Pony Is Hot To Trot

After many weeks working on the extension to the layout it seems that Himself is definitely in a 'loco phase' because he's making very rapid progress with the chassis for Welsh Pony.

After sorting the motor and gearbox he's already moved onto fitting the motion.

The first task was getting the wheels and the connecting rods on and apparently that went well and it seems to move very smoothly.

Of course, as we have discovered before, this Mercian Models kit has a habit of biting you in the bum.

The latest set back was when Himself fished about in the box looking for the crossheads.

Apparently what he was expecting was some kind of white metal casting. What he discovered was some etches to be assembled in a sandwich fashion to make a crosshead.

Did you notice I wrote Crosshead, there? The singular and not the plural.

That's right! There are only enough parts supplied to make up one.

Terrific!

Fortunately Himself is tremendously resourceful in these situations and managed to take some scrap pieces of brass and make up a pair using the etches from the kit for the front bits and the homemade pieces for the rear which were very carefully soldered together.

Here they are in position on the cylinder / slidebar assembly.

He tells me they had to be made very slim because, as you can see, there is literally a fag paper clearance between the crossheads and the front crankpins.

And so here we have the chassis with all the motion on.

Looks great, doesn't it? Can't wait to see it with the body on and even more so moving!