LocoRemote Huddy construction part one.

 Covid.

The vast majority of us have succumbed to it at some time in the past two years. I had gone two years, Two vaccinations and a booster shot and not been troubled by it. I’d become complacent. I don’t know where I’d come into contact with someone. Culver’s maybe. Perhaps Starbucks. Maybe even the airport. No matter. I got it and ended up with seven days off work. I needed to do something. I have plenty of model railway projects on the go, but I wasn’t in the mood. Then it hit me. My Huddy kit.

My plan, which will become apparent as the blog goes on, is to build a 16mm scale layout for the Micro Model Railway Cartel Christmas challenge. More of that in another post, it will be a simple enlargement of the late Carl Arendt’s Sqaurefoot estate railway. The layout will need a loco and, by golly! I was in the mood to build one!

My experience with 3D printed kits is limited, but positive. The kits I have made from 6.5MinimumGauge have been excellent, and as those were tiny and these 16mm kits are huge. I felt really good about approaching the construction of one. 

The quality of the prints is outstanding. The fit of the parts is nothing short of perfect. The axle holes on the wheels needed a little work with a needle file in order to fit them and get them to gauge. But apart from that, I haven’t had to file anything to fit. It all went together so easily. Nothing dropped out of its location as I test fitted everything. In a few minutes, I had a simple locomotive that sat in the palm of my hand.

A simple locomotive body. A palette for your creativity

A very simple body. One that just screams out. “Detail me!” As I was waiting for batteries for the remote control unit to arrive, detailing was going to be done.

I don’t know much about narrow gauge industrial locomotives, So I referred to the internet for inspirational images. The version of the kit I have bore some resemblances to O&K locos and the Ransomes and Rapier at Amberley. The Rapier was my first scratch built loco in Gn15, so I have an affinity for it, so it seems quite natural that some details would end up on this model.

I reached for my stock of Evergreen Styrene sections and started to block things out.

Exhaust pipe

First up, was the exhaust pipe. Photographs of O&K critters seemed to indicate that a short, stubby one was in order. But what size would an exhaust pipe be? I went out to my Model T Ford and measured that one. Just under two inches. Unfortunately I didn’t have any tube of the right size so I drilled out a section of rod.

I drilled out the center of the rod carefully by hand. It went very well as you can see. I only needed the one attempt at it.

First attempt at details

Then I set to work, blocking out the other details. Radiator filler cap and fuel filler caps were a must and easily put together using sections of styrene rod. A large sized tube and angle concocted a reasonable transmission tunnel. The distinctly odd pedestal for the brake wheel was found in an image of an O&K loco. But as the only wheel I could find in my bits box was from a 1:24 scale BMW Dixi. I decided that wouldn’t work and tried to come up with something else.

Ransomes and Rapier inspired detailing

With my liking for the Rapier, I decided to try some cab details inspired by it. I was really pleased with the location of the brake wheel and the smaller transmission tunnel. The dials were a nice extra touch, though I'm not sure that the Rapier has any. The square rod used to recreate something or other in the prototype cab I was less enthused about, however. 

The final cab version

Now we are getting somewhere. The cab is now open with lots of room for whatever driver I choose to put in there. All it needed was the removal of those bars. Another detail I would like to add would be pedals and levers. But those are dictated by what kind of driver figure I have. The handle on the engine compartment was cut from some square tube but will be replaced by handles bent up from wire when the time comes.

It’s a Huddy

The final bit of detail I felt compelled to add was a nameplate/builders plate. Ever since Pam one of my early Gn15 locos when I made an Alan Keef nameplate. It’s a detail I’ve wanted to create on loco’s. Luckily I had enough letters (just) from a 30 year old sheet of Slaters 2.5mm alphabet to make up the word “Huddy”. It might be a little on the large side but the Ransomes and Rapier plate on the front of that loco is very noticeable. 

Anyway, that’s stage 1. So far assembly has been a lot of fun. The base kit is simple and easy to put together. When the batteries for the remote control unit arrived I will assemble the rest of the loco.

As I assembled everything I remembered what it was like in the early days of Gn15 and how much fun I had putting together Steve Bennett’s “Sidelines” kits. This was so like that. Those kits set me on a very productive period of railway modelling. Perhaps these LocoRemote kits can set me on the same way in 16mm scale.