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Bulleid pacifics galore

6K views 14 replies 6 participants last post by  Julian2011 
#1 ·
I'm sure many of you have a favourite locomotive type that as modellers you keep coming back to, or collect perhaps a little bit too much?

Having spent all weekend on a Z gauge painting and lining marathon on some models of these I thought I might share with you my own long standing relationship with the Southern Railway's Merchant Navies and West Country class 4-6-2s.

As a Yorkshire lad born and bred we lived nowhere near the home ground of these machines that principally worked the lines south of London from Kent all the way to Cornwall so I never got to see many until we went of a family camping holiday to the New Forest in 1965 . My mother's famous words to my dad " I hope there are no railways involved this time?" were followed by a trail of steam coming out of a cutting behind the camp site!

rebuilt Merchant Navy 35017 'Belgian marine'



Now in the U.K these two classes of locos have always been well represented in model form. Triang, later Triang-Hornby, made them in both 00 gauge and TT way back in the 1960s and Kitmaster (absorbed by Airfix) did an injected moulded 00 construction kit at a very reasonable price. Wrenn models, who carried on making the original Hornby Dublo metal loco models, introduced new tooling of a rebuilt Bulleid Pacific. Grafar and Dapol have both produced N scale versions.

Airfix kits were everywhere back in those days. Most newsagents and every model shop used to stock them and the Bulleid Pacific kit represented Battle of Britain class 'Biggin Hill' So one of my first ever kitbashing projects as a youngster was to motorise one with a old Triang Princess class 4-6-2 chassis. To represent the BFB wheels you had to go to a guy called Albert Goodall who did etched BFB overlays to glue onto the front of the wheels to hide the spokes. He also did the nameplates as well. For those British members of this forum who will remember this I had to send a Postal order for the right amount. Back in those days, long before credit cards or paypal it was a sort of prepaid cheque issued by the local post office, Another time, long gone!

It ran for years and is seen her in the company of some 00 locos I built afterwards. Some kitbashed Triang but mainly white metal kits. How crude these look compared to modern 00



In a rare shot of my bedroom ( Yes really) when as a teenager I still lived with the folks is the wall of British 00, American H0 and to the left the start of my ascent into 0 gauge. on the bench is a Rivarossi IHB 0-8-0 kit under construction and on the shelves you can see two of the motorised 00 Airfix Spamcans complete with nameplates.



I never got around to doing one in 0 but jump forward a few years and I scratchbuilt 34074 46 Squadron in gauge 1.



to be continued

Kev
 
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#2 ·
It is only recently that British Z has emerged as a viable thing with the advent of 3D printing but there has been the possibility of motorising some of the Atlas edition static models produced by D'agostini. One such is the 'Green Arrow' set with a Bulleid Pacific in original Southern malachite green and a couple of Pullmans. Numbered as 21C110 in the Southern's strange numbering system it has the headboard and ceremonial Gold arrows attached to it. It became 34010 'Sidmouth' after nationalisation. It is nicely moulded and you can pick them up on ebay quite cheaply and motorise them with the Marklin Bavarian pacific chassis. There is loads of room inside the air smoothed casing to add additional weight to improve traction. The only disadvantage is that as yet there is no obvious way of representing the unique wheel centres.

As purchased



Fitted with a green wheeled Bavarian pacific chassis. The tender is running on a milled brass chassis with Fox valley 36" wheels



Next I decided to do a simple repaint of the Atlas one in British Rail Brunswick green and retain the Golden arrow paraphernalia. I say simple because the orange/black/orange lining is in straight lines only. I have had to make a big compromise with the nameplates as there are obviously no Z scale nameplates avaiable at present so I have used N ones which I know are too big but look O.K to me. This one had a milled brass tender chassis made and again runs on FVM wheels. Finished as 35017 Belgian marine. The arrow is moulded so shallow that it was a real pain to repaint gold again



The Pullmans are running on MTL bogies and use magnetic couplings (See separate thread soon)

Next I carefully carved off the arrows and headboard and finished as Battle of Britain class 34066 'Spitfire'

more soon
 
#3 ·
Although the Atlas editions Bulleids are fairly plentiful Ivan Industries introduced a 3D printed unrebuilt one on Shapeways which again was easily fitted with the Marklin chassis

test fit on the chassis before cleaning up and painting



Like the Atlas one there is bags of room for extra weight. The tender takes Marklin wheelsets and has had some slabs of brass added to increase mass.

Now I rushed the paint job on this one as I wanted to run it at Zedex that year and was never really satisfied with the finish. Because the sides taper inwards towards the top there are some fine layer lines which I did not sand out . The paint really highlights them on this shot of it running on Shasta



So while I was painting the others I rubbed it down, reprimed and painted as 34018 'Axminster'



you can see now what I mean about it being a marathon painting and lining session!
 
#4 ·
Recently Ivan introduced a 3D print of the rebuilt Merchant Navy. This is one of the best prints I've ever seen and just needed some cleaning up on the underside of the boiler. he has modified the tender to represent the cut down sides British Rail did to improve the rearwards vision. it is seen here with Charly McGuiness's newly introduced Class 158 DMU and his Class 76 DC Woodhead electric



I've done something slightly different with the rebuilt Merchant Navy. On that family holiday in the 1960s we found a rather tatty 34056 'Croydon' relegated to putting together a ballast train at Templecombe. Fortunate to still have its namplates intact when this picture was taken



You'll have noticed by now on some of the pictures the distinctive head code discs. These two, one above the other indicate it is a ballast train or through goods. I'm still deciding if it is feasible to add the discs but here is the rebuilt Merchant Navy 35020 'Bibby Line' on a goods train. Still needs top coat of lacquer and all four locos need the cab glazing adding last



so in total I've now got five Bulleid pacifics in Z. Not enough chassis to go round but I've got another Marklin Bay S3 4-6-2 on its way from Germany

So. The compromise is that there are no specific Z BR transfers available and I used the following

paint Hycote aerosol Rover Brooklands green (you can get it from The Range)

Lining from Fox transfers. I know the rebuilt one just has plain orange but it looks O.K sheet FG 1992

Unrebuilt orange/black/orange are some old SMS ones

BR crests from Fox (N Gauge ones)

Numbers are Fox from sheet FG 2001

nameplates and crest etc from Fox

one of my most treasured possesions an Original condition and unrestored West Country scroll



The LNER Pacifics will form a separate thread in the future

Kev
 
#5 ·
Fascinating.
Sanding that 3D Primt made a big difference.

David
 
#6 ·
Looking at a large version of the train picture as it uploads I notice that the first wagon is a bogie ballast hopper. Which doesn't' necessarily mean that this is a ballast train. It could simply be moving to some place it is needed - empty, loaded, to be repaired - or to "run out" a part load to random locations that need a top up - rather than take it back to the quarry/depot.
Looking a bit further - beside the further end of the hopper there is a dummy/ground signal (SR) showing "Off" so the loco is near certainly shoving the wagons back into a siding.
It's amazing the details that can be found in these old pictures.

Also - a "ballast train" doesn't always/only carry ballast - it might more accurately be called an "engineers supplies train". At the least it can carry sleepers, rail, P&C/S&C parts, stuff for other departments - and any combination. In more recent times it could include some On Track Machines (OTMs) - such as ballast cleaners - that gets somewhat complicated though.

 
#11 ·
Goes to show how much steam and smoke could obscure the view.
Naturally diesels wouldn't do that (much).

It would appear that the signalman has "misbehaved" because the shunt has moved further toward the siding but not completely inside - yet the dummy is "on" in this view. This could be a recipe for a derailment. Strictly the footplate
should notice this and stop the movement.
 
#12 ·
QUOTE (Bear 1923 @ 10 Jul 2020, 18:09) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
Goes to show how much steam and smoke could obscure the view.
Naturally diesels wouldn't do that (much).

It would appear that the signalman has "misbehaved" because the shunt has moved further toward the siding but not completely inside - yet the dummy is "on" in this view. This could be a recipe for a derailment. Strictly the footplate
should notice this and stop the movement.


I had rather hoped that the first picture was taken after the second and the train is heading out, rather than in. I take clues from the increased amount of steam where the loco is further out of the siding and applying more power, to move away. The second, being a tad more tenuous, is that the steam is moving rearwards - at what seems a uniform rate, which implies forward motion with little effect from wind turbulence around the loco.

Could be wrong, there???


Julian
 
#14 · (Edited by Moderator)
Just out of interest... If the train is moving out why would the dummy be off in the pic in the earlier post 4?

Unless, of course, in the later post 8 the movement has emerged while in the earlier post 4 it is going to push back in? This would be possible if there was some re-shuffle shunting going on...

Dummies are "Fixed Signals" while steam goes where it will.


 
#15 ·
QUOTE (Bear 1923 @ 11 Jul 2020, 05:06) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
Just out of interest... If the train is moving out why would the dummy be off in the pic in the earlier post 4?

Unless, of course, in the later post 8 the movement has emerged while in the earlier post 4 it is going to push back in? This would be possible if there was some re-shuffle shunting going on...

Dummies are "Fixed Signals" while steam goes where it will.






..... Uumm.....

....... .................. .................. Err..... More tea Vicar??


Julian
Good pictures, none-the-less.
 
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