Commission: Britannia front coupling in N…
Whilst not every job that crosses my bench is the same size or value, each is treated with the same attention to the customer and what they hope to achieve…
In this instance a customer enquired as to whether I could help him add a front coupling to his treasured Minitrix N gauge ‘Britannia’. He had sourced the parts including a suitable Dapol front bogie. In his trials it wouldn’t sit right and kept de-railing. I stripped it back and recognised that the Dapol bogie was to light and flexible in this application. The Minitrix example had just one pivot (not a bar with two), and a spring which bore on the underside of the smokebox to hold it on the rails.
A bar and spring were fabricated and tested before painting black and fitting in place. I’m told she now runs well and can replicate the double headers my customer was keen to replicate.
If you have a job, no matter how small, and think I may be able to help do get in touch for a no obligation proposal. Whilst I’m often to be found building custom one offs, I have been around the hobby long enough to be able to repair most problems as well. Whilst I might not be as cheap as some, you will get a reliable and tested model from my own bench, not a faceless shop. Until next time, more soon…
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A blast from the past James. My mum had a minitrix 9f which spent it's life (a good thirty years!) hurtling around first radius curves at Mach 3. Happy days. Take care
ReplyDeleteThanks Tom - yes I'm sure there are many out there who remember these older models in N gauge. Whilst not up to today's standards of fidelity these ran fairly smoothly for their time and it was nice to help my customer make this one a little more useful.
DeleteMinitrix locos had metal cogs in their mechanisms, whilst noisy, they were far more reliable than Farish locos in my experience. Mum had a warship too. I always wanted a 47 but never had the money to buy one and the current locos look so much better now. I was born in 1977 and my Dad gave my Mum a Farish 45xx prairie tank as a present at the hospital.The nurses thought it was for me! Mind you, her Lima deltic towered over my Farish MK3 coaches.
ReplyDeleteWhat wonderful memories… you’re not much ahead of me. My Grandpa had an N gauge collection which is now in my care, almost entirely Poole era Farish with a Peco Jubilee. I think a lot of these steam models have bullet proof mechanisms and all ran when I tested them last year. That said, detail wise they are not what I like to work with these days, and so they remain a collection and nothing more.
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