1/4" Scale NBC Kit

A kit for the NBC van.

Progress so far ... Marker lamps

The BM kit does provide etches for the marker lamp brackets but does not mention anything about the marker lamps themselves.  I looked everywhere to find a 7mm scale lamp that resembled the South African ones i'd seen pictures of on the engines but none seem to be availaable commercially. There is a solid outline of the marker lamps on a couple of the drawings in the plan set i have so i decided to scratchbuild a set of four lamps based on those outline drawings.

Marker lamps outline from NG/G16 plan set

The lamps were made from brass square tube, round tube and plate. And there are about 16 parts in each lamp housing.  The handles are thin copper wire and  i drilled out the front lens holders to accept MV Lens lamp lenses that will be added once the LED lights are in place.

The four scratchbuilt marker lamps

 And this is how they look for size in my hand.

An indicator of their actual size

Progress so far ... the Engine Units

Here are a few photos of the progress made so far on the locomotive.

The engine units have taken up the most time so far. And i'm wondering if this hasn't been a psychological issue for me in trying to avoid the time when the Walschaerts valve gear is to be built and installed. Not having built up this valve gear before, it seems daunting. I've read the instructions at least a thousand times but it doesn't seem to be getting any easier to my mind.

I've incorporated some 8BA nuts into the front and rear frames so that the tank and bunker platforms can be removed from the frames for painting and maintenance. As the engine will have dcc sound and maybe a smoke unit installed, I'd prefer to be easily able to get at the motors and other electronics (such as LED lighting) that will be hiding under each end's tank.
  

An Engine Frame showing the almost- hidden 8BA nuts used to secure the frame to the tank platform.

I've been adding more detail than what is supplied with the kit and modifying some of the supplied castings to better reflect the detail possible in 7mm scale.  These detail items include more detailed and better shaped sand hoppers on each engine unit (supplied in kit), fully detailed sand bunker operating gear on the hind bunker unit (not supplied), scratchbuilt and LED-lit marker lamps (not supplied) and detailed oil line piping from the mechanical lubricators (not supplied) on each frame unit.

Rear Bunker on its Engine Frame

It's a bit hard to see from these photos, but i've plated the frame platforms with scale treadplate which came as a brass sheet etched by a local modelling company.

Rear Bunker with the start of the Sander operating gear

Also added to the front water tank are the electrical lines running from the footplate to the headlamp (I'll be using the large round headlight on this model with an LED lamp and lens) and added detail to the water filler cap such as latch and hinges.

Front Tank on its Engine Frame
 

Where do I start?

I've had this kit for a number of years (January 2005) and have only slowly pogressed on it.

My enthusiasm goes up and down regularly and so there are long stretches of time where I will work on another interest or where nothing happens at all at the modelling bench.

I have a detailed set of prototype plans of the second last build set of these Beyer, Peacock engines (SAR Nos. 137 to 143 of 1958) and as the Backwoods Miniatures (BM) kit is supposed to be based on the 1951 batch of engines from the same manufacturer, there are many detail differences that I need to resolve between the kit as supplied and the detailed set of plans I intend to follow.

As I work through the construction of the engine, I'm deciding which elements of the kit I will retain as is, even though there might be an obvious discrepency with the plans, and those detail elements which will be deleted or modified. I like to take photos of the build as it goes so hopefully there will be plenty of things to show.

General Arrangement of an NG/G16 Garratt - 1958

General Arrangement of an NG/G16 Garratt - 1958

A South African NG/G16 Garratt Locomotive

The basis of this build is a Backwoods Miniatures (BM) kit for a South African NG/G16 garratt loco ... in 7mm scale.

A few words about the BM kit ...

I guess that most etched kit manufacturers these days strive for high fidelity in their products. And BM is no different. In a 1997 Continental Modeller article reviewing the 4mm scale version of this kit (a forerunner to the 7mm scale kit) the author stated that

"With so many variations between the builds and locos over time, any commercial model must be a compromise. The kit basically depicts one of the 1951 Beyer, Peacock batch ...".

With several batches of the engines having been built between 1937 and 1967 and indeed by several manufacturers, and taking into consideration that these engines were shopped in South Africa over all those years of continuous operation, a modeller would be hard pressed to find two engines that looked the same; even when they came from the same manufacturing batch.

If the BM kits (the 7mm one seems to be an exact scaled up version of the earlier 4mm effort) are indeed a representation of the 1951 batch of Beyer, Peacock engines which covered the SAR road numbers 125 to 131, then there are a number of significant detail differences between the BM kit and my set of 1958 drawings.

Do I care?  No, not really, but then I really don't have a right to complain either. For a start, I have to remember that my chosen kit is for a 30" gauge model whereas the prototype was constructed for 2ft gauge. So the gauge is wrong to start with.

As the building of the kit goes along decisions will be made about options and details that will be included where the kit is lacking, or change or omit details where the 1958 plans show otherwise.

In essence, if it wasn't for the BM kit being produced as it is, then there wouldn't be a model being built irrespective of what fidelity the model holds to the prototype.