I've struck a bit of a dilemma, well I realised it a few years back and have contemplated different scenarios but done nothing about it........till now.

I've finally got round to deciding what route to take with my GF Sealion YGH wagons. As EVERYONE and his dog knows not too long ago these were commanding serious coin to purchase, I know I paid a hell of a lot for my 20, but as they are Olive Green and have TOPS code along with plenty of other detail on their sides I'm not 100% sure I can run them through our 'Summer of 62' layout.

I have debated just weathering them and running them, adapting them slightly (as long as not too much hacking about is recommended) or selling all of them and buying 20 NGS kit 11 and adapting them to suit the look of a Walrus.

I'm not too keen on painting the Sealions black to make them look better because I do think selling them for others to appreciate the wealth of detail on the sides would be more beneficial.

I'm not too sure theres massive structural differences between the two types and pretty confident IF I was to sell the Sealions I'd be inundated with requests to buy such.

The last time I saw James Street layout at TINGS i noticed they were running 3 or 4 so I pacified my concerns with the
"Well they wouldnt run anything too far out of prototypical running"

So help, advice and suggestions please, as yet they arent for sale but that MAY change if I can justify it

Hi

I'm glad you thought that we wouldn't run anything too out of prototype on James Street! We do try but it's wagons like the Walrus that are missing from our chosen era so the Sealion is a sort of acceptable substitute. I've just bought 3 NGS Seacows to retro convert to Walruses (or an approximation of such) but haven't had time to get to them yet due to house moving and building a new room to fit the layout in. I can't believe someone hasn't done the same conversion before? I had made a few of the old etched brass kits but they were quite complicated compared to plastic, which I prefer.

I'm not sure what I'd do in your shoes. I'd either sell them and take in some cash to get something more accurate later, or repaint them black and reletter them as Walruses......

Dave

Thanks Dave @Southerngooner I've managed to steer away or justify not doing it till now because the NGS never had enough stock of Kit 11 to do it.

Out of interest and potentially a project what has to be done to the kit to make them more Walrus like??? I have Southern Wagon in detail books which feature the Walrus but dont have any information relating to the Sealion and what needs or could be changed.

As for not running the right stock Martyn always has a wealth of knowledge of steam stock so dont believe he or the rest of you would just accept something to run, the reason it sticks in my memory was 2019 (when we were allowed to go to shows) I was still wanting 3 Sealions to hit the magical 20 and you were running a rake of 3 around at the time!

I wonder what point the cost of making a rake of them makes it worth commissioning someone like @Carlw to design and print them in 3D?

It seems to be possible:
https://sremg.org.uk/model/lima-sea-to-40t-hop.html

I haven't read it yet but this is a very detailed article.
Edit: at least the Farish model is the riveted version, same as the Lima.

Jan

Don't blame me-I wasn't at TINGS, and they're Nigel's anyway! 

More seriously, there are differences, but for myself, I was prepared to allow for them, and the anachronism, as having built a Society brass kit, I didn't want to do that again.

They are such good models that, for me, they looked nearly enough the same at normal viewing distance, and so I bought a pair.

I would imagine, though, for yourself they would need replacing.

Dave has six Walrus kits lost somewhere in the French postal system between my local Post Office and his former house in France for over a year now.

Martyn

Craig, leave your GF models mint and sell. Invest some of the proceeds in NGS kits and the surplus on a couple or three new locos.

I actually bought a couple of the NGS kits recently when they came in stock with a view to converting to walruses and are now sat on my workbench.

I can't see too many fundamental differences that would prove difficult.

The only real one visible at N Gauge I can see from comparing photos is the different bogie types.

I would certainly be interested in seeing how you get on with either route you take!

After tearing the dimensions of a Walrus apart and comparing them with the Sealion theres less then 2mm difference.

As Dalteth says, the bogies are the biggest difference being SR Y type on the Walrus.

I dont know if these are readily available but one thing that concerns me is if they have to be 3d printed would the restrictions of material thickness create a noticeable difference?

The biggest difference is that the sealion runs both vacuum and air brakes where as the walrus just runs vacuum so it's a case of working out which bits to cut off.

A few bits to work out and decide what way to go .........

Hi

If you haven't looked the NGS do what appear to be the right bogies for the Walrus
https://www.ngsjoin.com/5ft-6in-plateback-bogies-ngsb0004-906-p.asp

It would also appear that the end platforms are shorter on the Walrus but the actual hopper is the same length.

Cheers

Paul

It's hard to tell from the pictures on the NGS page but I'm not sure they look very different to the Sealion ones,

The original LSWR/SR bogies were



Particularly spindly types and my concern with potentially changing the Sealion ones for an N gauge version of these might not be noticeable enough to warrant doing it?

End platforms are a foot narrower on a Walrus to a sealion

Hi

Depends on what period but these would match the drawing posted
https://www.ngsjoin.com/5ft-6in-lmsbr-diamond-frame-bogies-ngsb0009-909-p.asp

This is the photo I looked at for the previous bogie link I posted
https://paulbartlett.zenfolio.com/brwalrusygv/e2ef3c667

Cheers

Paul

just take your specs off and view from a normal distance.

I've got my ruler and an unbuilt Seacow out and the differences from the drawing above appear to all be cosmetic. The overall length of the body itself (minus end platforms) is spot on, the end platforms seem to be the right length too, so for me the only big changes are as I thought only cosmetic. The side stiffeners are channels not solid on the Walrus, and the top stiffener along the sides is much thinner, so nothing much to do there really. The details on the ends vary a bit but that again should be easy to tweak, and the bogies need swapping for the NGS ones mentioned above, which I already knew I'd have to do.

Should be an easy project when I get round to it....


Dave

Hi

Well, I've found time to start on the Seacow to Walrus conversion and it's not going too bad.....





I filed off the top box section on both sides and used my Olfa cutter to scribe a line down each of the vertical box sections to make them more like the steel channels of the Walrus. As you can see this didn't always go well and I may fill some of these and try again.... I then added a strip of 10 x 20 thou plasticard to represent the top steel section. It's not perfect but from normal viewing distances I think it'll be OK. The bogies have been replaced by more appropriate ones from the NGS shop, and the gaps in the chutes which don't appear to be there on the Walrus have been covered up by another bit of 5 thou plasticard. I'm on the etched brass bits on the ends now and progress willl slow up as these a bit fiddly, plus there are differences between the two that I need to fully understand. One is that the air reservoir on the Seacow is held on two small bits of the etch close to the top of the supports while the Walrus has a large tank sat on the platform. It all needs a good clean up and a primer coat to see what more needs to be done before final detailing.

This is the first of three, and I hope to use the experiences from the first one to make these a little better. Add these to my four Dogfish, a Shark and a Queen Mary brake ans I think I've got a nice little ballast train.

Dave