A few months back I was going through the cupboard where I store my modelling stuff and I came across a Comet chassis kit for a pannier tank I was planning to do and like so many things never got done. Having recently acquired a Bachmann 57xx body on ebay and done it up in wartime black as an engine that worked on the Taunton to Barnstable line I thought that it was time to get the two together seeing as my confidence with a soldering iron had grown on the back of a coach kit I had recently completed.

First of all I referred to Iain Rice's book on chassis building - well I say referred I looked up the relevant parts for building a rigid chassis - circumventing all the waffle. Anyway it all went together very well - it was square and everything else you'd need. I then put the gearbox (Comet GB1) together and it ran when tested whilst held in a vice. Next thing, put the body on and run that - this is where it started to go wrong, first it ceased up, then after a tweak it ran again for a bit until it stopped, but with the motor still turning.

Next step take it to bits again and realise there is too much play on the axle of the first gear, because I hadn't put the bearings in the right way round so I take the gearbox to bits and try to get the bearings out - sadly I broke one side of the gearbox off and did not want to chance ballsing things up further by trying to bodge solder it back on.

The upshot of this was to buy another gearbox as Comet do not do the mountings separately . This duly arrives in the post last week - I put it together correctly , put it in the loco, it runs for a bit and then stops as the gear is no longer engaging with the other gears. Off we go again, strip and start fiddling - this time the little horror would not go back together properly, gears did not want to mesh whatever I tried and after an hour and a half it all got too much and the said gearbox was sent flying against a wall at some speed.

After coming to the conclusion that Comet gearboxes are pants I contacted a much trusted friend to ask him what he uses - after stopping laughing at the words Comet Gearbox he recommended one that he swear by (rather than in my case swearing at ) which is from High Level Kits - that's for another payday - watch this space.