4 - 009 Locomotives

The locomotive that came with the train-set - I think it was a Roco product - certainly there's a very similar one on sale from their web site now.

All I did with it was to paint it green and put a huge number on the side.

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My first bash! It was a direct copy of one I saw in RM. I bought a cheap, second-hand n-gauge 0-6-0 loco - can't remember the make - and cut the cab off. Actual construction involved building up the side tanks, adding back-sheet, spectacle plate and coal bunker, and replacing the chimney. I painted it grey-black and numbered it 9. I was very proud of it, but it didn't long survive the change to Bowcester & Vayne Mark 2, as I wanted the mechanism to go under a white-metal kit. I'm not sure what prototype the originator of the bash intended it to represent - it had something of the 15" Heywood locos about it - no shelter and not much room for the driver.

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I suppose the third loco was my first kit-bash (or Pug-bash, as it's called on NGRM-Online) It was the Airfix L&Y Pug kit built pretty well as per the

instructions, but mounted on a second-hand n-gauge 0-6-0 chassis. Tramway skirts were fitted to hide the mechanism (L). It wasn't a great looker, and by

the time the Banwy Valley Mark 1 came along it was relegated to blocks beside the loco shed (R). There are very few photos of No 1 - these are hugely

enlarged from prints.

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The first white-metal kit I built - the GEM Dolgoch kit. Roco chassis minus centre wheel-set - it was a good runner and a good-looking loco.

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The GEM white-metal kit of Mountaineer of the FR. I don't recall what chassis went under this. Not a bad runner, but the big overhang at the rear didn't

help on my small radius curves.

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The GEM white-metal kit of the WD Baldwin. Unknown chassis under. A reasonable runner and not too much rear overhang.

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The Langley white-metal kit of the DHR loco. I think the chassis from the bashed loco No 9, minus the centre wheel-set went under this. Big overhangs both ends.

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White-metal kit of the Armoured Simplex from Meridian Models. It was intended to be mounted on a cut-down Jouef/Playcraft Decauville loco chassis - but I can't remember what I put under it - it was a rotten runner anyway. (Thanks to Tim Sanderson for the info on the maker).

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My last 009 white-metal kit - the Langley kit of the L&B loco. I must have bought the Minitrix chassis specially for this. A horrid empty space under the cab,

but the couplers swung with the bogies, so there were no problems on tight curves.

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A loco I had completely forgotten about! I started to make a body-shell of the Plymlimon & Hafan loco 'Victoria' from plasticard, but never got round to

finishing or motorizing it. It must have been stuck away behind the loco shed of Bowcester & Vayne Mark 2, and I spotted it just peeping round the shed

in this photo. The cab of the camera-shy Pug-bash is just sticking out of the shed.

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The white-metal locos were all painted black with dark green panels lined with yellow. Lining, names and numbers were rub-on transfers. The final touch was

a coat of thinned satin varnish, to produce a "dull shine". The idea of weathering hadn't occurred to me at this point.

Page created 10 May 2011 Last edited 28 December 2020