NER Class G1 a tale of waste etch

Since a couple of people expressed an interest I thought my on going battles with the NER G1 might be of interest so the story so far.

The “kit”

This comes from a now retired supplier, who if you phone or write to him (yes snail mail) will pull out the old etch masters and get a set of etches done for you. It is about a 4 week wait having ordered and paid for the kit before they are supplied. What is included are the etches, plus any castings he has, these are a mixture of white metal and lost wax. No packaging, box or any of the myriad of bits and pieces you would get in a full kit. What you also don’t get is the boiler or smokebox wrapper, you have to source the material and cut and roll these yourself using supplied dimensions.

Being old worn etch masters, the quality was let’s say variable, some parts were nice and clean, while others almost had to be hacked from the etch and then thoroughly cleaned up.

The lost wax casting are pretty good, the white metal ones are poor, I only manged to salvage the smokebox door so ended up replacing the rest with castings from Gladiator Models.

The instruction are minimal, but, sufficient if you have built a couple of locos before.

The build to date.

The kit is designed to build the later 4-4-0 version of a G1, in order to built the 2-40 it’s necessary to cut away the front of the chassis an graft on new sections (these are supplied). A scary little job, with no aids to alignment etc, so it needs real care, I got it right second go.

The chassis build is conventional, what I forgot to do was to mark out positions for sprung pickups and brake rigging etc – a stupid mistake which has caused problems. Lesson 1 do it in the falt so both sides are identical!

Building the loco body again is pretty standard, although it is almost entirely edge to edge soldering, there are only 4 tab/slots, two for the splasher sides, two for the frame extensions.

The cab front appears to drop into two additional slots in the foot plate, but doesn’t. It needs to be located using the top of the sides as reference points, also it needs to be cut off just below splasher height otherwise the wheels don’t fit. Yep missed this point and had an interesting time cutting it down later.

The cab interior has a number of challenges. It is designed with the internal splashers folding up from the footplate, but the etch is so wide there is a gap of roughly 1.5 mm between the splasher and the cab side which needs to be filled. The sides of the splasher has to be “fabricated from waste etch”, the only problem being there aren’t waste etch pieces big enough! Also the splasher top is supposed to overlap the sides by 1mm, again waste etch, again, nothing big enough. I haven’t resolved either of these yet, I am debating using plasticard or buying a small piece of nickel silver.

That’s as far as I have got with the loco.

The Tender

Well it’s a box what could be more simple.

The chassis has 2 etched slots to join it to the tender body, one small problem, exactly where one of these slot is position there a huge hole in the tender footplate i.e. nothing to fasten it to. Guess what more waste etch to create a cross member with a 6 ba bolt soldered on top. There is also no attachment point for the draw bar, again waste etch and 6 ba bolt solder in place.

I had already realised the kit didn’t come with tender brakes, but had some spares (LNER type, but barely visible so they would do). Again, I should have marked out the positions of the rigging before assembly and didn’t, then realised the chassis isn’t long enough for the third set of brake rigging, the frames need extending. This is all still to be resolved and a good reminder to think and plan ahead.

Glad all that’s over, so to the tender body.

There are 2 tab slots to locate the tender sides, but as in instructions state these are a guide and not necessarily accurate, so why bother!.

The sides of the water tank should curve into the front, but because of the design are at right angles. I can’t see a solution to this so have left them rounded.

There is nothing to locate the tender top to the sides, I ended up soldering waste etch to the sides to provide some degree of support until I could fully solder the top in place.

Also the rear top section should butt fit against the front, except its 3mm to short, fortunately this will be hidden by coal, so i just bodged a way around it.

Finally there are no inner side to the side tanks or coal plate “waste etch again”.

That’s about where its at, I keep picking it up, fiddle about a bit and put it down again, any way the time has come to try make progress. Readers may now appreciate the need for the V2 and Horsebox builds that are being done simultaneously – a small grasp on sanity.

Mossy

 

Hi Kimbo,

On 3 locos I have I have a fixed axle (usually the rear one) which I drive from, all the others have Slaters sprung horn blocks, the fourth loco is fixed axle.

Pick ups on all of them is via Slaters sprung pick up's. A trick I picked up some where is to slightly stretch the spring, which is said to improve adhesion and therefore pickup, given I have no layout I haven't tested this yet, but it can't hurt.

The problem with the G1, and again caused by a lack of planning is the main top chassis former is slap bang in the way of where the motor will fit. I need to decide if I should move it, or drive off the front sprung axle.

Mossy

 

Rob / Paul,

The G1 etches are pretty good and crisp and I didn't expect something of the quality of a Big Jim kit.
I had also been warned it is/was difficult to turn an NER Days etch into an acceptable model.

This build has been plagued by 2 reasons, firstly a lack of forethought on my behalf, mea culpa. But also a number of the parts simply don't fit or don't exist or haven't been thought about. Pieces that are oversize can always be "fettled", but like the tank top what do you do when there is a 3-4 mm gap between it and the part it is meant to marry to?

The current state of play with this loco is:

Tender:
Body basically done,
Tender top resolved.
Water tanks, no internal sides included on the etch so replaced by plasticard inserts
No provision for front mounting screw - sorted with a strip of etch waste.
No provision for the drawbar, again resolved using waste etch.

Still to decide if I extend chassis to allow full brake rigging to be fitted, or leave as is and ..... the brake gear.

Loco:
Internal splashers for the rear driving wheels designed to fold up from the footplate - etch is so wide there is a 2-3mm gap between the splasher and the cab side - waste
etch in short supply, not resolved yet.
No provision for the drawbar, or rear mounting screw/nut - fixed.
Prominent brass beading to splashers supposed to sit in a half etch groove, one side perfect, the other tapers form 1.5mm to .5mm, bodged not great but the best I could do.
Westinghouse pump - nothing to act as a mounting for the pump - yet to resolve but probably more "waste etch"

Chassis
Main spacer in the way of the motor (my problem) has to be moved.
Location of outer brake rigging, not indicated on etch, and I forgot to pre plan ano personnel oops.
Sprung pickup - as above - again my fault.

So currently in a box and hidden away while I drink myself under the table and decide to either scrap it or rejoin battle at a later date.

Keep well gents.

Mossy

 

Paul,

"The work bench" is actually the dining room table. It has spent the last year doubling up as a home office and a work bench, but I am now retired so no more home office.
She who must be keeps muttering about getting the table back, I keep putting things off citing Covid and mental health needs but how long that will last who knows.

Any way what it should look like when finished in its early 2-4-0 form is:

 

I am slowly working my way though a number of shelf queens, but concentrating on ones which don't stress me out as apposed to the one that makes me want to throw it through the window!

Almost done are a number of Furness Railway wagons, NER Dia C2, C9 and Q1 just need number plates - but I cant get the Powside ones to work - do you know if there are any waterside NER transfers available? Then it's just a final matt varnish.

Also approaching completion is a G1 van from the same supplier. My leaving present (January this year) was another 4 of Marc's NER vans, those are in the stack and I am studiously avoiding going anywhere near them.

I also have a couple of D&S coaching stock kits on the go, a 6 wheel coach and a horse box) but they get reserved for light relief as they go together so easily and are a pleasure to build

Keep well guys.

Mossy

 

Hi Rob,

My G1 is from Furness RC, so its a mixed cast resin, 3d printed and brass confection, not one of Steve Hoyles.
All up its a very straight forward build, but can't comment on the Steve Hoyle kit.

Mossy

 

Very smart - I will do a photo of the FRC G1 later, as I am about to go for my daily walk.

Mossy

 

I think your Silhouette cutter is cheating try adding all that bracing from etch without getting superglue every where ii isn't meant to be.

Photos are my FWRC G1 with a first coat of paint, and roof just posed.

Mossy

 

Rob, don't worry about side tracking things.

All the body components sides, ends, floor, chassis and end posts are cast resin.
Axle boxes/springs and buffers are 3d printed (resin I think).

Much of the rest are brass etches, except for the roof that's also brass but came pre shaped.

I now have quite a few of Marc Dobsons, NER kits and all but 1 are of similar composition,
the only exception is a G8 Gun Powder van, all its body parts are brass, with a huge mount of punch out rivet detail.
The floor, ends and sides are one piece, and fold up into an open box structure.
I am going to have to get much better at punching rivets before I tackle that one.

He has a pretty big range of pre grouping kits from any number of railway companies. It would be nice if the kits were better presented, also its not uncommon to find parts missing, but to be fair they are supplied pretty quickly once you point them out.

Mossy