Weathered Spremberger

I'd always wanted a tendered loco, and not having enough funds "spare" to purchase one I thought I'd have a go at bashing my own.

The only loco that I had that I was willing to take a knife to was an LGB Spremberger that I'd picked up on German Ebay a few years ago. Its a very early version that has no electrics other than the motorblock (including skates), no lights, sound or smoke unit.

Foolishly I didn't take a great many pics during the bash so what I have pictorially is limited to some pics from the web and a couple I took during the build

Here's a pic of the donor loco



I managed to pick up an LGB Toytrain tender from Ebay for a few quid



First job was to strip down the loco (3 screws) and then hacksaw the rear of the cab and the coal hopper away to leave an open footplate



The cab was then lined in plasticard, an extension to the existing roof profile created and the cab sides extended



A lot of filling, rubbing down and re-filling then took place to blend the new parts into the original loco body. This was then sprayed all over with Railmatch BR Black enamel paint (I did try spraying red panels on the water tanks - but to be honest it looked bloody awful!) The loco was then put to one side and left (for about 18 months if I'm honest! )

The tender has the small Feldbahn wheels on it "as supplied" and therefore the tender sat way to low compared to the loco cab floor, so by adding full size wheels and lifting the tender by about 6mm on the chassis the tender sat at the right height behind the loco. I also lowered the height of the coal hopper by about 5mm.



This again was sprayed all over with Railmatch BR Black

A real coal load was added as were pickup wheels and an LGB steam sound unit.

In the picture above you can see the electrical connection (above the loop coupling and below the tender floor). This give the loco pickup across 8 wheels and 2 skates.

Final jobs were to drill a hole in the chimney to add a smoke unit, add a single light at the front of the loco and two lights on the rear of the tender (these two lights are dummies and do not illuminate)

Then on to the weathering

Weathering has been done by using Games Workshop Acrylics (dry brushing, washing etc). The rust is by using Scenic Rust and the road dust has been sprayed on by airbrush.



The canvas hood over the rear of the footplate is made from an old handkerchief and the stays from some brass rod

AN MTS chip has been added to the loco and controls the front light, smoke unit and I also chopped out the grille on the backplate to add a fireglow effect in the grate.



And finally the tender




This model of the loco and tender won me the "Alan Day" trophy at GRail this year which is awarded for "Best use of a proprietary item as a base" - which I think means "kit-bash"!

Please feel free to ask any questions

Cheers

Ian S

A great bash Ian. Is that the Toytrain tender with the push-button 'sound' unit?

Yes Clive thats the one - I stripped out the Toytrain sound and added the LGB "generic" European steam sound unit

Now that i like, very much!!

mikey

Ian won the top prize at G Rail at Nottingham for his efforts.

paul stainz holt wrote:

Ian won the top prize at G Rail at Nottingham for his efforts.

I'm not surprised. Well done, that's a great piece of weathered modelling and a very plausible bash.

Now I wonder if anyone would dare weather a Frank S like that.....

carl hibbs wrote:

paul stainz holt wrote:

Ian won the top prize at G Rail at Nottingham for his efforts.

I'm not surprised. Well done, that's a great piece of weathered modelling and a very plausible bash.

Now I wonder if anyone would dare weather a Frank S like that.....

Not saying its as competent...........but I did :