The Y4 is pretty rare in model railway terms - as far as I am aware, you can't even buy a kit for this stumpy little beast. It's certainly been on my list to scratchbuild for many years although the Walschaerts valve gear puts me off quite a bit.
If you aren't familiar with the class, try this link to the LNER encyclopedia. Ugly little devil isn't it? Just my sort of engine!
Anyway, as you can see from the picture, I have managed to find a plan but it was on a second hand stall in slightly tatty condition. Although no company is mentioned as producing it, I suspect it's likely still to be in copyright so I can't just scan the thing and sent it over. At a guess, I'd say the loco was drawn by Roche, so accuracy might also be as much of an issue as it is with some of his other drawings.
A plan is available from D Hewson models and I suspect this would be a better bet. It's also in a large scale so hopefully will be accurate enough to give you a starting point. 1/20th is an unusual scale, more akin to model engineering so I suspect there will be detail research required as well.
Someone is writing up his build of this model here. Apparently the model has been written up in Engineering in Miniature magazine. I'm sure an e-mail to the publishers will get details of which issues it appears in.
If anyone has any further suggestions, I'm sure we'd all appreciate them though. Maybe I'll tackle those waggly bits in 4mm scale!
3 comments:
Dropping by a mere 3 years later: the Great Eastern Railway Society has drawings of these, and quotes the original Stratford drawings in the write-up.
I really appreciate this comment; a quick google, a couple of clicks and I've downloaded what I was after - much obliged.
The only RTR Y4 loco ever made is actually a 1970's cheap clockwork version, made by Wells Brimtoy and usually sold in a plastic bag, along with two flat wagons and a circle of plastic track. The clockwork mechanism is pretty naff, but the loco body is very obviously a Y4. Why the chap who designed the body shell decided to model the Y4 rather than a homebrew fictional design, like Triang, Hornby, Lima, Jouef, etc. is a mystery.
The good news is that the body shell is retained by a pair of very small self tapping screws and will fit perfectly onto a modified (shortened) Model Power American H.B.Porter yard switcher diecast chassis. The front pilot (shunter's platform) needs to be removed. The wheel size and axle spacing is correct for a Y4 and the complex valve gear looks acceptable. Running wise, the chassis is pretty heavy and smooth. I even managed to install DCC on mine. The body shell is best attached by drilling the funnel through with a 2.5mm. drill and screwing a 1.5 inch long 3mm. screw from the underside through the hole for the OEM cylinder block retaining screw & nut and up into the funnel underside.
The OEM round dumb buffers need to be replaced with wooden items and the LNER / BR hopper bunker, on the cab rear, needs to be removed so that a correct plain cab rear can be installed (once it has been scratch built).
The dummy cylinders need to be removed from the body shell so that it matches up with the working items on the chassis unit.
Also the key hole for the clockwork motor, needs to be eliminated.
The rear coupling slot takes NEM types, however, there is no front NEM pocket, so some arrangement will have to be devised.
All the safety valves, toolboxes, sand boxes, airbrake apparatus, etc. is already moulded on the body shell. It exactly matches all the Y4 photographs.
Painting and weathering is up to the modeller making this conversion.
On a down note, the Wells Brimtoy 00 clockwork Y4 locos are pretty rare and maybe one pops up on E-Bay per annum. Model Power H.B.Porter locos are reasonably common and a NOS Canadian Nation liveried one only cost me £20. The other alternative is to use the Lima version, but this doesn't have the complex valve gear or the smooth & silent running nature of the Model Power version.
This is currently the only way to model a Y4 in 00 scale.
Post a Comment