Donald Pictures Pt 2

Donald is slowly making great progress as the stages come now towards building up his tender, i bought lot of new packs of buffers, axle boxes and screw link couplings in the last few days, and i hope to have Donald finished sometime in April, so the way things are at current, Donald may be here sooner.

But i am not rushing him, the project will slowly progress more as the days start to pass, so be sure to keep checking back and also have a fequent check on the Sudrian Railway Modellers Forum and The Thomas Modeller Forum.

Below are pics of Donald has he progress's onto the bulding of the tender.

Images are Copyright © The Thomas Modeller.

Donald Update!

A quick update on the Donald Project:


The body is almost complete, today, the splashers have all been fixed to the underside of the main boiler. The dome, safety valves, whistle and cab roof have all been added this afternoon, and so far, the model is starting to look like the tv model of Donald, which is what i was aiming for and have almost reached my goal in making him come to life.

The buffer beam is at current being prepared to have sprung buffers and screw link added, these will be added tomorrow if not this evening. I shall post more images tomorrow of the models current state.I am hoping to have the tender started either tomorrow or in the week as i am now off work on holiday for a whole week. So i can spend some time adding further details to the model then, and hopefully, have the body ready for priming.

I am happy with the progress of the model, so far, everything is going according to plan, and i won't be suprised if this model isn't already the first to be modelled from scratch using plastikard by other Thomas Modellers out there.

Donald Pictures Pt1

Donald is underway, these are the first glimpse images of the project and how he looks at current, the models i am building will hopefully look similar to those on the telelvision series as they appeared and looked in Seasons Two and Three. The nameplates will be on the centre of the boilers and the models will be running on either Hornby 0-6-0 or Bachmann J39 0-6-0 motors.

The model is being built entirely from plastikard, and uses some parts from bucthered up models that have no use on or off the layout.

Images below are copyright

© 2009 by Daniel Snell

Donald In Progress

Newly announced project, Donald, is now currently underway. The final parts of the project were cut and shaped earlier this evening and a donor 'Sterodant' tube has been used as a suitable sturdy boiler.

The chassis being used for both Donald and Douglas, are the same as those used on the Hornby 'Pannier' 57xx locomotives, the tender i am considering buying as a Brass kit from Caley Coaches, or, i will just built the tender along with the body.

Pictures will be posted tomorrow of the model in progress.

Donald the Scottish Twin - Work in Progress!

There has been a big gap left in the world of modelling for 0-6-0 tender locomotives, so my next ambition is to model two locomotives of the Caledonain Railway using plastikard, an 0-6-0 chassis (doesn't matter which) and two faces from the Tomica Donald and Douglas trains. These engines are based on the CR Class 812 0-6-0 tender locomotives designed by John F. McIntosh and introduced in 1899.

The power classification for these engines are the same as those of the BR/LMS 3F. To this day, there is only one sole survivor of this stunning locomotive class, No. 828 (BR No. 57566) which is currently undergoing a major overhaul at the Strathspey Railway.
In fiction, Donlad and Douglas are known as No's 57646 and 57647, but in reality, the numbers of the 812 only went up to 57645.

There will be images uploaded of the models progress very soon as well as some black and white scans of the two twins.

Thomas Modeller - Message Board.

I am in the process of building a message board soley for Thomas Modellers around the world, the board will have strict guidelines as to what contents can be posted, and registration will be limited, meaning that only 5 to 6 people can register each week, this is being done due to my experience with these forums, so don't be suprised if your account is not accepted.
However, the Thomas Modeller will be screening all new members before they have their accounts activiated to ensure that they are between the ages of 14 and over, under 13's will need to ask permission from their Parent/Guardians before they can acess the board.

The board at current is still in the building stages, so a link will not be posted just yet, and unlike the other message boards i created in my time, this one is going to be set to private and it won't be open to guests, so you will need to register an account in order to start viewing the boards.
I have not yet given an estimated date for the boards opening, so it will be left a while till such time as i can post the link here.

0-8-0 Crane Engine - Next New WIP in OO

Recently, i have come across some interesting pictures of what appears to be a Narrow Gauge Crane Locomotive, i model quite abit of 009 stuff, and figured i could make this NG crane engine into a Standard Gauge locomotive. The design of this engine is not like our other British Built locomotives, this engine appears to be based on an American design, which is good as there appears to be a sever lack of Sodor engines from other regions, and although a debate has already started about Hank and Hiro being too large for our UK loading gauge on other 'Forums', i personally don't see any real issue with locomotives from other regions of the world running on a fictional railway.

So, this project is to commence later in the week and will be made once again, using my most favourite of all materials, plasticard and an 8F Hornby chassis.