Another L'il Bash

trammayo

trammayo

Interested in vintage commercial vehicle, trams, t
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Stirred into action by another thread on this Forum, I have finally started looking at what I can do with this. It was purchased from a fellow Forumite and has languished on a shelf for a long time.

Here it is on test this very morning.....

L'il Hauler Tender Loco (13).JPG


I had in mind, bashing it into a Porter like this one ......

040_Porter32.jpg
Having looked at the basic wheel diameter of the prototype - 30 inches - then measured the wheel on the Bachmann loco (around 33.0mm), I concluded that a scale of 1:22 was the order of the day.

I decided to measure the L'il Haulers boiler height and use that to scale the actual catalogue picture of the original.

Having copied and pasted to a landscape A4 for each loco, I dragged out the picture to fit my measurement. I did the same wit the Porter. I then printed both sheets out for a comparison ...

Porter v B'mann (1).JPG

With the two drawings together, and the steam and sand domes sort of lined up, it is obvious that the Porter would have been a bit smaller than the L.H!

Porter v B'mann (2).JPG
The boiler sits lower in the prototype, cylinders are in a different position (and inclined on the porter), the cab front is vertically in line with the wheel centre (and sits higher too). So my bash may well be overscale!

Next thing I need to do is to start taking the donor to pieces - but maybe not to-day! More will follow.
 
Having given a lot of thought on this conversion, I decided to bring the Porter's wheels down to L'il Haulers size - both loco's representing (I think) 2ft 6ins wheels. Then I printed the re-sized pic to match up again with the LH....

DSCF9365.JPG
... and now you can see how dimunitive the Porter is/was!
Anyway, there is no way my bash will ever be an exact copy of the original because, as the following pics show, the motor gets in the way of lowering the boiler. Another thing I noticed is that the cab height is now about the same on both!

In bits .....
DSCF9366.JPG
Looking down on the chassis ......
DSCF9368.JPG (the green bits are the remains of the fixing lugs for the cylinders and I just snapped off the cylinders because the lugs were well and truly glued in!).

..... and the underside of the chassis.....
DSCF9374.JPGFour screws allow easy access for lubrication.

The underside of the combined footplate interface between chassis and boiler - I had to snip the wires to the lamp to allow the boiler to be seperated....
DSCF9369.JPG
... and the inside of the boiler....
DSCF9371.JPGOnly the chimney actually removes from the boiler - the lamp, bell, and the domes are all one moulding.

The front and rear pilot boards together with cylinders. As the cylinders will be modified, the snapped off lugs are of no consequence!
DSCF9373.JPG
So that's the story so far. My next job will be the removal of the lamp, bell and two domes, together with the shortening of the boiler's smokebox.
 

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Looks interesting. Keep us posted on progress.
 
playmofire said:
I must say, MIck, that the Li'l Hauler looks more balanced than the Porter to me.
Click to expand...

Yes it does but, then again, the Porter would have had a lower centre of gravity. I'll keep hacking away:)
 
Right, after a short departure away from home, I returned determined to do some more work.

I've been sawing away - shortening the boiler, freeing the bell from captivity, cleeving the headlight away from the scrap plastic, paring the boiler front away and enabling the domes to sit lower down (by about 4mm). And that's just the start of Mr Razor Saw's activities.

Pic of these last efforts...
A few cuts!.JPG
More tomorrow (I hope)!
 
Mick,
a mod with the vertically mounted motor in other Bachmann 0-4-0 motor blocks is to remove the staypin that holds the motor vertically and then rotate the motor about the axle to get the desired position. A hole is then drilled to refit the staypin to hold the motor in the new position. In my case the stock motor location was horizontal and I mounted the motor vertically.

There may be room to rotate the motor clockwise into the firebox thus allowing the boiler to sit lower.
 
Tim Brien said:
Mick,
a mod with the vertically mounted motor in other Bachmann 0-4-0 motor blocks is to remove the staypin that holds the motor vertically and then rotate the motor about the axle to get the desired position. A hole is then drilled to refit the staypin to hold the motor in the new position. In my case the stock motor location was horizontal and I mounted the motor vertically.

There may be room to rotate the motor clockwise into the firebox thus allowing the boiler to sit lower.
Click to expand...

Yes I understand what you are saying Tim - I'd not thought of that. That might be a solution.
There are other little annoying things like boiler comes down to straight sides where it attaches to the existing footboards (which I need to cut away to allow boards in a different position). I think it will be compromise all round! Thanks for the idea of moving the motor though!

Neil Robinson said:
To my eyes the Porter's cylinders are a very small diameter even for a small shunter.
Click to expand...

Yes Neil - they look even smaller now that I have re-scaled it! Probably no more than a six inch bore! Looking at information available, they were really small locos!
 
Spent an hour hacking away yet more plastic. Managed to lower the boiler (without moving the motor) about 6mm. Still a lot more cutting to do.

The boiler now near the wheel flanges. The LH's boiler is a larger diameter than the Porter's - so that's were the compromise will come into play!
More cuts!.JPGThe domes sit lower now (4mm) so it's beginning to change.


More cuts! (1).JPG The boiler's lagging comes square down to the boards (which really need raising) but it will look odd. Need to decide the best approach without creating too much work!

The front beam needs raising too - quite a bit. The pilot board will not be going back on because the Porter didn't have one. I'll likely make a new beam out of wood.
More cuts! (2).JPG
 
Not much done today - shortened the footboards which then highlight the difference between the two halves of the boiler. Also spent and hour reprofiling the lower half of the smokebox.

DSCF9382.JPG
 
Not sure that you can mount the Boiler much lower, but a thought comes to mind that if you did could the motor stick out of the top of the Boiler a little and be covered by a moved Large Dome of some sort. Perhaps a little different from your chosen loco but eminantly doable to create your own unique look alike?
JonD
 
Following with interest Mick,,,as I said in a previous post,,,,,,,,you know you want to:):):):)Are you keeping the straight stack or going for the spark arrestor as per the photos,if so have you any idea how you are going to make or have you one lying around?
 
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dunnyrail said:
Not sure that you can mount the Boiler much lower, but a thought comes to mind that if you did could the motor stick out of the top of the Boiler a little and be covered by a moved Large Dome of some sort. Perhaps a little different from your chosen loco but eminantly doable to create your own unique look alike?
JonD
Click to expand...

Hi Jon. Tim mentioned swivelling the motor so it leaned back. The main problem is that it cannot go much lower, The Porter's boiler is much smaller in diameter in relation to the Bachmann loco - the former being (I reckon) no more than 2'6" - allowing it to sit between the wheels which the B'mann would not.

I've carved a lot off the cab this morning but still need to reduce it in width. The amount of plastic cut off the donor loco so far is quite extensive!

Riograndad said:
Following with interest Mick,,,as I said in a previous post,,,,,,,,you know you want to:):):):)Are you keeping the straight stack or going for the spark arrestor as per the photos,if so have you any idea how you are going to make or have you one lying around?
Click to expand...

I will turn one out of wood - similar to what I did on my scratch built Paycar (below). I have some tiny plastic funnels somewhere (but heaven knows where!). At the end of the day, the prototype I chose to represent is only going to end up as an approximation. With hindsight, I should have gone for a complete scratchbuild - I have a Steaming Mary tender lined up for such a project. But hindsight's no use really - it's foresight I'm short on;)
DSCF3407.JPG
 
trammayo said:
Hi Jon. Tim mentioned swivelling the motor so it leaned back. The main problem is that it cannot go much lower, The Porter's boiler is much smaller in diameter in relation to the Bachmann loco - the former being (I reckon) no more than 2'6" - allowing it to sit between the wheels which the B'mann would not.

I've carved a lot off the cab this morning but still need to reduce it in width. The amount of plastic cut off the donor loco so far is quite extensive!



I will turn one out of wood - similar to what I did on my scratch built Paycar (below). I have some tiny plastic funnels somewhere (but heaven knows where!). At the end of the day, the prototype I chose to represent is only going to end up as an approximation. With hindsight, I should have gone for a complete scratchbuild - I have a Steaming Mary tender lined up for such a project. But hindsight's no use really - it's foresight I'm short on;)
View attachment 230045
Click to expand...
Great solution Mick and can shape to suit,I like that little loco/car in the pic,don`t think I have seen before,as for plastic funnels if they are the polythene type of plastic they are a PIG to glue/attach(he says from experience)just keep posting ongoing bash as following with interest;);););)
 
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