Horsetan

God Almighty, the shunt manoeuvre possibilities are messing with me head!

I detect Des raising his game even as he wrote that.... 'tis not easy being SSM - he has to be Malcolm Mitchell+Martin Finney+Brassmasters+Masokits for all of Ireland. Having managed to acquire samples of much of Brassmasters' loco kit range over the years, their artwork is good enough to frame and go on show at the National Gallery. Des, there's still time to snap up the very last Brassmasters Princess kit if further inspiration is needed. They only produced 40 kits. Once they're gone, they're gone forever.

"When my information changes, I alter my conclusions. What do you do, Sir?" (John Maynard Keynes)

Elsewhere, I think I've partly solved the problem of obtaining those Heljan plastic gears. Fingers crossed. The Heljan cog has 12 teeth, and has an overall diameter of about 6.95mm. Not sure what DP or MOD type it is, though.....

'tis a feckin' good disguise. Would that be the same size as the one Ted won for the "Three Elvises Act" in the Priests' Talent Show?

You're hired!

Pearls before swine....

Looks like Brassmasters, producer of kits with just about everything in them, are making 2016 an expensive year for LMS fans.... Yer man here is after putting his name down for one, on account of already having a set of Ultrascale wheels all ready for the job.....

Ah, ye're hooked. That's a good sign.

True, but at least you wouldn't be stuck with parts you didn't want.

This is something which also affects UK modelling to a certain extent, although the various writings of Bob Essery and Don Rowland (the latter has written extensively about shunting in his "Alpraham Sidings" series, published in past issue of Model Railway Journal) have gone quite some way to making up for the deficiency.

Whilst stumbling around Frateschi's website, it seems that you don't necessarily have to buy the whole G12, as the mechanical parts may be available as spares.... ....and one Frateschi stockist in Switzerland sells G12 spares....

Ah.....that explains it. Meanwhile, just to confirm the measurements: Heljan Hymek: SSM Sulzer casting: Centre axle pilot hole drilled in Hymek casing:

So coy. Meanwhile, the joke's on me as I measured up the SSM bogie sideframe castings, and found they'd been subtly stretched to an overall wheelbase of 46mm, rather than 42. This has caused slight consternation here, as whitemetal isn't the easiest material to cut-and-shut....

I managed to obtain some Heljan Hymek spare part sprues, which include the bogie gear casings: This close-up shows the seven fixed pegs on which the worm wheel and idler spur gears revolve: On the face of it, it looks like a new central axle can be run straight through, in the exact middle of the 10'6" wheelbase. Heljan, of course, don't provide any cogs as separate parts, so that makes the job of working out clearances just a little more difficult.

For those who haven't encountered the SSM Sulzer kit before, this is what ye'll be getting for your money: Resin bodyshell, internally braced: Brass etch for underframe and body detailing. There is a lot of it: grilles, vents, walkways, steps, and a fair few other things: ^^ Note that Des has already put in openings for the bogies, but it's up to the builder as to how they are used..... Castings for bogie sideframes, fuel tank and buffers. I would like to see if the buffers can be converted to sprung ones: Four short lengths of 1.5mm brass tube which I think are meant to be finished as the cab seat columns: Instruction sheets with an extensive decal sheet of CIE emblems and numerals attached: ^^ On my sample sheet, there is no provision for numbers 3,4 and 8, so I will have to find a "3" from somewhere else. A '9" can be fashioned by turning "6" upside down. Des has said elsewhere that he no longer supplies LED packs for marker and tail lights for the Sulzer, as so few people actually installed and used them. If ye're lucky enough to get your hands on a kit from the original batch, these are the tiny LEDs (and they really are tiny), wiring and resistors that are included: The resistors are the traditional ceramic ones, but it might be worth replacing them with the much smaller SMD equivalents if you need to save space on a PCB. These are the raw materials.....