Another link in the Chain...

After having played around with chains and cogs building the Climax Clone, I felt that I had enough knowledge to at least know when I am about to make a fool of myself!!! To this end I decided to have a go at what is possibly the most difficult lokey, (mechanically speaking), that I had ever attempted.

I would recommend that people interested in NZ Bush Lokeys examine Mr John Garner's Web site which is :

http://www.trainweb.org/nzgearedlocomotives/

This is the source of the drawing from the web site that I have 'borrowed' and I used for the drawing of my full size (@16mm scale) plans: If you have read the 'Thoughts on Articulation' missive then the following drawing should not be too unexpected.

I used the same 8 and 16 cog chain arrangement that I used for the Climax. My main worry was the flexibility of the chains during cornering. Although the prototype had two sets of chains to the axles. I had this suspicion that the number of chains would have to come down to one.

This shows the graph plotted drawing for all the major parts and is the one I normally work from

See Picture 1.

This shows the progress after a couuple of months -normally I work a lot faster -but at this time there were a few domestic priorites!!!

See Picture 2.

The bogies are a combination of Brass and Aluminium Alloy extrusions. The wheels are ex Mamod and cost  £1 each. However they were not drilled and the axle shafts are 4mm. The raw bogies are shown on a 2 foot 6 inch radius set curve section of track

This shows the almost completed loco with the functioning chain drive to all 12 wheels and the transfer box can just be seen under the boiler with the motor and worm sticking into it.

See Picture 3.