Once was Southern

I picked up this Wills/Southeastern Finecast SECR 4-4-0 quite cheaply a short while ago, by placing a low bid on it and finding that no-one else was interested, so it ended up being mine for the starting price.

I was thinking it was about time that I did something with it. The first thing is to make new pickups for it. As some of you will know by now, all my stock is three-rail, as is my layout, so I can't run any two rail locomotives on it. In any case, although this model was constructed to a reasonably good standard, the pickups were not, and look like they're more likely to act as brakes than as electrical pickups. Something better would be called for even if I was operating two rail equipment, which I'm not.

I do have something in mind for this locomotive, which will see it ending up as something rather different from what it is now but, for now, it is the chassis that needs attention.

 

I am trying to decide on whether to use the existing tender, or a bogie one (or, more correctly, one of those odd ones with one bogie and two fixed axles).

 

It seems that the chassis was not quite as well put together as first appeared. I have had to do a bit of a reconstruction rather than just a conversion to three rail - the gears weren't meshing and, when I took off the front wheels to check what was wrong, the crankpin bosses fell off. I have it all sorted now except that I still have to fit the centre rail pickup.

I think that's enough fiddling about with it for tonight.

 

The work has come to a halt. The electrical connection between the outer rails and the motor is via the wheels (I have shorted out the insulation on one side) to the chassis and I have to solder in a new wire between the chassis and the motor and, to get access, I have to remove one wheel and I can't remove the nut that holds it in place (the wheels are Romfords) although whether it is held in place by paint or glue I don't know - I had to take the front ones off to fix up the gears, and they came off without any problems.

The trouble is I don't have a Romford screwdriver, and that's not the sort of thing that too many shops carry and, if I had to get it from the UK, it might take a while to get here. A quick internet search found me one shop in Australia, Gwydir Valley Models, in Glen Innes, of all places, that has one in stock, which I ordered there and then, so I should have it next week, and I can continue this saga......

Jim

 

I've just dome back from four days in Canberra to find an envelope containing the Romford screwdriver sitting in the letterbox. There's now no excuse for inaction....