Harlech Castle

[jaymzhatstand]

I've been meaning to upgrad the running gear of my Chivers Harlech Castle, ideally to an outside frame with jackshaft drive, as per prototype, but I'm not sure how to go about it!  Obviously the easiest (probably) would be with a new Farish chassis, and I imagine the running qualities may improve too!  I know that N-Drive Productions have a replacement for the inside frame version in prodution, which should be a direct drop-in replacement.  Neither however have the jackshaft under the cab, and I'm not sure how easy it would be to go about modifying for such a thing!



Has anyone had any sort of success with such a project?

Any advice woul be most welcome

Cheers

J

[JulienW]

I understand that RT models is working on a set of parts (new rods and extra cranks at least) to add the jackshaft drive to the Harrogate Gasworks Drewery (the white metal frames in the kit are marked ready to be drilled) that uses the new Bachmann/ Farish 08.

I feel sure that they would be applicable to Harlech Castle, though as the jackshaft is behind the steps it may not be so visible, in which case use the new 08 as is.  As and when the RT Models conversion comes out you'll have the chassis to hand.

[Chris Veitch]

You might want to try a Farish 08 chassis with the technique that's used on the High Level Models standard gauge Armstrong Whitworth diesel, if you're not to keen on getting into an "engineering solution" (i.e. drilling stuff and quartering outside cranks).

Basically the AW diesel has a similar jackshaft arrangement with the crank under the cab. The kit has the rods etched as a single piece, i.e. the rod to the jackshaft is actually part of the coupling rod rather than a separate, pivoted part. The jackshaft crank is gear driven internally and is synchronised with the rod, but not actually attached to it. That way, the builder only has the four crankpins to worry about and the jackshaft just wiggles about of its own accord. If this all sounds completely incomprehensible I can try to do a couple of photos of my half-finished AW diesel (which happens to have been re-gauged to 9mm, but that doesn't make any difference to the rods etc).

You could possibly add the jackshaft to the 08's coupling rods without disturbing the rest of the chassis and create an effective illusion. From what I can see from a quick glance at Harlech/Criccieth Castle on the FR wiki, the cranks for the jackshaft are relatively well obscured by the cab steps. In 009 you might get away with missing them off altogether or using a disc of the appropriate colour (yellow for Harlech, red for Cricc) to provide an optical illusion of a crank.

Hope this helps, or at least gives some food for thought.

Regards,

Chris Veitch

[B.Meldon]

It may well be possible to fit a modified chassis from the Bemo 6 wheel diesel under the HC body. It will cost you over

[jaymzhatstand]

hmmmm, that's a few pennies, so I think I might look into a Farish 08 with a cosmetic jackshaft.  Now to find some things to list on ebay to fund such a purchase!

Thanks for the advice, I'm still open to suggestions though!

J