Garden Railway Forum

Having made my Mss a permanent tender loco, its got me thinking... The Mss tender is big, empty and not very tender like... has anyone got any ideas on how to make it more tender like and less toyish?

My first thought would be to make it a lot shorter. Ideally, due to the small size of the loco,a small open wagon with the front left off would look great. I did that on mine. Find some photo's of the Manchester Chat Moss system and you'll see what I mean.

This is why I never went in for the MSS tenders as they simply do not look the part, and the wheels are too big. if you design your own, you can make one suitable for -your- engine. Dan The Man (DLRDan) has done at least two Mamod tenders - one open, for his red 'Robin' and then he also built the kit for the Blanche-style tendercab that my own 'Swordbreaker' now possesses. I will happily post photos tonight.

My suggestion would be to scour narrow gauge prototypes - afterall, what would you like?

dougrail:65454 wrote: one open, for his red 'Robin'

Which originally was a similar appearance to your one Doug if I remember correctly....

Click to enlarge.

This is from the book of Manchester's Narrow Gauge Railways published by the N.G.R.S. Look good behind a Mamod?

The tender is huge compared to the loco but can be improved with a false flat part with a tank top covering the rear quater and then a layer of coal for most of the remaining 3/4s. that should make it more realistic.

I like the tender as its only about 3/4 the length of the loco... its the height that makes it look huge... I think a "water tank" and coal is the best idea so far... I'm guessing it won't look too bad after some foot steps and lamp brackets are put on it.. along with a centre buffer and narrow gauge style bufferbeam... Might look a tad standard gauge though...

I did have a ponder about the half cab idea so yes please Doug would love to see the pics of your one!

In my humble opinion, the tender is simply too big. It's based on a standard Mamod wagon chassis for starters - and is too tall. You can add the coal and water tank, a major improvement aye, but the general shape will still be affected.

DolLR - Yes, Nova's tender no.1 [as bought] :

was also based on a Mamod chassis - but the ends had been shorn off and the frames modified in order to accomodate coupling. However, the manufacturer is unknown - likely Nova's old master. Dan The Man's was made by himself and used BB wheelsets as well as solid-wall frames, on Robin.

Right Laurence, of course y'can see the tender cab [tender no.3!] on Swordbreaker - right here
http://gardenrails.myfreeforum.org/ftop ... asc-30.php

Very nice! I do like the short tender on it, but I defiantly want it to be open cabbed so I can watch the water... I'm thinking something along the lines of FfR Prince's tender... but I'll stick with the Mss tender for the time being... Lack of funds

Laurence - the black engine as per my photo was open cabbed and open tender - the 'wall' was a standard Mamod cabback resting on the dragbeam

As for an FfR tender, sounds a plan. You could use the MSS one either as financial weight (sell it, get £ to pay for better tender) or use the MSS and butcher it if you can do metalwork?

Or... I could butcher the tender into a wagon... I can do metalwork I have a few qualifications in it but I have no access to any lathes or machines... I have access to a vice, hacksaws and a good amount of files and a pillar drill...

Any one know of a FfR prince style tender kit? or if worst comes to worst I'll put it back to tank loco mode and make up a bunker

You could try asking Slaters. They do a Prince kit and may offer to do a tender only kit if you ask nice

you could also design your tender to your exact desire, supply the wheels and axleboxes (Brandbright?) and send the plans off to a forumite like I did.

You can make a MSS tender look like this with a bit of effort:

Very nice work!

Superbiker_uk:65511 wrote:You can make a MSS tender look like this with a bit of effort:

I Like... I like a lot! Any chance of a side on shot to see how it looks behind the loco proportions wise?

I Like... I like a lot! Any chance of a side on shot to see how it looks behind the loco proportions wise?

Here you go!

Lovely photos. Still working towards this standard of loco.

Very nice! Thanks for putting them up... I've now made up my mind on what to do with it and it'll probably look something a bit like what you've done there!

Excellent!

I'm currently considering all the options for fitting a dome on the replacement boiler, just wondering how you've gone about it?