Bug - a loco from the scrap box

yb281

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One of the things that my abandoned quarry Cloddfa Pedr was crying out for was a small locomotive that would have been used for shunting the wagons and skips. The answer came to me from re-reading one of the late Peter Jones' Garden Railways articles in which he discussed the merits of the "shoebox project", a modelling project in which all the materials and tools required could be kept in a shoebox and thus bought out whenever the opportunity arises whilst watching TV or on the dining table etc. I took this principle one step further and decided to build a generic little "Lister / Simplex type" IC industrial shunter using only bits and pieces left over from kits and collected in various spares boxes under the title "that might come in handy one day".

The result is "Byg" the name ironically looking like it should be pronounced Big in English, but actually being Bug with the Welsh use of the letter Y. Now pretty Bug aint and neither is she the Flying Scotsman.

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Here's a list of the components used in the build.
* Axle boxes and wheels - IP left over from kits. I'm not a great fan of IP's running gear and have replaced these, hence the reason they were in the spares box. As Bug is a non-working model this becomes irrelevant - plus the IP wheels will go nicely rusty when it's parked in the quarry.
* Chassis / buffer beams - stripwood and various thickness of plasticard. Some of the Plasticard still has it's 22P price tag on it from Beatties, so you can tell that I've had it a while!
* Seat / toolbox - Plasticard box covered with coffee stirrers.
* Engine cover - A lump of wood covered in shaped plasticard. The air filter came in one of Back2Bay6's brilliant "grab bags" of various bits. It's domed top is a washer and Phillips screw filled with Araldite. The exhaust stack is a Hartland pick-up bullet removed form one of my trams during it's recent battery conversion.
* Controls - The hand control levers are from the wife's sewing box, the control panel from plasticard (the instruments have been "liberated") and the foot pedal is the rounded end of a coffee stirrer and a piece of garden wire. The brake wheel came from a Bachmann caboose.
* Lifting eyes - Hartland, courtesy of Matt.
* Chain - Purchased in bulk from charity shops for next to nothing.
* Step and coupling hooks - More garden wire.
* Oil / fuel drums - Back2Bay6 and Perfect World. The Esso decal is from a Tamiya LeMans Toyota racing car kit. It's the closest Bug will ever get to being glamorous!!


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The only thing I'd still like to add is a radiator to fit on the end of the engine cover. The question is - do I have a look for something suitable the next time I'm at Back2Bay6, or do I make something in the spirit of the rest of the model???
Bug will now re-enter the workshops for a kind of reverse preservation - ie a generous covering of rust. After all, she is supposed to have been abandoned!!


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hey i loves it!!! look superb mate...so why dont u use a cover as cab for him to drive in the rain?..just small cab?

so where did u get that figures from?.....
 
steven large said:
hey i loves it!!! look superb mate...so why dont u use a cover as cab for him to drive in the rain?..just small cab?

so where did u get that figures from?.....


Cheers Steven. These locos were usually cabless, despite working in Welsh quarries!!


The driver is Pola, a copy from a Preiser one. He was just added for the photo's. He's not getting abandoned :bigsmile:.
 
Byg Yglu....
 
yb281 said:
steven large said:
hey i loves it!!! look superb mate...so why dont u use a cover as cab for him to drive in the rain?..just small cab?

so where did u get that figures from?.....


Cheers Steven. These locos were usually cabless, despite working in Welsh quarries!!


The driver is Pola, a copy from a Preiser one. He was just added for the photo's. He's not getting abandoned :bigsmile:.
u mean in real life? shud be have cab....lol......bless him...so it look superb on the can and aslo things u did on it...

make him a wooly hat and gloves for him to drive it.......

so in welsh quarries...what are they doing out there? what types of quarries in welsh as i dont know about welsh stuffs......are they operated in slate? rockie? marbles if im wrong?...
 
nicely done mell ,a austerty loco... fitting times
 
Love it Mel!!! Especially the Pratts can. I have a 12" to the foot one here somewhere. Not sure how long his shoes will stay white. :thinking:
 
That looks fantastic Mel :thumbup:
 
looking well mel, after reading this i went to said spares box,
well after a year of swapping with other members, all i came up with was a broken point motor and a few light bulbs.looks like mine may get built after next years swaps and blags.:bleh:
 
Thanks again guys.

Byg is now looking even more abandoned now after a pretty severe weathering.

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She was given a quick whoosh over with a mix of various Tamiya matt browns with the airbrush followed by well thinned Red Brown. Modeltown Rust Dust was then sprinkled over the wet paint varying in depth depending on whether I wanted it really crusty or just a surface covering. This was followed by a wash of vinegar (from my old £4 airbrush) of vinegar before being left out in the rain for a couple of hours.


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I ended up making a radiator from plasticard with some nice mesh from a thing called a spice ball bought from my local ironmongers/kitchen shop. This cost £2.50 (!!!!!), but I'm left with plenty of mesh for future projects, plus a nice length of chain. As I'd spent so much on the mesh, I thought you should see something through it, so I made a fan from a Pola bike wheel with blades from plasticard. You can see it, but only just. The radiator cap is an Accucraft bolt.


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A close up view of the "cockpit". I'm really pleased with the way the instrument panel has turned out. Also note how the paint has worn off the top of the toolbox/seat after years of supporting backsides.


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Only job that I might do next is to make a hasp, staple and padlock for the toolbox lid.
 
a credit too you mell, worth all the efort and more
 
yb281 said:
Only job that I might do next is to make a hasp, staple and padlock for the toolbox lid.

A most impressive piece of work Mel. :thumbup::bigsmile:
If you do go for the above embellishments I suggest, as the loco's been abandoned for a while, you model it with signs of attempted/successful toolbox break in.
 
Top job there Mel, mind you he would have to be a long legged driver methinks to negotiate that step up to the cockpit
 
Bram said:
Top job there Mel, mind you he would have to be a long legged driver methinks to negotiate that step up to the cockpit


Eh? Think you've got your scale wrong there Bram. The step scales out to about 500mm, about the same as climbing onto a chair. I reckon most quarry drivers would manage that?
 
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