Thursday, October 06, 2011

The C15 takes to the layout

Loco at Leith

I don't have an O gauge model railway layout. Once upon a time I planned to build one but it got as far as baseboards and then stopped. While this isn't a problem most of the time, when I have a 7mm scale locomotive to test, I don't have anywhere to do this.

Not to worry, the guy I'm building the C15 for only lives 12 miles away. Or 19 if I get lost on the country lanes.

So, off I toddle to try the loco on Leith. I've seen the layout before. It's U-shaped around three sides of a small room. As befits a station, there is quite a bit of pointwork to tangle with and since the room is small, the curve at the end is tight. Tighter than the loco could deal with as it turns out. This thing has a long wheelbase and while I allowed enough swing at the front, the fake radial truck at the back can't move enough and keeps flopping off the track.

Less of a worry is that I've wired up the model back to front. It's too light too, some serious lead in the tanks looks like a good plan. And I've got to fit it with Kadee couplings, which will be interesting.

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