F72

Some pictures on this page are pre-digital camera days!

F72; She was built in 1874 by Yorkshire Engine Company Ltd, England. It entered service in 1875 & was written off NZR books in 1953, then it was bought by Canterbury Frozen Meat Co Ltd, Pareora where it worked shunting at there freezing works until 1959 when she was scrapped!! Above; F72 sitting outside her shed at CFM Pareora.

   Building F72

F72 entered service in 2002 on AFR & was built on a Bachmann 2-4-2 "Lyn" Spectrum chassis heavily modified to an 0-6-0 arrangement which gave ok running until in May of 2010 the Bachmann chassis finally gave up so it is now running on a AFR Workshops chassis, this loco now takes the honor of being the 1st loco to be entirely built from scratch!! Details of the chassis work can be found here From the Workshop . 

As this is another pre-digital camera loco there are not to many pics of the construction, so here we go! I decided to model an older looking version of the F class with the pre-electric light & tube cow-catchers so it may vary from proto-type pictures. 

Above Left; F72 in its early stages, the cab was constructed with styrene. The tank was made from mild steel rod to form the bottom of the tank & 20mm flat at the top so all the wait is over the drivers, styrene ribs were cut to the shape of the tank & covered with a very thin styrene. The tank was then turned over & filled with resin to fill the gaps so I had something to rivet into. Boiler & smoke-box is from exhaust tubing ( you may notice a lack of plastic tube or pipe being used, thats because I was working as a general engineer at the time of building), the rivet detail is the standard dress making pins & the smoke-box door is the bottom of a soft drink can. Above Right; A finished cow-catcher entirely made from styrene strip.

Above Left; The westinghouse pump & air cylinders are finished, ready to be fitted these were plastic knitting needles (always think outside the square!), the pump alone had 14 pieces. Above Right; Straight out of the paint shop the tank is finished! The filler top & whistle are again the ole knitting needles with the dome a piece of old nylon that was laying around.

Above Left; Detail has been added then painted, the cab roof also added & riveted ready for painting. Funnel was made from nylon where everything else is styrene. Above Right; Back view with cab steps seen, I used Tenmille chopper couplings with the square heads cut into rounds. Below; The last shot of construction I could find, a closer view before tank being fitted then everything being fitted to the chassis.

I only wish I had taken more pictures at the different stages of construction of this loco but I am not ruling out building a later version of this wonderful looking locomotive class!! Below Left; The final result with new chassis. Below Right; F72 has recently received a battery conversion here she is seen here with her La wagon full of power!!