The Bigbee Line Posted November 10, 2015 Share Posted November 10, 2015 (edited) The Dapol O Gauge terrier has been a gift from the gods. The loco that I thought would never arrive. My intention is to swap parts between loco's to produce two works shunters: 32635 the Brighton Locomotive Works shunter and Ds680 One of the Lancing Carriage Works shunters. Images below from Flickr, thanks to Ian D Nolan First 32635 at Steyning https://www.flickr.com/photos/31890193@N08/9923634416/in/photolist-g6V2dZ-g6UxB7-g7VdM7-g7Vp1b-g6Uoh7-g6UXmk-g7VT3c-gXwzLR-gXvJ59-3Jz7Uq-gasMjh-gzEiK8-gzDNu7-hxdHyC Ds680 at Lancing https://www.flickr.com/photos/31890193@N08/9897860773/in/photolist-g5D5pQ-g5D8aX-gXwzLR-gXvJ59-nk97jV-nBppms-nDpZC2-azQXpY-gzETFp-gzEVXt-gzF27X-gzEpho-gzEFpy-bHZ3d8 The easiest part so far was to swap the coal rails from 32655 onto Brighton (will become 32635). Ds680 will get scratch built rails. The next thing is to fit the A smoke box and splashers to Ds680. The alloy footplate of 'Brighton' has some parts of the casting that are different, necessitating a bit of filing etc. Also the section of boiler between the tank fronts and the rear of the smokebox is slightly different in length between the 2 locos, so some fiddling will be required there. Here is the first dry run 180329-1921 Edited March 29, 2018 by The Bigbee Line 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Bigbee Line Posted November 10, 2015 Author Share Posted November 10, 2015 (edited) The postman has just delivered a copy of Portrait of the Terriers by Handel Kardas. Lots of interesting pictures. One picture in particular is of Boxhill, quoted as September 1960 in Eastleigh Diesel Shop. getting the 'star treatment' in preparation for exhibition in the new Transport Museum at Clapham. IT'S GOT NO PAINT......... I was banking on the current paintwork dating back to the 1948 repaint...... Edited November 10, 2015 by The Bigbee Line 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
JeffP Posted November 10, 2015 Share Posted November 10, 2015 Interesting. The shot of DS.680 seems to show the coal rails as being lower than yours, three sections as against four? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Bigbee Line Posted November 10, 2015 Author Share Posted November 10, 2015 The Dapol coal rails from 32655 and seem to match those on 32635. The section below the bottom rail needs a little taking off as it sits a smidge high. Ds680 has unique coal rails. I've not checked the pictures but suspect they are SECR built. On Flickr there is a good rear view of the bunker showing the rails on Ds680. Thanks for noticing. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Bigbee Line Posted November 10, 2015 Author Share Posted November 10, 2015 Check out "Gricermans" picture https://flic.kr/p/de5MdH Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
hartleymartin Posted November 11, 2015 Share Posted November 11, 2015 The bunker extension on DS680 are shorter. They only go up to the level of the bottom of the rear windows. From what I've read, it seems that loco crews used to prefer looking out from the side windows and in the early years spectacle plates were only there to help prevent smoke and soot from getting in the crews' eyes. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
brianthesnail96 Posted November 11, 2015 Share Posted November 11, 2015 I think the caption referring to the coal rail swap in the first post has the numbers back to front- "The easiest part so far was to swap the coal rails from 32635 onto Ds680..." should be "to 32635 from Ds680" should it not? Hence the confusion. Ds680 will presumably gain scratchbuilt rails unless someone happens to have another full height Dapol set going spare to modify. Interesting (and inspired!) little project, looking forward to following this. I kind of fancied a "late" A1 to represent a loco sold to industry but this would probably be a bit of a convoluted way for me to get one. I'm sure Dapol will eventually do 32635 but this is a more fun (and much quicker...) way of going about it! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Bigbee Line Posted November 11, 2015 Author Share Posted November 11, 2015 Matt, Thanks for the correction. I've edited to post accordingly. I will scratch built the rails for Ds680. I had thought they might have been a SECR mod, but a picture of 680S and 515S in Southern days no coal rails on either..... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Bigbee Line Posted November 11, 2015 Author Share Posted November 11, 2015 Managed to get a few minutes working on the demon duo. The footplate castings are quite different. For some reason the A class has a couple of moulded alloy sections that the smokebox slides onto. These had to go... This is the before shot with the smokebox and splashers removed. About 15 minutes work with a cutting disk removed enough metal to allow the plain splashers and the smokebox saddle to fit. The various parts in position. The yellow boiler section is different to the black section. The fit of the yellow boiler into the extended smokebox is fine, The smokebox saddle is positioned where it falls naturally. I'm not thinking of making any fore / aft adjustment. There is one small section of footplate in front of the splashers that will need some filling. The BR footplate has mortices for the smokebox tenons to sit in. At some point the sandbox fillers behind the buffers will have to go. Fitting the A smokebox to Ds680 was easier, just needed to cut the plastic tenons off the bottom of the smokebox. The splashers fit in one position only, so they position the smokebox. The black boiler section doesn't locate positively in the A smokebox. it will need a locating ring assembly created in the boiler section, to fit and locate in the smokebox. 4 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Bigbee Line Posted November 12, 2015 Author Share Posted November 12, 2015 It's office work today.... Had a stress break looking at the demon duo again. The smokebox handrail on the Yellow engine looked quite chunky. Here are a couple of shots with a piece of the other handrail alongside. On the BR Black loco it looks better, the silver shows it up. Nothing that a replacement with a couple of handrail knobs won't sort out. You can also see the neat chimney joint on this one. I also mentioned the fore and aft adjustment of the smokebox on 32635. I looked and noticed a small cut out for the splasher in the side of the saddle..... I'll have to ensure the boiler section is adjusted to fit that. The original construction assembly appears to use a contact adhesive. Has anyone any suggestions for something similar to re-assemble the bits.. The next job was to try and fit the brake gear from the Black loco onto 32635. The gear comes off with minimum trouble, However the fixing holes are different between the metal and wooden brake shoed versions. The mouldings for the side frames are different. The below footplate sandboxes on the A1X fit on little mouldings. Removable with little trouble, for fitting to 32635. No point in swapping the frames as Ds680 had metal blocks as well Here is the neat sandbox. The wire is quite stout, looks a good base for some detail of the steam sander mechanism 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Bigbee Line Posted November 12, 2015 Author Share Posted November 12, 2015 Maybe a mystery is solved.... I had previously noted that the buffer heights on Terriers seemed to vary. Recent advice was that the change to working with Auto Coaches had been the reason for the change. In another really useful shot from Ian D Nolan, you can see a crescent shaped addition to the top of the casting, with what looks like the two lots of holes. Loads of other detail in this picture.. https://flic.kr/p/gzEiK8 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Bigbee Line Posted November 12, 2015 Author Share Posted November 12, 2015 Just spent this evening checking out the buffer scenario in various books. Oh dear I was in a quandary!!!. The point of using Brighton was to save on the intricacies of the LBSC lining etc. I knew some touching up would be required. I'd just spent time making the smokeboxes fit the others footplate. Now the buffer heights are wrong........ No options, off came the cabs and they were swapped over, quite easy. The lower pipes on Brightons Westinghouse pump wouldn't come out of the footplate, no matter I was planning to swap them for copper wire of a suitable thickness. Here's the second iteration of Ds680.... Now 32635... So the "To Do" list. 32635: Swap the buffer shanks, to save lining them. Paint the footplate edge and line. Paint the splasher sides and touch up the tank and bunker sides. Fit Sand Boxes under footplate. Add boiler pipework etc. Ds680 I think it's mainly the pipework and a paint job. That will be enough to get them going. 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Bigbee Line Posted December 13, 2015 Author Share Posted December 13, 2015 Last week we had a trip to York. Hmmm where to go for 3 hours??? National Railway Museum got both our votes. What to see.... Boxhill is not in a public viewing area, but the staff took us to have a look. Very interesting as you can look at things easier than on a preserved line. Things to note were: Tank outer cover quite apparent, you can see the air gap near the water filler. Thickness of smokebox handrail, quite chunky. The boiler handrails are actually both tubes with operating rods inside.. More pictures on Flickr https://www.flickr.com/photos/55938574@N03/albums/72157661790554210 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
BG John Posted December 13, 2015 Share Posted December 13, 2015 (edited) They've got it wrong. There's no join with a big gap at the bottom of the chimney . Plenty of potential for adding lots of tiny detail. Are you going to add it? Edited December 13, 2015 by BG John Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Dava Posted December 13, 2015 RMweb Premium Share Posted December 13, 2015 Good photos which show the craftsman built quality of the A1s as Victorian locos, rather different from the standardised engineering of later locos. Dava Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
brianthesnail96 Posted December 14, 2015 Share Posted December 14, 2015 Looking good! Although it's a shame about having to (not) swap the footplates. I must admit I'd have just left mine as they were, you'd have to be looking pretty closely to spot the buffer height discrepancy. Have you tackled fitting later brake gear to the A1 frames yet? I must admit I was surprised when I took mine apart how many bits were clearly different to the A1X model- they've clearly put quite a lot of thought in to it. I've drilled extra holes for the steel brakes on mine but it's a bit of a bodge- especially at the front where it tries to occupy the same space as the sanders. I was lazy and tried to keep the raised detail in this area, result being the drill wandered- it's all in place but I had to oversize the holes as a result and then glue the brakes in place which I was hoping to avoid. I've also just noticed that I should have fitted bolt on blanking plates to the condensing pipes, instead of just filling the holes... that'll teach me to use pictures of models, not prototypes! 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Bigbee Line Posted December 14, 2015 Author Share Posted December 14, 2015 The brakes are my next job. I was thinking of finding some plastic tube of the right size to glue on, then use the 'ring' as a guide for the small drill. Probably easier said than done. Looking for some time over Christmas to do a bit of modelling. A random thought after a little shunting was to try and cut down the side play of the drivers. When shunting bunker first, it got buffer locked when propelling a couple of trucks from a straight onto a peco setrack curve, maybe asking too much... I thought I was knowledgeable regarding terriers, just keep finding out more and more. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
hartleymartin Posted December 15, 2015 Share Posted December 15, 2015 If you cannot get the wheels off their axles to put washers on, try dropping the wheels out of the chassis block and glueing some styrene pads to to reduce the side play. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
hartleymartin Posted December 15, 2015 Share Posted December 15, 2015 You might be able to buy some of the blanking plates for the side tanks. I'll see if I still have the link on my computer when I get home. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
hartleymartin Posted December 15, 2015 Share Posted December 15, 2015 You might be able to buy some of the blanking plates for the side tanks. I'll see if I still have the link on my computer when I get home. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
brianthesnail96 Posted December 15, 2015 Share Posted December 15, 2015 I looked at the overhang, my reverse curve and the size of the standard buffers and thought "naa"! Fortunately with mine being "sold into industry" I can get away with fitting bigger ones- think it'll need bigger buffer beams too though. Let us know how you get on with the brakes, I'm not completely happy with mine and think I'll revisit. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Isambarduk Posted December 15, 2015 Share Posted December 15, 2015 "A random thought after a little shunting was to try and cut down the side play of the drivers." "If you cannot get the wheels off their axles to put washers on, try dropping the wheels out of the chassis block and gluing some styrene pads to reduce the side play" Although I have removed wheels from their axles to insert washers on RTR locos, I find it easier to make up C-shaped washers/spacers that can be sprung over the axles. David Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Bigbee Line Posted March 29, 2018 Author Share Posted March 29, 2018 The brakes are my next job. I was thinking of finding some plastic tube of the right size to glue on, then use the 'ring' as a guide for the small drill. Probably easier said than done. Looking for some time over Christmas to do a bit of modelling. A random thought after a little shunting was to try and cut down the side play of the drivers. When shunting bunker first, it got buffer locked when propelling a couple of trucks from a straight onto a peco setrack curve, maybe asking too much... I thought I was knowledgeable regarding terriers, just keep finding out more and more. December 015 to now, how time flies.... I was having a sort out and came across the box of bits. Hmm, out came the drill and 6 holes were quickly drilled (The sandpipes were in the way and needed pulling off. The brakework with iron blocks fitted quite easily.... The body parts were sat on... Now the parts sit in the home office there might be more progress.. 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Bigbee Line Posted April 18, 2021 Author Share Posted April 18, 2021 2018 and I moaned about how the time flies, it's 2021 now, i feel my life is slipping through my fingers.... Not depressed, but rationalised to being more disciplined about projects. Regarding 32635, that was overtaken by the Gaugemaster special. Duly purchased. But I've decided to finish my own version, this time in a more spick and span version. Also Ds680 and its brother Ds681.... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now