A first 006 diesel - footplate and chassis.

 Any layout, even a humble 'pizza', needs a loco, otherwise it's just a diorama. So I'm building one. This is purely freelance, and is just a 'quickie' for testing wheels and trying out ideas, so don't expect too much.

To get an idea of how the thing fits together I did a wee sketch, but rather than the usual fag-packet job I made it full-sized on graph paper which helped me position the wheels in relation to the motor with the motor in the cab;

The loco is being built along Saltford lines, at least where drive and pick-ups are concerned.

I started by turning up a set of wheels from nickel silver, which is a first as I usually use brass. These are 6.6mm dia. made using my 2FS forming tool. I'm using split chassis pick-up so the wheels are fitted to Acetal muffs;

Gears are KB Scale 15:1.

The footplate is made from .030" styrene, with square section bar used at the ends as frame spacers, faced to length using a self-centring 4 jaw chuck. The sideframes are made from 6mm x .8mm brass strip, fitted with bearings turned on the lathe. The frames have 12BA tapped holes in the centre, so that I can attach leads to carry power to the motor. 

Here's one sideframe attached to the footplate;

Note that the outer face of the frames have been treated with Birchwood Casey Brass Black. The footplate measures 36 x 16.5mm.

I've used a 12mm i/d Nigel Lawton drive belt to couple the axles;

To connect the motor to the frames I made up some small tags from scrap etch;

These are held in place with cut-down 12BA screws, which were a fiddle to fit! Using tags eradicates the need to solder wires to the frames, electrical soldering is not my strong point and the chances of melting the plasticard footplate can be avoided.

The motor is an excellent High Level Kits 1015, which performs very well indeed with 15:1 gearing. This does have a 1mm shaft, so I made an adaptor bush on the lathe. You can buy these but I had none. I've used 30AWG 'decoder' wire to connect up the motor, which was easier to work with than I imagined. However, I did manage to break one tag whilst trying to screw it into place (moving the tag too much whilst trying to position it and the screw), a job made easier by using a little blu-tack to hold the screw onto the end of the screwdriver. I worked that one out after I'd broken the tag! Note to self - motor positive to left frame.

Here's the chassis on my pizza;

But, how does it run? Actually very well! Surprisingly well in fact, even if I run it without any weight (I've been running it with my mint tin controller). I put this down to a mix of nickel silver wheels and the High Level Kits motor. One thing I'm not sure about is the effectiveness of the drivebelt, it feels a bit too loose to be of much use. I've had success coupling axles this way on a couple of Saltford Simplexes, but in this case I feel the wheelbase is too short for the belt that I've chosen, yet I feel that the next size down would have been too tight. I could have got around this problem (if it is a problem) by using larger diameter axle muffs. I have no intention of changing anything on this build, it is only a test piece and as such I feel it to be a success.

Cab next.

Paul.