From Tram Loco to 'Bertie'

10/3/2018

In January 2018 I decided to sell the tram body of my loco number 8 - see Withdrawn Locomotives for more information.
I decided to keep the Roundhouse Bertie chassis and boiler, and it seemed logical to order the bodywork for this loco.
The bodywork duly arrived from Roundhouse, painted in my desired colour - Victorian Maroon - and was complete with cab roof, running plate and painted brass dome.
I carried out a number of enhancements and improvements, before carrying these out, I painted the cab interior cream, applied a coat of satin black enamel to the running plate and painted the smokebox and chimney matt black.
The cylinder heads, wheels and slip eccentric valve gear rods were also painted black.
In order to hide the more visible pop rivets on the smokebox sides, I drilled these out and replaced them with 10BA hex head screws. The pop rivets at the front of the saddle tank were also drilled out and Roundhouse handrail knobs fitted in their place, together with a handrail.
A Summerlands chuffer was fitted to the twin exhaust pipes.
The Roundhouse enhancements were:

Cylinder slide bars and crossheads
Cylinder covers
Detailed and painted bufferbeam overlays
A pair of re-railing jacks
Bucket and oil can
Dummy brass whistle on cab roof
Handbrake handle to replace gas control knob

A number of Locoworks detailing parts were also fitted:

Two sets of lubricators
4 Dummy leaf springs
A lamp iron fitted to the cab back
Cab steps
Painted hex head screws for the buffer beams
Roof rainstrips
A painted set of doors for the hole in the cab back

The sandboxes from GRS were already in stock, I gave these a couple of coats of matching Victorian Maroon paint.
The loco was finished off with a set of number and name plates and TBLR crests were applied to the Saddle tank sides.