One thing that came to my attention before starting the build, was how little turning circle the Clayton seems to have, this is due to its much narrower bonnets compared with normal bodied locos. This probably wouldn’t be a problem for myself, as any layout I’m likely to buil, would be an end to end plank with no curves. But if I ever wanted to run it around a test track or a roundy roundy layout, I may be restricted on its turning circle, so I decided to do a few mods before I started the kit.
The problem with most diesel kits is that they require Delrin drive to run other axles within the bogie and this means offsetting the motor/gearbox to one side of the axle to allow for this. Not a problem with most diesels as you have plenty of room within the body, but with the Clayton’s narrow bonnets this causes further restrictions.
So to get around this I had to remove some of the polyurethane resin inside the bonnets. This was done by hand using various burrs in a Dremel drill, nothing difficult here, but advise you take your time when doing so, as you could easily get carried away. You also only have to do this on the one side, to compensate for the offset of the motor/gearbox.
You will also need to do similar work to the chassis as shown in this picture.
Another job that need doing is the bogie pivot plate is restricted on its available turning circle. This was overcome by removing a bit of the brass material from the four corners of the bogie pivot plate, as shown in these pictures.
And here it shows how much more available turning circle it now has, probably more than it will ever need.
The instructions suggest using the Slaters GB14 motor/gearboxes, again fine in a normal diesel, but due to the Clayton’s bonnet being much lower the “GB14” sits to high and wont fit. I’ve took some measurements and the “DBG1 Diesel Bogie Gearbox” fitted with a “Mashimi 1824” motor from ABC Gears, should do the job with no problems. But I’ll wait till I get the Clayton together before I order them, just to be sure.
Another job I did while I had the Dremel out was to mill a slot in the tank under the cab floor, this will allow me to run some wires through from one bonnet to the other should I need too.
Next I should get onto the more exciting stuff, the build itself.