Going Wide

I recently picked up a pair of Hornby Ruston 48DS for a very good price. I've fancied one for a long time but, for some reason, hadn't picked one up until now! Been an EM modeller, nothing is ever as simple as taking it out of the box. 

My initial thoughts was to simply pull the existing wheels out on their axles, but but the thickness of the Hornby wheels means there isn't space between the frames to get the chassis back in!

Que idea two, fit Gibson Lowmac wheels. Again, my initial thought was to fit the Lowmac wheels to the original Hornby axles, however this also wasn't possible, meaning I'd have to strip the gears from Hornby set up, and use the Gibson axle also. This seemed like a faff, so...

Option Three, thin the existing wheels down. Using emery cloth each wheel had about 0.5mm taken of them, bringing them to a thickness more in line with the Gibson wheels. The photo above hopefully demonstrates the before and after.

Even with the wheels thinned, it's still a tight fit! The existing Hornby Pick-ups are still used, gently bent out to reach the wheels on the wider gauge.

One EM'ed Hornby Ruston 48DS, done the lazy way! The entire loco needs a repaint and weathering job, but first to see if it works...

Till next time.