7mm Pencarrow Loco Builds

Overview
The locomotives that will run on Pencarrow will be based on those that ran on the Wadebridge / Bodmin North / Wenford lines. As such I've identified the following core motive power as all being suitable for this project:

• 2-4-0 Beattie Well Tank 30587 - as used on the Wenford mineral line
• 0-6-0 Collett 1366 Dock Tank 1368 - the replacements for the BWT
• 0-4-4 Adams O2 Tank 30200 - as used on Bodmin North passenger services
• 2-6-2 Ivatt Tank 41275 - the replacements for the O2
• 0-6-0 8750 Pannier Tank 4666 - again seen on Bodmin North passenger services
• 2-6-0 Maunsell N Class 318xx (tbc) - at one time daily visitors to Bodmin North on freight duties and very occasionally a passenger service
• AC Railbus W79977 - the unit used at the tail end of the Bodmin North's passenger service

In addition the following locos are all on my 'somewhat tenuous' list either because they also ran in the area or because I like them!:

• 2-6-2 Small Prairie Tank 4569 - regulars on the Wadebridge to Bodmin General services and a handy extra for my warped version of history where Pencarrow is in the route between those two destinations
• 4-4-0 Drummond T9 Greyhound 307xx (tbc) - not used on Bodmin North services but strongly identified with the North Cornwall Railway and one of my favourite locomotives
• 63xx / Class 22 - again I don't believe one of these ever got to Bodmin North but they were certainly in the area on Bodmin General to Wadebridge duties (and for some reason I like them)
• 4-6-2 Bulleid Light Pacific 340xx (tbc) - yes I know one only made it to Bodmin North once and that was for a naming ceremony but the NCR stalwarts are my favourite class (rule 1 applies)

Loco Progress
The thing about moving from 4mm to 7mm is that it really does force you into building kits to supplement what's available as RTR stock. This is time consuming but is becoming more rewarding as my soldering and general fabrication skills increase. Due to not having a great deal of time for modelling, I am making full use of the good RTR options where available - the Minerva 8750 being a prime example.

Unlike other projects I've been involved in, this is a 'just for me, build at my own pace' project and as such it's ore about the journey than the destination. I have however learned that it's important to buy kits and RTR as and when available as they have a tendancy to not be around when needed. This does mean I'm building up a stockpile of kits to build in the future.

All the kit built stock is either being compensated or sprung and so far I have:

Bought a Heljan AC Railbus, added DCC sound, passengers and a spot of dirt.


Bought an Ivatt 2mt tank buillt by Peter Cross from a much modified ACME kit. Pete's build of this kit is covered in his blog on RMweb IVATT 2MT TANK - Petes Model workshop (or ramblings from the balcony).


Nearly completed the build of a Connoisseur LSWR O2 Tank. This will be 30200, a regular performer on the Bodmin North service. My build of this superb kit is covered here: Connoisseur LSWR O2 for Pencarrow Bridge - 7mm+ modelling. I've swapped out some of Jim's castings for those produced by Laurie Griffin and it's fitted with an ABC gearbox and Maxon motor.




I'm still fighting with my build of an Agenoria 1366 Dock Tank. This was the first loco kit I tackled and, due to a difference of opinion and artistic differences, we're currently having a trial separation ;-p. On the plus side it's taught me a lot, introduced me to scratchbuilding parts and improved my soldering no end. Also fitted with an ABC gearbox and Moxon motor. The loco's state in 2016 is shown in the following photo which has many parts placed on rather than fixed. Just about all the castings have been replaced as the originals were either so poor or just plain wrong for the loco. Very disappointing as it wasn't a cheap kit. The build trials and tribulations of this kit can be found here: Agenoria WR 1366 Pannier for Pencarrow Bridge - 7mm+ modelling


A 2016 addition has been the parts (not a kit) to enable the construction of a Beattie Well tank. Bit of a long story but I managed to get a part kit from Laurie Griffin containing all the castings and body etches. The castings are superb but the etchings show their age and Jidenco parentage. A chance conversation with Nick Easton resulted in the offer of a set of etches he'd produced for his own build of 30587. This will therefore progress as a hybrid of Laurie's castings and Nick's etches. I was very concerned by rolling the boiler for this loco but was saved by Pete Harvey and his set of rolling bars. A big thank you to Nick and Pete. I'm trying my best to not start this until finishing some of my other outstanding builds. Nick's own build can be seen here: Beattie Well Tank in 7mm - Kitbuilding & Scratchbuilding


2016/17/18 and 2022 saw most other locos sourced and ticked off the list.

• Bulleid Pacific - the re-introduction of the kit by Finney7 in 2016 was too good to miss.
• 8750 Pannier - ordered a sound fitted one from Minerva and it arrived in Sept 2017. It will be 4666.
• 45xx Prairie - completes the trio of GWR influence. In a moment of weakness I ordered the new Lionheart one from Tower Models in 2017.May arrive this year or early 2019? Edit: finally arrived in 2022!
• LSWR T9 - registered interest with Finney7 on their kit for 2018 and it's now in the stash.
• Maunsell N Class - in October 2018 I took delivery of one from what could be a final run of the kit prior to David Andrew's retirement.
• 63xx / Class 22 - I've 'invested' in the project by the Little Loco Company to produce a RTR version of this ugly and unreliable loco. It will enable Pencarrow to run in post-steam period. Edit: LLC went bump without producing the loco, so I lost out there. I did however acquire a completed JLTRT version in 2022.
• Class 03 shunter - a Heljan model detailed and weathered by Blue80s. Arrived 2022.

Next week’s ‘Model Railway Challenge’ will be to complete, in three 8 hour sessions, the 1366! (our cameras will be there to record progress). Now you’ve posted photos on WT there is no escape (or excuses).
I shall reserve comments about the Beattie Well Tank; except to say that models in 7mm appear to be rare as hens teeth .
I’d love an Ivatt 2-6-2T, but am not prepared to do battle with a (very) indifferent kit. Subtle hint there to our quality kit designers.
Once upon a time, I dreamed of a T9, N and WC/BoB, but reality set in when I realised they were too big for Kelly Bray. A K10 or L11 are more appropriate.

The above is an edited version of a post in my main layout thread but serves the purpose of a good introduction to the loco roster for Pencarrow.

Creating a separate thread was prompted by the arrival of the David Andrews Maunsell N Class kit in the week. I had a few hours to look through the instructions last night and check the parts list.

First impressions are good. The etches are a mixture of thick NS for the chassis and running gear and thinner brass for the bodies. Etches look crisp and clean and, from what folk have said, should fit together well.

Castings are in three materials - white metal, lost wax brass and pewter(?). The white metal and pewter look crisp, clean and we'll formed. The brass are nothing like the garbage in the 1366 Agenoria kit but not up there with those from Finney7. There may be a couple I'll look for alternatives for if they don't clean up.

Two separate instruction books cover the loco and tender - I went for the 3500gal option. Again the destructions are not up there with the class-leading Finney7 but a school apart from the two sides of A4 that come with the Shedmaster Beattie kit. I suspect they are more than adequate for a seasoned builder but I can foresee me having a few head scratching moments!

I am however impressed that the kit includes options for a good number of variants:

• Left or right hand drive
• 3 chimney types
• Original or extended front frames
• Snifting valves
• AWS
• 2 types of smoke deflectors
• Tender tool boxes
• Outside steam pipes

Boiler is pre-rolled but the smokebox and firebox have to be formed. The firebox includes formers at each end and 4 temporary brass rod spacers, tapped to accept screws, to aid construction. All the smokebox, boiler and firebox formers are drilled in the same five locations, presumably to aid alignment.

I've identified and checked off all but a couple of castings, and the outside steam pipes seem to be missing but, apart from that, everything seems to be present.

Paul Cambridge said:

Next week’s ‘Model Railway Challenge’ will be to complete, in three 8 hour sessions, the 1366! (our cameras will be there to record progress). Now you’ve posted photos on WT there is no escape (or excuses).
I shall reserve comments about the Beattie Well Tank; except to say that models in 7mm appear to be rare as hens teeth .
I’d love an Ivatt 2-6-2T, but am not prepared to do battle with a (very) indifferent kit. Subtle hint there to our quality kit designers.
Once upon a time, I dreamed of a T9, N and WC/BoB, but reality set in when I realised they were too big for Kelly Bray. A K10 or L11 are more appropriate.

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The dear old 1366...

The body is just about complete but the chassis is a start again job. This is for two reasons. First that it was my first build and not very good. Second that the kit chassis is so full of errors that I feel the need to do something to correct the following which erk me:

• Cylinders too long and not wide enough plus the wrong shape near the frames
• Frame profile is wrong and the axle holes in the wrong place vertically
• Front stretcher has a representation of inside cylinders, not the frame holes in the prototype
• Sandboxes are the wrong size and shape
• Compensation is a bit botched (my issue)

Other than that it's good!

I have bought some Premier Components frames and Motion, plus iirc some Finney7 hornblocks and these will be the starting point for something better. Not sure yet on how to go about scratchbuilding new cylinders though...

Possibly more work than 3x 8 hour shows Paul!

Oh dear. I knew the 1366 kit was bad, but that puts it in the dire category. I made frames for my Shedmaster O2 and BWT, and they were good decisions and experience. With your experience so far and help and advice on here it will be achievable. When I switched to 7mm scale 30 years ag0 (gulp!), there were no kits of the quality of Finney7 / MOK. You had to take what was on offer and forge them in the fires of Mount Doom. Perhaps I should refer to my BWT as “My Precious”. Mind you, looking at the trials of those with awful kits recently, sometimes it appears we have not progressed much in those 30 years, if at all. I will not part with money for such rubbish, hence my comment about the Ivatt.

Just looking back at photos of the 1366, I did buy all these extra bits at Telford in 2016:


Just about all the castings got used. The Finney7 hornblocks were waiting for this lot to arrive:


It was at that point I decided to crack on with building track and buildings for the layout. However, before pressing the big red pause button, the loco looked like this:



(apologies to those with the ability to use invisible solder)

Every now and again I do think about just putting up with the remaining issues and painting it up. It would just niggle away at me though.

Both the 1366 and O2 will however be completed before starting any new kits, oh and after finishing knocking the house around...

Paul Cambridge said:

Oh dear. I knew the 1366 kit was bad, but that puts it in the dire category. I made frames for my Shedmaster O2 and BWT, and they were good decisions and experience. With your experience so far and help and advice on here it will be achievable. When I switched to 7mm scale 30 years ag0 (gulp!), there were no kits of the quality of Finney7 / MOK. You had to take what was on offer and forge them in the fires of Mount Doom. Perhaps I should refer to my BWT as “My Precious”. Mind you, looking at the trials of those with awful kits recently, sometimes it appears we have not progressed much in those 30 years, if at all. I will not part with money for such rubbish, hence my comment about the Ivatt.

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That's why I jumped at the chance to buy the Ivatt kit from Peter - he'd already done battle and addressed all the issues with the kit, which involved a fair amount of chopping and scratchbuilding.

Thanks Chris for kind words about 2mt. You are getting a nice little loco stud together. You must be getting close to full complement.

Paul there was mentioned some time ago that Finney7 will produce the K10. I was going to scratch build one but will wait for their kit.

Peter Cross said:

Thanks Chris for kind words about 2mt. You are getting a nice little loco stud together. You must be getting close to full complement.

Paul there was mentioned some time ago that Finney7 will produce the K10. I was going to scratch build one but will wait for their kit.

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It's a pleasure to own it and I'm always quick to point out that I didn't build it! It does raise an eyebrow when I say it was built by you in Brazil and flown over!

Almost a full complement in terms of RTR and kits being in the house. It's just the LLC Class 22 (final payment due shortly), Lionheart Prairie (on pre-order) and the T9 (waiting for Finney7 boys to re-release) that are yet to arrive.

Spooky how it's the WR stuff that's available RTR (pannier, prairie, Class 22 and Railbus) and I'm having to build all the SR stuff (Bulleid, N Class, T9, O2 and Beattie). The only exceptions are your Ivatt (which is effectively RTR) and the 1366 (which is bordering on a scratchbuild).

Is there not a market for SR stuff as affordable RTR (as the Minerva Pannier)?

Hi Chris,

I'm working on the refurbishment and presentation of the Drummond patterns at the moment, so we are close to moving the T9 into production. It's on the horizon!

Richard

Dikitriki said:

Hi Chris,

I'm working on the refurbishment and presentation of the Drummond patterns at the moment, so we are close to moving the T9 into production. It's on the horizon!

Richard

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Great news Richard, that will complete the set!

Pencarrow said:

Is there not a market for SR stuff as affordable RTR (as the Minerva Pannier)?

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I guess not. I think that Chris Klein of Minerva said that 1000 pieces (or was it 1500?) are needed to make a RTR loco a viable proposition. Look what happened to the Kernow BWT.
The SR struggled for many years to get models in 4mm RTR before the recent bonanza. Who would have thought of the SECR C or Adams Radial as RTR offerings. We’ll have to rely on the likes of Finney7. I fancy a LSWR B4 and I’m thinking it would be a good first scratchbuild now. I’m sure one can source the castings from Laurie Griffin.

Paul Cambridge said:

We’ll have to rely on the likes of Finney7. I fancy a LSWR B4 and I’m thinking it would be a good first scratchbuild now. I’m sure one can source the castings from Laurie Griffin.

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Paul,
To complete that thought - I think we do most of the castings you'd need for a B4 too...

Steph
Finney7 LLP

I said on a thread somewhere recently. That O gauge ready to run is like OO in the 70's mostly GWR based. With a few from the others. Trouble is RTR O will not follow suit with the more recent trends in OO. Not that it's a big worry for me. I enjoy the build more than the play.
I didn't realize Steph that F7 sold the castings separately. Do you need to but the sprue or can you get individual parts?

Peter,

It depends what you're after. @Dikitriki, can give chapter and verse, but my logic is that if you're doing a loco then you'd probably want a loco's worth of parts and therefore be buying in sprues! The instructions on the website give a good idea of what's currently available...

Steph
Finney7 LLP

I have a B4 in the stash...... Can't remember who it's by though.

Brian

Peter Cross said:

I said on a thread somewhere recently. That O gauge ready to run is like OO in the 70's mostly GWR based. With a few from the others. Trouble is RTR O will not follow suit with the more recent trends in OO. Not that it's a big worry for me. I enjoy the build more than the play.
I didn't realize Steph that F7 sold the castings separately. Do you need to but the sprue or can you get individual parts?

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Hi Peter,

We normally sell by individual parts, retaining the unwanted parts off the sprue. This means we can supply spares to those who lose/damage those from our kit, or sell to others, without having to hold vast numbers of spare sprues. We haven't had time (and won't have for a while) to produce a priced on-line catalogue listing all that is available, so best to contact me via the website with your needs.

Richard

Brian D-------- re the B4------- not certain but is it/was it an Eric Underhill kit???------------------ Brian W

Aah yes! That's it. I'd forgotten.

Must get around to building it!

B

oldravendale said:

I have a B4 in the stash

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Not a LBSC B4 then....