As supplied, the railbus exhaust is just a bit of tube. To my mind this didn't seem right. Surely the rain would get down it?
What we needed was one of those funky tops that bob up and down in the fumeflow, shutting completely when the engine is off. Like those things you see on trucks.
A little bit of noodling around with some brass sorted it. I wrapped the top of the tube in a thin bit. A length of tube filed down would have been quicker but some bodgery with files and solder looked OK.
The cap was cut with a leather hole punch - it takes a bit of waggling the metal around to cut it but the result is circular and slightly domed. A bit of wire holds it up and slightly open.
At the bottom, a bit of tube and another punched circle beefs up the base of the pipe.
Probably an hours work while watching TV, and a very pleasant way to spent some time.
The exhaust certainly looks the part - to be honest, a lot of this "bug" does.
ReplyDeleteJust as well that the Bachmann "Davenport" chassis was able to be fixed - these days, they're not exactly noted for being easy to get hold of (even less so at sensible prices).
Saying that, if anybody had one of those Backwoods Miniatures body kits and no chassis, I'm sure they'd be able to adapt some cheap secondhand HO or OO scale 0-4-0 chassis.
As for the body kit, I haven't come across Backwoods Miniatures at any of the shows I've been to in the last few years, so I'm not sure what this kit's like - how easy it is to build - what's included - stuff like that.
Was an interior supplied with this kit? I suspect it might not be too difficult to make one, probably using wooden coffee stirrers or similar.
Somehow, I could imagine one of these finding its way onto the Warners stand at "Warley" - it probably wouldn't be out of place in the modelmaking pages of NG World.
There is, of course, another reason why I'm finding this rather interesting. I've got a part built Branchlines O-16.5 Ford T railmotor kit helping to line a cupboard - and I'm hoping that some of the stuff in your (re)build might "translate" to a different project.
You've guessed it - I got part way with building it about 15 years back - then it got sidelined due to family commitments. I've looked at it about once or twice since then - and realised I'll have to redo a couple of things. (It might help if I sorted out a bigger soldering iron, first.)
You never know - my kit might get even completed in time for Warley (albeit in another 15 years' time).