CLUB NEWS

My secret’s out!

- Geoff Theasby

My secret’s out! I’ve joined the locomotive-owning classes! I always said that I regarded owning a locomotive was rather like having a boat or caravan - one feels compelled to use it, tying yourself to its park or mooring to the neglect of other activities. However, during the construction of my ‘Bolide’ I felt myself weakening and even muttering ‘Get thee behind me, Satan’ as I placed a classified ad. on the Model Engineer website. Imagine my amazement when I received a reply within days offering me an uncompleted battery-powered tram engine rolling chassis, as serialised over five issues in Model Engineer spring 1989. Had I not bought this item, from a gentleman in Nottingham, a week or two later a similarly priced battery locomotive was offered in the printed small ads. It was the work of a couple of weeks to make it self-propelled, as well as dealing with a deranged computer, my ‘Bolide’ and this column, not to mention writing for other publications. (I said not to mention them!) I used a cheap gearbox, a small motor, and two 12 volt sealed leadacid batteries, plus a Chinese motor speed controller, to do so, then it was locomoting about the dining room, prior to being taken to the Sheffield Model Engineers’ track for an initial test (photos 1 and 2). The gears at top right are spare mini-lathe change gears, which could not have been a better fit if they had been so designed. Watch this space!