'Jay' - the Kirklees Light Railway Diesel

Part of shiftingsands.fotopic.revisited

Based on material posted to www.shiftingsands.fotopic.net from January 2006 onwards, updated on 9th September 2006.

My second attempt at modelling a prototype loco. This uses the same style of Kato chassis unit as 'Cumbria' and the Knightwing shunter conversion.

The bonnet and chassis frame assemblies from the front:

The other side of the loco. Etched grilles are from the A1 Models range:

From the cab end part of the chassis can just be glimpsed. The drop frame caused some head scratching!

A view from the underside showing how the Kato chassis fits in place:

30/01/06: I have added the basic cab structure and a little box on one of the running plates. I have also had to make a few alterations to the bonnet front, adding a recess that holds the front headlight. I had missed this in photos downloaded from the internet:

The cab is made from 20 thou styrene, with a second layer below window level.  Windows were carefully drilled, cut and filed to shape:

14/05/06: At long last, the model has entered the paintshop and received a coat of primer. There are still some details to add after painting but otherwise the loco is structurally complete:

From the cab end, all details such as handles and hinges have been scratchbuilt:

Some details remain to be added after painting, such as headlights, horns, exhaust etc:

A close-up of the cab front, featuring an electrical connection socket:

The bonnet end, the grille will be added after painting:

A cruel close-up of an axlebox. I built 6 of these and chose the best 4!

09/09/06: Attention has been focused on the layout of late, and despite being painted in basic colours back in May, the loco is only now complete, with warning stripe transfers from Fox transfers, all the little details added and some weathering to highlight the detail. The almost complete loco poses in the sand dunes at Shifting Sands.

The completed loco has visited the real Kirklees Light Railway, seen here the Shelley station, note the Emley Moor TV transmitter in the background!

The completed loco sat on the running plate of the real thing at Clayton West station, KLR (with thanks to John Kennard):

A 3/4 view of the prototype at Clayton West, at 12 feet long it is a long four-wheeler:

A view from the cab end, note the unusual shape of the frames around the cab and the headlight collection:

The availability of quality research material can make or break a project. I am therefore indebted to John Kennard, who through the Gnatterbox forum offered to pop over to Clayton West and photograph the loco for me. This provided a great set of reference photographs. John became a volunteer on the KLR shortly afterwards...

O9 Modeller would like to thank Mick Thornton for his help in creating this page.