Saturday, March 21, 2009

Motor in chassis


Motor in chassis
Originally uploaded by Phil_Parker
Since the model is supposed to work I decided that I'd better work out a way of cramming a motor into this tiny steam locomotive. A Mashima is supplied but when I tried it in the chassis it turned out to be too tubby to fit between the frames. In some locos this wouldn't be a problem, either you trim a little of the frames or better still, fit a two-stage gearbox to raise it up above them. With such a tiny model neither looked that promising - motors appearing in cabs are bad enough, poking out of the top of the tank is definitely a no-no !

Rooting around in my stock of bits I found a smaller motor (1015 I think) which seems much more appropriate. A quick look with it sat on the plan seemed to indicate that I could mount it vertically to be as hidden as possible. Best of all it had the same shaft as it's corpulent cousin so the gears and box could still be used.

With the 'box made up and fitted in place another check with the plan showed my initial impression was correct. The saddle tank fitted and with the correct gap between footplate and tank bottom there even appears to be a little space above the cut-off shaft.

Talking of the footplate, this is another part that has been slimmed down. 2 millimetres along the centre line. The body retaining nuts and buffer beams strengthen this up. I supposed it might have been better to make a new piece up here but I enjoy the challenge of re-working the kit parts.

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