John Cockcroft gets down to work on his recent purchase

The Dapol Terrier is a really good model at a really good price. They produce it in a number of guises from early LBSCR to BR period and in 2016 Dapol introduced an Isle of Wight version. Terriers were used on the island from before the grouping until 1949, the model Dapol chose to represent first is for No 9 Fishbourne in pre-war Southern livery. Fishbourne was sent to the island in 1930 and returned to the mainland in 1936 so could only be represented in Southern livery. The most distinctive feature of Isle of Wight Terriers is their extended bunker though there were many other variations, and Dapol may decide to extend the range. The most useful book dealing with these locos is The Island Terriers by M.J.E. Reed, published by Kingfisher in 1989 which is out of print but I saw a good number for sale on line. The RCTS Locos of the LBSCR is also useful and Oakwood publish a number of books about the island and its locos and coaches.

By the end of World War 2 there were only two Terriers on the island, No 8 Freshwater and No 13 Carisbrooke. The latter was repainted in malachite green along with a goodly number of other Island locos, and looked particularly good in that livery, No 8 remained in unlined black. Fortunately No 13 was basically like the Dapol model having plain front splashers unlike No 8 that had combined splashers with sandboxes. When the railways were nationalised in 1948 the island engines initially had the word SOUTHERN substituted by BRITISH RAILWAYS lettered in full, but were otherwise unchanged. In the case of No 13 the new lettering only just fitted on the tanks! When she was returned to the mainland in June 1949 No 13 became 32677 but remained in her green island livery (minus nameplates) until she was repainted in lined BR black in 1952, working the Hayling Island branch.

The Dapol Terrier straight from the box

It is always hard to take a rather nice model and attack it with files and tools – but once destruction has started you are committed to seeing it through and in my view the end result is an improvement in two ways, firstly it is what I want and secondly it is my model because I have carried out my own work.

During my alterations I didn’t touch the mechanism of the model at all. The little chip on the wires is a firebox ‘glow.’

The finished model from a rear three quarter view. This shows the tool box on the bunker rear.

There are four screws, two at each end, to remove the body from the chassis, I didn’t alter any of the working parts of the chassis as it runs very nicely as it is.

I only made two alterations to the chassis unit:

• I replaced the single wire sand pipes at the front with a representation of steam sanding. I used Laurie Griffin steam sanding castings and made the nozzles from 1mm brass wire and the steam pipes from fine copper fuse wire. I placed the three parts on a flat surface and blobbed some solder on the join, then filed the blob to a convincing shape. They were fitted into the original hole in the sandbox which was drilled out to take them.

The first parts removed – later I removed some other detail to make painting easier. The long pipes had to be replaced as explained in the text.

• Carisbrooke was latterly much used on the Ventnor West push-pull trains and these pipes at each end were, I think, for the push-pull equipment. I made them from 0.9mm copper wire with short lengths of 1.2mm outside diameter tube soldered to the ends. I drilled holes in the chassis block at the front and rear and glued them in with super glue.

• While on the subject of the chassis I later repainted the wheels using Precision Post War Malachite (slightly subdued with a touch of black). They were hand painted but in the absence of a dimple in the middle of the wheel I used a spring bow compass pen to line the rims, using the rims to act as a fence. The centre lining was made as a transfer and stuck on and varnished in place. I weathered the chassis to match the photos of Carisbrooke in 1949 condition.

The body required a lot more work though none of it was serious structural surgery. In some cases I added detail that should possibly have been on the original model of Fishbourne but in other cases I noticed differences and some additions such as the boxes on the cab side and bunker rear.

The front of the chassis with the steam sanding arrangement and the push-pull pipes

• I commenced by removing quite a lot of the added detail – which with care can be eased off without damage. I actually removed a lot more at a later time mainly to make painting easier – it was simply returned to its original place at the end. A significant alteration is the repositioning of the boiler feed valves which on Carisbrooke are in front of the dome but on the Dapol model are well behind it and a long pipe runs from the front footplate along the top of the tanks. I cut off the originals and replaced them with matching copper wire from some electrical cable.

New front steps. Filed up from thin brass and glued under the footplate

• I drilled two holes at the front of the tanks to take an additional grab rail. They are 6.5mm and 16mm up from the footplate, in line with the tank front lines. To make lining easier I didn’t fit the rails until after I had painted the model.

• A significant difference between Fishbourne and Carisbrooke is the presence of front steps below the footplate. I filed the parts from thin brass and made a strengthening bracket to secure the unit to the underside of the footplate. I soldered them together then glued them to the underside of the footplate with 5 minute epoxy glue.

•I cut the right hand boiler handrail shorter and added two pipes running from the smokebox to the cab along the tank top made from copper wire. The thicker one is from 0.75mm diameter wire and the thin one from fuse wire from old cabling. I used super glue to fix them in the holes in the smokebox and to the top of the tank/ boiler side.

Brake and steam heating pipes were glued below the valances on both sides of Carisbrooke. One is fatter than the other, and I made the fat one from 1.35mm copper wire and the thin one from 1mm copper wire.

• Brake and steam heating pipes are located below the valances on both sides of Carisbrooke. One is fatter than the other, and I made the fat one from 1.35mm copper wire and the thin one from 1mm copper wire. The brackets were phosphor bronze pick-up strip folded round the wire and soldered to leave a flap used to stick them under the footplate. They are a bit fiddly to fit, though the ones on the prototype were not as neat as mine! You have to be careful where they bend under the buffer beams because they can get in the way of the chassis block – so check that out before you glue them in place.

The model after spraying malachite green. The two new pipes along the boiler can be clearly seen.

I lined the model with a ruling pen used a ruling pen with Humbrol yellow toned down with black and mellowed using a little red. I sprayed the model with gloss varnish which is better for the adhesion of transfers without leaving shadows around them. I painted parts of the inside of the cab black.

• Fairly late on I noticed that there were two boxes on the engine, perhaps used for tools etc because the original short bunker versions have a large tool box behind the bunker. The box just in front of the left hand cab entrance is not a common feature and I only noticed it on Carisbrooke and one other Terrier on the Island. The other box is above the rear buffer beam on the right hand side and is narrow and goes just a bit less than half way across the engine. I fabricated both boxes from Plastik ard and glued them on with solvent.

•Carisbrooke did not have the oil boxes on the lower tank fronts so I removed them and filled the holes

• I removed the SOUTHERN lettering and numbers with a craft knife and abrasives. I left the name plate transfers in place to act as a locater for my plates. I also left the lining as a guide for my lining. I masked the model off quite precisely so as to preserve as much of the original black as I could. It took three coats of Precision Post War Malachite Green to get a good even colour though I could still see a shadow of the original livery as referred to above. I then tidied up any over spray and lined the model with my own mix of dulled down yellow. The new plates are from Guilplates.

• You could probably quite easily use ‘sunshine’ Southern transfers to represent the engine as first repainted in 1946-7 and indeed the numbers are fine, but there are no commercial transfers for the BRITISH RAILWAYS over-painted version. I had some done for O2s but they were a bit too big for the Terrier, so I had to cut them down and make good the rounded corners and black shading and they now pass muster compared to the photos of the original.

• I varnished the model satin after reassembly of all the bits and then weathered it lightly using the photos of the original to get the clean but worn look of many of the island locos in 1949.

The almost complete body with the detail fitted, showing the new transfers and the additional box near the cab door.

I think the model catches this unique and attractive livery pretty well. The post war years were a time of optimism and opportunity after the horrors of the Second World War. This was the world I was born into about nine months after my mum and dad visited the Isle of Wight on honeymoon in September 1949 – by which time the Terriers had left the island – but history can always stretch a little if you want it to!

The finished model. I lightly weathered the model based on the photos of the prototype in service on the Ventnor West branch in 1949.