Today is probably one of the final sections of modifying this Bachmann 4575xx. Dug out by a friend from his scrap pile the footsteps were broken and it had the original Bachmann chimney, and no chassis. It’s one of the last locomotives I wanted for the Forest of Dean project, already having two small tank 45xx prairies converted. To be true to the FoD these weren’t common, but with a bit of rule 1, I can add them as a more frequent occasional movement, and depict them as Gloucester based engines.

Along the way I’d also acquired this Korean built OO 45xx as a non runner. A quick mess about with it determined it was faulty due to broken wiring, (40’ish years old) and the pony truck wheels having been replaced with the ultrascale wheels illustrated. That was a problem as the pony trucks acted as one sided pickups, and the ultrascales are insulated. (My thoughts were this chassis could go under the 45xx and move the body on.) The chassis ran well and shorting one side of the pony wheels worked. Having got it sorted the final nail in the idea was that the motor assembly was too far forward to easily fit into the Bachmann body. So the brass one left the building to a buyer whom was after a brass version.

The first task I do with these early bodies is to change the chimney.

The replacement chimney is from the Alan Gibson range, catalog number 4M687. Thus is lost wax cast and requires cleaning up for fitting. The original chimney is removed and the area cleans to allow the fitting of the replacement casting. I fit this with low viscosity superglue as it forms a filler seal around the base.

The GWR logos are ‘cut off’ using cotton buds and T-Cut, the car paint restoration product. This gives a highly polished clean surface for undercoating in due course. I also remove the cab and with access into the bunker remove the molded coal mound and a plastic cross shelf that opens up the full depth of the bunker space, using a pepper pot drill technique.

With the cab removed I usually ‘open’ one or two of the ventilation doors. On this one I’m only doing the rear cab doors.

This is a quick technique, drill out a line of holes within the area that requires removal. Once you have a chain of holes you slit between them and then remove the waste section. Clean the new aperature with files and you’re ready to go making new doors or hatches to fit. These will be either brass or plasticard depending on what is to hand.

Whilst working on the body, a Bachmann spare chassis was found, albeit in BR lined green livery. It’s an early DC only chassis too but it fits, and runs very well. If I choose DCC there’s actually plenty of space for a chip including a sound installation, but that’s not yet determined. So that’s the basic core completed, ready for relivery to plain BR black in all about an afternoon’s work. I’ll pre-shade the model in black prior to the final coloring in, that’ll remove the chances of any of the green base model being visible.

The techniques I’ve used here aren’t just applicable to this model, there’s nothing stopping you using them in any scale on anything in the man-cave that needs a makeover, or a lift off the shelf of doom!

All I have to do now is trawl through the library to pull up a Gloucester based plain black 4575, ideally with late logos.