Ruston 48DS

Just arrived today (Sunday ) a RUSTON 48DS kit made by ALD Models and sold by Digitrains Ltd.

A few years back I placed an order with Little Loco Company for 2 Ruston’s (open and closed cab)which unfortunately were never supplied as the company went out of business. Whilst thinking about scratch building one recently , I started looking for drawings and details on the internet when to my surprise this model popped up, complete with chassis, motor, wheels, glazing and pickups for £162.50 ex vat to WA, in my book a bargain.
Body work is 3D printed, there will be some sanding / finishing required, but overall it looks very good. Chassis and buffer beams are metal to add some much need weight (still feels very light, so I might be adding more). Couplings and wheel sets from Slaters and a full set of coloured instructions. Two cab roofs supplied ? Might be a packing issue?

Nice small loco to build (I hope).

 

“Let battle commence”

Chassis parts have what appears to be a curve in the main block and possibly 1-1.5mm to long.

These might just need sanding to sort the issue out, so first job will be to get a free running frame sorted out.

The frame has 4 axle bearings, which the instruction say to use a soldering iron, carefully to install then add axles and use soldering iron to correct any miss alignment…….plastic and soldering irons …?
I decided to use a broach to carefully open up the plastic hole to accept the bearings, checking the measurements between axles to make sure they were parallel. Thankfully this approach worked out and I just added a drop of glue to the holes to keep the bearings in place.

After spinning the axles to make sure they ran freely add the two drive cogs to the centre of the axles.

Add the Slaters wheels and check that the assembly sits flat with all wheels touching the surface.

then onto the track and see if it runs ok

Obviously not a “free” running chassis yet as it needs weight but it does move ok and the wheels are all level. ‘This is a small chassis frame

 

Next job is to look at the motor / drive block. Again the instructions state using a soldering iron to “melt the two bearings into the block…..and again I decided to use a roach and slowly open them up until I had a tight fit

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A test fit of the drive shaft into the two bearings proved successful.

so I then removed the shaft and reassembled it adding the two drive screws plus a large drive pulley.

The small motor has a fly wheel and a very small pulley added to it befor simply gluing this to the block in line with the large pulley on the shaft.

adding the block to the chassis and checking the mesh of the gears shows that the block will need to be carefully adjusted via the four screws supplied in the kit.

the screws look a bit to big to my liking

The curved end on the block will need packing, whilst the other end looks ok.

trying to get the correct, slightly sloppy meshing of the gears with the screws supplied looked a bit dodgy so I opted for some micro bolts, 2 each end which will give me very fine adjustment of the two components.

and a quick test run and adjustment of these screws gave me a working chassis.

Pickups are supplied but again I strayed from the instructions and used a brass bolt to hold them firmly in place which then gave me a ideal hidden place to solder the pickup wires to.

Chassis completed.

 

Test fit of all the components, black spacer, 2x steel weights and then the lower footplate.

black spacer is glued to the steel weights, plus I added bolts to hold it all nice and square.

next job is to make up the side rails and buffer beams

Bonnet and cab can then be glued together and re checked on the frame.

buffers are a very loose fit so I used a suitable piece of plastic rod to centre them and then glued them in place.

more brass detailing to replace the fragile 3D printed side rings, 2 each side. These should be a lot better for handling the model. Brass pin added for door handle and brass handrails bent up and glued in place.

Checking the chassis fit again I noticed that the wheel axle detailing did not match the wheels spacing.

So the offending item was cut off and a new representation made from plastic

black rail guards fitted as well.

The chimney had to be realigned and a bracket made. I replaced the 3D printed one as it was a solid piece and when I tried to remove it from the sprue it snapped in half. The brass one looks far better to me. Small amount of filler in the bonnet to hide the incorrectly placed hole and that’s the body work done ready for some primer.

 

Found a video on YouTube which gives lots of info and ideas for detailing this model.



these screen shots will help me scratch build a representation of the cab interior.

so out with the spares box I found a couple of white metal castings that will represent the electrical control box, add a few brass wires some plasticard and some scrap brass and I’ve got the start of the interior detailing.

 

I must get some parallel reamers, useful for thicker materials. Yes I like ball bearings rather than bushes, I’ve built a few wagons now that come with them as standard issue.
Drive band is such a simple design and seems to work well, not sure it will allow the model to pull heavy wagons around as I’m sure the “rubber” band will slip, but for shunting one or two small light wagons around it should be sweat.

 

So I decided to go with a subtle paint job….put your sunglasses on

I’ve added 1.8 micro bright white LED’s to represent the driving lights front and rear. I spray these Matt black and then when they are dry I use a cotton bud soaked in thinners to wipe the lamp face. They work really well on both o and oo gauge models.

interior is starting to come together now as well. You can see how I’ve joined the two LED’s together in the cab roof space, I’ve then soldered the blue and white wires to the front lamp , glued the wires to the front dash and then drilled through to the front of the loco where the decoder and stay alive will fit on top of the motor.
The main dash sub assembly will be glued in after the wiring is sorted out, as this will give me a little bit of “wiggle” room for the wires. (This is like working on a oo gauge model)

you might also have noticed that I decided to cut the doors out. 2 reasons, one they did not fit very well and the gap around them just look horrid after I sprayed the model and secondly if I’m going to all the effort of modelling the interior you might as well have the doors open to see into it, so the doors will be glued inside the cab in the open position.

 

£162.50 ex vat to WA

 

Will do Chris, just awaiting a small decoder to arrive