15. The painted and
assembled chassis and
power unit. The flywheel has been painted black to make it less visible behind the radiator grille. The ettering for the sandboxes and fuel tank was made up with decals, but the ording above the lifting points is simply a line of paint!

water makes correct placement of decals that size very difficult. In the end ‘near enough’ was definitely good enough.
When it came to the lettering at each lifting point, which should read ‘lift here’, I simply settled for a short white line of paint to represent each word, and from normal viewing distances this looks fine. No one has noticed this shortcut yet.

The power unit was fitted into the chassis at this stage.

Painting the body was also simplified by having it separate from the footplate, avoiding the need to tackle the difficult join between the body colour and the footplate.

I had obtained some blue paint from the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway’s workshops at Tindharia on a previous visit, so I used this with a view to nominal authenticity. (The shade of blue used by the DHR seems to vary periodically, so any authenticity is somewhat transient!) I had no clue as to the type or origin of the paint, but I thinned it with lacquer thinners and it sprayed beautifully and gave an excellent gloss finish.

The lettering for INDIAN RAILWAYS was done using
Microscale decals (rail gothic), but for the Hindi lettering I
had to work by hand – carefully! The cabside numbers were
also Microscale decals, while the SAN Engineering

locomotive maker’s plate had to be done by hand. For the silver trim around the cab side windows, a draughtsman’s bow pen was used.

Conclusion
With the painting completed, the chassis/power unit, footplate,
and body were all assembled using 10BA bolts from underneath, engaging in the plates that had been fitted to the base of the body front and rear.

A test run showed that the weight of the finished unit was quite sufficient for traction purposes without any added weight being needed, though there is ample space in the body for this. As I had opted for a belt drive, it was important not to overdo the weight, or the belt life could be reduced. However, the belts used by Hollywood Foundry are quite durable (and a spare is supplied with the ‘Bullant’).

The NDM6 is a soundly designed little diesel of classic appearance which has proved itself well suited to the demanding conditions on the Indian 2' gauge lines. The Worsley Works body kit does full justice to this charming locomotive, and the extra time needed to make a correspondingly accurate chassis is, I feel, very well spent.