Quick 4F and 40 Conversions

Before clearing the modelling desk ready for tracklaying operations, I decided that it was worth doing a 'quick' conversion of a Farish 4F that I'd had the bits for lying round since getting them at a Supermeet in Chelford some years ago.

Saturday was spent prepping the wheels, giving them initial coat of paint and then using the quartering too to mount them in the bearings and the axle muff.

The coupling rods were soldered up from those on the old faithful 3-205 etch, which despite being designed for the old Poole Era Farish/Ballantine Wheels was still an exact fit. These are, in my view, more robust than the more recent Jinty coupling rods designed around the current Farish Jinty loco. That said, I did use the 4F balance weights from the more recent etch.

After discovering I'd got some of the wheels mixed up between the leading and middle axles I was able, by early Saturday evening, to have it up and running on the rolling road -

A bit of running in confirmed that the basics were OK and the quartering was pretty much spot on for once!

So, when the inevitable rainy Bank Holiday Monday came, I soldered on the crankpin washers and cut them down to size, and this is how it looks so far on my test plank -

It's still in MR livery pretty much as it came from Farish, so it will be probably renumbered to LMS 3842, a loco shedded at Buxton though I imagine it'll be used to help to fill a current gap for LMS 0-6-0s on Lightcliffe so that number isn't finalised as yet.

A much quicker conversion was for a blue Farish Class 40 - much simpler with 3-308 16t geared 7.5mm wheelsets for the driven axles and a pair of the new 3-313 6mm/1.5mm axles for the pony truck axles. Dead quick to do and it works a treat!

This will be staying as 40 012 Aureol, as it was towards the end of it's life in the early 80s but before it was renumbered to a 97/4 for the Crewe remodelling works, this does mean that I'll have to fill in the slots in the nose for mounting the headcode disks as I've not been able to find any pictures so far of it with the numbers painted on the nose and the discs still mounted. It'll also need the wheels painting black and a some appropriate weathering.

Back after Lockdown

Since the last post a lot has happened, and over the last almost year and a half of lockdown chances to get to Keighley have been few and far between - mainly to check up on things and that's it.

However, with a hopeful return towards normality group meetings should be starting up again soon and we've been at work on various projects - to start with here's a bit of an overview and recap of what I've been up to over the last year or so.

First up are a couple of loco conversion projects, starting with the Diesels - converted by either having the wheels turned down or by means of replacement wheelsets.

I've done a lot of 37s - 37 425 is an example, destined initially for my Cameo project, of which more anon -

I've done a lot of work to lower the 37s, based on the work detailed in a number of RMWEB posts here, here and here

This, compared with an as yet unmodified one, is the result...

The main thing I can contribute to the techniques described in the links is using Scotch double-sided mounting tape (which is just over 1.5mm think) to fix the tanks on to the chassis to accommodate the lowered body. It's worth noting that since the above picture was taken the wheels have been painted!

Next up is a few Western influenced projects, firstly D9555, a Class 14 which was a 2nd attempt to get it right after a botched initial conversion some years ago -

In short - turned down wheels, with 1mm diameter brass tubes inserted in the wheels in the old Farish crankpin holes to allow association crank pins for a replacement con rod from a detailing etch by Steve 'Pixie' Nicholls, which also included replacement buffer beams and finally I needed a load of spare parts from a non-running chassis acquired via Ebay to recover from my first conversion attempt!

Also is a Pannier tank, 3615, converted from the Dapol roughly following Pete King's method in the Feb/Mar 2016 2mm Magazine -

The main difference between mine and his is that the geared drive is just to the middle axle, I ditched the spur gears to the outer axles. After finessing the quartering it runs quite nicely.

All the above do need some weathering as well once I've refined the techniques and more importantly built up the courage!

Finally, there has been some work I've been able to do at home on Lightcliffe, mainly from the perspective of rewiring the control panel and replacing the feedback controller with one with a purer DC output which more suits the newer coreless motors.