The Chronicles of Canary Sidings - the Tale of an Untidy Workbench

[Herb Garden]

Right! 2025 let's get cracking!

Some of you who have followed this thread for a while may remember in post 20 3 part built locomotives appeared next to #74 in it's early stages. Before anyone gets exited no none have them have progressed in any way shape or form but the two No 1 class locomotives have been joined by a third.


After the decapod the number 1 class locomotives are the best known of the GER locomotives that didn't make it into LNER service. Designed by Sam Johnson in the late 1860s and built by Sharp Stewart and company which is how they got their nickname 'Little Sharpies'.


I however tend to believe that this nickname only came about in later years when the number 1s where outsized by T19s, D27s and T26s. When compared, as above with an original Sharpie 2-2-2 they are huge. I appreciate this model is a later Holden rebuild with the same boiler as the E22 (J65).


I was very happy to give this beautiful model a good home. And given how high quality the construction I'm wondering apart from essential numbering and weathering I'm going to leave the body well alone. It's a real tribute to the skill of the builder.


The chassis however by the looks of it was never quite completed so a bit of work is needed if this little beauty was to run. A tight spot in the motion and the fact the front compensation beams were seized led me to strip the chassis down and re true it up in my reliable chassis jig.


Once rewheeled with EM wheels, It originally had P4 wheels but the frames were luckily EM, it rolls lovely. I've been able to scrounge from the bits box a appropriate motor and worm gear to match the worm wheel that was allready part of the chassis


I've added a drawbar to the tender and adjusted the chassis so that the tender weight rests on the back of the loco. Like @James Spooner's 4MT but with a lot less valve gear


I've also added the brakes which are a tight fit on this class and the next steps are the pickups and hopefully then we should have a running loco.


Like the Y14 she is way too mainline a loco for Skeetsmere and also won't cope with the dodgy track on the mill board but hopefully once that is delt with she can pay a visit to the tiny hamlet whilst the greater layout is under construction

 

[AJC]

So you've three of those 2-4-0s? That must represent a reasonable percentage of the kit's production run? Handsome thing, however.

Adam

 

[Herb Garden]

So you've three of those 2-4-0s? That must represent a reasonable percentage of the kit's production run? Handsome thing, however.

Adam

Yes Adam I suppose I must have....


It was always the intention to have at least a pair of them as all of the plans for a permanent large layout at home keep coming back to my favourite route in Norfolk. The Norwich - Whymondham - Dereham - Wells route of which in the first decade of the last century the number 1s were the staple motive power on this route.

Having this new one and scrounging bits to get it to work from the other 2 has meant they have come out of their boxes this week so we can do a comparison.

#160 in the foreground came to me In this state as a 'im sure you could finish this off' project. Whoever had started it, and they certainly were a craftsman, had allready started kitbashing it to back date it to it's original 1870s condition. I plan to continue this line of activity so it will join #74 in Johnson era condition and be part of my 1870s fleet which will allow the home layout to be run with Victorian stock or Edwardian stock.

#0107 in the middle looks a bit sad now it's wheels have been 'borrowed' this week. This was one of the last loco builds I started before it moved to EM gauge and still haven't got round to converting it. Hopefully I can get it back together soon and it will join its new shedmate in post 1904 rebuild condition but with the special boiler this particular one had.


In the same box as the Sharpies was this sad looking T26, a Gibson one. Which although I have a couple of these kits awaiting construction I probably don't have the same percentage of the entire kit production as I do with the sharpies. This again is one of the locos I started building in OO and never plucked up the courage to convert. Maybe I really should.

However locomotive building will have to be limited as today I received a formal invitation to this year's Workington show for Skeetsmere.... Which if you are following the other thread you will know it has some snags and very little scenery so I can't just spend all my time working on 2-4-0s as much as I would like to.... Also there is an M15 and B32 which have allready been mentioned on these pages that would be more useful on Skeetsmere that require finishing.

Before I stop rabitting on about GER 2-4-0s there is also one of my own kits for a Johnson intercity 125 to be built as well..... If you keep reading this thread long enough eventually they will get built!

 

[asterix2012]

Hi George

Very interesting thread you have here.

I am interested to see how you tackle the T 26, I have one I “saved” which was partly started and I am aware there are some inaccuracies which would be useful to see your take on.

Thanks

Mark

 

[Herb Garden]

Hi George

Very interesting thread you have here.

I am interested to see how you tackle the T 26, I have one I “saved” which was partly started and I am aware there are some inaccuracies which would be useful to see your take on.

Thanks

Mark

Yeah there are some inaccuracies but it's still the most accurate T26 kit out there.

I will probably use some precision fudging to get round these but watch this space!

 

[Flymo748]

Hi George

Very interesting thread you have here.

I am interested to see how you tackle the T 26, I have one I “saved” which was partly started and I am aware there are some inaccuracies which would be useful to see your take on.

Thanks

Mark

Hi Mark,

George does a superb job on the GER locomotives that he builds. I have no doubt that it will be a fine example when it progresses through the workshops.

He and I have been comparing notes over time, as I've also been building a T26 by backdating the Gibson kit. Annoyingly, I don't seem to have written up the early parts of the build anywhere. However I did start a topic on the locomotive on the Scalefour Society Forum in response to a question that someone asked:

Alan Gibson GER T26 (E4) kit build

The build then stalled about four years year ago. The kit doesn't include, and I couldn't think of an easy way to fabricate, the small splashers over the front carrying wheels:


I do now have a solution. Progress will resume soon, after a couple of other projects I need to clear from the building queue first. It's waited four years - a little longer won't hurt.

Best wishes,
Paul

 

[Herb Garden]

Goodness doesn't time fly.



Been away for work recently and the travelling doesn't seem to look like it will abate until April.

Last week I was in Aberdeen so had the joy of that fantastic rail journey along the coast



And some classic traction as well!


Sadly modelling takes the hit, but slowly but surely the big Sharpie is going to become a working locomotive.


I've now found some suitable screws to attach the loco to the chassis and fit some pickup plates. Where does one buy BA screws now Eileen's is no more? The wires are attached with high melting point solder then the pickups themselves will be attached with a lower melting point solder. All wires will run back to a decoder in the tender as there's literally no room on the loco.


Pickups are the usual .3 phosfor bronze wire shaped into complex forms.


However I keep getting distracted....