Hello all, Looks like with a following wind I will be in receipt of an IP Engineering Jack 0-6-0 diesel and an IP Engineering Jessica 0-6-0 diesel soon. I’m made up as these locos are just what I’ve been after for a few months now. I was wondering if anyone had any topical tips on assembling these locomotives, bearing in mind I will be working on the dining room table. I believe they are of the old type gearbox and this might provide me with a few headaches...comments ?(except the one about buying a roundhouse chassis ) Also, it looks as if the middle drivers are flangeless, could an extra set of flanged wheels be incorporated,{ http://www.ipengineering.co.uk/page56.html } bearing in mind my minimum radius will be LGB R3? Any ideas on how to hide a speed controller potentiometer?
I know a few of you have made a success of these locos. Any help with pitfalls/difficulties/areas of construction where a large hammer is required, gratefully received.
Jack an jessica
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Pendo Pilot
Buy a Roundhouse Chassis!! 
I only built the Jessie from a kit (The Jack being bought already built). My own experience building the Jessie I only really had one problem. The kit is designed to be built using self tapping screws. I found this to not work at all on mine as the self tappers stripped themselves apart trying to screw through the metal sheet. I got a load of small nuts & bolts from maplin & assembled it that way instead. I found that even though it was harder it looks a load better on the chassis to put the bolt through from the inside so that instead of a philips head bolt showing I actually have a large nut on the outside of the chassis on each point. Looks far better to me. Don't bother with the bolts to hold the bonnet down, neither of mine need it & its just one extra thing to faf about with when changing batteries unless of course you go for a charge socket. If you have the early metal gearboxes then you are in luck, it's the only one I have not destroyed. Take your time building it right, thankfully Pete made a good job of the one on the Jack that I bought & it survives in use today. The plastic ones, well I've said my piece on that already. Packing the motor is also a good tip as standard it only uses a thin wire to locate the motor & that is not really up to the job & can cause more wear on the gearbox IMHO. Also get some decent Ni-MH batteries. I use 6 Maplin 2000mAh's in each & use a fast charger. Takes about 20 minutes to charge fully & lasts about 3 hours. Even with duracell batteries my Jessie struggled to move itself for long on the flat, the 2000mAh batteries worked wonders & transformed the loco. Don't get me wrong, you won't be dragging Lady Annes, Fowlers etc around with it but it will haul a fair bit. As for flanged centre wheels, I wouldnt bother to be fair. You may find you have to articulate the con rods to cope with that& I think it would be more trouble than its worth. As for potentiometer, either go for IP standard position & place it in the optional extra cab dash (or make one yourself, its hardly complex) or perhaps better would be to mount it well forward on the bonnet (to clear the battery pack) & disguise it as an air filter.
I do like the kits & I'm sure they will make a handy light use loco. Saying that they also make a good starting point for something more serious.
I only built the Jessie from a kit (The Jack being bought already built). My own experience building the Jessie I only really had one problem. The kit is designed to be built using self tapping screws. I found this to not work at all on mine as the self tappers stripped themselves apart trying to screw through the metal sheet. I got a load of small nuts & bolts from maplin & assembled it that way instead. I found that even though it was harder it looks a load better on the chassis to put the bolt through from the inside so that instead of a philips head bolt showing I actually have a large nut on the outside of the chassis on each point. Looks far better to me. Don't bother with the bolts to hold the bonnet down, neither of mine need it & its just one extra thing to faf about with when changing batteries unless of course you go for a charge socket. If you have the early metal gearboxes then you are in luck, it's the only one I have not destroyed. Take your time building it right, thankfully Pete made a good job of the one on the Jack that I bought & it survives in use today. The plastic ones, well I've said my piece on that already. Packing the motor is also a good tip as standard it only uses a thin wire to locate the motor & that is not really up to the job & can cause more wear on the gearbox IMHO. Also get some decent Ni-MH batteries. I use 6 Maplin 2000mAh's in each & use a fast charger. Takes about 20 minutes to charge fully & lasts about 3 hours. Even with duracell batteries my Jessie struggled to move itself for long on the flat, the 2000mAh batteries worked wonders & transformed the loco. Don't get me wrong, you won't be dragging Lady Annes, Fowlers etc around with it but it will haul a fair bit. As for flanged centre wheels, I wouldnt bother to be fair. You may find you have to articulate the con rods to cope with that& I think it would be more trouble than its worth. As for potentiometer, either go for IP standard position & place it in the optional extra cab dash (or make one yourself, its hardly complex) or perhaps better would be to mount it well forward on the bonnet (to clear the battery pack) & disguise it as an air filter.
I do like the kits & I'm sure they will make a handy light use loco. Saying that they also make a good starting point for something more serious.
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Johnnie2sheds
Lots of great tips there p.pilot! Thank you. I have seen the wire hanger on these locos and wondered about its suitability, I was thinking I might provide a clip of some sort if the motor is flush with the underside of the cab floor whereby a strip of metal can be secured at each end to fix the motor more securely to the loco.... any way thanks for the heads up on battery types etc....noted 
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DLRdan
Ive had a Jack for about 3 years and its a good loco. As Shane has said the self tapping screws dont work so I found an M3 tap and ran it through all the holes. I also found that the batteries didn't last very long so I put in the battery that Roundhouse use in their diesel, which gives a run time of around 4 or 5 hours, along with a charge socket. Iv'e hidded the POT by putting it in the spares box making the loco RC. I have only had to put new gears in once and that was about 4 months ago, never had a problem before that. Mine does still have to gearbox held on by that wire stringer which ive never had issue with either.
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