165DS wheeled up

Returning to the Ruston 165DS, it was time to fit the wheels. As mentioned earlier, I've had to eshew Romfords for Gibson wheels to get an appropriate size for the prototype. These have to be quartered and pressed on to the axle. And once they are on, they are on.

Anyway, I started by fitting the bolts that act as crank pins, remembering to countersink the back of the wheel so the cheese head sits flush. Then I dug out the GW Models quartering jig, only to discover it doesn't work for anything with this small a throw. Great.

Still, I pressed on. Literally in this case. The unpowered axle went first. Inside each wheel a little superglue (never, ever, use Loctite on Sharmans) and the wheels were roughly pushed on. Then the assembly was placed in a vice and this was gradually tightened to act as a press. This has the benefit of applying slow and controlled pressure and keeps the wheels square to the axle. Quartering doesn't matter too much at this point, as long as it looks OK, it's fine. The other pair of wheels just has to match.

The powered set was done next in the same way. As it happens, I managed to get the quartering spot on first time. I think this is something to do with the crank pins having to be on different 90 degree faces on the vice with the axle in the corner. Something like that anyway. I don't care, it works.

Rotating the wheels by hand, everything moved OK so the brass final gear was glued by running superglue around the axle/gear join. This was left to dry and power gently applied. It works. In fact it works very well. I think I need a lie down now.