Garden Railway Forum

Acquired this little fella off a well known auction site
Its a Big Big train, steam outline

Runs nicely and quite punchy with just two 'C' batteries

Obviously its O gauge - I think the main change that is needed is around the cab - - take the top off and perhaps widen the door areas

What do you guys think?

Mark

Mod the body so it looks like a diesel?

Reminds me of a Class 03.

markoteal wrote: ↑Fri Dec 22, 2017 11:26 pm

What do you guys think?

I think: Nice chassis, shame about the body.

Built a pit for it to work at

Lovely, these mechanisms are fantastic. Powerful, a good turn of speed and if you use a manual speed control very controllable.
I have converted many over the years. The steam outline is harder to work with as the chassis is obviously ic. They can make a nice steam tram or rail motor.
HGLW does a drop on body for an ic loco.

The mech is a good size for using as a power bogie. This is what I have done on my rail bus.

I wish someone would remanufacture just the mech.

Ok - thought I'd update you on this - after some thinking I decided on trying to bring together the front boiler section, with a new chimney with a spare pdf models quarry hunslet cab I acquired a while ago for another project.

Firstly the cab roof and chimney come off
Then the main cut (gulp)
Then out came the wet and dry sandpaper to work on the 3d printed cab - I also used the coating XTC 3D which really saved time but creating a new surface above the ridges on the 3d print - this reduces about 80-90% of the work required usually and I'll be using again with other models - it also worked well on a few deep scratches on the tank side of the boiler section - I coated the tank sides with XTC 3D then when dry sanded them down - then all body parts were given a couple of coats of primer
Couldn't resist a quick mock up - starting to look like something!
Then today I've gone dotty with riveting - both on this model and I've started on my Quarry Hunslet as well - for this model I've made use of the nail art dots that have been raised elsewhere on the forum for riveting - definitely a good solution

The final pic shows where I've got to - all rivets done, next I need to fill some small gaps between boiler section and the cab as well as sorting a chimney
I'll do another update soon

Riveting!

Looking good with the additional detailing. The grey primer always helps to unite the component parts and makes it easier to see where to go with the build.

That larger cab makes a world of difference and the rivets unify the old with the new. What a transformation!

Rik

XTC 3D ?????? I've found a supplier in Australia, anyone in UK?

I have to agree with Rik , you would never guess the origins. A lovely looking loco.

Very nice, this is one of the first big big steam engine bashes I have seen that looks right but still keeps the majority of the body.
What are your plans for the chassis.

Peter Butler wrote: ↑Sun Jan 07, 2018 9:45 pm XTC 3D ?????? I've found a supplier in Australia, anyone in UK?

Hi Peter - I got mine from here - cheapest in the uk I could find without buying a Vat of it from overseas

http://modelshop.co.uk/Shop/Cast-Mould/ ... 3D/ITM7368

Magic stuff

Thank for all your positive comments - very encouraging

Re the chassis, not sure yet - I will need to adapt one of the plates the batteries sit on for my re-shaped body - also I need to find a way of attaching at the rear - I also need to trim the plinth at the rear as my body is every so slightly short compared to the original - I'll post some pics as I tackle those elements

I guess however that your question concerned how will I make it more steam like - I do think I could do with creating some form of mock cylinders and perhaps a rod/piston into them from the front wheels - or I just say the cylinders sit inside the frames!

I also may consider replacing the power levers with switches but electrics are not my strength so phase one will probably be to leave as is

Will post more pics as things develop - probably at the weekend

Many thanks for the supplier link Mark.... I should give it a try.

I have converted most of my big big stuff (except the hymeks) to use AA batteries. This means that I don't have to worry about keeping a stock of C cells about the place. I find modern hi capacity AA cells are fine for a good long run.
The other little issue with some of the big big bodies ia that they can be a little tight over 4x C cells. It tends to be more of a problem with the novo versions and can result in a split body. I don't know if modern batteries are a fraction wider than those from the 1970's or that as the moulds wore out the plastic got thicker.
It is worth noting that they run on 3v despite having 4 batteries. I don't know what the technical terms is but they are 2 series pairs in parallel.
I do find that they run at a more prototypical speed on 3v than 6v (well 2.4v and 4.8v with rechargeables). So what I have done is use a pair of 2 x AA battery holders wired in parallel. You can run on 2 batteries but will obviously allow for more playtime between charges.
A bit of added ballast does help if you go down this route.

Cheers Jim - great feedback - on a quick test the 2xC battery seemed more than enough umph for this little loco - I think I'll be using it as a PW gang loco with fairly light loads that would run at slow speeds so that seems ideal

Also using AA's will create more space for other goodies under the bonnet - I've seen a standalone sound unit that runs off button batteries using motion sensorshttp://www.dcpexpress.com/sfx11-steam-f ... p-602.html and I'm thinking of maybe playing with a smoke generator on this one to try something a bit different - again with its own power unit - they will be definitely phase 2 though!

Mark,
That sound unit sounds very interesting. Have you actually heard any of their products?

There are two youtube videos on this page near the bottom - shows how it works - quite clever and doesn't need wiring in

http://www.train-tech.com/index.php/sound

Looks simple enough - just not sure how loud it will be - sounds ok on the video but thats inside - it doesn't have to be too loud for me as I'm sure my neighbours would get fed up after a bit of constant sound, but it would be nice to have some 'scale; sound - they do a few different units

Sounds quite nice. It would be nice to be able to run it off rechargeables, so you don't need access to the unit when the battery goes flat, but I guess it wouldn't be too difficult to do a quick mod.