Aristocraft consolidation - my latest loco

[railwayman198]

It has been a few years since I bought a track powered locomotive - even longer since I bought a nice shiny brand new one . I already have more locos than I can find storage space for but the announcement that Aristocraft are to cease trading at the end of the year prompted me to take the plunge and buy my first Aristo loco.

I went for this particular loco mainly because it is a fairly close match for the 5 Alco locos than operated in Jamaica in the post war years (JGR nos 60-64). Here are a couple of photos of no 62 in the early 50's.

The model is also suited to my line as it will negotiate R3's, unlike some of the other larger Aristo steamers.
Here she is fresh out of the box

And here she is at Fern Gully station

 

[beavercreek]

She looks absolutely great Philip.
It is really interesting to see the shots of Jamaican railways when they were fully functional.

The shot with your station gives the real atmosphere of Jamaica.

I spent some time roaming around Spanish Town Railway station back in '91. It was in a bit of a state and had some rusting hulks lying around. It had the feel of some British stations in the late 60's and early 70's

 

[railwayman198]

My last visit was in 2008. Some of the bauxite mining companies were (and still are) maintaining some sections of track and running trains to get the ore to the loading docks on the coast. Other than that everything was in poor shape. Many of the stations were dilapidated and being used as shops and bars, including Linstead, which I modelled as 'Fern Gully'. On Google Earth you can still see old rolling stock parked in the yard at Kingston, but that is a pretty rough part of town so I did not attempt to visit. A limited passenger service was reinstated a year or so ago to get people around when the road through the Bog Walk gorge was washed out by a storm. I'm not sure if it is still operating though.

 

[railwayman198]

I just had the opportunity to give the new loco it's first proper run under load. Here it is out on the line with 7 boxcars in tow, which is about the most it will be usually required to pull on my line.

Ok, here are my initial impressions of this loco:

Appearance is pretty good given that the real thing is no beauty- plenty of detail and those nicely finished wheels look great. The plastic used for all the bodywork is a little shiny for my taste - I do not own any of the Bachmann spectrum range but the black plastic finish they use looks better to me. Of course it will look better with some markings and plates; and eventually some weathering. There is a rather odd mixture of black plastic and metal looking parts in the valve gear (black crosshead anyone?)

Value for money is not great. I had always considered Aristo to be a value range compared to the likes of LGB but this loco cost £595 to which will need to be added a decoder, works plates, numbering and any other markings I want to add. I know this is the undecorated version but I thought it might come with builders plates and maybe some stickers or something.

Running quality out of the box needs work. It wobbles along the track, the wobble getting worse the tighter the curve. I checked on Greg Elmassian's site and it turns out this is a known problem. The driving wheels are set too wide and the flanges ride up on the rails. There does not seem to be an easy solution to this. So we have an ugly duckling that moves like a duck 8|. The cable that links the loco and tender needs to be a bit more flexible - it pulls partly out when running through my R3 reverse curve and cuts the power to the loco. This at least should be fairly easy to fix.

So all in all a loco which has some issues but will look the part with a bit of work.

 

[3Valve]

Niiiiccceee

 

[beavercreek]

That looks darned fine!


Yes I know what you mean about Kingston station being in a slightly dodgy side of town. We were in Jamaica for a month and we did a fair bit of exploring of the Island and of Kingston and visited the station.
I strolled around it and was not hassled or anything but there definitely was always an air of not being in a place that I should be. It was in a poor state really and was being used for some market stall and a mechanic's workshop. But it still had a feel of its yesteryear slendour

We also accidentally visited Trench Town after dark due to a wrong turn on to 'Hope Road' down from the mountains (we certainly needed hope that night!) on the way back from a short stay at Negril. Being uninvited in Trench Town at night was not the most fun thing that I have done in my life as we were in a rental car that had a large 'R' sign on it like a huge arrow saying 'tourists inside'. We had to get out pretty fast as we were certainly not welcome at all!

 

[funandtrains]

Phil, your photos make the loco look much better than the Aristo catalogue pics.

 

[railwayman198]

We had to get out pretty fast as we were certainly not welcome at all!

As I'm sure you will remember FAST is the only way you can drive in Jamaica, especially if you have a route taxi or coaster bus up your backside determined to get past whatever the state of the road :-

 

[railwayman198]

Phil, your photos make the loco look much better than the Aristo catalogue pics.

Thanks Steve. For those that don't mind plenty of outside plumbing it's quite a nicely proportioned loco.

 

[owlpool]

impressive
looking forward to seeing it

 

[playmofire]

Superb photos and a very impressive addition to your fleet.

 

[Richie]

Very nice model
Would love to have one and paint it in the Red & Blue of the Longmoor Railway like the S160 on the Mid- hants Railway

 

[ceejaydee]

Looks like a beast - once it gets dirty it will look like a real workhorse

 

[stockers]

Corr! That look nice.

 

[railwayman198]

Hope you get the running niggles sorted Philip.
Its an impressive loco.

You going to go for light weathering ? - the two photos you have posted look well maintained - or at least relatively clean.

Nothing too heavy Paul, probably just a thin grime wash and powders - just enough to take off the sheen, bring out the details and give a bit of texture to certain areas. It might be a while before that happens though.

 

[garrymartin]

She looks both impressive and at home , super pictures too , a mild weathering will set her off a treat

 

[Gavin Sowry]

Did I miss something? What's this about Aristocraft finishing up.... just starting to like some of their product!!

 

[railwayman198]

Well I finally made a start in converting the Alco into a representation of JGR no.62


I could only find B&W pics of no.62 so I have based the livery on that of 4-8-0 no.54.

Taking on board your comments about keeping the weathering light, I have applied a matt sooty finish to the smokebox, cab roof, tender top, footplate, and lower part of the firebox. The bulk of the platework I have left alone. I have also painted cylinder end caps and some of the valvegear in a metallic finish to cover the black plastic.

 

[railwayman198]

Oops! Didn`t post the picture of the Alco! Here you go...


I have ordered some plates from Narrow Planet which I hope will arrive shortly.

 

[spoz]

Did I miss something? What's this about Aristocraft finishing up.... just starting to like some of their product!!

Yep, they closed at the end of last year having announced they would in about September. Amongst some people this almost seemed to cause joy and an outpouring of somewhat unseemly "I told you it was going to happen"s and "they got what they deserved"s, particularly on the US based forums. Although I own no Aristo stuff, it seemed to me that losing a major manufacturer from the hobby was a form of disaster. However, Scott Polk is apparently setting up a company called GenerationNext to continue to market Aristo products, although exactly which products is uncertain. Discussion of that is here: http://www.gscalecentral.net/shop-watch/aristo-the-phoenix-rises/msg300397/#msg300397