In HO, no one can hear you scream

Cut out
Originally uploaded by Phil_Parker.

Thanks to a cock-up in the supply of gearsets, I find myself fitting a tiny gearbox into the HO Barclay. The ‘box took a fair bit of fettling, much more than is normal with these things, but I made it work OK.

Then I had to fit it in the chassis and a problem appeared. The motor was too chubby for the frames. If I’d been working in P4 there wouldn’t have been a problem this is a 3.5mm loco. A taller gearbox would also solve the problem but there wasn’t one handy.

Out came the tin snips and with a little fiddling I think I made quite a nice job. The cut outs look worse than they are as with the motor painted black you won’t really see anything under the footplate.

With the motor & gears fitted the loco ran very sweetly. Putting the rods on cured this but only after a small amount of bad language and reaming out of holes even this problem was removed.

Then the gears lost mesh. I’d not managed to get them as tight as I should have done. The only solution is to remove the wheels, and gears to adjust or replace the box. I’m not happy.