Author

Patrick Blake

Date

9th January 2016

Reading Time

3 minutes

Red Pannier Tanks became a standard feature on the London Transport Network until the 70’s. Their small size was ideal for transporting goods across the Sub-surface network, many were seen trundling across the Metropolitan Line in the final years of Steam on the Underground. There has always been something about Panniers that I have found fascinating, so I decided to start modelling them in 4mm Scale.

In this project, I will be making three 5700 Class London Transport Panniers in OO, EM and P4 Gauges.

In this first entry, I will be showing what I did to an old existing ‘Replica Railways’ Model of a GWR Green Pannier which I will be making into L96 in Protofour (P4).

Firstly, I would like to point out that when modelling P4, you may find that your Bachmann Chassis may not provide you with enough suspension for a reliable Wheel to rail interface unless suitable adjustments are made first.
Because I wanted to avoid wasting a nice Bachmann Chassis from one of my Bachmann Pannier Models, I instead decided that I will be constructing a ‘High-Level-Kits’ brass chassis which will fit on the second hand ‘Replica Railways’ body that I bought.

I bought a ‘Replica Railways’ Model of the 77xx for £12. It was in GWR Green and was numbered (7752). By coincidence the same locomotive in real life was converted into LT colours as L94. This Pannier will be converted to L95. In the photos, you can see that I have taken the model apart. Some of the detailing was broken or missing, this will be replaced with brass fittings with the correct detailing to match L96.

As I closely worked on the shell, I discovered that the size and detailing matched with the body of the more recent Bachmann model. This suggests that the same tooling was possibly used for the body cast.

I used Pheonix Precision PQ18 SuperStrip to strip away the green paint (Sorry GWR Modellers) off the locomotive.
I would certainly recommend this product for anybody who is thinking of stripping paint off a plastic model. I submerged the model into a container filled with the Superstrip and left it to work for 20 minutes, once I took it out, the model was completely clean. Any trapped paint left over can be delicately brushed off using a cheap tooth brush. The picture on the right shows the final result.

If you, like myself are interest in modelling London Transport Steam, a good book I would recommend you get is ‘Red Panniers – Last Steam on The Underground’ by John Scott-Morgan & Kirk Martin. All you need to know in detail about LT Panniers is there with also a brief history of other Steam Locomotives on Underground.

Stay tuned for my second blog,

Patrick Blake