The scary part of the Hudson Hunslet kit for me is building the chassis. For the most part I've used commercial chassis under my locos in 009, and the two previous 014 locos I have built have had pre-assembled chassis blocks requiring very little work. The chassis in this kit though comes... well, flat packed!
The etched Nickel Silver parts assembled reasonably easily, and soldered together as square as I could (using the inside of a square). The sand-pipes were somewhat fiddly, and I think they are a bit short, but eventually I got them all soldered in place. So far so good!
The etched Nickel Silver parts assembled reasonably easily, and soldered together as square as I could (using the inside of a square). The sand-pipes were somewhat fiddly, and I think they are a bit short, but eventually I got them all soldered in place. So far so good!
At this stage I masked the bearings and applied a little primer to any parts that might be visible later. The instructions suggest the brake-gear could be made removable, which I thought was a good idea as it makes painting easier, and avoids soldering to a completed chassis. Soldering the nice brake-shoe castings to pieces of wire was fun.
The next stage was assembling the wheels and gears. The idler gears are held in place by small brass collars which need super-gluing to the shafts, as the instructions say "do not allow the glue to wick along to the gear"! After a nerve-racking few moments, somehow they all still rotate. The axles need pushing through the wheels and drive gear while being passed through the chassis frames - yet another tricky job! I used small pieces of lead as packing while tapping the axle through. I have to admit the wheels are not entirely perpendicular to the axles though.
Having achieved a rolling chassis it was time to attach the pick-ups. As with the O&K I decided to substitute the wire provided for phospher bronze-strip, this meant attaching the small pieces of PCB to the chassis side rather than on top of the sand pipe bracket as instructed, but that was easy enough. Finally the motor is attached and wired to the pick-ups.
Having achieved a rolling chassis it was time to attach the pick-ups. As with the O&K I decided to substitute the wire provided for phospher bronze-strip, this meant attaching the small pieces of PCB to the chassis side rather than on top of the sand pipe bracket as instructed, but that was easy enough. Finally the motor is attached and wired to the pick-ups.
To my amazement the chassis not only works, but runs smoothly and sweetly! The gears will get a drop of oil in due course, and of course the body weight will help, but even without that performance is good. The photo below shows the brake gear loosely fitted, after painting a drop of epoxy inside the frames will secure them.
So, really scary bit completed, and I think I can call it a success!
Congrats dude - I'm terrified of fold up chassis kits, already murdered one! Looking good so far, looking forward to seeing how the layout develops.
ReplyDeleteLooks good. Good to be able to follow your build. I'm warming up to build the Hesketh O&K MD2 and like to see how otters go about folding and soldering a frame and fitting gears and wheels.
ReplyDeleteI'm looking forward to your next post.
Best regards
Claus