I was overjoyed a few weeks ago when I managed to get my first kitbuilt chassis to work on my layout. It was a tad noisy and was secured together by tape before I properly put it into position but it was a big step forward. Here is a picture of the chassis.

That was until it tried to negotiate the tight corner on my layout that is like that to allow a turnout to be positioned on the module. At this point it promptly derailed and refused to go any further. I looked at the structure of the chassis and the space inside the railcar and I realised that it would not be possible to produce a solution using this chassis. Therefore, I found my spare Tomix TM 08 chassis and started working on plans to lengthen it. The bogies are shorter and will negotiate tighter bends but it was far too short. Therefore a piece of plasticard was fashioned as the pivot for the bogie and then glued into place. The pickups were resoldered and the cardon shaft was lengthened using styrene tube.

I was quite pleased with the results and it runs quite well. It needs some more weight on the plasticard end but aside from that it runs fine. By doing this it should also be easier to get it chipped for DCC.

In other news I have received a package of 2 new X2800 railcars in kit form. The first of these is a resin mould which I believe is the last ever to be produced from the old Vapeur 70 range. The other is one of the new AIM Trains N' Co kits which is brass and resin. I need to get the instructions translated before I have a go at making it up as there are a few minor issues I need clarifying.

Still, the kit looks great and the picture does not do it justice.

Thanks for reading. If you have any questions or comments then please feel free.

Stephen