This model has an interesting history. My friend has been visiting an antique furniture shop in Geneva, where he discovered this unmounted DJH kit on a shelf. It was relatively cheap, he could not withstand. He realized soon that he would never build the model, thus he offered me for the same price as he purchased before. I also did not want to build a Garratt, it does not really fit to my collection of Hungarian models, but I could not withstand either. After two or three years on my shelf I decided to build this interesting model.
The main castings. The frame is already glued together from three parts,
the boiler also from two parts and the cab too. I used slow setting epoxy
to mount the white metal castings as I do not want to enter into the risky
task of soldering the low melting point white metal.
The main parts together. In the original plans the cab is also fixed to the
frame, but I glued a brass crossbar inside the cab with a threaded hole.
This way the cab can be screwed on place after painting and can also be removed
if necessary.
The etched framesides. It is astonishing that the manufacturer makes 0.9mm
(0.036") thick brass framesides with etching technology.
Unfortunately the motor and gear construction in my model was different than it was originally planned for this kit, and thus I had to cut out a triangle from the frame carrying the motor.
I did not find any reference in the description about the GMAM yokes. Nor
the model drawings showed this part. I can hardly imagine a steam engine
without yoke - the crosshead guides should be kept by some more rigid component.
Pictures also showed that the Class GMAM locos do have a yoke, just it is
rather flat and hard to see. Thus I made yokes from brass sheets.
You can observe on Ttis picture the framesides and the mounted motor frame.
It clearly shows as well, why the second frame needed a cutout for the motor.
This is the motor of my kit. The description speaks about a gearbox, but
it was not in the kit's box. Even this simple motor mount had incorrect sizes.
I had to cut off the axle beam and solder it to the correct place.
These are the cast parts of both tenders. Both are glued together from three
basic castings.
This is the valvegear. It contains fine, detailled etched parts. It was even
riveted in the box, thus the modeler does not need to do the nasty valvegear
riveting job. At least theoretically. Because in my kit two of the riveted
valvegear sets contained broken rivets. Not really for beginners!
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This page was last time changed on 30th march 2003.
© János Erô