Eric's Chop Shop - Loco Dept. - Steam Brake Jinty

[TheSignalEngineer]

A while ago I got a secondhand Bachmann Jinty for a very reasonable price. The only problem was a missing bit off the side of the boiler by the exhauster but as it was being used for layout testing and being driven by the Grandchildren it didn't really matter, and I thought that the chassis would come in useful in the future.

 

Looking at some stuff on Lickey I noticed that there was a banker with no vacuum brake pipe. Checking the details I found that 47638 was based at Saltley for a long period and regularly loaned to Bromsgrove whilst its sister locos were away for attention.

 

The LMS was not known for incurring expenditure for what it didn't need. Sir Josiah Stamp, a Tax Man by trade, became Chairman in 1926 and was supposed to have set up what my Grandfather described as the 'Razor Gang'. Their job was to go through the system and cut out everything they could. I suspect that they noticed that a lot of small tank locos spent their whole time pushing and pulling wagons up and down sidings. The company had inherited a myriad of old locos at Grouping and was in the process of doing a bit of standardisation, or was it Midlandisation. One of the first products in 1924 was the 3F 0-6-0T, which was basically a Fowlerised version of Johnson's 2441 Class built by the Midland in 1899-1902.

 

Someone decided that fitting and maintaining vacuum brake equipment to locos used for shunting was a waste of money, so 100 were built without it. From what I can see (any additional info appreciated) these were built by Hunslet, Bagnall and Beardmore broken down as follows:-

 

Original Numbers    16650-16669       16670–16674       16675–16684       16685-16723       16724-16749       

1934 Numbers           7567–7586          7587–7591           7592–7601           7602-7640           7641-7666

Lot Number                       58                      58                           59                        60                         60

Year to service                1928                  1929                       1928                    1928                     1929

Builder                           Hunslet             Hunslet                   Bagnall             Beardmore          Beardmore

Works Numbers          1591–1610        1611-1615              2343-2352            350-388               389-414   

 

Bachmann put out a model carrying the number 47629 in 2006, but that was the standard version with all of the vacuum brake equipment still in place. Incidentally 47629 was one of the last three of the class to be withdrawn in the first week of October 1967.

 

Now, down to the model. I decided that conversion to the steam brake only version would be a quick hit. The fittings between the smokebox and tank on the right hand side, rod along the top of the tank and the vacuum pipes on the buffer beams were the only visible bits to change, so the parts that were still there went under the knife. The only awkward part was the collar at the bottom of the downpipe which is part of the mazak casting so had to be filed away.

 

This is another loco out of the box with the pipework complete.

 

 

And my donor with the pipework and exhauster removed

 

 

The Bachmann Jinty is a veritable Chinese Puzzle when it comes to the number of screws underneath and the way that various bits slot together. After carving off the excess plastic it looked like this during filling and rubbing down

 

 

After filling the various holes and rubbing down the wire removed from the top of the tank was used to make a new handrail. The brake pipes were taken off the buffer beam, holes filled and paint touched up.

 

 

Renumbering and fitting a few details and crew finished the main part of the job. All that remains now is to add the smokebox number, shedplate, and front coupling, then weather it into a shunting yard condition and add lamps.