QUOTE (OfficerDonNZ @ 18 Jun 2007, 00:23)
<{POST_SNAPBACK}>All that remains is to do something about powering the beastie. I'm looking at using a Bachmann Deltic rather than a Lima one.
Good choice. I elected to leave the floor plate out of the kit, and cut the underframe tanks off to make a bodyshell that is a near direct replacement for the Bachmann body, so that it is the Bachmann underframe that is on show.
Compromises and things to be aware of:
The chassis of the prototype unit had several differences from the production version: slightly shorter overall length, shorter between bogie centres, small difference in wheel spacing on the bogies, different bogie construction, that sort of thing. It is necessary to shorten and shape the ends of the plastic chassis tray (by about 1mm) to fit inside the slightly different nose profile, also to take off locating mouldings inside the body side panels to clear the chassis. It would be possible to use the kit parts with some significant chassis mods to get closer to prototype, but the deviations are within the 3 - 4 % that is typically acceptable.
Upside:
It looks OK and performs really well, put a lovely maximum load East coast train of Gresley, Thompson and BR mk1 stock behind it, and it will take them away quietly up to a realistic top speed. You can recycle some of the Bach body shell parts like the fans into the kit.
For a reference picture, Colour-Rail DE574 shows this machine operating as I remember it. Complete with ex-LNE white round bodied steam era express headlamps one above each buffer, and what looks like an all maroon set, GresleyBSK, ThompsonSK, Gresley, BRmk1...indistinct...vehicle 8 is a catering coach of some sort, in what is probably a 12 coach train; wah wah wah wah wah wah trailing off into the distance.
