The Wee Ben is up and running on my test track in the studio now, and though it’s early days, it’s running quite well. The cast rods arrived from LGM, and though I’ve not finished cleaning them up, I used them in my Hobby Holidays chassis jig to finalise the setting up of the chassis. I fitted an ABC Mini Gooch gearbox with a Cannon motor and a 6mm x 16mm Branchlines flywheel, though I think this is too small and intend to fit a larger one later. The pivot for the drawbar is insulated from the loco body and carries the current from the tender which picks up through the shorted out wheels on the lhs; the tender end of the drawbar doesn’t need to be insulated. A wire from the top of the insulated pivot, which will be under the cab floor eventually, goes direct to one of the motor terminals, the other is connected to the loco body and returns current through the shorted out wheels on the rhs of the loco. A useful drawing of this system, the so called "American System", can be accessed on Nick Baines’ website at… http://ncbaines.co.uk
