Chassis completion

Gearbox
Originally uploaded by Phil_Parker

Hooray for Branchlines ! One phone call and the next day I had a shiny new gearbox suitable for the Barclay locomotive chassis. It's nice to deal with a trader who knows his stuff - you can't just plonk anything you like in a model such as this. The main problem is that the wheels are so small that many final drives are larger than them. We ruled out anything with Romford gears on this basis straight away. A two-stage 'box would have been nice but the space in the saddle tank wouldn't allow this. Finally the width of the frames knocked out one of the other options. So for a tenner I had a little packet with a cradle, bearings and gears.

The 'box was quickly made up and slotted in the chassis but to be honest I still wasn't happy. After an hours tinkering I simply couldn't get things working to my satisfaction. It was no good, I had to take the plunge and start again. Everything that could be unscrewed, was. The slide bars came off to release the cross heads, the cylinders were unsoldered and finally the spacers came off the frames.While there didn't seem to be a problem I discarded the bearings too - if you are going to do a job, do it properly.

Out came the chassis jig and the whole process began again. One change was to use long (high top hat if you prefer) bearings point out at the front end. I could file these back to save using spacer washers. Anything to make reassembly easier !

I honestly can't see what I did differently this time but it must have been something as the MK II chassis was freer than before. OK, so I checked running at every stage but the result is much nicer.

Brakes for this model are a bit of a fudge. I think they are Gibson 03 diesel ones but it's difficult to see in the photos what the differences are and the shoes and hangers certainly look the part. I had to sacrifice the brake roding as it was this or electrical pickups - and I think the later are a bit more important !

Finally, painting. The rods, crossheads and slide bars are all red on the prototype with a bit of black trimming. This looks fine on the model but does gum up some of the joints a touch. Plenty of running in will wear the surfaces just right and a thrash on the rolling road seemed to help. Hopefully the new owner will exercise the model a bit, this is one where running in will pay dividends. I'm sure this won't be a hardship !