What with C13 chassis and this etching drawings thing, I’ve been flitting between workshop and computer room like a (blue something) flea.

First let me tell about the drawings-for-etching saga.

Regular visitors to this blog, -(which is supposed to be about building a very light-weight, portable, EM layout, but which rarely seems to mention that project!) – will be aware that I like my rolling stock to have sprung suspension.

They’ll also be aware that I have religiously used the Bill Bedford sprung ‘W’ irons on my own design of central spine. The central spine idea was pinched from Masokits sprung wagon chassis kits. I thought that Mr Bedford’s spring system was simpler than Masokits’, but their central spine system ensured that the axles always ended up correctly positioned while that feature was left to the builder’s skill with Bill’s units.

This caused me to make a central spine jig to cover 8’ to 12’ w/base chassis. With this made I was not faced with marking out brass/nickel-silver sheet each time I built a wagon, and accuracy was built in via the jig rather than my having to use my limited skills each time I made an under-frame. Then Bill changed his design of ‘w’ iron; - he lost a hole that my jig relied on, causing me to make another jig for his ‘w’ irons, so as to drill the missing hole. Then he upped and past on the retail of his ‘w’ irons to a third party!

My drawing-for-etching tutor mildly ticked me off for trying to design an etched loco kit – said something about running before I could walk, - and told me to try something more simple for my first attempt.

If you now consider the content of the last three paragraphs you can easily see why my mind turned from loco bodies to wagon chassis. In these last blog-silent weeks the majority of my modelling has been at the laptop, but the end result has just been delivered – 16 etches, each of which will make up into either a 9’ or a 10’ RCH chassis with axle parallelism guaranteed. To fill all available space, each etch also has several spare wagon bits like brake handles, draw hooks and ‘V’s.

I have no intention of becoming a trader – NO WAY!!! – But friends may be allowed an etch or so at cost. The project has been rather more of a mental exercise than a practical one but the pleasure of ‘I did that’ has been at least the equivalent of completing a scratch-built loco.

I have not yet made up a chassis but the etches all look OK. The top right of this pic seems to indicate that I may have got the safety hoops wrong, - scale size and therefore too fragile for working models (??!!). Those are belonging to the ten-foot w/base brakes. To the left is the nine-foot version and there, my ham-fisted handling has not affected the safety loops.

My experience with bearing carriers, - tiny, fragile parts that need three carefully adjusted bends, - made me include two spares which are accommodated in what would otherwise have been scrap. Past experience of broken bits of plastic kit-built wagons caused me to fill the bottom corner with useful wagon bits. This too would have been scrap metal.

In and between sessions at the computer I have been juggling the C13 chassis, and have them both rolling nicely as 0-6-0s or as 0-4-2’s if you prefer, – you need to remember that the trailing axle is not a pony truck version for my models. Currently the leading bogie trucks are not behaving as well as I expect and will have to get a good talking to!

Also my J10 has slipped a driving wheel and is therefore limping along with un-quartered wheels, not usually much of a problem but it looks as though the movement is not the wheel to axle but more likely to be axle stub to axle centre section (split-axles of course). As it’s on the gearbox axle the repair involves a total strip-down, and is going to be fairly long winded.

I’m faced with the frustration of three limping locos and getting them all set-up correctly.

Such an enjoyable hobby! Good luck with your bit of it.

Dave