Going Loco: Part 2: Locomotive: The frame and wheels

At this point I decided that my locomotive would only have four wheels (i.e. 0-4-0) and would have an outside frame. The latter was quite common on older and smaller locomotives, and obviated the need for me to model the driving rods etc. associated with inside frames.

I used the tender that came with the train set as the basis of the frame for my locomotive and as a source for its wheels.

I removed the wheels (they popped out quite easily) ...

... and I then used a razor saw to carefully remove the false wheels that were moulded onto the tender's wheel flanges.

Using the moulded line just above the wheel flanges as a guide, I carefully sawed the main body of the tender away from the wheel frame and couplings. (The plastic broke at the four corners as I did this, but as I intended to cut them away from each other, this was not a problem.)

The main body of the tender was put to one side, and I carefully cut a pair of the wheel flanges and their attached frames. I made sure that the central wheel locating hole of each wheel flange was 1.5cm from one end of the frame so that they would line up. I also cut the frame so that it was 2.5cm long.

I then glued each of the two frames and their wheel flanges in place.

Whilst the glue was curing, I cut the other pair of wheel flanges and their frames so that their central wheel locating holes were 1cm from one end of each frame, and then glued them in place.

Once the glue holding the wheel flanges and frames had cured, I carefully trimmed the couplings and glued them in place. (At this stage I did not trim of the excess plastic from the frames. I did this once the glue used on the couplings had cured.)

The main re-modelling work on the locomotive was now complete, and other than a few minor details that I wanted to add, it was ready to be painted.