Minimum Gauge & Miniature Locos
After building two industrial layouts in Gn15 I was faced with moving them on to make room for a new layout, so I sold off Wood Bros and Watts' with their locos, and started working on a Heywood-themed layout - Berger Hall. After researching the prototypes of the Heywood locos I found that Smallbrook Studios sold a kit for 'Katie' - the archetypal Heywood loco, so I bought one ...
The Smallbrook Studios kit is meant for the Hornby Smokey Joe loco chassis, to which I made some modifications.
Top - the Smokey Joe chassis shorn of the motor mount 'wings' and other extraneous bits, the wheels filled in, and the cylinders mounted on the chassis, rather than on the body as Smallbrook intended.
Bottom - the chassis with coupling and connecting rods, slide bars and crossheads, and brakes attached, and a little extra weight front and rear.
The Smallbrook body castings propped together after a coat of primer.
The completed body - painted, lined and with faux-valve gear. The name and works plates are by Narrow Planet .
A view of the cab interior fittings.
A full description of the build can be found here http://gn15.info/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=10434
Having made one of the 'Katie' kits - it's called 'Kaffie' because I wanted it to be different - I found that I needed another when Berger Hall was being exhibited, so another kit was obtained and built - I remembered all the mistakes I'd made the first time, and replicated them perfectly.
The two locos together. The second was called 'Ambrosia' after Sir Macintosh's daughter
One of the people on the NGRM forum liked the models so much he asked me to make one for him. When it was finished I sent a message to say it was ready - and heard nothing. At the Warley show another forumite saw it and liked it so much he bought it.
The three Graces - 'Kaffie', 'Ambrosia', and 'Jessica' - the chap who has ordered the third build asked for that name.
There is an album of photos of the build on Flickr www.flickr.com/photos/149926300@N07/albums/72157688656308934
Having made a version of Heywood's Katie I thought it would be nice to have a model of his first loco - Effie. No kit is available for this, so I had to find a suitable chassis and build the body from scratch.
I found this chassis on eBay - a Model Power switcher. Not really suitable, but it was cheap, and I thought I could do something with it.
The scratch-built body - boiler from an old 35mm film cassette, and chimney from Smallbrook Studios. The wheels were filled in as before. Rivets by Cambrian Models - really for 16mm scale but they are a good match for those molded on the Smallbrook kit.
'Ettie' as first built, in the capable hands of J D Wetherspoon, chatting to 'Legger' Lamb in a sunny Stable Yard.
The loco sat a little too high, and the wheelbase was a little short, but it seemed to work. However, when exhibiting Berger Hall at Pewsey the running got a bit rough, and then I dropped the loco while packing up, so a rebuild was in order.
'Ettie' was reduced back to a kit of parts - the ease with which I was able to achieve this said little for the glueing together job I'd done.
I had another Smokey Joe chassis available by this time, and the wheel base turned out to be close to the prototype, so the rebuild was based on that.
The finished rebuilt 'Ettie'. Name and works plates from Narrow Planet again.
The build of 'Ettie' is detailed here ngrm-online.com/index.php?/forums/topic/15913-in-a-bit-of-estate/page/9/ - part of the thread 'In a Bit of Estate'.
There is also an album of photos of the build on Flickr www.flickr.com/photos/149926300@N07/albums/72157687820669771
'Kaffie' and 'Ettie' together in Stable Yard on Berger Hall. 'Ettie' really was a small loco.
Having built two of Heywood's design, my thought turned to makinga model of his larger, 0-6-0 locos, like 'Ursula'. I bought another 'Katie' kit from Smallbrook and cut the body casting into two just behind the front edge of the water tank. The footplate was also cut into two, with the cut towards the rear.
The two parts of the body were joined by pieces of L-section styrene to extend it to the length of 'Ursula's. The footplate was extended by the same amount, with lengths of rail glued underneath to strengthen the whole thing. The body sides were clad in styrene sheet. A Hornby 0-6-0 chassis was bought from eBay.
Left - the body after lengthening. Right - the chassis was shortened and remotored, and the wheels and cylinders treated as before.
The 'Ursula'-like loco completed, painted and lined, and named after Sir Macintosh's wife, Lady Frideswide. She was not impressed.
The build is detailed on the NGRM forum, under the title 'Just a Simple Cut-and-Shut'.
There is also an album of photos of the build on Flickr www.flickr.com/photos/149926300@N07/albums/72157697907059531
The three Heywood locos in echelon - L-R 'Lady Frideswide', 'Kaffie', 'Ettie'.
While on a walking holiday based in Whitby I visited the North York Moors Railway, and at Goathland found a toy loco for sale in a nearby shop. It didn't cost much, so I bought it - to see what I could make of it. It went under the trademark Teamsterz, and was complete with chuff and whistle sound effects.
The toy loco as bought ...
... and dis-assembled. The boiler is painted plastic, the footplate and cab is a painted metal die-casting, and the tender is unpainted plastic. An overnight bath in undiluted Dettol removed the paint.
I found on eBay an unpowered 4-6-0 loco chassis with 6-wheel powered tender, costing not a lot - just what I needed.
The rear loco wheels were removed and the chassis shortened, and the valve gear and cylinders discarded.
Well on the way to completion. The two separate splashers didn't look right, so they were made into one long one to complete the alterations. The tender was cut down a little and given a more 'British' outline, and a seat for the driver.
The completed model in Stable Yard, painted, lined and with Narrow Planet name and worksplates, as 'Sir Macintosh'.
A 1:24 scale model of a 1/3 scale model of a mainline loco of undeterminate origin.
This build is detailed on the NGRM forum under the title 'Sow's Ear Seeks Silk Purse'.
There is also an album of photos of the build on Flickr www.flickr.com/photos/149926300@N07/albums/72157694914359284
In an 'Antique and Collectables' shop in Cirencester I found a little plastic N-scale model of Royal Scot on a plinth. With minimal alteration it became an even smaller scale model miniature loco. Seen here in Stable Yard on the Berger Hall Miniature Railway in company with 'Sir Macintosh', it belongs to Sir Huntley Palmer, standing in the foreground, discussing matters technical with the driver.
Page crated 20 December 2020 Last edited 4 January 2021