Since I didn’t really like the look of the last wheelbase (in part due to the middle wheel spacing), I ended up covering the running board with an old UK-style “tram skirt” of the type used on the LNER J70 and BR Class 04. Like on my TrackMaster Toby mod, the cowcatchers are corrugated fibreboard rather than individual bars. The side plates are just short enough for Union Express track, yet long enough to cover the axles.
“Is it electric?” Electronic, to be precise. After choosing the J70, I built the walls out of real wood and used cardboard for the rounded ends. Due to the inconsistent shades, all the walls were primed white before painting to make the edges blend in. Holes for lights were prepared shortly before priming. Also decided to use drawing pins (thumbtacks) for buffers rather than cardboard, wood or painted googly eyes.
First coat. I remembered liking the look of the exposed incandescent bulbs as UK-sized lamps when I temporarily fitted them to my first motorised loco since their pointed ends looked like the handles to me. However, those ends are not as bright as the rest of the bulbs when lit and making the holes bigger nearly cracked the wood, so I mounted them vertically where the lamps would be and fed the wires over the smokebox doors. After soldering the leads to each other, I soldered additional wires to the joints to wire the lights to the motor as one unit. Supports were added under the 2x AA pack to fit the wires under it, with sufficient gaps behind them to pass the wires to the right spots. The battery pack is held in with Blu-Tack so it can be pulled out and reinserted for access.
The on/off switch was initially a push button inserted into the roof (where the funnel would be), though it suffered mild heat damage when I soldered it and became much harder to press. I later replaced it with a slide switch over the right cab entry. The switch had to be at the front so I could use the existing wires of the battery pack without having to solder another pair to reach the rear (where all the other wires are already concentrated).
After assembly, it occured the height and proportions were closer to TV Toby than those of a real J70 or in The Railway Series. The sticks I used for the planks were too thick for accurate 9½-plank walls, so I reduced them to 7 planks before a complete height reduction to 6½ (below). With a figure held against it, my old sliding door van looked more similar in height to these locos in real life. The wheels (and their spacing) being twice the size they should be determined the incorrect height from the get-go as well. I’m considering downloading STL files for “press-on” wheels - like those from the Terrier - and trying to order them from Dfus 3D, depending on what quotation (estimated cost) they’d offer to print them at.
After the height reduction. Instead of building new walls, I ripped the existing ones off the chassis, cut them down to size at the bottom and hot glued them back on. The side plates were cut off and reattached with double-sided tape to make them removable for access to the chassis if needed; only burnt out the steps after the walls were reglued to make sure they lined up with the cabs. At a later point, new driving wheels were fitted at the ends of the motor shafts to reduce the wobble and derailments. Speaking of which, the model only stays on the track going in one direction and not the other; going the other way, the front wheels “jump off” at the track joints and derail it even with all the magnets and metal cubes I added for weight. What I’ve always thought was a rod used to ring the bell is actually the condenser, so I used a flexible straw (of the same type as the funnel and front bearing) to recreate how it curves into the roof; should’ve put it a bit closer to the front window, but it’s not too far off. The bell is a tiny piece of foil shaped using a paintbrush handle, and its frame is a black-coated wire tie. The handrails are 3D-penned to give them the right size and shape while being strong enough, though they make it a little more obvious the ends aren’t really equal. Rather than paper clips or safety pins like on my older stock, the coupling hooks are partially cut 16-14 AWG ring terminals. Along with the drawing pin buffers, I plan to use them on future UK/EU-outline stock from now on since they do the job very well; and also for other coupling types. Demos: chassis pushing 58g 0-4-0ST; lamp test; Test runs: original height; finished; in dark
