00 Gauge NCC WT Class

[NirateGoel]

What would be the best RTR 00 gauge loco to use as a basis to convert to a WT tank? 

Where would be the best place to get transfers and preferably etched plates?
Thanks


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Edited April 13, 2020 by NirateGoel

[Midland Man]

J15 as it went everywhere but o yeh they already did it!!!WT class is a simple conversion

[Mayner]

The Hornby Fowler 2-6-4T https://www.hattons.co.uk/10010/hornby_r2398_class_4p_2_6_4_42322_fowler_tank_in_br_black/stockdetail.aspx is pretty much the standard rtr donor for WT/jeep conversions. 

There are articles on Jeep conversions in the New Irish Lines Archive https://newirishlines.org/archive/.

Colm Flannigan  May 2004 & Nov 2006 editions.

Richards Hobbs May 2017 edition.

An etched body only kit designed to fit the Hornby chassis is available from Worsley Works, the kit does not include turned parts or castings and is only really suitable for modellers experienced in kit or scratchbuilding in metal.

 

[Noel]

3 hours ago, Mayner said:

The Hornby Fowler 2-6-4T https://www.hattons.co.uk/10010/hornby_r2398_class_4p_2_6_4_42322_fowler_tank_in_br_black/stockdetail.aspx is pretty much the standard rtr donor for WT/jeep conversions. 

There are articles on Jeep conversions in the New Irish Lines Archive https://newirishlines.org/archive/.

Colm Flannigan  May 2004 & Nov 2006 editions.

Richards Hobbs May 2017 edition.

An etched body only kit designed to fit the Hornby chassis is available from Worsley Works, the kit does not include turned parts or castings and is only really suitable for modellers experienced in kit or scratchbuilding in metal.

 

Fortunately picked one up a sound one few weeks ago after a tip from DB, for a future conversion to RPSI no 4. Horn sound is dreadful, sounds more like a baby elephant trying to imitate its parent learning to break wind through a silencer from a cat flap. Nice looking kettle though.

[NIR]

I'm not into steam but those WTs really look 'fully evolved' to me.

[RobertRoche]

I used a Bachmann Fairburn as a basis. The closer you look the more differences you see, for example the sweep down just before the cab is missing and there is an additional rib along the boiler. I had thought that this model (https://www.hattons.co.uk/525667/bachmann_branchline_32_350_po21_standard_class_4mt_2_6_4t_80061_in_br_black_with_early_emblem_pre_owned_minor_/stockdetail.aspx) may work but now the front seems  a bit off.  The Fowler conversion in New Irish Lines is a lot more involved than mine - I just finished my version.

 

[Noel]

15 minutes ago, RobertRoche said:

I used a Bachmann Fairburn as a basis. The closer you look the more differences you see, for example the sweep down just before the cab is missing and there is an additional rib along the boiler. I had thought that this model (https://www.hattons.co.uk/525667/bachmann_branchline_32_350_po21_standard_class_4mt_2_6_4t_80061_in_br_black_with_early_emblem_pre_owned_minor_/stockdetail.aspx) may work but now the front seems  a bit off.  The Fowler conversion in New Irish Lines is a lot more involved than mine - I just finished my version.

 

She looks really well and alongside 3173 BCK

 

[Noel]

Hopefully next winter might get around to tweaking this Bachmann Fairburn 2-6-4T closer to no 4. The prototypes (ie ex-LMS UTA Jeeps) were quite powerful locos well capable of hauling 8 coaches.

 

 

Edited April 14, 2020 by Noel

[NirateGoel]

Thanks all for your advice and suggestions. 
I'll probably go for the Fairburn, while the middle cab windows are missing it would take the least work to get something I'd be happy with. It feels most like a WT to me.

Edited April 14, 2020 by NirateGoel

[RobertRoche]

5 minutes ago, NirateGoel said:

I'll probably go for the Fairburn, while the middle cab windows are missing it would take the least work to get something I'd be happy with. It feels most like a WT to me.

Another thing I never noticed  I guess that didn't really matter to me so.

[Galteemore]

9 hours ago, Noel said:

Hopefully next winter might get around to tweaking this Bachmann Fairburn 2-6-4T closer to no 4. The prototypes (ie ex-LMS UTA Jeeps) were quite powerful locos well capable of hauling 8 coaches.

 

 

Nice Noel, although the LMS hooter will have to go! I never liked No 4’s whistle which always sounded like a scream. The GNRI version was more melodious.

[Noel]

3 minutes ago, Galteemore said:

Nice Noel, although the LMS hooter will have to go! I never liked No 4’s whistle which always sounded like a scream. The GNRI version was more melodious.

Yes the LMS horn is so underwhelming, sounds more like a baby elephant breaking wind. I wonder if there are any YouTubes of no4s whistle?

[leslie10646]

I hate to rain on this parade, but the "Tanks" were a parallel boilered loco.

The base used for the two built for me (by a well-known gent in Co. Down) is the Hornby Fowler tank - which was, anyway, the grandpa of the Class WT.

That said, thanks for the video of the Fairburn, Noel. I had one ride in 1966 behind one between Birkenhead and Hooton on the day I was interviewed for the job which is still paying my pension!

 

Edited April 14, 2020 by leslie10646

[Galteemore]

I’m assuming that’s why Noel’s waiting for winter Leslie - to have time to Dremel off that taper and insert a parallel tube..and you can hear 4 scream here....

 

That’s always struck me as one of the frustrations about the WT as a model - from smokebox to tank it’s largely Fowler - after that it’s Ivatt/Fairbairn! 

Edited April 14, 2020 by Galteemore

[leslie10646]

Hmmm. Wot about the long bunker on the WT? That's neither Ivatt or Fairburn (who was an electrical engineer anyway?).

What the heck, it's Noel's railway!

Back to dry-brushing embossed stone Plasticard. I don't know if it drives me more bonkers, or the ballasting!

 

[jhb171achill]

1 hour ago, Galteemore said:

Nice Noel, although the LMS hooter will have to go! I never liked No 4’s whistle which always sounded like a scream. The GNRI version was more melodious.

I love this. A GNR man through and through who was born and bred deep in NCC land, but was never polluted in thought by York Road!

’Tis your parentage, Galteemore; it’s in the genes.....

[leslie10646]

10 hours ago, jhb171achill said:

I love this. A GNR man through and through who was born and bred deep in NCC land, but was never polluted in thought by York Road!

’Tis your parentage, Galteemore; it’s in the genes.....

I can claim to have been born within the sound of a GN whistle, so I suppose I can claim proper GN parentage.

However,  the greater part of my life in Ireland was within a few miles of York Road and it was the performances of the later NCC men (on the Tanks) which set me on a lifetime of timing trains worldwide. I once told Frank Dunlop, then in his eighties - he had kindly given me a lift after one of Charles'  RPSI meetings - that if he and his men hadn't been such consummate enginenmen, I might have spent the last fifty years differently!

I'll get No.10 out at Portadown Jct and let you hear her.

[leslie10646]

OK, a quick opportunity to listen to and see my No.53.

There's a lot of ballasting work going on, hence the pots, paints etc in the background. I can't let you hear her bashing round with eight coaches as I'm also working at Richhill at the other end of the layout - logical, you see - work at one end and while that dries out, or sets, work at the other end?

You CAN turn the sound up - no commentary! Gosh doesn't the Digitrax reverser make a lot of noise?

Loco by Colm Flanagan, from a Hornby Fowler tank, digitised by Coastal DCC who put a LMS 4MT 2-6-4T sound chip in her

Edited April 15, 2020 by leslie10646

[Midland Man]

Lovely model look fine indeed

[Galteemore]

That’s lovely, Leslie. More Harry Ramsey’s driving style than Dan McAtamney! 

[leslie10646]

Actually, David, it's neither.

If I've got the name right, it's Paddy Dobbin who did Ballymena to Belfast start to stop in 34m43s on 8 April 1969. My best time between Ballymena and Belfast. The fireman (on the other side, of course, is Albert Plews.

My other tank is No.10 (presently out of action with a broken buffer beam (the result of a 4ft fall from my display cabinet).

No. 10 is my fastest tank and the driver modelled is the late, great, "Saint" Thomas Crymble.

83mph  at Muckamore on a very wet day - I got soaked timing it put of an open window.

[Galteemore]

83!! Worth a soaking. He was still driving when I went to school, and I saw some others of that class, like Davie McDonald, but driving an 80 class was a bit of comedown for them with not a lot of scope for virtuosity. Sorry to hear about 10. Didn’t the real one have a hole in the cab floor by the end? 

Edited April 16, 2020 by Galteemore

[Noel]

11 hours ago, leslie10646 said:

OK, a quick opportunity to listen to and see my No.53.

There's a lot of ballasting work going on, hence the pots, paints etc in the background. I can't let you hear her bashing round with eight coaches as I'm also working at Richhill at the other end of the layout - logical, you see - work at one end and while that dries out, or sets, work at the other end?

You CAN turn the sound up - no commentary! Gosh doesn't the Digitrax reverser make a lot of noise?

Loco by Colm Flanagan, from a Hornby Fowler tank, digitised by Coastal DCC who put a LMS 4MT 2-6-4T sound chip in her

 

Very nice. That whistle sounds a lot better than the dull LMS whistle on the 'Olivias trains' sound project on my Bachmann 2-6-4T.