Ken's workbench Bagnall meets hacksaw

[Ken Shabby]

A nice easy project after a few weeks away from the railway. I bought the Hornby Class 37 body last year , and a couple of weeks back I was lucky enough find a Lima 37 in Railfreight grey with full yellow cabs for £17.
The Lima body went in the spares box , and the buffer beams were removed from the chassis , then the ends of the chassis were filed down slightly until the Hornby body could be clipped on to it.
A couple of strips of electrical tape were stuck to the sides of the chassis , this makes the body a slightly tighter fit enabling it to be lifted without the body coming loose.

Ken

[Richard08]

A nice easy project after a few weeks away from the railway. I bought the Hornby Class 37 body last year , and a couple of weeks back I was lucky enough find a Lima 37 in Railfreight grey with full yellow cabs for £17.

Fidelity aside, the old Hornby 37s do capture the essence of a 37 very nicely in some mysterious way.

[Bigmet]

...the old Hornby 37s do capture the essence of a 37 very nicely in some mysterious way.

Craft skill of the toolmaker, who probably only had a works drawing, some photos, and observation and measurement of the real thing to guide him. I do find it interesting that for some projects the Rovex, Lines Bros., Triang, 'whatever they were called this week', toolmakers were allowed to demonstrate what they might potentially deliver. The Brush type 2 and EM2, the bogie brick wagon and trestrol, are in the same class. It would be good to know their names.

...A couple of strips of electrical tape were stuck to the sides of the chassis , this makes the body a slightly tighter fit enabling it to be lifted without the body coming loose.

Good, Fast, Cheap. Engineering perfection!

[Ken Shabby]

I've been tinkering with this Hornby 47 all afternoon
I wanted to lower it slightly, and having done this to 2 other old Hornby diesels in the past, I thought it would be a quick job.
It wasn't. The blasted thing wouldn't sit right and it took multiple attempts to stop it leaning to one side and wobbling as it ran round the track.
The chassis is different to older Hornby 47s. It doesn't have the offset dimple over the unpowered bogie, which normally causes the annoying lean.
I must of had it apart ten times before I managed to get it right, and as you can see it's still sitting slightly higher than my green 47.
This loco £17 from a antique market, and was a dummy loco with with it's motor stripped out.
It was such a nice livery I had to buy it.
Ken

it

[Ken Shabby]

I've been digging deep in the spares crate this week.
This freelance brake van is inspired by the LSWR road vans. The chassis is from a Triang brake van, which has slightly later wheels that willl run through my points
The main body is a cut down Triang fish van, with the inner wall and slimmed down end from a Hornby BR brake van. The roof is from the Hornby Fine Fish van.
The only non Margate produced part is the van
Is the floor which came from a ancient clear plastic REX kit, which I bought years ago and never completed
There's still much to do before it can be painted but I'm happy enough with it so far.
Ken

[Bigmet]

...I've been tinkering with this Hornby 47 all afternoon...

The original silver seal release is well worth the tinkering, the basic body shape very good and further improved by shaving off the paint guides! I cut large notches in the metal under frame to drop the ride height, having fitted scale diameter wheels to two of the original all axle drive bogies. After a stint on my past outdoor line (which was why it needed all axles powered for sufficient traction in the wet) when the Bachmann model arrived it went on to a friend's layout and was still purring away like a goodun at last report.

[Ken Shabby]

This was originally a clockwork toy made in Spain by some unknown manufacturer. The original clockwork chassis had it's wheels hidden by a red plastic skirt and it was a very odd looking thing. It's now fitted with a recent Caledonian Pug chassis.

It may not look much , but I managed solve the problem of attaching the body to the chassis. This has caused me no end if trouble in the past, and caused various similar projects to return to the spares box.

The front buffer beam is from a condemned Triang Dock shunter, and is just blue tacked on for now.
The body seems to catch on the annoying wire clip which holds the motor in place, so a few adjustments will be needed to ensure smooth running

Ken

[Ken Shabby]

Another old clockwork engine prepares to go electric..
This is from the old Hornby clockwork set which came with the level crossing, 2 cars and 3 wagons.
The body is currently just balanced on a cut down Hornby 0-4-0 chassis.minus it's motor.
The body now has some old Triang buffers fitted , and work has begun on filling in both the key hole and the hole in the roof.
A Triang Nellie chassis would be the perfect fit for this loco, however I wanted outside cylinders and the wheels to sit a little further forward, hence the Hornby Pug chassis..
The big problem is the wire clip that holds the motor in place. The insides of the body shell could press on the clip causing noisy and erratic running.
If all goes to plan, with fitting the body , sorting o ut the cylinders and getting it to run, then a new Hornby chassis will be bought for it. The one I'm using is past it's best.
Ken

[Bufferstop]

Taking the loops off the end of that cursed spring might help, just remember to over the cut ends. Or clamp the motor down with a loop of stiff wire twisted together.

[Ken Shabby]

I think the tightly looped wire around the motor will be the way forward with this one.
The body was painted this afternoon , then given a coat of satin varnish. It's annoying that all the faults in the painting only become visible once you've taken the photo. Hopefully light weathering will hide any major errors.

Ken

[Ken Shabby]

This Class 47 is one of four locos I bought for £17.00 each from a antique market about 6 months ago.
I think this is probably one of the last of the old Hornby Class 47 models before they replaced it with the old Lima model..
This one ran very smoothly , but could barely pull itself round the layout. New traction tyres didn't cure this, It was actually being caused by the floppy unpowered centre wheels on the power bogie. . A quick and very cheap fix was to replace them with a set of old Triang wheels off a late sixties Mk1 coach. The flanges were completely filed off and they just push it onto the centre axles.. I just need to paint them so that can be seen better, plus weather the fuel tanks to match the bogies and this project will be complete.
All the alterations on this model can be reversed on the off chance it becomes collectable in years to come.
The chassis and bogie frames were put away for safe keeping and replaced with some from the spares box. I have filed them down to allow the loco to sit lower,
( the monster truck off road loco these old Hornby diesels have is one of my pet hates).

Ken

[Ken Shabby]

This Trackmaster Ffarquhar station was bought from a boot fair about a decade ago.
There was a vague idea at the time of trying to do something with it .

Last week I finally got around to doing it. .

The canopy is from one of the old Triang station buildings and most of the other parts used came from condemned Superquick buildings. The tricky part was cutting about 2mm off the bottom of the walls to lower it down to OO platform height.
I've been promising myself I'd build a shunting plank based on a heritage railway , maybe this will spur me into action.
Ken

[Phred]

Very nice - what a transformation! From a toy to a scale model.

[Ken Shabby]

2 damaged Triang wagons become one.
A fish van body minus it's roof and a cattle wagon, which had lost a couple of the delicate window bars.

I've used pieces of cut down lineside fence for the window bars and the ironwork on the van sides has been filed off and replaced with thin strips of card.
A thin coat of primer shows up the areas I'll need to revisit.
Ken

[GeraldH]

That's a great job on the station building, it's a complete transformation from a toy to a realistic model.