Resettling Russian Émigrés
One of our members here in Merseyside has a collection of engines, both steam and battery-powered, that would delight any connoisseur of the 16mm fraternity. I would be very surprised if he knew just how many were on his stock list. So much so that as I was admiring a small sub-set of his fleet, he almost (but not quite) confided that perhaps there might be an excess in one or two departments. A little more encouragement (despite my sincerely-held view that it is just not possible to have too many, only barely enough) produced a couple of old Novo locomotives, one diesel-outline in fair running order and the other steam-outline that was definitely not. Apparently they might be available for re-homing in a good cause.
Now I have (in my own quite biased view) a very good cause, namely the Middleforth Light Railway. This is an end-to-end layout belonging to the West Lancashire Light Railway at Hesketh Bank, a few miles the wrong side of the Merseyside/Lancashire county boundary. Middleforth incorporates Sid the Scrapper, a repairer and deconstructor of old railwayana, always on the lookout for new old stock to recycle. The ex-pugilist would welcome the provision of a couple of small-to-medium diesels to shunt the merchandise around his rather cramped site. So the deal was done, and my own catalogue of a just-about-adequate number of motive power units increased by two. The actual total is known only to a favoured few, i.e. myself on a good memory day.
Novo was a Russian company that acquired the Big Big Train moulds from Tri-ang when the latter ceased production in the seventies. They were O-scale models, but ideal for modifying into modestly-sized 16mm items. Back in the workshop I made a start at seeing what could be done with my new acquisitions. Removing the body of the scruffier one showed advanced corrosion of the battery connectors, in the form of rather picturesque green copper oxides. However the chassis seemed intact and the drive train was functioning. Now I have seen photographic evidence of a respectable battery-powered steam engine derived from such beginnings, but the lure of the diesel is not something I dismiss lightly. Indeed some would say I embrace the concept rather too readily. Such a loco would, my sub-conscious kept reminding me, fit better on the layout, and a completely new diesel-shaped body could be built with space for a radio control system, essential for safe navigation of Middleforth’s turntables.
After a careful cleaning and a removal of non-essential items, I ended up with a solid-looking chassis with a removable motor block. Some new side and roof panels for the engine compartment were cut out of 2mm plasticard and glued in place. I decided the loco would be cabless, for a change from most of my other engines and because it was easier. Some spare detail parts from the bottomless pit which is my ‘diesel bits’ box were then brought out into the light of day for assessment of their worth. Not all made the cut, so I may just have to build another diesel some day to justify their existence. The best find was a rather fine metal casting of a radiator with the name ‘Hunslet’ prominent in red, which was promptly allocated to the front of the loco. Highly commended was an equally good-looking brake wheel and pedestal, ready painted and assembled, which went on the back.
All good diesels have lots of removable side panels, with abundant ventilation grilles. I only had two ready-made from castings, so I made four more out of plastic strip and wire mesh. Ebay came up with some axleboxes and related machinery items. Initially an instrument panel from an Aristocraft Alco RS3, dismantled for another unlikely project and with its left-overs long since remaindered, was assigned to the Novo. However it looked a little toylike in an exposed cab, so it went back in the bin, in favour of some small but shiny electronic components from an old circuit board. The driver person was from Modeltown, and the blue paint from a rattle-can.
At this point I decided a test run was a sensible thing to do. The O-gauge origins of the chassis meant that it was a touch near the ground, and my somewhat uneven track might catch it out, probably all too literally. To be on the safe side I attached a pack of a half-dozen rechargeable batteries to the motor, a mere 60% of what I presumed was its normal operating voltage in a previous existence. It shot off like a startled rabbit, which was somewhat alarming, so I tried again with just a pair of AAs. I thought this might be overcompensation, but it trundled off at a steady pace that could just be typical of a prototype. Whether it would be sufficient when pulling a good load would be assessed later, bearing in mind the gear train was of decades-old plastic, and not particularly robust even when new.
The other locomotive was, you will be relieved to hear, not subject to anything like the same level of remodelling, just some modest detailing and cleaning (de-weathering?), including the addition of a Lego walkie-talkie. Both locos have acquired Pratt fuel cans, if only to keep alive the myth that somewhere in a dusty New York tenement attic moulders a large bundle of long-lost Standard Oil shares, which an enterprising young lawyer will some day recognize as belonging to one of Charles Pratt’s worthy descendants, i.e. me.
Back in the real world, the locos have each received the names of a Scottish island, Sanday and Barra to be precise, because I like such names and it’s my railway. Both will be fitted with radio control when their job numbers float to the top of a long List Of Things To Be Done Soon. It will probably be Deltang, because of the small component size. In the meantime the locos are periodically allowed out in the garden, pulling at most two or three small wagons to avoid overtaxing their transmissions. Close supervision is required to ensure they do not run off and bury their little radiators in the rose bushes, which are small in size but weaponised with many large thorns. In due course they will get a run out on Middleforth, to see how they behave in the grown-up world of exhibition layouts. The former owner of the pair was gracious enough to say he liked their new appearance, although he would be too polite to say otherwise anyway. But he hasn’t asked for them back…