| Contest |
| Beginning January 1st until March 1st NorthWest Short Line (NWSL) and Shortline Modelers Lounge (SML) are giving you a chance to show off your kitbashing/scratch building skills. The rules are simple: build a small critter, railbus or small industrial locomotive; prototype or freelance; either from scratch or kitbash, the choice is up to you. Your critter must be built around the NWSL Stanton drive. – details |
| The Stanton Drive |
 While NWSL had said the shipping might take two or three weeks – it was quite a bit shorter then that. In fact I placed the order on Jan 4 and got the drive on Jan 9. Cool.
I placed in on my On30 module for a quick pic. Now .. I have to figure out what to do! |
 First thing I did was to model the drive in Sketchup. I had attempted to do this from a photo I found online – and it was generally correct enough to get a idea of the size of the drive. With the drive in my hand though, I was able to make a model in Sketchup that is correct in dimensions. This means that I can use this to create/wrap a superstructure around.
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| BVM KD-03 Cab |
BVM KD-03 Cab A while back I purchased the KD-03 cab from Boulder Valley Models. This is a complete cab with end doors (On30). The kit was designed to convert a Bachmann 44-ton (HO) loco into a On30 critter. If nothing else, this gives me a good starting point since the cab is dimensioned for On30 – so even if I make my own cab the width and height will still be fine. |
| The Stanton drive w/KD-03 cab |
 When I got the KD-03 cab I modeled it in Sketchup so I could use it later on when I got around to kitbashing an On30 diesel. It was simple then, after modeling the Stanton drive to import the KD-03 cab. This gives me a good idea of what I will be working with. I simply modeled a floor – sitting slightly above the wheels. The floor is – as modeled currently – .040″ thick, the width of the KD-03 cab and the length of the Stanton drive (including the coupler mounting pocket)
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| Anabolic Midget |
 Boulder Valley Models has an excellent article on using the KD-03 kit to kitbash a Bachmann 44-ton loco. In the article he shows a photo of a model by Sam Barbose who used the KD-02 kit to make a very small critter. The KD-02 kit uses the same cab. Since this is more like what I will be working toward I will pay very close attention to how this little loco is constructed with a tight focus on the frame.
I’m not going to copy the Anabolic Midget .. but use this as another starting point for my own design. |
| Show through engine? |
| Stan asked “Is there room on top of the drive to model a diesel with the hood open?“. Answer is .. sure. Depending on how you work it. The Stanton drive is a powered truck. The only thing showing above is the swivel pin. You could even get rid of that if you really wanted to but I figure it can be hid under something. |
 This is just one of the Boulder Valley Models On30 cab mounted on the frame .. just a ‘quick and dirty’ study on a possible design. Just wanted to get a feel of how the cab fit on the chassis.
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 Swinging the camera around and there’s the swivel. Simply a threaded pin with a couple of nuts. This should be easily hid under something leaving most of the chassis open.
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 Removing the side-frame and other parts the Stanton drive is exposed. Like I said .. you could remove the swivel pin (blue) but then you would have to come up with some way to mount the darn thing.
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| Part II |
Is there room on top of the drive to model a diesel with the hood open?
Sure .. depending on how you arrange everything. Look up .. posted thee pics on the bottom of this page.