GWR Castle Class Steam Loco in T Gauge - part 1

I like a challenge and today my challenge is to add a steam loco with rods etc. to my rolling stock, in T gauge...

I have the GWR Castle class 3d printed from Shapeways, the new loco wheels and etched set of rods from Tgauge.com and some determination.

I didn't realise how tiny the bits would be till they arrived in the post.

The assembly of the wheels was much harder than I thought it would be. I thought they would just slot into the axles and job done. It wasn't that simple, after some trial and error and swearing, I eventually worked out a method that works (kind of). I filed the pointy bit on the back of the wheel that slots into the axle to a sharper pointy bit and that helped slot it together with some brute force. The magnetic tyres and the etched facias went on without any problems though. Just needed a bit of super glue.

Next stage was wheels onto body. The back to back width between the wheels was tighter than the width given on the loco chassis and much filing and trimming was done to make them fit (very very carefully with an electric drill with a rotary file). I'm still not sure they will be particularly free running when its finished.

The tender wheels fit fine using the normal T gauge coach bogie wheels. But there doesn't seem to be any way of securing it all. I had to file the area down and screw on a bogie and a half and it still looks ok. The bonus of using the bogie is that it solved the problem of attaching the coupling.

The tender was fitted with a loop made of wire to attach it to the main loco, much like in a normal OO model loco with a loop and pin type attachment.

Then I painted it, that was the easiest part.

OO gauge castle class behind it for scale.

 Now I'm just waiting for some 0.2mm drill bits to arrive in the post so I can do the rod work.