It's here and available now direct from 52F Models. The latest addition to our range of Easi-Rider chassis the J25 EM gauge chassis, price £55.00 inc 1st class postage. We can supply Gibson loco driving wheels and crankpin sets if required.
This Loco and tender chassis kit comes complete with 8 pages of comprehensive assembly instructions, a parts list and two 3D assembly diagrams, one for the loco chassis and one for the tender chassis.
A significant feature of the loco and tender chassis' is the prototypical brake gear and rigging that can be removed as a complete assembly to assist with wheel fitting and removal before and after painting. This allows the brakes to be mounted very close to the rims without actually touching the wheel rims. The detailed lower firebox and ashpan serves two purposes. it adds strength around the compensation beam pivot and along with the brake gear adds that extra touch of realism to the model.
Provision has been made to allow the use of Gibson plunger pickups. These allow perfect current collection, are hidden by the wheel rims and don't detract from the work that went into assembling the highly detailed brake rigging.
Almost Finished
Photo © Peter Stanger. 07/05/09 The drawings for the production etch have been modified to include provision for Gibson Plunger Pickups. The holes for the pickups have been left deliberately small so that in the event that the builder doesn't want to use them, they'll be hidden by the wheel flanges. For EM gauge modellers this provides a neat solution to where to put the pickups without detracting from the brake gear rigging under the chassis. It's now expected that this chassis will be offered for sale in EM form in June 2009. If demand warrants a OO version will follow. If you'd be interested in a OO version go to the "Contact Us" page and drop me an email.
26/04/09 On Sunday the 26th of April at the South Dean Community Centre, I demonstrated just how easy this chassis was to assemble to an audience of experienced EM gauge modellers. Starting from scratch, I had a chassis complete with wheels and coupling rods built in 1hr and 45 minutes. The wheels used were old Romford RP25 profile with EM axles and standard Romford crankpins.
The coupling rods were placed over the standard Ø1.0mm crankpins and no attempt was made to open out the holes in the rods. The chassis ran along the work table with size for size pins and holes and no tight spots. I'll readily admit that there was an element of luck involved but I achieved the same result with the test build on the J27 production chassis. Even if the hornblocks had had to be moved, this would have been no more than an additional 10 minutes work to achieve the same result. (See Customer Testimonials to read what one modeller had to say about the demonstation)
22/04/09. The above image shows the finished body and pre-production version chassis ready for painting. The body is fitted with our own etched footsteps and a slightly revised buffer beam snowplough. We are particularly pleased that this chassis was almost "Right First Time". Ask any manufacturer of etched kits and he or she will tell you that before kits are offered for sale they've been redesigned up to half a dozen times. (The good ones have anyway.)
The Gibson wheels add that finishing touch to what will be a really nice model. The brake shoes are very close to the wheel rims for that added touch of realism but can't actually touch them and cause short circuits. Photos of the finish painted model will appear in these pages in due course.
Photo © Peter Stanger. 25/03/2009 This is the first trial chassis for the NER class P1, LNER/BR class J25. There were one or two minor adjustments that needed to be made and the master drawings have been corrected accordingly. Other than being considerably shorter, the chassis is very similar to the J26/J27 chassis.
The image below shows the prototypical brake rigging with the direct pull, 2-1 lever and 3-2-1 levers on the brake stretchers.
© Peter Stanger This image shows the prototypical brake gear and rigging on the NER tender cahssis. Both OO and EM versions are available.
The bufferbeam snowplough has been especially designed to complement the Easi-Rider J25 and J27 chassis' and will be available as an accessory. If it's your intention to model a loco that is known to have had a plough fitted then when building the chassis you don't fit the guard irons. The chassis can be removed from the body by withdrawing one Ø0.45mm wire from one of the guard iron fixing holes. It is possible to remove the chassis and leave the plough in place
This chassis is very similar to the J26/J27 chassis, the major differences being in the front and rear overhang. The chassis is compensated on all 6 driving wheels, the leading axle rides in horn blocks and the ride height is adjusted by means of a 12BA setscrew just behind the smokebox. The middle and trailing axles follow the established practice of using compensation beams and the gearbox is part of this mechanism. This ensures that the gears remain in perfect mesh at alll times regardless of any vertical movement on any particular axle.
With the etch being smaller than the J27 etch we've included a selection of smokebox number plates on the fret. There are 17 in all so there's a good chance that the particular loco you want to model will be included. If you're wondering about the choice of numbers then they're the loco's I spotted over 50 years ago.
For further information about the tender chassis, go to the NER Tender tab. There are three photos of the tender chassis, one under a 3,038 gallon tender body. This chassis has the leading and middle axles compensated with the trailing axle being fixed.
This chassis kit is now available in EM gauge direct from 52F Models. For details on how to order contact us by phone on 01670 362451 of from the "Contact Us" page by email.
A photo of the production chassis will appear on this page in a month or so.
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