Stuart Firth
This model has sat on the bench gathering dust since its return from Alexandra Palace, while I worked on my US layout. However at the weekend I found time to build up the gearbox and get it running. This is a High Level Road Runner + (I think) and went together well, though I do find recently that everything needs to be opened up to get it to fit – the spacer and the worm both needed drilling out 2mm to get them onto their respective shafts, and the final drive gear was reamed 1/8″. The spacer was also a little too long, as with the previous loco, and needed shortening very slightly to allow the intermediate layshaft to spin freely. These things aren’t difficult to do but I have to wonder if they would be challenging to a newcomer, who might, reasonably, expect stuff to just fit. I know, most stuff at the more complicated end of playing with toy trains is like this to some extent. We’ll now have a period of running in on the rolling road, and I’ll probably start on the basic body before doing any more to the chassis, so I can be sure exactly how everything is going to fit. EMGS group meeting here tomorrow so I hope everything behaves itself!
