Booklet on Building a Locomotive Chassis in 12mm gauge from the 3mm Society

[Ravenser]

The 3mm Society has recently distributed to its members a heavily illustrated 24 page booklet on building an 0-6-0 chassis to 12mm. This has been puit together by John Sutton, the long-standing editor of the Society's magazine - and also a very accomplished modeller of many years experience , working in 12mm gauge , who has built a lot of locos.

 

Although the step by step guide assumes the use of etched sideframes which are not yet available for TT120, scratchbuilding your own sideframes is a well known process and only adds one step, and a number of the photos in fact show scratchbuilt chassis. Otherwise a 12mm gauge chassis is a 12mm gauge chassis.... If you can fit the mechanism in a small 3mm scale tank engine , you can fit it in a medium-sized TT120 tank engine.

 

Therefore this booklet is a valuable resource for anyone interested in TT120 who is bold enough to consider building their own chassis, perhaps to fit under a Lincoln Locos body. Building a 12mm gauge chassis is not a wild leap into the dark - it can be done, it has been done regularly for many years and there is a substantial body of knowledge, components, techniques and support for doing it. It is worth mentioning that wheels for the 3mm Society's 12mm Intermediate standard appear to be fully compatible with NEM TT standards , albeit with a somewhat shallower flange than Hornby are using

 

I suspect that the booklet will be made available to anyone joining the 3mm Society