You might have noticed an earlier post titled "How to Re-Motor HO Scale Roundhouse Climax & Box Cab Locos". To whit, we have a great affinity for vintage Roundhouse Climax and Box Cab loco kits and in their modification and preservation. This being said when, in our travels, we happened on an equally vintage HO Scale "Ye Olde Huff-N-Puff" 1050 Static Hommer Wood Climax Locomotive Kit we immediately snapped it up. One key word in the description of this great old kit is "Static" to which we said "Nay, Nay". THIS particular kit would be anything but "static". And so it began............
The general process of building/assembling a wood/metal model kit is:
(a) Inventory the wood and metal parts.
(b) Cut and sand the wood parts to spec as required.
(c) Assemble the wood sub-assemblies.
(d) Paint the wood and metal parts per "The Plan".
With a-d of "The general process" completed it was time to choose, configure and locate the Leading Truck on the wooden chassis. We did this first because we chose to anchor the Leading Truck by drilling an anchor hole in the bottom of the metal boiler. The location of the boiler would then determine the front location of the Leading Truck and, at the same time, the equidistant rear location of the awesome NWSL 39274-4 1210 Stanton Drive w/33" Wheels. Done. Next, for the Leading Truck we chose a pair of plastic 33" Trucks w/Plastic Wheels. We replaced the plastic wheels on one with 33" Proto 2000 RP25 wheels. We then cut the second plastic 33" Truck in half and filed the two pieces to fit for use as matching side frames for the Stanton, glued them in place and let the glue dry. With the front location of the Leading Truck set it was a simple matter to locate and mount the now-with-matching-Side-Frames Stanton Drive equidistant from the rear.
The height of the Stanton Drive necessitated flush mounting to the Hommer chassis. With the Stanton mounted, through trial and error we came up with the correct screw, spacer and spring combination to mount the spring-loaded Leading Truck to the chassis and Boiler insuring the correct stance for all four axles AND correct location for the Boiler.
The Finish Line
After a successful run around our Test Track we added the remaining upper body details, 2-man crew and, thanks to the Stanton's DCC ready wiring, the directional LED Headlamp. Our project completed, this remarkable, fully functional HO Scale Hommer Climax Locomotive was ready to go to a lucky new owner.
