Next project

No dispute that a tender drive transimission can be made to work well. The 'piano wire' drive shaft would be my choice for the prototype proposed, since the mooted design would be of a vintage that would have a very rudimentary cab: little more than the weatherboard, with a metal sheet 2 to 3 feet wide as a roof; and a pretty shallow tender also. But I would only go that route if direct mounting of the motor on the driven chassis proved impossible. If it's a small engine, it doesn't need the 'heroic' traction conferred by a solid lead block oocupying the whole boiler and firebox.QUOTE (alastairq @ 28 Jul 2008, 11:09) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>But if appearances ARE a worry......just take a low down, silhouette view of any of those much-vaunted steamers from Hornby/Bachmann?

See the tender drawbar?

none too realistic, is it?

yet, no-one really worries?
That's a tangent to the original thread, but it is one of the reasons why I much prefer Bachmann's steamers. Their blue riband models have the drawbar correctly positioned in the drag boxes. Detail up with representations of the hoses and it looks good from a trackside eye level view, (the way my layout is set up). Hornby still with one exception use an unrealistic horror: these have to be replaced, the single exception being the new Britannia on which they have done the job right.