Reply To: Y6 Tram Chassis

[Paul Tomlinson]

On Paul Tomlinson said

I was at Scalefour Crewe today, and among other things bought some High Level hornblocks and CSB tags. I fancy giving them a go as I think I’m making the job more difficult than it need be… anyway, I’ll have a play and post when I’ve made some progress…

Hi Paul,

I can understand that feeling of making things more difficult than it need be…

I’m currently coming to the end of a long build (stop-start, rather than anything else) of a GER T26 locomotive.  That’s an E4, for LNER and BR types.  It’s from an Alan Gibson etched kit.  The kit shows its age in many ways, but it doesn’t stop it being the basis of a good model if you correct some of the more obvious errors.

In my case, I am backdating it to 1910 condition as well, so some of the extra work is entirely of my own doing.

Anyway, when it came to the tender chassis, I decided to reduce the stockpile of ageing bits in my Cupboard of Shame, and repurpose some old Perseverance hornblocks and bearings with spare handrail knobs to make improvised versions of the High Level parts:

Unfortunately, after a couple of evenings of fussing, slipped drills, soldering misalignments, and much swearing, I had a set that were complete, but nothing like as good as a set of High Level ones that I could have put together easily in 30 minutes…

So in short, don’t mess about with bodging, use the right tool for the right job…

Best,

Paul

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