Tuesday, May 1, 2012

Rail Tractor Chassis


Gday All,
I have been putting a few more hours into the RT.  I have obtained a number of goodies from various suppliers.
My first order, as per the first RT post, was with RailCraft (www.railcraft.50megs.com).  I ordered:
- 4x laser cut W irons
- 4x axle boxes
- 4x bearings to suit axle boxes
- 4x dummy leaf springs
- 4x buffers
- 2x coupler brackets

I am very happy with the quality of their casts and it adds a much needed dimension to the RT.
  
This photo shows the RT chassis as it is today. 
This photoshows the 6BA (around 2.7mm) bolt set used to attach the W irons to the chassis.
I was originally going to weld the W irons on.  Glad I didnt!!!
Wow its tiny!!! I ordered these from Model Engineering Supplies (http://www.mesupplies.com.au/). 
I have just ordered a 12BA boltset which is HALF what you see above!!

The photo on the left is RT 17 at Healesville and to the right is my Railcraft W irons, leaf spring and axle box.  Very pleased with the result of the parts sourced.
  
Here is another part sourced from over the wide world web.  1" scale coupler from DNC System Technologies (www.dncsystems.dynalias.com/minirailIll clean up the cast and post more about this on a later post.
  
I noticed on RT17 that there was a bracket riveted to the corner of the chassis.  I have used 1mm steel cut and folded to recreate this part.  Ill hopefully rivet these into place like the prototype. 

Im catching up with a friend tomorrow night to assemble the wheel set to get the chassis rolling.  Hopefully ill get a video of this and post it as sson as possible.

Take care and Happy Modelling!!!

Adrian