Artical reproduced from CONTINENTAL MODELLER - DECEMBER 2010 by kind permission of the Editor

Construction of the Worsley Works ‘scratch aid’ kit for the Indian Railways 2' gauge NDM6 diesel was described by Roger Christian in the July 2010 CONTINENTAL MODELLER. He used a Kato N gauge tram chassis to power the model, which is a convenient way of making an operating model of reasonable appearance, without the need to scratchbuild a chassis. However, the Worsley body kit is so accurate and well designed that I felt it really called for a scale chassis. The following notes describe how this was achieved. The techniques could also be applied to most small modern narrow gauge diesels.

Research and modifications to the body
Good drawings of the NDM6 have been published, in CONTINENTAL MODELLER and in Iron Sherpa 2. In relation to the chassis it should be noted that the drawing in CM does not show the springs, though in fairness these are hardly visible

in reality, being located behind the sandboxes. While researching various pictures of the prototype, I identified a minor error in the body kit: the climbing rungs on the side of the hood should only be present on the right-hand side (facing forward from the cab) whereas the kit has holes for them on both sides. I only discovered this after I had assembled and painted the body, including the surplus climbing rungs. I simply left them in place, painted the same colour as the body, and they are not noticeable. The rungs correctly located on the right-hand side are picked out in yellow, as per the prototype.

The only significant aspect for attention when building the body is the addition of a brass strip inside the body at footplate level at the front of the loco and the rear of the cab, drilled and tapped with a 10BA thread to provide the mounting points to fix the body onto the footplate and chassis with bolts from the underside.