Hi
I did a little bit more investigating into the chassis.
First off, it won't run through my long curved points. Apart from flange depth, the back to backs vary, all under 29mm by between .1 and .2mm. In addition the tread is too wide which means the sideplay has to be restricted to avoid valve gear/crank pin problems.
The obvious solution is to take the wheels off and replace them with Slater's. Two problems. First, Slater's don't do an S160 wheel. Second, being Italian built, the axle diameter is 5mm, not 3/16 inch, as is the bore of the gear.
Second thought. Drop the wheelsets and reprofile on the lathe. Can't do that. The suspension is built in to the chassis, and there are no removable keepers to drop the wheels. There are no obvious axle ends showing on the outside of the wheels, so I conclude that they are cast and turned in 2 halves. There are no obvious tapered pins uniting the halves, though I haven't totally discounted that yet.
I shall dismantle the chassis as far as I can and give it a very good inspection, but my only solution as I see it is to cut the axles, use the stubs to hold in the lathe and reprofile (gently!), then pass them over to someone else to add the male/female 5mm axles and quarter/taper pin. Also see if ABC will do a bespoke gearbox with a 5mm bore through gear and bearings.
Does anyone have any other bright ideas.
Richard