Parkside Dundas Linda/Blanche rebuild - part 2 stripping it down.

I wanted to strip the loco back down to a kit of parts, not only because the paintwork needed re-doing but also because there wasn't a straight joint anywhere to be found, in fact the loco was banana shaped in plan. I started by trying to remove the chassis, using a screwdriver as a lever to break the glued joints (it was supposed to be screwed together). The loco is built up in two parts, the main body and the front end, including the cylinder assembly, held together by a screw. Or glue in this case;

I levered the cylinder assembly from the chassis, noting that the cylinders were spaced further out with plastic strip and filler to suit the outside frames. Here's the Ibertren chassis stripped out of the loco;

The outside cranks were pulled off the axles. They were made from plastic, and were larger in diameter than the wheels...

I dunked the body and smokebox/cylinder unit in Ever Build Paint Away, which is their equivalent of Nitromors, for 24 hours, which not only removed the paint but also all of the plastic parts and filler and undone all of the glued joints. The cab and saddletank and the front footplate and bufferbeam were soldered together;

So the soldered parts were first placed in an empty baked bean can and covered with boiling water to melt the solder (in the hope that 70 degree whitemetal solder was used). This worked for some of the parts, the front end assembly and the joint between the saddletank and cab front, but the cab itself needed more work. I ended up putting the can, filled with boiling water, in a pan which was also filled with water and put on the boil. It took quite a long time and a lot of wiggling to release the joints, the cab roof and backsheet came away without issue but the cab sides and frontsheet did not want to part easily. This was because a lot of solder was used, and a lot of heat judging by damage around the lower cab front where it meets the floor. It wasn't going to part without damage to the front sheet, so I will either be cutting off the lower half of the cab front and replacing it with a new panel made from styrene sheet or replacing the entire panel. The last joint, where the cab front and left side meet, required the use of a soldering iron which made quite a mess of the already damaged cab front. The top of the left hand cab sheet also shows some damage where the rearmost part has been melted (not by me!). Here's the results;

I might replace the cab floor as well. I've only photographed the castings, there's lots of bits of wire and etched parts (including a pair of nicely etched plates with the number 1 on them) as well that I don't want to lose!

Now that I have a kit of parts I can start planning the rebuild. Which may take some time...

Paul.