Wednesday 22 July 2009

Ivatt-ank engine... and it moves!

There doesn't seem to have been much 2mm 'blog activity for a while, so I thought I'd post a couple of rough videos of a loco I have recently been working on. I hope Peter doesn't mind me hijacking his Darkest Essex 'blog now that I am no longer an Essex resident, but I had nowhere else to put it(!)
The loco comprises an unmodified Dapol Ivatt Class 2 body sitting atop one of Nigel Hunt's recently introduced and highly recommended chassis kits (anyone need an original Dapol chassis?). Accoring to the master, this kit was supposed to be a "quickie" to put together... well I suppose all things are relative, and the 3 days spent scouring the carpet for a dropped union link shouldn't count. There are still cosmetic details to add, and paint of course, but it is essentially complete. I took it down to the Keighley club's test track last week (courtesy of Bill Rankin) to run it in mechanically before I wire in the DCC decoder, and I am quite pleased with the results so far. You can judge for yourself as it stutters around Clive Road Sidings:


4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Nick,

This looks to be running rather nicely and not stuttering as you suggest.

Re having nowhere to post - there will alaways be somewhere for such as this. I'll send you another invite to contribute to the nEAG Blog.

Mick S

Anonymous said...

Hi Nick

No problem, as an Honorary DEAG member you are always welcome to post here.

The loco looks very good, nice smooth running and slowly too. Well done.

Peter W

Alexander Seal said...

Nick,

What motor did you use in yours? I need to start building mine soon but can't decide!

Alex

Nick M said...

Hi Alex,
The motor is a double-ended Mashima flat can (I think it is a 1015). I cut off the rear shaft to keep the cab clear, but you could install a fairly hefty fly-wheel instead if you wanted. I bought it at an exhibition 18 months ago from Finney and Smith for about £12. The chap on the stand said it was a new design, and ran slower but hotter than the open frame Mashimas the Association sells. I hadn't used one of these before, so the Ivatt seemed like an ideal test-bed. So far so good, but the real test will be when I fit a DCC chip. This motor is a VERY tight fit in the body of the Ivatt, which required lots of careful carving and filing with a riffler file.
Nick.