Brian Madge Alice class Hunslet part 2 - chassis running and footplate assembled.

It now runs!
The motor is simply glued onto the chassis block, I used Araldite Rapid, before Loctiting the small pulley in place in line with the layshaft pulley. (Motor and pulleys are from the Nigel Lawton range.) The motor was then wired up and test run, I ran the motor in for a while without load before fitting the drive band (a spare is provided) and testing the chassis on an oval of track. With a bit of extra weight on top it has proved to be very smooth and controllable.
Here's the chassis sitting on a 1p piece;

Note the resistor, this is supplied with the kit as the motor is a 10 volt unit, apparently it can be run on 12 volts with care but I prefer not to take chances! All of the exposed wiring is covered in a thin coat of epoxy to prevent shorts. Don't look too closely at my soldering, although I'm comfortable soldering etched brass and nickel silver the thought of joining two wires together fills me with dread!

The footplate, buffer planks and frame sides are etched in .020" nickel silver, which is quite heavy gauge for an etched kit but adds usefull weight. The frame sides include spring detail and slot through the footplate;

There are several small projections under the frames, the outer square 'tabs' represent gaurd irons which on the prototype are angled inwards, and the smaller 'tabs' represent the bottom of the brake hangers which can just be seen on the prototype, these are half etched. This half etching means that the frames are in fact handed, which is not immediatly obvious and not mentioned in the instructions. Alternative slotted buffer planks are supplied presumably for those wanting swivelling couplings.
All soldering done with my trusty 25w Antex and 188 degree solder and all parts fitted perfectly with the minimum of fettling, which was just a case of filing off the cusp.

The motor block installed in the footplate assembly;

 

The frames just rest on the axles.
From underneath;

 

Digging out my scale rule and comparing the frames and wheelbase with the scale drawing published in 'Quarry Hunslets of North Wales' shows them to be accurate in all major dimensions apart from the width which is a scale 5" too wide, probably to compensate for the overwidth (for this loco at least) one-size-fits-all track gauge that we use in OO9.

Paul.