My first Judith Edge kit build.

Building the Judith Edge SR Paxman 500hp 0-6-0 11001 diesel shunter kit in OO.

I chose this kit because it is of an unusual locomotive, not so far produced in RTR by any of the major manufacturers, and because I saw a picture of the real thing going through Wallington Station in Surrey, where I used to live.

I’ve had a good study of the Judith Edge kit instructions and searched some web sites for hints from others who have built it, and believe I now have a reasonable understanding of how it is meant to go together. I can see why people say it’s not a kit for beginners, and think the instructions could be a bit more informative in some areas to assist builders, whatever their experience. However, the soldering iron (Antex 25 watt) is now hot, and the build proceeding.

I’ve made quite a few locomotives now, some from kits, others with eg a scratchbuilt chassis, but all of them with rigid chassis construction. Some of these have not performed well running round curves, and this is an area I want to improve on. Since this kit has parts for a compensated chassis, I have decided to give that a go this time, hopefully to give greater running flexibility, albeit mainly in the vertical plane.


I’ve soldered the bearings in to the compensation beams as per the instructions, and pivoted the beams within the frame sides using nickel silver wire passed right through the frames, with a tiny brass spacing washer between beam and frame, and a small bore brass tube between the beams to hold them apart. This method was a modification to my original attempt with individual pins for each beam, which proved not strong enough.

After that, the footplate, cab and engine casing went together pretty much as the instructions, though I had no previous experience of annealing, and am not sure if I heated the casing for long enough or hot enough (it was glowing red), as it was still difficult to bend afterwards. Also, I replaced the cab steps (32L/R) with lengths of brass angle 1.0 x 0.5mm, since I found it virtually impossible to fold the very narrow kit items along their length. Some pictures of the real locomotive downloaded from the internet helped with the casing details. For the dummy coupling hooks I used a Mainly Trains etch MT356, now available through Wizard Models in the UK.


The brakes were hung on wires run right through the chassis to help with stability, but I found it necessary to file down the brake shoes to allow the wheels to be fitted unimpeded, and to reduce the risk of a short circuit when running. I fitted the triangular fillets (75) to the hanger brackets whilst still in the etch, which eased handling.



Quartering of the wheels was very fiddly with the unusual configuration of the coupling rods, but started with the cranks, since these are virtually impossible to move once pressed on to the axle. Then I followed the coupling rods from there, quartering each pair of wheels in turn, as per the instructions. Wheels and crankpin parts were by Gibson, as suggested in the instructions, but crankpins on all except the front wheels were replaced with M1 x 10mm countersunk screws, with 14BA brass washers and extra Gibson bushes used to space the rods to achieve clearances.

A High Level RoadRunner+ 45:1 gearbox and High Level 1020FE motor were fitted to the centre axle.


Pick-ups are by sprung wires contacting the back of each wheel.


The model now needs spray painting of the body, for which I intend trying acrylic sprays for the first time. This however must wait for the Summer, when my paint shop / garden shed will hopefully be warmer, it being mid-winter here at the moment.