In 2019, we began restoring a 1929 John Fowler diesel locomotive at the Woodford Railway.
It's one of the first I/C locomotives to run in Australia, pre-dating mainline diesel power by almost 20 years. I say "diesel", but like many tractors of the era, it was originally started on petrol, then switched to kerosene once warmed up. Today it sports a 5-cylinder Gardener diesel, received at Goondi Mill in the 1950s.
As I expected, hundreds of hours working on the real thing, very soon lead to the desire to own one in 16mm. An order was placed with Essel Engineering and 18 months later (material shortages due to plague) Essel No.388 arrived in it's spiritual home on the East coast of Queensland, in April of '21.
The stock locomotive is very well made. I never tested it's haulage capacity back when I had a track to run on, but it seems plenty capable for it's size.
It's powered by an 8-cell AA NiMh pack, within the large black box in the cab. A charging socket and toggle switches for direction and Run/Charge respectively, are also housed in the box. Speed is controlled by twisting the chimney. Gauge can be changed in the usual manner.
So that I could play with my new toy in the short term, the loco was immediately converted to Deltang R/C with MyLocoSound, and the bulky NiMh pack replaced with three 14500 Li-Ion cells hidden in the bonnet. Due to the thick cast resin sides and chunky aluminium top of the bonnet, the only way to fit the batteries under there was to have them pass through the footplate, resting on the styrene speaker baffle I'd made to fit and screwed beneath.
Fast forward to a fortnight ago, I decided this was the next thing to work on.
Intend to add detail, working headlights, repaint, weather and convert the gauge to 32mm.
Far as detailing goes, it's mostly straightforward - The Essel model appears to be based on Labasa Mill's No.6 in Fiji.
Replicating the prototype's unusual cast frame, by soldering flanges, gussets and axlebox horns to the existing plates, would be more trouble than it's worth.
The end goal being a freelance loco, I'll replicate the plate frames of the preserved Plane Creek loco instead.
11/08/23
The wheels were blank disks, so a recess was machined in their outer faces to improve their appearance.
Prototype wheels are the typical spoked castings of the era. As an experiment in "sort-of" replicating this, the wheels were drilled prior to machining. Figured if I didn't like the way round holes looked behind the frames, I could always file out the sides of holes closest to the rim, to make them look more like spoke gaps.
19/08/23
Frames have been detailed in the usual way, with dressmaker's pins, a pair of HO track nails, and a bit of styrene.
The dome-headed screws in the headstocks were removed, their holes re-tapped to M2, and replaced with hex bolts to better represent the prototype. Countersunk screws were needed where the IP Eng. Darjeeling buffers will overlap.
Cranks aren't quite the right shape for either prototype Fowler, but for the effort to hand file them all identically, they're good enough as-is.
The jackshaft cranks were detailed in much the same way as those on my PDF Baldwin.
You don't see much of the drilled wheels at 32mm, but I'm happy as it is. I've left the springs as they add some much-needed character.
Not that I'm up to painting yet, but I didn't know what era to model it in when I ordered the loco, and I'm still undecided today.
Either green with 1930s automotive headlights, representing a period of 1930-1955 - Or - yellow, possibly no headlights, re-engined with an ugly home made exhuast to suit, and a more faded, weathered finish representing 1955-1980. Black frames and red motion either way..
