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rebuilding the Backwoods Manning
Wardle with Roco chassis
or 'Manning Waddle to Wardle!'
Austro-Wardle
a smooth running 'Lew'
The first Backwoods loco chassis built for 'Lew' was not
up to the standard of the subsequent locomotives. The body and valve gear
was fine, but there was a good 'waddle' and the gear train was very noisy.
Following the success with the Russell build, this was the next locomotive
to be fitted with the Roco outside frame chassis with equal success.
One might wonder 'why go to all of this
trouble'? Simply because I am not clever enough to get the Backwoods
chassis to work well! I have
seen some Backwoods chassis running perfectly, but I cannot say I have the
skills to achieve this despite feeling that I am a relatively experienced
modeller but I am no engineer. The Backwoods kit is supplied with two
frets. The valve gear and cylinders are on the 'body' fret, and a heavier
etch in nickel silver is supplied for chassis parts. With care, building
the valve gear is relatively straight forward with care. The problem
arises with getting the chassis to work properly. There are some real
experts who will make the chassis for you at a price (around £150) but if
you have tried and failed, the following article is a way to get yourself
out of trouble.
Having proved that this could be done, I was
able to find a good chassis builder who made an excellent Backwoods
chassis for 'Lew' This is now under the completed 'Lew' and the Roco
chassis is operating perfectly under the Glenthorne Harbour Alco!
The Roco chassis is completely demountable
and parts can be ordered from International models, who are very helpful
in this regard.
The Backwoods/Roco hybrid is expensive
nevertheless. £85 for the Russell kit and nearly £100 for the Roco. Some
folks like to have large numbers of locomotives....some, such as myself, prefer to have
a lot fewer, but really good ones. One of my early models, made in 1973,
was a 4-6-0 Baldwin based on a Lilliput chassis. This ran for two years,
24/7 without failure at scale speeds. Finally the motor burnt out after
something was inadvertently dropped onto the track which ground it to a
halt. After re-motoring, it is again running at County Gate quite
perfectly.
This conversion is more extensive that the
Russell project. Firstly, the Roco wheelbase is a lot less that the L&B,
although I must say that it is quite impossible to see this on a finished
chassis even when placed alongside one of the other locos. Again, the wheel diameter is less too. The Manning Wardle
boiler is much lower than Russell and the standard Mashima supplied was just too large
to fit. Branchlines has supplied
me with a smaller motor, also Mashima
the virgin Roco chassis
sizing it up
the Roco chassis stripped down. The butchery has already started!
the new motor (Masima 9X16) is glued into place
Backwoods chassis butchery!
The counter balance weights have been trimmed off. The top crank will have to be
repositioned to the flangless centre driver. The cranks will just pull out. I
find that the crank pins come out best with finger nails!
The outside frames are replaced and the wheels are ready to be inserted
A lot of boiler material has to be removed. As in the original chassis, the
motor formed the firebox, it will have to be made.
reassembly - The central hole in the coupling rod has to be enlarged, while the
larger hole at the rear is filled with solder and re-drilled to the same size as
the front. The exterior detail at each end of the plastic outside frames
have been sanded off.
'Lew', the ex Manning Waddle alongside the smooth running 'Taw'. All that
is needed now is to fit the Roco return cranks and rivet on the return rod.
The Roco return crank is carefully drilled to 7.5 mm to accept Backwoods rivet
and the original hole removed.
nearly finished
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