Entry posted by Matloughe
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Hello & Welcome,
Today's entry is something a little different, still keeping with the theme of myself using me inexperience to bumble through making kits much to your amusement. However today we shall be swapping the comfortable world of Stephensons Gauge and working on something a little slimmer. Yes today Is my introduction to O14 scale; and the starter kit from KBscale. I should point out here and now I have nothing to do with KBscale - aside from being a satisfied customer. The story starts when I found £25 in an old jacket I was packing away - clearly left over from some forgotten night out a long time ago. So I decided to spend it on something I have always wanted to do and after some research on the Narrow Gauge comparing options I was torn between O-16.5 or O14. Now a long time ago I wrote some stories for an English Literature project about a small narrow gauge railway being coaxed along whilst on the edge of oblivion aside from the A* mark I got and the entertainment it is providing my 4 year old cousin at bedtime it sparked an interest - I also live about 15 minutes away from the Lynton & Barnstaple Railway which fascinated me as a child so you can see why I elected for O14.
Now enough rambling, after parting with some of my cash and a few days later (plus a lovely personal email telling me the items had been dispatched) this came through the door:
All looked rather imposing to me; there were several versions of the starter pack I plumped for the £10 version as it gave me two 18' track panels worth of materials, a kit platform wagon to build & run on the newly completed track, and a brass track gauge that has four different uses. There were other cheaper options that had less materials in them as well but I went for this one as it was reasonable in cost and contained useful items likely to retain an interest. Opening the pack we can see what everything boils down to:
The contents all laid out; here we have 4 lengths of rail, 12 sleepers, a packet of pins/spikes, the gauge, the wagon kit, a 'I love O14' badge 
and of course what I referred to quite a lot the Instructions. One very good thing to note is that the track panels illustrated on the instructions are to actual size so you can use them as a template for building the items, photo copies might be a good idea.
Close up
Right on to business, we'll start with the track.
For the purposes of this blog/mini review I should state for the record now my most experience with track work is cutting sleepers off of Peco 00 Gauge track & points to make it all fit together properly in the layout that I wanted and even this was a shock from me after working for many years with Hornby track where nothing like that is required (I've only recently started using flexi-track with my 00 layout Bishops Park).
Right I stated with laying the sleepers at either end and pinning the rail to them lightly - just enough to have 'fixed' points with which to work with. For this project I couldn't find any scraps of wood so I appropriated my stillborn 2011 boxfile for the purpose shoving some scrap cork in the bottom and keeping the retaining wall it is worryingly starting to look a little like a layout is forming.
While I was working early on and to reassure myself I utilised a wheelset from the platform wagon to ensure everything moved smoothly - a little while into the build I changed tacks and decided that I had better use the brass gauge for what it was intended for and this made things much easier as I could hold the rails to the correct gauge prior to pinning them down rather then having to jiggle them around a little to obtain the correct gauge after they have been secured - seems obvious but I like to try several different methods and ascertain which is the best one for continued use. Using a ruler to maintain the correct sleeper spacing and with the much better technique the rest of the sleepers went down nicely.
With the end points fixed it was relatively easy to slide the intermediate sleepers under the rails - in this photo you can see the technique employed - using the middle pins to keep the sleeper in place and the track gauge obviously then secure the outer pins in place and then gently push all four home and tweak the heads so they catch onto the web of the rail and hold it down. Its just like real track laying in miniature - I expect the few profanities uttered by myself would not sound out of place in a track working gang either. As can be seen the sleepers already have holes at the correct gauge each rail has two spikes/pins each side facing opposing directions to try and keep the rail in check and stop it moving. The ruler I was using to line the ends of the sleepers up but gives an idea of the scale of the components used.
The finished product:
Now the second half of my mini blog/review/bumbling about is on the wagon that came with the pack - from what I can tell it is a Hudson platform wagon. And is the most simple kit to build I have come across - a little bit fiddly in one specific place but aside from that very nicely thought out.
This is the components out of the bag, please note that inside the oval frame of the wagon contains the axleboxes and couplings so don't throw these away as you will need them. The wheelsets come with brass cups to put inside the axleboxes and this version is an unbraked plain wagon. Have the items cut from one another:
Its very simple to put together firstly I cleaned the flash off the wagon parts then put the brass top hat bearings into the axleboxes and then using Poly-Cement glued one set of axleboxes to the oval frame of the wagon - simples. Now while this was drying I put the smaller parts together to avoid them getting lost or damaged and after it dried I added more glue into the other side of the frame then the fiddly part of pushing the wheels into the brass bearings and encouraging the second set of axleboxes to adhere to the frame was a feat which a third had is much needed due to the size of the components involved. However after some encouragement, tidying up and setting off of glue I can proudly present the following:
Looks good to me, the retaining wall seems to dwarf it somewhat. What makes it look really small is when you add some standard gauge wagons into the mix:
Keeping in mind this is all 7mm/foot scale the difference is mind boggling. I hope you have enjoyed my blog/mini review I certainly enjoyed building the items; top marks to KBscale for producing a nice simple starter kit for introduction to O14 scale. I suppose I had better get on and lay the second track panel and tell myself that this isn't a layout... its a test... not a layout... a test...
Thank you very much.
~ Gary
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