4-wheel chassis alternative

With the advent of my L wagon projects, and further thoughts of modelling some other earlier wagons like the M, J, and K classes, there became a need for, and a better representation of the earlier style chassis, specifically the 8ft 6ins wheelbase, NZGR drawing number 1737.

A long while ago I had been following the genesis of a J5 sheep wagon on the Motorised Dandruff blog.

These guys had come up with the brilliant idea of creating a chassis from an etched brass sheet that was then folded into shape.

Their reasoning was to provide strength, weight, and most importantly, accuracy in lining up axleboxes as well as squareness in all three planes.

What a genius idea . . .

For details of which scales, styles, and wheelbases are avaialable, check the Mark's Model Works website.

As these designs are produced in CAD, apparently it's relatively easy to re-size to any scale, so a request for OO (1/76th) scale, some discussion involving wheel choice, and we're in business.

I've chosen to use North Yard's 23.8mm axled wheels beacuse with the accuracy of the chassis we can have really tight tolerances, i.e. gap between wheel and axlebox to further the impression of our "narrow" gauge.

More to come. . .