ok so I replaced the motor with one of Nigel Lawton

[petersmith1942]

Ah Brian you could have been the not so narrow planet :D
Peter Smith

[B.Meldon]

Here is a slightly better photo of the loco:



Brian meldon