Tuesday, May 15, 2007

Emu Bay Railway - 12 Class Beyer Garratt - 1

The starting point - Here's the two Bullant Major mechanisms built to Hollywood Foundry's usual quality and precision. Like the PVH chassis, they have lateral motion on the two centre axles to assist on tighter curves. Beyond this specification, these two are a bit special - they employ wheels made by SEM for WD Models, quartered on the Hollywood Foundry axles, the push-fit wheels easing this phase of construction. The wheels are slightly underscale at 39" (as against the prototypes' 43"), the 4" difference (approx. 1.2mm in HO scale) is considered an acceptable compromise for available wheels that will fit the 2mm Bullant axles. The motors chosen are the most powerful that will readily fit into the tank/bunker sections. I requested Hollywood to offset each motor to ensure they fit within the tanks/bunker and allow room for the leading/trailing bogie swing as per the picture below where the two unit's are roughly located on a scaled copy of Tony Parnell's excellent side elevation showing how the 12 Class will be powered:

(Drawing from T.Parnell in L.Rae "The Emu Bay Railway")

Next task is to define and build the framing for the two units, therein providing a platform for all the work that will occur on each unit, then fit the pickups (usually fitted by Hollywood however this wheelbase is below the minimum)

7 comments:

Andy said...

Wow.. That's looking pretty good. I see what you mean about the size of the loco, although a 7mm scale version would be fun. Maybe one day...

stephen said...

They look extremely interesting. How much extra was it to get the quartered wheels fitted, if you don't mind me asking?

Andrew Collier said...

Hi Andy & Stephen,

Thanks for your comments, and good to hear you're interested in the progress.

Stephen - sorry, on re-lookig at it, my post was'nt clear re: the quartering (I have now updated it). Hollywood Foundry don't offer a wheel quartering service. However it is'nt too difficult apparently, the WD Models/SEM wheels being a push-fit onto the Hollywood Foundry axle. The hardest thing I found is actually finding someone who sells wheels that will fit onto the Bullant (and SEM's Bettle would have the same) 2mm axles. If you ever find a supply please let me know also! Cheers, Andrew

stephen said...

Ah that makes sense - I knew Hollywood Foundry offer the option of a Bullant without wheels and user-fitted pickups. I am really interested in the potential of these mechanisms in steam outline models, so I will let you know if I find any other sources of wheels.

Andrew Collier said...

Hi Stephen,

I share your interest - the Hollywood Bullant is such a boon to modellers in non-mainstream and sub-HO scales - it's appropriately priced, reliable, and smooth running. Subject to finding wheels fitting 2mm axles, the possibilities for less-than-HO models are very wide. Of course for outside framed locos there's no impediment now.

Cheers, Andrew

Anonymous said...

Hi,

I have to say that the layout looks great, I really like the stock, and nice to see something a little different.

I've recently created a narrow gauge encyclopaedia website where people can upload any photos of prototype and models if they wish. Would be great if you could write something on this layout for it if you are interested in writing a page on it.

Website is: http://narrowgauge/wikispaces.com

Regards,

Tom Dauben.

Andrew Collier said...

Hi Tom,

Thank you for your interest in my modelling of the Emu Bay, and Shelley Railways, and also for the kind invite to write a piece for your site. Happy to oblige, I will try some wordage over the next few days.

Good luck with your site, great to see the collation of modelling efforts from around the world.

Cheers, Andrew