NIR DH class - ideas for a model

[Mol_PMB]

I was wondering if there has ever been a kit for an NIR DH class 0-6-0? Or a suitable chassis identified for a scratchbuild?

So far, my searches on the forum and on Google have drawn a blank. I thought these were based on an industrial shunter type but I can't find any models of similar locos and even the Judith Edge range doesn't help (though I could have a much more obscure Harland & Wolff shunter from them!)

Are there any drawings or key dimensions available?

Surely someone on this forum has built a DH? How did you do it?

Pic from Bancc2 on Flickr:

Cheers,

Mol

[Galteemore]

Try @Hunslet 102 - he has built or acquired one…..

[Blaine]

They were an off the shelf design - the English Electric Stephenson Class, the NIR locos not having a centrally mounted cab compared to some that were built for industrial use.

A rare example of an unreliable English Electric loco - the 104 class brought into replace them were slightly older.....

[Galteemore]

1 hour ago, Blaine said:

They were an off the shelf design - the English Electric Stephenson Class, the NIR locos not having a centrally mounted cab compared to some that were built for industrial use.

A rare example of an unreliable English Electric loco - the 104 class brought into replace them were slightly older.....

I think the issue was not so much unreliability as misuse. NIR bought industrial shunters, designed for short stop start work, and used them for relatively long distance running. This led to issues such as overheating. Had they been employed in pilot work at York Road or Central they’d probably have been much more reliable. 

[Broithe]

1 hour ago, Blaine said:

A rare example of an unreliable English Electric      .....

I worked, not on railway stuff much, for a factory that had been English Electric, before the merger* with GEC. We still had some old EE stuff on the go afterwards, both new production and repair/maintenance work. It was very clear that the old stuff was hugely better, both in terms of function and reliability, if a touch more expensive at the purchase stage. The GEC stuff, of the new order, was unreliable and untrustworthy, living largely off the 'buy British' policy of the main market and what were essentially subsidised export sales via 'foreign aid'.

It was like building Corollas and Metros alongside each other.

All dead and gone now, of course.

 

* "Anschluss" was the preferred term...

[Mol_PMB]

Dimensions for DH class include:

Wheel Diameter: 3'6"

Wheel Base: estimated 11'9" (scaled from image below) - has anyone got an accurate figure?

Length Over Buffers: 28'4"

 

Compared to some GB prototypes with an 0-6-0 jackshaft drive:

Class 03: WD 3'7", WB 9'0", LOB 26'0"

Class 04: WD 3'3", WB 9'0", LOB 26'0.25"

Class 05: WD 3'4", WB 9'0", LOB 25'4"

Class 07: WD 3'6", WB 8'7"", LOB 26'3.25"

 

So the Class 03 chassis is a reasonable starting point, the main issue is that the wheelbase is too short. But I think you could get away with it on a model, because the steps and valances at the end of the DH class frame would partly conceal the empty space.

 

Photo from another thread here, thanks to @jhb171achill:

Photo from Professor Chaos on Flickr showing a broadside view of an 03:

 

 

[LNERW1]

For the less detail-oriented a modified BR class 07 might suffice?

[LNERW1]

I should qualify that by pointing out the chassis is a lot further off than the body.

Ok, one more thing- Bachmann Thomas and Friends Salty with a cut down cab. The dimensions of the bonnet either side of the cab seem close enough. Has an even more inaccurate chassis, unfortunately.

[Tullygrainey]

High Level Kits sell a very nice etched chassis kit for the Class 03, designed to go under the Bachmann rtr model.

https://www.highlevelkits.co.uk/product-page/br-class-03dm

I built one a while back and clad it with the body from a Dapol ex-Airfix plastic kit.  It runs beautifully thanks to its typically sweet High Level gearbox and a clever arrangement called "Illusodrive" that gets round the usual difficulty of getting the jackshaft to play ball with the coupling rods.

A High Level chassis kit coupled with a scratch built/kit bashed body ought to be viable. I think I've just acquired another project

The sharp-eyed will notice that in the pic above, the rear crankpin is missing its nut! 

Alan

[Patrick Davey]

Gareth Brennan scratchbuilt a jaw-dropping one, Kieran Lagan runs it on his Kirley Junction layout:

 

Edited November 11, 2024 by Patrick Davey