The chassis is one of Phil's from Ebay and is rather nice. Its based on the Hudson Hunslet locos and builds into a very solid base. As can be seen in the last photo it has a sub chassis carrying the running gear leaving the external axle boxes for display only. An initial test with the stock set up was very disappointing, with a max haulage of 2 small wagons. With that in mind I set about fitting 4 wheel drive which involved opening out the wheels, axle bearings and gear to fit an 1/8" axle. In doing so I managed to break a small section of the frame away (oops). With all that done I tried again only to find that I had increased the haulage by another wagon.
During the test the postman arrived so I left the chassis skidding on the loop with its short test train. Upon returning the chassis and its train had left the loop and was now progressing around the garden with out any trouble, it was even able to take the rest of the wagons I had out. What I think happened was while the wheels were slipping the glossy surface on the plastic wheel had been rubbed off leaving the rougher surface under it. As a result the loco has tons of grip and the train in the pictures is now no issue.
If the weather stays decent I may do a short video of the loco in action.
One last thing, the blocks of steel aren't for extra grip. They are to stop it pulling wheelies
