Tower Collection LMS Princess Coronation Pacific - Review
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| Tower Collection Blackpool | Ian Atkinson |
| 5 The Croft | Email: ian.atkinson@zen.co.uk |
| Poulton-Le-Fylde | Web: http://towercollections.com |
| Lancashire | |
| FY6 8EE |
By John Cockcroft
Source: Gazette Volume 19 No. 11 May 2016
With the reintroduction of the Tower range of kits imminent, John suggests some improvements.
I have always wanted to build a
Duchess because the first engine I ever
got was a Hornby Dublo Duchess of
Montrose, but despite building a good
number of LNER pacifics, I took some
time to get round to making an O gauge
model of one of these magnificent
locomotives.
There are lots of O gauge kits and ready
to run examples to choose from but,
almost accidentally, I acquired two of the
Tower Models kits about ten years ago. It
took until a couple of years ago to find
time to build them. These kits are
produced for Tower Models by DJH and
they follow their familiar design concept
of superb white-metal or pewter castings,
large and small, for most of the loco body,
plus etched sheet metal work and details,
some lost wax castings for vulnerable
components, and a selection of turned
bits for joining and running parts. I
found the quality of the components to
be very good with very little flash and
only light fettling to get the parts to a
close fit. The instructions comprise the
usual very useful and accurate exploded
diagrams with some text that is quite
patchy and of variable value, and
illustrations of lost wax parts and some of
the finished model – all of which are
useful at times. There are a lot of parts and
the model is very detailed in many ways
but most of all I think really captures the
feeling of hunched power that is such a
thrilling element of the aesthetics of these
engines.
The disappointing cast cab
The one thing that I must say that lets this kit down is the cab. On all the large DJH kits I have built, they provide an etched cab that captures the sheet metal structure of the real thing. But for some reason (probably to cut design costs by using an existing component from the streamlined Coronation kit) the cab in this kit is a white metal block. It seems like a false economy to use a heap of expensive white-metal rather than a thin sheet of etched brass but that is what they have done. You could probably fettle and thin the edges of the castings round the windows and make a reasonable fist of the job – but it is a disappointment.
I managed to get hold of a couple of sets of
etchings for a Duchess cab from David
Andrews http://www.locomotivekits.com/
and Gladiator models https://www.gladiatormodels.com but this
should not be necessary. Tower could sort
this out, or even provide a separate etched
alternative at reasonable price. The effect
of an etched cab can be seen in the photos.
Rant over. I found the kit was very
detailed and included a diagram of the oil
pipe runs over the splashers and from the
lubricators – I fitted this before I attached
the boiler – though much of the work is
difficult to see.
I built Duchess of Atholl for
someone else and sod’s law dictated that
she was the only original non-streamlined
engine to have been attached to a
streamlined tender. So I had to purchase
the streamlined tender etches from David
Andrews and the two tenders are a sort of
mix and match of both DJH etches and
Andrews along with the castings from the
original kits. Both look the part whatever
messing about I did.
In order to free up the movement of the bogies I moved both the pivot pin and the bogie stretcher back by 5mm on both models.
A view of the cab on Duchess of Athol
This allows more swing at the
front and less at the back where the wheels
are surrounded by detail and very close to
the front brake hangers. The kit offers an
alternative thin etched trailing truck
spring etch as well as a full white-metal
representation of the axle box unit. I used
the full casting but then tested the chassis
on a curve and filed away the portion of
the spring casting in front of the axlebox to
clear the outside frames at the back of the
chassis. The filed portion is more or less
invisible behind the frame and the visible
part looks better than a flat etch.
I had picked up cheap a set of Premier
con rods and valve gear for a Duchess at
some point, and used these to save time on
Duchess of Atholl, though I used the
laminated etched version from the kit on
Queen Mary – I can’t tell the difference –
but as I said, it saved a bit of time. I made
some adaptions to the way the motion
bracket and slide bar units were arranged
so as to allow them to be removed with the
cylinders – the original design of these
parts would make removing the motion
and cylinders impossible without
extensive dismantling of the motion and
the units themselves.
Queen Mary, fireman's side
The footplate in this kit is a single
casting for the straight bit over the driving
wheels with the cab and the front platform
arrangement added on. There are a lot of
white metal tags on one side and it is
worth taking some time with a set of files
and fine abrasives to get the sides as clean
and smooth as possible. The casting tends
to be a bit bent when you get it and needs
careful straightening. I always assemble
big locos on a card platform glued onto a
bit of chipboard. In this case I made it flat
and just a bit shorter than the main
footplate. I used the platform to glue the
etched footplate overlay on top the
casting. To do this I used two part epoxy
resin glue spread very thinly with the
etched footplate carefully located and held
in place using hair clips and a small
G-clamp one side at a time.
I had to do quite a bit of adaptation to
the arrangement of the cab – though as
both the etches and the original cast
versions are pretty accurate in dimension,
the fitting against the firebox and footplate
was not a real problem. Most of the work
went in creating the rear bulkhead at the
back of the cab which was not on one of
the etches I got, but I used the one that was
present as a pattern for the others. DJH
provide an etched roof to stick on top of
the cast cab and this was carefully adapted
to fit the new cab.
Checking the fit of the etched cab
One of the most time consuming jobs is
the fitting of a plumbers’ yard full of pipes
and ducting of various sorts on both sides
of the loco. I had the chance to get right up
to Duchess of Sutherland at Butterley and
took a lot of photos of all this detail –
though the real thing has about twice as
much as my models. I also found the
Irwell Press Book of the Coronations and
their illustrated supplement very useful
because the details changed over time.
There are photos of both locos at the
periods when I was modelling them.
With the exception of the cab problem, I
would say that the Tower kit makes into
a very good representation of the
Coronation class, and I am very pleased
with the models. Incidentally I logged my
time on them and it came out at 150
working hours which is a considerable
time when compared to the 120 hours I
logged on a DJH A3 kit some years ago –
but maybe age has slowed me down.
As you can see I finished Duchess of
Atholl as a clean version in the very
attractive post war LMS black livery lined
with maroon and cream.
Close up of Duchess of Sutherland's cab
Queen Mary is
named in honour of Mary my mother, and
coincidentally it is my partner’s middle
name. She (the model that is) is painted in
early BR green and weathered somewhat.
By the way does anyone know of a
locomotive named Sandra? So far all I
could think of was Sandringham but I
suspect I shall have to be content with
Queen Mary – and you don’t get much
posher than that.
Queen Mary