Only the Slim

What better way to spend an hour or so on a cold snowy day (in March) than slaving over a hot soldering iron? This is the second A1 Models kit which was received at the same time as 'Not DA1'. This uses a different version of the chassis frame with the wheelbase offset in the overall length. The consequence of this is that the cab is rather narrow and only for the slim.

It is worth saying that I have only tack-soldered the bonnet to the cab at this stage, it isn't quite on correctly...

Based on experience with the first kit I initially altered the chassis frame prior to building it. Rather than rely on the over-wide fold lines I cut the footplate and side frames into separate pieces and discarded the end sections completely. The frames were soldered to the foot plate about 1.5mm in from the edge, in my view this improves the look considerably. This will require the Tomytec chassis to be modified and mounted in a similar manner to the Meridian Models chassis adaptor.

The cab has a tiny bench seat, the part for this is too long on the etch but this was soon rectified:

The bufferbeams on the initial version of the chassis were made from 20 thou styrene with holes cut for MicroTrains couplers. These were reinforced behind with 60 x 125 thou styrene section. Further strips of this section can be seen superglued to the chassis inside the bonnet. These are mounted on either side of the opening in the chassis to both hold the upper part of the chassis in place and also help locate the bonnet on the chassis frame.

At this stage I nicknamed the loco 'Tiny' as it just seems so small for O9. However, it isn't really that small, at approx 6 x 3 ish scale feet is is very much Lister sized and I can think of at least a couple of small 15" gauge locos around this size that have been kept well out of the limelight!

I later found that my altered A1 Models underframe was actually a little warped when I tried to sit the bonnet and cab assembly on it (no doubt too much heat during assembly). After some thought I opted to rebuild it in 30 thou styrene with the brass sideframes added cosmetically. A few details were added to the brass body from the oddments box, Dapol Drewery shunter crankpins cut down as filler caps, a Chivers brake lever used as both handbrake and throttle in the cab and a switch from a Dapol railbus oddment. The exhaust is a length of brass tube.

Finally here is a comparison of the two locomotives in primer, the grille on the second loco is from an old A1 etch. Just visible are two holes on the bonnet top in which a plastic air horn locates, to be fitted after final painting.

Colin