12mm gauge chassis

[danny]

I am currently thinking of building a funicular in 00n3 and for this I would need a long wheelbase 12mm gauge chassis, but I cannot find anything long enough. Does anyone have any ideas? I would also be interested to know the measurements of the Parkside Dundas Irish wagon chassis to see if they are long enough.

[Hobby]

Loco or stock? Dimensions?

[JulienW]

Danny, as the PD chassis is plastic it's probably not going to be too difficult to cut it and either lengthen it or shorten it to suit what you need - just make sure that you make the cuts square across the chassis (use an engineer's square or a miter block). It might also be worth 'staggering' the cuts - so cut the parts (floor & solebars) before you assemble them and make sure that the cut in the floor is to one end of the wheelbase but that in the solebars is at the other.

Just fetched my 009 Society T&D cattle van that uses the PD 12 mm gauge chassis. Wheelbase is 30mm, overall length (floor / solebars) is 52mm, width of the floor is 23mm and the wheels are 8mm diameter.

[Hobby]

I was thinking that you can get the Zeuke/BTTB wagon chassis cheap and they come in various lengths...

[danny]

Thanks for replying. I like the idea of lengthening an existing chassis - after all, its a funicular, so most of it will be hidden by the overhang of the stepped body. However, a TT/H0m chassis would be good as it would be ready made and easy to use. I do have an old Triang TT wagon chassis somewhere but this is difficult to alter as it is made of metal and would give a very coarse scale appearance.

[JulienW]

I'd go for the Parkside Dundas one then - a styrene kit of at most 11 parts (1 floor, 2 sides, 2 ends, 2 axles and 4 brass bearings) should be fairly easy to build, and imho easier to modify - just cut the bits up in the flat, add the extensions and build it with solvent - compared to cutting up a RTR chassis where you might find one of those 'engineering plastics' that do not take any sort of adhesive to stick the bits and the extensions back together.

I've just checked and Parkside  Dundas sell the chassis separately as DT04 (that will get you one with 12mm gauge wheel sets) for