In preparation for starting work on building the new layout's track, I have got on with finishing off another old project

Way back when I lived in Devon and was a regular at DRAG, I was very impressed by a little gadget used to check track condition produced by Masokits.

The idea is that it is a short wheelbase brass unit on two axles, the front one has a simple rocker compensation unit which moves a 'thing' (Masokits words) up or down as it hits discrepancies. This then moves a wire against a scale indicating clearly as to where the problems are.

Having soldered up the parts, it now only needs a bit of tweeking, I had big problems with the bearings. The holes were far too big for the bearings I used (it recommended using Gibson parts, but I only had Maygibs in stock so this could well be my fault...)

There was also a problem that with the fitted spacers, the flange on the bearing fouled the wheels. As a result I flooded the gap around the edge of the bearing with solder, and then filed off the flange.

This has resulted in a little miss alignment of the "thing", (as can be seen in the below photo) which greatly exaggerates the position of the wire. It will now be a simple case of adjusting the wire to compensate for it

This and a Heljan class 33 will then be used to test track as soon as the glue drys, enabling any potential issues to be resolved before ballasting etc.