Saturday, 14 July 2007

E. W. Badman Pipe Factors - Part 4: Motive Power to the People!

In parallel with all the other activity around this little diversion of mine, was the task of working out what sort of loco would be employed to push and shove our lovingly-crafted wagons. In this respect I was wise enough (for a change) to take some advice from a fellow large-scale modeller, and pay a visit to a very useful web site - http://www.gn15.info/index.php .

This has proved to be a very informative site, and is indeed further enhanced by a very active and friendly forum. Many questions have I asked: all have been answered with seemingly endless patience, with a healthy dose of good humour into the bargain. I was directed to yet another web site (sorry, but remind me again: how exactly did I survive without the internet?) run by one of the regulars which specialises in selling loco body kits. Should you be even remotely interested, it's at http://www.pepper7.co.uk/ Of course there are others, thousands, out there but I haven't tried them all, and I am hardly going to recommend somewhere I haven't tried, am I? For the avoidance of doubt, I have no commercial interest with the seller -aside, that is, from being a satisfied customer. So there. Besides, he paid me to say that. Actually no he didn't, I jest.

I chose a 'Hornet' loco body kit, and a 'Midge' motor truck. The motor blocks that provide the motion are Tenshodo - I bought 2 of those, too. I bought a shed load of other stuff off the site at the same time - I guess you could call it a 'red mist' moment. Time to hide the credit card statement behind the sofa again...

The kit components are moulded resin, with good moulding detail and very little in the way of 'flash' or unsightly mould lines. Instructions were 'brief' to say the least, but at the end of the day it's a freelance loco so arrange the controls etc as you see fit. There are no rules here - although, having the wheels at the bottom would probably be classed as a damned fine suggestion.
Having first primed the components with a matt grey car-body undercoat spray, I set them aside to dry properly whilst I turned my attention to the motor block itself. From some experiments with the Tenshodo motor, the wagon (with pipe) and a length of track, I found that the weight of the loco was not really going to be enough to push even 1 fully-laden wagon. Indeed, with the controller turned up to the full truncheon, I could hear for myself that the name 'Hornet' was all too appropriate. I cut some lead sheeting into strips, and set about hiding it in every recess I could find. This served to increase the weight over the driving axles, thereby improving the loco's traction quite considerably.

Construction was fairly straightforward - a most theraputic evening activity following a hectic day chasing 1's and 0's around a payroll system. I did run into a spot of bother with the glue though - resin will not be touched by liquid poly. The instructions recommend superglue! I had none of that, but fortunately I had a suitable alternative.

The rather poor quality indoor photo at least shows the results of an evening's work. The basic components are all there - the chassis, the 'cab' and the engine compartment, the buffer-beams and the radiator grille. The £1 coin gives you a good indication of the size of the loco. The penny gives you an equally good indication of the monetary value of the £1 coin. Bitter? Me? Nah!



The following day I was able to put the loco outside in its intended environment, with the wagon and some loose-laid trackwork, to give me a better idea of how it was all going to hang together - and to attempt a better-quality photo:



To my untrained eye, this was starting to look promising!