WD LOCO ON TEST

Running trials for the completed Mercian Models kit

Almost there: this great little kit is fully painted and the mechanism is up and running, purring along nicely on the rolling road as I type this. Although there's not too much about jackshaft drives that are taxing, I always manage to find them harder than I should - don't ask me why! My kit was missing a few crankpin bushes and washers and the instructions are not entirely explicit on this stage (or I didn't read them properly), so a bit of improvisation was required. After a few hours of head scratching and rooting through the spares box, I came up with a working solution. Maybe this has just gotten me over my mental block on this type of transmission...?

The pickups were a little tricky to install too, without them looking too intrusive on the sparse chassis. But, such things are all part of the joy of loco kit building and there's nothing quite as rewarding as seeing a newly out-shopped locomotive moving under power.

Still to do: fit a footplate crew and small adornments like lamps and maybe a shunter's pole!