Ultrascale drop in wheel sets are simply superb. They make converting loco's to EM gauge an absolute doddle - at least in theory...

Foxhound is one of Bachmann's creations and very nice it looked to, even if it was, to put it bluntly, narrow gauge. However, the loco's transition from OO narrow gauge ugly duckling to EM standard gauge swan was just a matter of throwing an acceptable sum of money at the problem and waiting the required half a lifetime for the wheels to arrive (I freely admit that patience is a virtue I venerate in others...).

Still, the Ultrascale drop in wheel sets eventually arrived and the keeper plates on the bogies removed and the OO wheels thrown across the attic with expressions of disgust and revulsion. The drop in wheel set were, well, dropped in and the keeper plates offered up. At this point the conversion became a little less simple than say the Heljan Hymek Class 35 - a conversion so simple with the Ultrascale drop in wheels that its not even worth writing about, it was over in less than 5 minutes...

Anyway, Foxhound's narrow gauge origins now came to the fore; the nicely moulded brake gear on each side of the bogie was too close together to allow the keeper plate to be pressed home over the EM wheel sets.

So it was out razor saw and off with the brake gear. A piece of 20 thou plasticard was stuck on each side of the bogie and the brak gear and spring unit reattached.

(The plastic spacer can be seen, and Imust remember to refit the last bits of the brake gear...)

With the keeper plates now fitting over the wheels it was a quick test and then detailing, weathering and couplings. It was only after all this was done that a noticed that in the photo I had of Foxhound with 6318, Foxhound a full yellow ends, not the small yellow panels of the model - back to the paint shop we will have to go.