To compensate or not?

The biggest decision of the J72 build was whether I should fit the chassis with compensation. 

A relatively long wheelbase 0-6-0 is rarely going to find all 6 wheels touching the rails. Ideally, at least 4 of them will enjoy vertical movement for improved trackholding and electric pickup. 

All this comes at a cost. You've to cut the chassis to fit hornblocks and some sort of equalising beam. 

Alan would have fitted compensation, all the bits are in the box. 

I've decided not to. 

Why? Well, I like to keep things simple. This is my first chassis for years. The only locos I routinely compensated were in 3mm scale and to be honest, I didn't enjoy the work. I only did it because there was no other way of keeping the stupid fine-scale wheels on the track. 

This loco uses Romfords. Wheels with proper flanges. 

And I'm doing this for fun. Yes, fun. Therefore I'm not going to make the job harder just for the sake of it. I'm sure the model will work. I don't actually have a layout in mind for it anyway. Nor do I have lots of spare time to faff with all the extra slidy bits. 

Sorry Alan.