jigs

[rhydddu009]

Hi,

Does anyone know where one could purchase a decent loco chassis alignment jig for 009 (presumably an N gauge one?).  Most of the jigs I can find are for TT upwards and yet in 009 even a very slight misalignment of the frames can have serious repercussions later.

Regards Colin

[Chris Veitch]

Colin,

I'm not sure that you can. There has been at least one (possibly two?) gizmos advertised in MRJ fairly recently which are supposed to do this sort of job, but I don't think either will go down to 9mm gauge. The 2mm Association sells a pair of loco frame jigs - you need to join to buy their products, but if you're seriously thinking of producing your own chassis in 009 they'll definitely have some useful stuff.

See http://www.2mm.org.uk/

Hope this helps,

Chris

[rhydddu009]

The guy from the 2mm association reckons it wouldn't work as the frames have to be closer together to allow for the relatively fat N wheel treads.  shame.

anyone got any ideas?

Colin

[Chris Veitch]

They just seem to be brass bar faced off and drilled to axle size. I could be really unhelpful and suggest that you get a friendly lathe owner to turn down the middle bits, bit if you had access to said person he could have made you one for N/009 anyway.

If you're seriously considering chassis building you'd be better off owning a lathe anyway - you can pick up a Peatol (http://www.peatol.com/) for about the price of a Roco 399 class 0-8-2. Although they're bit ugly they are apparently - on the word of a prominent 2mm modeller - very sturdy and accurate.

Chris