Hi Jamie,

Your ideas are good - my basic caddy can be adapted to suit any
configuration. Phil Atkinson has already indicated he may build on
my idea - he has also suggested making some boge / tender adapters.

You may have seen on my images the loco on my master chassis is a
D16/3 - a 4-4-0. This is a little off topic - I deliberately ADDED
additional weight to the smoke box of that loco to make it balanced.
The bogie is sprung with sprung side play control, the front driving
axle is sprung (piano wire) and floats, the rear driven axle is
fixed - both driving axles run on roller bearings. The tender,
weighs in at 1 1/2 pounds, and has a fixed rear axle and floating
front carrier for the front two axles, the weight of the tender bears
down through the rigid drawbar and provides a counterbalance moment
arm around the fixed loco driving axle. The net effect of my
arrangement (a mixture of Mike Sharman's 'Flexichas' system and
springing) divided the weight of the loco as 30% on the bogie and
35% on each driver - which is almost protoypical. The whole thing
weighs in at just under 3 pounds!

Ian

--- In masterchassis@..., "Beth and Jamie Guest"
<bethandjamie@...> wrote:
>
> Thanks for the reply Ian
>
> The pictures look good but I will probably try and incorporate 2
other
> small additions in mine.
>
> 1. The copperclad strip that feeds the outer edge of the units
will
> be isolated into three parts electrically with small plug and socket
> connectors so that each side of each axle can be tested for pick up
as
> at present.
>
> 2. I will male some blacks with rail on top that can be slid
under
> bogie and pony trucks as supports. I have built some 4-4-0's and
they
> tend to be nose heavy and become a bit unstable if they are only
> supported on their driving wheels as there is always a lot of
weight in
> the smokebox area.. The idea would be that the blocks are just
slid
> down the caddy once the loco is in position.
>
> When I get it made I will post a picture.
>
> Jamie Guest
>