Steve Johnson    Modelmaker

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Wickham Type 27 Trolley

1 'Billy'

3 'Monty'

14

15

20

22, 25

23-24, 26-27

52

56

81

82-87

88-89

91-92

100

1311-G

9125 (Titchie)

85049

85051

DS49

DS74

DS75

DS209

DS343

DS346

DS400

DS499

DS600

DS1169

DS1173

ED1

ED2-ED7

ED10

Ex-GNR Baguley

Ex-LMS Ruston 16/20HP

Ex-LMS Ruston 33/40HP

Ex-LNER Ruston 20DL

Ex-SR Hibberd

Ex-SR Ruston 44/48HP

Ex-SR Motor Rail

PWM650-PWM654

PWM1024

PWM1622

PWM1650

PWM1779 & PWM1780

Ruston LB

ZM9

ZM32

 

PWM650-PWM654 Ruston & Hornsby 0-6-0DE

PWM650

PWM650-PWM654 were ordered by the Western Region as departmental permanent way maintenance shunters. Allocated at various locations, they are now all withdrawn.

The first locomotive, ordered in 1953, differs from the later batch ordered in 1959. The most noticeable difference being the cab.

Judith Edge Kits offers an etched brass kit of the first locomotive with the earlier cab. Construction follows the usual method of frames, footplate and engine casing/cab assemblies being built and bolted together to produce the locomotive.

The recommended motor/gearbox combination is a Mashima 1024 and Branchlines 39:1 gearbox. However, as I have found some of these combinations a bit tight, I decided to fit a Mashima 1020 with a High Level Loadhauler gearbox. The wheels are Romford 13mm.

One interesting feature is the mechanical lubricator mounted on the footplate, but driven by a lever connected to a crank on the driving wheel. The lubricator swapped sides at some stage and the parts are in the kit to accommodate this. Obviously a small hole has to be made in the footplate to allow the operating wire to pass through.

With the body complete and primed, it just remained to add a few Archer waterslide rivets and complete the painting of the chassis. As usual, I sprayed the body with Halfords Rover Brooklands Green and the buffer beam with Halfords Volkswagon Mars Red. The cab roof being sprayed with Halfords Grey Plastic Bumper paint. The BR transfers were from Fox Transfers. The numbers presented a different problem. Eventually I found a set of alphabet transfers from a model war gaming shop. They are 1.5mm high and are a good match for the original. With the body now fully complete, it was sprayed with Phoenix-Precision satin varnish. The cab was glazed with acetate fixed with Glue'n'Glaze.

As the model is DCC, I fitted a working cab light as the interior controls are present, along with a driver. The DCC decoder is one of my favourites, a Digitrax DZ126. This neatly fits between the frames under the cab area. The decoder has been remapped so that the cab light, controlled off the white wire, is now operated by f1 and works in both directions.

Extra weight has been fitted in the body. The sprung buffers are Alan Gibson but with the kits oval overlays. There is always a problem with oval buffers rotating and looking a bit skew. To stop this, the bent over legs of the buffers slide in a short section of 1mm x 1.5mm 'U' section channel fixed under the footplate. Works very well and I will be retrofitting some of my other models. With the locomotive now assembled, cosmetic Exactoscale 3 link couplings were added along with the functional Alex Jackson type. The lubricator had a small wire link added from the crank to the operating lever.

PWM650, rear view

Trix also produced a ready to run model of the later batch of locomotives to their unusual 3.8 mm:ft scale. I also have the 3 rail version of this too.

In October 2019, Model Rail magazine announced it was producing a RTR model in conjunction with Kernow Models. This model will be of the later batch, PWM651-654, in various liveries.