Czech factory tank in 009: initiate...

The Minitrains Krauss chassis is very useful for modellers when you consider just how many different 0-4-0 locomotives there are out there...

My latest little project is a Czech locomotive, a small 'factory' locomotive used for shunting around industrial locations before the widespread use of diesel locomotives. This particular example is actually a little smaller than the Krauss but I have applied a little 'modellers' licence in creating something with all the character but a little larger to fit on the chassis.

I started with just this drawing and this photo - the appeal for me was the squat, utilitateran looks - and in particular the photo posed with two young lads on the foot plate - perhaps the sons of the workers who built this prototype? I don't speak the Czech language in the book so I can't share much more than this, but I set to work in Sketchup...

So I started with the artwork for the O&K as I knew it fitted the chassis and slowly modified it to represent the prototype more closely. It's funny this actually takes a lot longer than starting from scratch - the obvious change is in the cab, it's a much lower affair with a dropped footplate. In addition though, the footplate is narrower and the boiler is set lower as well.

It arrived earlier this week and has now been cleaned up in white spirit to remove the waxy residue from the Frosted Ultra Detail printing process at Shapeways. I also poured boiling water over the back of the cab and adjusted it to be less 'bowed' in - which was a success. After a test fit on the chassis I modified a Minitrains Kobel short and long stack - I cut the top of a Kobel long stack, and then cut down a Kobel short stack and soldered the two together. Here the raw print is posed with the Narrow Planet O&K which shows how compact this little locomotive will be when finished. I hope to use it on Kistenfabrik when that progresses again, and those who think it's particularly ugly and not useful to a British modeller would be surprised to learn that the Talylynn nearly bought a similar engine in the late 1950s before settling on the Barclay from Ireland that later became Tom Rolt. More soon...