What else is on the workbench.

Well, a bit of a gap. A long holiday weekend will do that for you.

so, whats on my workbench at the moment. A moment of insanity on Trademe left me lining the pockets of a fellow NZ120er, but with a prize of sorts. I've always wanted to have a look at the Bachmann 4-8-2 light mountain, but never really had the chance. well, now I have my grubby little hands on one. So whats the report like. The wheels are a bit on the small side, scaling out at a little over 48" vs the 54' that we want ( so only 1.25mm out). However they do appear quite obviously small. The coupled wheelbase is spot on at about 14'. The lead bogie wheels are 6" too small as well and the wheelbase is too short. And that's as good as it gets at the moment. I don't have a Ja plan handy, and am working of a K plan, and assuming the measurements are about the same. the cylinders are a bit on the small side and a horizontal, while the Ja's are slightly inclined. However, as I've decided against major surgery ( it always goes wrong for me and I have the carcases to prove it) then they will stay. The performance is very nice. Very good at slow speed. The pickup is not that crash hot without the tender (which will need replacing) so I'll have to sort out how to get a good low friction current collect for it. The front bogie will need a cosmetic outside frame to make it look right without impeding anything. so a bit of a longer term project, but I'm not in a flying rush to get everything built (there's work to think of as well). And I'm not sure how easy it will be to convert into a K series loco as I had originally intended, as it will need a whole new trailing truck.

(And sorry about the crap photo, but by the time I realised the old top was not going back on that well)

That's all for now, but I'm planning on getting back to some of the suggestions for posts in the not too distant future.