Garden Railway Forum

I've spent a chunk of the evening helping my son with his Roundhouse Bertie. He wanted to strip it down to do some work on it. Easy enough if it was as it was when it left Roundhouse. However, it's been professionally improved. Also not a problem judging by the photos I've seen when just completed.

But, big but, somewhere between then and us buying it, there's been more work done. It's had dummy angle brackets and bolts fitted between the front of the saddle tank and the replacement, larger smokebox - apparently with epoxy.

We gave up and put it together again. I couldn't see any way of dismantling further without causing damage.

In a way, this isn't a problem. The loco runs well and Matt likes it well enough as it is but, if trouble develops, there is an enduring niggle that it can't be fully dismantled for a repair.

Why, oh why, has this been done? I guess whoever did the mod didn't think about the consequences. Be warned - always look to the future.

Anyone have similar horror stories?

Not in the same league as the Bertie but I bought my Millie a set of bufferbeam bolts from Locoworks, the only problem with them is that the bolts are too big for the holes in the frames so they had to be opened out and the nuts had to be filed down to fit. Although they do look better it will be a major faff to remove it in the future.