I’m back to virtually re-making this chassis. The wheels have been on-and-off their axles far too frequently for their good grip; nearly all the crank pins have been unseated; the wheel shifting has affected the electrical continuity between wheel rims and the stub axles; …..in fact throwing all in the bin and starting from scratch again would be easier.

Of course, three total lock-ups of a working chassis should really be expected to produce a good amount of peripheral damage, and it certainly has. Inspection of the wheels aided by a 5X eye loupe showed a split on the circumference of the crank pin hole of one wheel and it was then obvious why that crank pin wanted to jump out at any opportunity! Worse still was that one of the close-by spokes was also somewhat wonky. I needed a replacement wheel.

First thought was to make one, until I remembered why I had purchased plastic centred wheels when I first started to build this model. I was working on an LMS design & I have no knowledge or library of their locos so I had ‘phoned Alan Gibson and ordered a “set of 8F wheels please Alan; no axles, no crank pins, just a set of wheels”. Alan understands my individual approach to scratch building, or in this case, messing kits about to suit my needs.

So too does Colin, (the present proprietor). So I phoned him and asked for one wheel for an 8F. Actually I had to leave a message because he was away on his stand at Expo EM. That meant a delay and my silly streak of determination therefore led to me working on a suitable repair to the broken wheel. Araldite, fuse wire and plastic padding, plus some unusual language, (I think it’s Russian that I start speaking when faced by trial and tribulation, or hammered thumb!), resulted in an acceptable repair that can be disguised by an excess of gunge on a hard working loco.

The need to allow time for various mixtures of chemicals to cure and the need for a short rest from this apparently endless frustration had me looking in my “For Repair” box. I came across a couple of 2/- Airfix cattle wagons which had been built to OO before some of you were born, and decided to look at putting the bodies on modern, sprung underframes using my recently drawn & and etched wagon underframe “kit”. (See earlier posts.).

This has resulted in a toing-&-frowing between the O6 and the cattle vans.

My new Taig milling machine came into use with the latter because my wagon underframe gubbins needs a flat floor and the Airfix wagons have much of the underframe woodwork represented. My first intention was simply to mill away such protroudances but it proved to need much less skill to use the cutter to remove the centre of the floor, leaving a lip all way round the edges. Even then I was over-enthusiastic and almost milled away all the floor on one of them.

I need a central screw fixing for my underframe unit & for these two wagons this is provided by a central 8BA hole tapped into a 24mm length of 1/2” x 1/32” BMS araldited inside the body:-

The brass bit is packing to temporarily replace some more excesses of milling – went too far in thinning the solebar! The steel bit is clamping the central screw-fixing steel strap.

And that steel strap is faced with 0.040” plasticard to give a fixing seat flush with the floor.

At present they look like this:

Oh! Colin (nee Gibson) did return my call and is sending me a new wheel free of charge. Nice man. Still I did order wheels to convert two Hornby, LNER L1s and a Bachmann J11, plus 20 axles of split-spoke wagon wheels which left little change from a century.

What a frustrating and costly hobby; - think I’ll take up telly watching!!!!!!!!!

Good luck,

Dave