This entry will be of interest to those changing the chassis on the Nu cast steam railmotor. I guess that won't be hundreds of you!

As I model in EM the chassis provided with the kit was not really suitable, it's a large lump of white metal with little detail and no provision for springing or compensation. The only chassis that I can find for the railmotor is the one produced by Alan Gibson in etched brass. Having aquired this I made it up in the usual way with EM frame spacers with one axle sprung. The first real hurdle to overcome is fitting this to the body. The Nu Cast kit has the powered bogie supporting the body by means of a pillar on the bogie rotating around a hole near the roof. To avoid the bogie dropping out two "ears" project at either end and these locate above the body floor which has an arc at both front and rear of the opening. To withdraw the bogie there is a gap in the arc in one corner of the front (the cab end) enabling the "ear" to be dropped in or out. I hope the photo of the body makes this clear.

The first job was to replicate the pillar that located in the prominent hole near the roof. Some stout brass rod I found in my scrap metal ice cream tub did the trick and I made this up into a squarish frame. Unlike the NU Cast version the frame means a large motor can be accommodated as it can pass through. I then soldered a piece of brass with an 8BA nut soldered to it to the frame. An 8BA screw head fitted neatly into the pivot hole in the chassis and this was screwed into the nut on the frame. I did solder a washer underneath the screw head to avoid the head passing right the way through the pivot hole. I fitted some old wheels of the correct size and by adjusting the screw was able to get the body to sit at the correct height. My usual method is to put the body on level track and using a wagon check how the buffers line up at each end.

The next step was to replicate the "ears" and the same piece of brass rod came in handy for this. I used a slitting disc to cut a slot down the piece of rod so the slot fitted over the frame spacers. Yes that called for a steady hand but it was then much simpler to fix it to the frame spacer.

The front "ear" in particular called for some care as there was only a narrow ledge that held the bogie in place and I did have to scrap my first attempt as I overcorrected when I cut off too much of the rod. the next one fitted fine though and the power bogie fits without too much play but still pivots easily.

The photos of the body, chassis and the completed ensmble are attached. One job I could do is to solder some double sided PCB sleepers to the frame for the pick ups. My preference is always to have the pick ups inside the body and out of site and there is plenty of room to do this.

The next job is to replicate some of the detail on the chassis. There were various springs etc between the wheels and I'm thinking of soldering these to some thin brass sheet on which I can also emboss rivet detail and Aralditing this to the chassis. That's for another day though, Still I'm glad I got the first stage done, I did think it might be difficult but after giving it some thought it didn't turn out too bad.