Take one GEM NBR "Glen" and one Tri-ang L1

Now I know I have started a few conversions and haven't got them past the half way mark before putting them on hold, but here's another one. I should see this one through to completion in a relatively short time, as it promises to be pretty straightforward.

So far I have converted a Tri-ang-Hornby L1 chassis to three rail by fitting a Marklin skate and uninsulating the driving wheels. It is now running well enough (it occasionally sticks on one point at a certain speed, but maybe that's the point and not the chassis at fault) to proceed to building the body:

 

This is beginning to look like something I could finish in a reasonable timeframe.........

 

It's not going to be an NBR Glen by the time I'm finished with it.

 

It's beginning to take shape:

 

It's beginning to look more like what I intend it to be now, although I did make the mistake of shortening the cab roof a bit more than I should have:

 

I can confirm that. I spent most of my working life in the New South Wales Public Service, with the Office of Fair trading and its predecessors, one of which, the Corporate Affairs Commission, was responsible for the registration of Business Names and companies, areas I worked in for quite a few years before moving on to other parts of the organisation. Ace and Acme were very popular, as were names starting with more than one A. Businesses that relied heavily on prominence in telephone listings (I'm talking of the 1970s and 1980s here) such as locksmiths, plumbers and electricians for example, registered names with a ridiculous number of A's in them until one of our department heads decided that enough was enough, and that the practice was at best confusing, and at worst misleading, the public as to the identity of the business, and ruled that names with more than three A's at the front would be refused registration and consequently would not be able to be used. The change of policy was, of course, not made retrospective but, with the passage of time, and the lack of any need now for prominence in telephone listings, there are not many left. The old method of listings in telephone books (first sort by surname, then by initials) gave rise to such ridiculous names as AAAAAAA Aardvark Master Plumbers (that one was just off the top of my head, but you get the idea).

 

I find a close-up photograph is useful for highlighting areas that need further attention but are not that noticeable to the naked eye (or a pair of eyes assisted by spectacles). A few joins need a bit of work, but the main job will be tidying up the cab roof.

 

Here's a photograph of an ex-NBR Glen from Wikipedia (Creative Commons licence) that can be used to show where I have modified the kit to represent a different type of locomotive:



The prominent sandboxes, lubricator box and Westinghouse pump will be absent from the finished model, as they do not feature on the locomotive I have based this on.