Recently I completed my Gauge 0 Caledonian Railway 0-4-0 Pug and wooden tender I painted it in LMS colours c 1925. I wrote a couple of articles recently which were published in the Gauge 0 Guild Gazette; the first detailed the construction of this engine, and the second dealt with painting it: Vol.17 Nos 2 & 5 for Feb and Nov 2008.
In June this year, at the G0G Halifax Show, I bought a Highland Railway Sky Bogie kit from Laurie Griffin who has recently taken over the old Shedmaster range of kits and is re-issuing them with some improvements. I made a start towards the end of the month and the accompanying photos show how far the project has progressed.
My initial objective was to build the chassis and mechanism and get the loco up and running, after all if it won’t run there’s no point going any further. I wanted to do away with mechanical pick-ups with all their attendant problems on this engine, so to that end I shorted out the insulation of the wheels on both sides of the tender and used split axles running in Slaters’ insulated hornblocks, picking up from wires soldered to the brass axle bearings. I had to make some far more substantial inner frames to accomodate the hornblocks however. Both locomotive driving axles are rigid; I mounted an ABC Gears motor gearbox on the front axle and had room for a flywheel, which just protrudes into the cab and fits inside the neat new backhead I bought from Lochgorm Kits.
Well the engine is up and running, it runs well over the points and curves of my 16ft end to end test track and performed commendably last week on the large Carlisle Club layout though only on the generous curves of the outer circuit. I don’t know whether I can modify the front end to get it round anything tighter than a 6′ radius curve.
I’ve made a start on the superstructure, though progress is slow as I’ve had great difficulty with the smokebox wrapper and have had to re-make the formers it sits on, and then I remade the boiler as well as that didn’t fit. I thought I’d got everything square when I took these photos but I took it all to bits again as it still wasn’t right; but I think I’ve tamed it now at last.
