Based on an extensive collection of worthless information that resides in my fat head (I'm quite popular at morning tea for the daily newspaper quiz), I have discovered that the Atlas GP XX bogies have the correct wheelbase (17mm). On top of this all the gear meshing is done for us. The photo does not convey this very well due to parallax issues. You will just have to trust me its right.
The wheels at 6mm are a wee bit on the small size. However, a simple swap with SD-70 wheels (I think they are from Kato) and it looks a bit better. I've also removed part of the bogie side frames while keeping enough to hold everything together
OK its not quite that simple. You have to swap the 1/2 wheel sets on the gear muffs as the gears are offset on the Atlas drive. I also purchased some worm drives. I'll knock the shaft outs and mount it directly on the motor. The invoice tells me that the princely sum for this so far is $7.20 US (not counting the optional SD-70 wheels)
So, how does it fit onto the top?
OK, so at the moment the wheels are a bit wide and outside the inner side of the cylinders. For some odd reason I'm not overly bothered about this at the moment. Maybe my inner finescaler has decided to cut his losses on this project already. The frames will be plasticard. I'll find a spoked wheel from somewhere (I wonder if Trackgang sells them?) for the trailing axle. And what about a motor?
In the boxes from Long ago, I found what I recall to be an open frame lashima 916. There are a few motors that seem to all be the same size made by other people as well.
Comparing the motor to the plan, it was obvious that it would not fit in the side tanks, however if I cut some unnecessary plastic I could angle it slightly and it would fit nicely
The worm gear was hammered of the axle it came on (very delicately you understand) and then pushed back on. I also cut the back drive shaft off so that it would not intrude into the cab.
If I was planning ahead I would go for a Nigel Lawson 8mm can motor instead, as this would fit.
On to the top and some alterations were then made based on discussions with the peanut gallery. I added larger air tanks. The ones on the model just felt a bit small. Increasing to 2.5mm gave a better 'heft'. I've also removed the roof hatch and replaced it with part of an etched ladder, to which I'll add a lid. I have had a go at cutting the hole in the roof under the hatch, but this has been less than successful so far. I need to find a tube with a diameter of 3.5mm for the tank filler hatches.
And during a fact finding trip last weekend to get more detail photos....
3 comments:
Now this is a good idea, since they will be linked together by 4-5ish cars, perhaps running 2 cores between the 2-3 locos to ensure smooth pickup.
I can't see an easy way of making this work. Actually, no maybe I can.....
The Graham Farish driving wheels are certainly way too big at around 9mm diameter rather than the 6.8mm diameter they should be at 1:120. But the axle spacing is fairly close to what it should be and the driving wheels are covered by frames and side rods making their diameter invisible to viewers.
Could you use a Graham Farish mechanism, hide the driving wheels behind some added frames and mock running gear (MMW etch?), and just remove the rear wheelset and axle and replace it with a non-powered trailing wheelset just like the prototype?
The main things wrong would be that it had an electric motor rather than live steam......don't tell us, that's what you're designing...
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