Seeing as how the weather this morning was rather nice (10 degrees, no rain, hardly any wind at all) I decided to run in my K3 and perform the usual haulage tests. On my layout, I can couple the tender closely, so I did. Here's what I discovered.
Running backwards, the tender seems to be too light and it has a tendency to derail, pulling the loco off the track, too.
The loco (running forwards) will start 12 Bachmann "weightless" Mk. 1 coaches without slipping up a 1 in 78 incline, and 14 is its absolute limit, with a fair amount of slipping. ("Weightless" coaches have had their weights removed, and weigh 125 grams each.
I think the K3 is a superb model (despite the missing front foot steps) and the successful loading you've achieved would be about right for one of these.
The prototypes saw widespread use in and around Hull and were often preferred by local enginemen to the notionally more powerful Thompson B1s. Regular turns would include the Hull to Banbury fish train, so they could turn up almost anywhere.
I assume the Hull-Banbury fish train to which you refer, went via the GC south of Nottingham Victoria. Do you know which route it took between Hull and Nottingham?
Lucky you! I went out in the garden yesterday to find a large chunk of my main station trackless and roofing-feltless. Managed to get most of the bits into the shed and went back into hibernation. Blowing a gale again today but hey... the juice came flowing out of the sockets half an hour ago so I can put the electric blanket on. Difficult to imagine what it's like restoring power in this weather - medals all round.
The Immingham fish went via Tuxford and Mansfield, joining the GC at Kirkby South. Not so sure about the Hull fish which ran about 40minutes before the Immingham and was just about always hauled by a Dairycoates K3, but I think that it may have used the ECML south of Doncaster and the LDEC as well as the Immingham. By the way, John T, the K3s were considerably more powerful than a B1, although the B1s tended to ride better with the smaller boiler and longer wheelbase. I always preferred to see (and hear) a K3 than a B1.
Got my new K3 and a couple of Mark 1s in the post this morning, thanks John, only ordered them yesterday as well. Had a bit of an ordeal fitting the cylinder draincocks though, bad enough for someone like me with fairly nimble fingers, go knows what it must be like for the older etc amongst us. Just a though, but didn't the K3s and the K2s share a common chassis? I know the K1s/K4s had 5ft 2in wheels, so they're out, I just wonder if Bachmann could bung out a K2.. Or even the solitary K5..
Ah! Would that life was so simple! The K3s, although they shared driving wheel diameter of 5'8" had very little else in common with the K2s, chassis wise. The K2s were a two-cylinder loco with coupled wheels at the old GN standard 6-couple spacing of 7'3"-9'0". The K3s having an extra cylinder could afford smaller cylinders and had a wheelbase spacing of 7'6"-8'9". The valve gear was also very different.
The K5 may be more feasible, but I would think that the next step for Bachmann would be to produce a right-hand drive K3 with the earlier cab. The current Bachmann K3 only represents engines 61870 onwards (later cab and left-hand drive).
61810-61819 and 61860-61869 are LH drive as per model but have the earlier cab with the wider radius at the back of the side curving up to the roof and in the main stepped out tenders. (61815, 61816, 61818, 61819, 61828, 61869 had flush-sided at one time or other in the 1950s - 61811 had non-standard flush sided tender from 1947)
61820-61859 are right hand drive with the earlier cab and apart from exceptions above, stepped out tenders.
More interesting is the first 10 which have the same cab as the Bachmann model but are right hand drive. The buffers for all of these however are original GN round based (except for 61808 which did for some reason get the group standard ones like the rest.
One point to note is 61949 as released by Bachmann with a stepped tender is really an anomaly - it only got the tender on a works swap in 1955. There were only 5 engines in the series 61870-61992 which ever ran with a stepped out tender and then only for very limited periods.
However, notwithstanding the above, I have purchased this engine (61949) with a view to convert it to 61809 (Alan Gibson GN buffers, swap the drive and ejector pipe to the other side).
So to summarise all the above, I think (and hope) that Bachmann will bring out versions of the K3 with the earlier cab and right hand drive. It is possible they may find a way of doing the K5, but with only one engine in the class there is no scope for modellers purchasing more than one model. If you really want a K2 you will have to resort to kit building at the moment (London Road Models do a superb K2/2 in brass/nickel silver but certainly not a beginners kit and Nucast do a white metal version although the valve gear is more clumsy.
Thanks for the detailed reply John. I think the K5 might be a possibility, even for a one off model, as the CFPS are getting a LE model of 40145 in current railtour guise, with aerials, headlights etc. I live in hope for a K4 or a K1, and indeed Bachmann naturally following up the A1s with some Peppercorn A2s. Ah well, I can but hope...
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