Anthony Fellows
see also Anthony's article on the loco build

This kit from Mike Williams was my first attempt at a nickel silver etched kit. And an excellent kit it is, with crisp, accurate etches, a bag full of lost wax brass castings and wheels, motor and sprung buffers included. Nonetheless, in spite of twenty-two pages of instructions, it presented a new learning experience for me, mainly in getting my soldering skills up to scratch.

Photo 1, motor mount assembly

Having assembled the chassis (I’ll confess it was the second one, provided by Mr Williams at cost, as I had botched the soldering on the first), I opted to allow the forward and centre axles to float freely, as designed in the kit. I had to make the rear fixed axle the motor driven one.

Above, (photo 2) motor and gear in situ

This presented a problem in that there is no free space into the body to accommodate the motor and drive train, the motor instead having to sit low in the chassis and drive the gear set from underneath. It also meant that the motor would show below the chassis line and be in danger of catching the track. At this point I called Dave Hammersley of Roxey Mouldings who offered a solution in the form of a Mashima 1533 motor and 26:1ratio gear set in place of the 1833 and 40:1combination supplied with the kit. This needed a bracket arrangement to hold the motor and worm gear at the correct angle for meshing with the axle mounted gear (Photo 1).

I admit that it took many attempts (seven, I think) before I managed to both align the motor fixing holes in the bracket and, at the same time, achieve the correct angle of the motor plate to ensure proper meshing of worm and gear. The bracket is a simple ‘shoe’ made from three pieces of 1mm thick 25mm brass strip, soldered to prevent the angle plate flexing and preventing the drive elements riding out of mesh (Photo 2).

As Photo 3 shows, the extended base is held to the top of the chassis by two 6BA screws, with a third screw threaded through the chassis plate and in contact with the underside of the mounting bracket. This screw adjusts the meshing depth, and its locking nut maintains the correct position. Note that the heavy brass strip soldered in to the top of the chassis is not really necessary as the supplied component has this portion already in place. It is there on my engine because I removed part of the original in an attempt to fit the supplied motor and gear set.

The arrangement actually works very well, and with a sensitive controller, provides enough torque to drive the loco at a reasonable speed with a reasonable load.

Photo 3 motor mount fixing and adjustment screws