As I may have mentioned, I'm not all too happy with the G.E.M. Zoo Car and Bug Box Kits.
Yes the whitemetal bodies aren't too detailed (Worlsey Works' look amazing - the grass is always greener...) but that isn't the reason for my annoyance.
What bugs me about the Bug Box (please excuse the pun) is the Chassis.
I don't know if anyone reading this post has ever had the joy of building a G.E.M. bug chassis so I'll explain.
The body is - as already mentioned - made of whitemetal.
The chassis is made of brass.
The axles have to be held in to the chassis by thin wires superglued to the chassis (whilst avoiding glueing the achsles and wheels!!!).
There is no margin for error for an impossible, flimsy task.
Thus, the axles are more than likely not to turn very well (if at all).
The axles not moving (well/at all) on a plastic Parkside Dundas kit will lead to slowing the train down marginally.
Axles not moving on a heavy lump of white metal will have a more drastic effect.
After having built the Zoo Car I got the hang of the glueing a bit better and managed to get the axles to move slightly more on the Bug Box.
Prince has however had to struggle pulling both Bug Box and Zoo Car at the same time. On the flat. The least bit of gradient and - wheels spinning.
Prince would have the Motive Power to pull them, but doesn't get it all on to the track. Too light, not enough tracktion.
Lately a new problem has made hauling the train impossible, even on the flat.
The Bug Box causes short-circuits!
Of course the G.E.M. instructions warned me against this and supplied plastic washers to prevent them. I neither installed these on Zoo Car or Bug Box, seeing as there wasn't enough space for the wheels in those chassis, let alone extra plastic washers. Those would worsen the hopes of axles which actually rotate!
So the Bug Box, the one which ran better of the two, had to have it's chassis disassembled and washers installed.
An extra difficulty arose when I noticed some of its wheels had fallen apart into seperate components (inner ring attached two axle is separate from outer ring including flanges)!!!
Yippeeh!
In the end I saw this as something possitive, as the two rings of the wheels are held together by the chassis (when in the chassis) and in the likely event of the axles not rotating perfectly, the outer rings of some of the wheels might still rotate!
Rather than attaching the axles to the chassis by glueing bits of wire to the wheels (
) I bent leftover bits of brass cutings and glued them to the chassis over the center of the axles but not touching them, giving them much more margin for movement.
Success! The Bug Box runs again without causing short-circuits.
However I am still more than simply sceptical about Prince hauling my 1930's train when it's complete, with those two heavy, immobile lumps of white metal holding it back...
I've got a strong suspicion that they will one day be replaced by Worsley Works bugs, which ought to have less bugs...
Bugger those buggy bugging bugs!
