Why compensation?

What is compensation?

The Components:-

The pivot beam, as usually fitted. The rear wheels are "fixed", no up or down movement, the front and centre pair have about 1mm either side of the centre line in 7mm scale up and down movement.

A variation of the simple pivot beam. This photograph of my N.E.R. Class 398 0-6-0 tender loco. This 7mm loco has full inside working Stephenson motion complete with eccentrics so there is no room to place the beam in the "classic" position. Instead there is a "U" shaped bracket which is slung on the axle at either side to allow the beam to put the load on the axle. Note that the beam pivot is mounted on the loco's motion bracket and closer to the front axle. This was done to distribute the weight of the loco equally to all axles. The drive is to the rear axle which is of course 'fixed'. Note also that there are no horn blocks. These are an unecessary complication on locos in the smaller scales as they serve no useful purpose. This loco simply has slots in the frames.