Golden Arrow models Class G16 heavy shunter.

There were apparently only a few of these loco's built, originally intended for shunting duties, but later had other work such as pilot/banking/empty stock movements etc, and as a class, none survived the cutters torch in the early 60's. The kit uses the Hornby 8f chassis, and I've been lucky enough to get hold of 2 chassis, so it's likely that a 'Z' class (which also uses the 8f chassis) will be a 'follow-on' build. Here's where we start.

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After cleaning up the 'flash' from body and parts, I drilled out the holes for handrails etc.

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You can see from the tiny green dots on the loco body in the previous pic, that there were quite a number of bubbles in the resin finish that had to be filled and sanded prior to a coat of primer.

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As is often the case, primer painting then showed up more areas that needed a spot of filling and sanding. I was working on this model in between waiting for glue/paint to dry on the Maunsell shunter, so again while waiting for paint to dry, I turned my attention to the 8f chassis itself, which does need quite a bit of alteration to the valve gear. Here's the basic chassis, minus the 'DCC ready' circuit board and associated wiring, since I shall be wiring in the decoder to save space.

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After primer had dried, it was obvious that further filling/sanding was needed, so whilst waiting for filler to harden, I set about the chassis alterations. 6mm is cut off the chassis rear, leaving the screw boss that was originally used to pivot the tender drawbar, and the new rear body support Araldited to the remaining stub. Next is the fiddly bit, as the valve gear has to be dismantled and altered as the G16 main piston rods come from the 2nd pair from the front drive wheels, whereas on the 8f, they come from the 3rd pair from the front. This involves taking out the middle 2 pairs of wheels and swapping the crankpins between wheel pairs, not too difficult, but lots of small parts so you need to be careful not to lose any bits. Once this is done and all reassembled, a quick run test with a battery proved all is ok, so on to the next alteration, which is fixing a chassis extension on the front to carry the new front bogie. This just screws on, and new bogie attaches with a screw from the underside. There is no mention in the instructions about sourcing the wheelsets for this, but luckily I had the unused new Hornby bogie I bought for the T9 when I was building that, and these wheels are perfect for the new bogie, so with all fixed in place, it was ready for DCC conversion. Here's what the unaltered 8f chassis looks like.

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So now you can compare the 'before' pic with what the now much modified chassis looks like after valve gear alterations and a DCC conversion. It's quite a bit longer due to the front chassis extension to support the new front bogie, but this balances out the chassis somewhat.

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Just dropping the body onto the chassis for a test fit here, and all looks good, although in some respects it's a bit reminiscent of early Hornby/Triang loco's inasmuch as the motor is noticeably visible in the cab area, but I guess when the design uses an RTR chassis, it's about as near as you can get. It does, as Chris says, look a brute of a loco, and the supplied info says these loco's weighed in at 95 tons(!), could handle 850 ton trains, but took half a mile to stop from 20mph.

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After a couple of coats of 'Satin Black' and application of the BR logo and numbers, the job will be on 'hold' for a few days whilst I await delivery of whistle/safety valves/buffers etc from Markits, and smokebox numberplate from Fox Transfers. This is what it looks like so far.

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Glazing of the windows has been done with ex-packaging cellophane, some coal added to the bunker, and prior to finish coat paint, handrails and knobs. As I have a second 8f chassis to hand, I've just placed another order with "Golden Arrow Models" for one of their "Z" Class body kits, so that will follow in due course.

 

At my age Paul (70) and retired, you might think I'd have lots of spare time, but by the time I've had a modest 'social life', in between being a walking group leader and juggling the "can you just?" little jobs from Son and Daughter plus requests (or demands) from SWMBO, I have to make the most of my modelling time, which is often in short intensive bursts. This results in nothing much happening for several days, then maybe a day or day and a half of modelling time. That's fine, but if for example, I need to do any 'rattle can' spray painting, I'm then dependant on weather too, so things don't always progress in the way I'd like, but I'm getting there!
Keith.