Stuart Firth
Hi Mark – I can’t speak for this specific kit, but cast kits are usually buildable in EM. The more enlightened ones will even have EM frame spacers but the Wills kit maybe not. I would recommend Iain Rice’s books on White Metal Loco’s and locomotive kit chassis construction to help with this. The wheels you mention are likely older Romfords. These have a square ended axle and a brass nut that tightens the wheels onto the axles. These wheels are now made by Markits and are now somewhat finer but there’s no reason why you couldn’t use the older ones with new EM axles, available direct from Markits, although Scalelink also sell them and are easier to deal with. Wheels are also available from Alan Gibson, and look even better but require more care setting up.
The kit to convert the Hornby loco – is that a replacement wheelset? It probably has axles of a diameter to match the Hornby loco, a metric size, so would not be compatible with the kit building scene where the standard axle is 1/8″.
If you post pictures of your progress there will be help available on the forum if you need it !