The Hunslet loco I’m building is the first thing I’ve tried to build in O9. When I looked at it I was struck by it’s size. It’s much bigger than a 009 locomotive. You can get away with minimal detailing on small 009 locos but I quickly realised a 7mm scale loco cries out for extra detail. So I set to work…

First I made some axle boxes with suspension springs. The springs were made from a 2mm diameter bolt. I filed one side of the bolt flat so that when I stuck it to the chassis it would look like part of the spring is underneath the loco. I created each axle box from three small pieces of plasticard.

To give the impression of bolts on the sole bars I added short pieces of 1mm diameter rod. I found it tricky to cut the pieces of rod to exactly the same length, but this can be fixed by filing the pieces of rod to a consistent height after they are in place on the chassis.

Here’s the body perched on the detailed chassis. Eagle eye readers will notice I have reduced the length of the chassis so that it matches the length of the loco body. I think it looks much more realistic like this.

Next, the cab interior… gulp!