Garden Railway Forum

Started on my Billy kit that has been sitting in my train room for a couple months. Had traded to my friend for my old Mayflower back, but he wanted the Billy painted and lined a certain way till he found out what that would all cost. So, we swapped back and I have a Billy, manual control, but with a SSP Slomo to make him a controlable beast on my raised line. I am turning him into a African/Aussie bush engine. He will sport cowcatcher/monkey/roo pushers on each end, the huge Roundhouse Darjeeling headlamps on both ends, upgraded crosshead/drop link and hopefully the coal bunker from the rear of the Lady Anne cab kit if I can get just that etch from Roundhouse. I emailed them for a price quote for all the goodies I need, should hear back from Harri once they return from Holiday shutdown. Today I got the frames, cylinders and valve gear all etch primed, painted and baked. Assembled with a successful air test. Need to find my 1.6mm drill bit so I can pin the cranks before I start the rest of the build. No RC in this one, but I will set the lights up to work with a micro DPDT toggle switch in the cab and battery pick under the foot plate. Foot plate is in the paint shop now so I can fit the boiler up and start running in the chassis while I wait for the stuff to finish her.

That is a nice start that you have made there. I didn't bother pinning the cranks on mine and have not really had a problem with them working loose.

I have thought about not pinning them, but its nice that its not as easy to knock her out of time when transporting to and from steamups or to the layout from the shelf in the house. Mike the Aspie

Can you take some pictures in the daylight please?

Todays progress pics on my Billy kit. We are now ready for a steam test. Plumbing is hooked up on both gas and steam, reversing quadrant hooked up. Boiler and boiler wrapper are painted and installed. I am working on cutting down one of the extra set of buffer plates that come with the engine. I do have the Billy style ones painted and baking right now so he can have something till I figure out how I want to cut the others down to just fitting across the frame rails to expose the cylinders.

The black and red colour scheme looks good.

I shortened the front buffer beams on both my Roundhouse locos using a 12" hack saw then squared up using my belt/disc sander.

Hi your Billy Kit build is coming along nicely very nice indeed and the colours are spot on.

I will scribe lines and cut them with my dremel and a cut off disc or two. I also plan to blacken the boiler bands, no brass work on this one other than the whistle. Needs to have more of a grundgy look. if I could weather, I would rust up the smoke box/chimney area like the engine I found on that blog. Body has to wait till I hear from Roundhouse about getting that coal bunker etch from thier Lady Anne Kit to extend Billy's fuel range, without restorting to a tender. I also got the cranks pinned and touched up any chipped paint on the motion. Thanks for all the wonderful comments. Mike the Aspie

I am stuck on what to paint the cab. The polished brass boiler bands have grown on me. And at this point, I can go either way of my 2 trains of thought. The hang up on the bush engine is I want that old style Brandbright cow catcher that isn't available right now. Also requires the more expensive lamps and so forth. I keep saying that I do not want an all black engine as well. The color decision is between green(think LGB Stainz green) with black roof and Regner Euro lantern headlamps, again like the LGB Stainz. Or just keep the brass bands and go black on the cab and then decide on the lanterns/lamps. I did run the Billy several times today on blocks, at first without the Slomo doing anything(grub screw loose), then I engaged it and what a difference. Open the regulator right up to get her to just start moving, then close it right down to nearly off and he will just crawl along smooth and steady. Just like I watch them do on the "From the Footplate" series on our Amzon Prime TV selection that I love to watch.

Here are some more pics of my Billy, now with a cab and really sporting the "LGB" look now. Just needs lanterns and a driver figure. Will try to take a video of him running on blocks later this week. Mike the Aspie

That does look good, the paint finish looks superb. Possibly a little too large for the layout it is standing on though

Big Jim wrote: ↑Fri Jan 05, 2018 12:26 pm That does look good, the paint finish looks superb. Possibly a little too large for the layout it is standing on though

He he - just what I thought - its like a Godzilla film but for 16mm steam enthusiasts!

Lovely paint job, the colours suit the Billy shape.

I think of it as what might have been if LGB had chosen Roundhouse over Aster for thier toe dip into live steam. Definatly would have been a much better model for the new comer into live steam, even without the Slomo. But the Slomo gives the Billy the running quality and stablity that a LGB sparkie user would really appreciate as a new comer into live steam. That device really should be a factory option offered by RH IMHO. I did do a run on my overhead indoor railway without the cab installed, nice 25 min run at a slow and sedate speed pulling five LGB coaches, four 2 axle coaches and one 4 axle coach. Mike the Aspie

Impressive progress Mike, and a nicely turned out Billy.

My weakness with kit building is spray painting. The owner whom I bought my partly built Billy kit from is patiently waiting to see the Riverdale Elke conversion, but I've still to paint the body work & temporarily fit radio control (been running it as a manual loco at present) before the coal firing conversion.

Chris Cairns

it helps that I do all the cooking in our family, so the oven is at my disposal. We have a very nice GE electric range that is very accurate temp wise. So all of my HO scale and G scale metal trains get baked in the oven when I paint them. The green is just Testors green in a rattle can, several light coats that I allowed to flash dry between them. Then baked at 180'F for 1 hour. I then set aside the cab for a couple days before installing the window trim and other trim to allow the paint to cure. The factory finish that RH does is still better than mine, but I get better with each model I paint. Thier finish is still more durable than anything else I have painted yet. But I am real close to thier durablity. Mike