The final job on building the MER No.23 lookalike was to fit a motor and gearbox.
I can't remember how I discovered it, but Appletree Railway make a compact motor/gearbox at a good price,
View attachment 352752which can either be nose-mounted as per the prototype, or mounted solidly to a floor. I went for the first option, drilling the frames to take a 3mm bar to act as a second mounting point. It needed a bit more epoxy than I would have liked, although it won't be visible when running. It also looks skew in the photo, but isn't in real life!
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I had to supply an axle which Appletree fitted when building the gearbox; assembly into the truck was simple, and the installation is very neat. It is virtually invisible to the naked eye from the outside, too. I just need some dry weather so that I can test it.
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I can thoroughly recommend Tim at Appletree Railway -he was a pleasure to deal with, communicated well and made sure the unit was to the spec that I wanted.
