Alan's Workbench

[Colonel]

Wibble - and beam me up Scotty.

We need that J26 back...

[Patrick Davey]

1 hour ago, Colonel said:

Wibble - and beam me up Scotty.

We need that J26 back...

Yes please

[Tullygrainey]

7 hours ago, jhb171achill said:

I haven't the beginnings of a clue what yizzer talkin' about, lads. My reply to the above is therefore F6T1 89YG H4W7.

I had one of those once but the wheels fell off

[jhb171achill]

2 hours ago, Tullygrainey said:

I had one of those once but the wheels fell off

You should have fitted a X5S4 to it….

[Tullygrainey]

4 hours ago, jhb171achill said:

You should have fitted a X5S4 to it….

I tried that but the one I had was a left handed thread and didn't fit. The gauge was wrong too.

[Tullygrainey]

8 hours ago, Colonel said:

Wibble - and beam me up Scotty.

We need that J26 back...

As it happens, J26 no556 was back with me this last week or so for a severe talking to. It went to its owner Kieran who painted and finished it for its career at Kirley Junction. All was well for a while but then it began to develop personality disorders, running lumpily, stopping and starting then refusing to run at all.

On examination a number of issues emerged. Two of the ScaleLink wheels had developed cracks in the boss where the crankpin screws in, meaning the crankpins may not have been secure. Given that I’ve had trouble with cracking cranks on my little Kirtley project, I suspect I need to rein in my cack-handedness when fitting crankpins.

The wheels were replaced with a set of Markits and running improved noticably. Then the final drive gear came loose on its axle. The gearbox that was bundled with the kit is an early High Level RoadRunner Compact Plus with a plain brass final drive cog which has no grub screw.

 

After repeated failures to secure the cog (threadlock, superglue, shouting at it, solder! I suspect it had been over-reamed at some stage. Maybe by me) I gave 556 a fresh RRC+ gearbox. The current version has a more reliable final drive gearwheel with brass boss and grub screw. (I had intended to just use this final drive cog in the old box but the design of the box has changed and it wouldn’t fit).

While fitting the motor to the new gearbox, I discovered that the motor shaft was waving about in the breeze. Not normal!

 

 

The plastic moulding securing the motor bearing seems to have crumbled away leaving the bearing free to jiggle around.  No idea what’s caused this but on reflection, it may have been one of the root causes of the stop-start problems.

 

Anyway, 556 now has new wheels, a new motor and a new gearbox and seems infinitely happier.  It has a DCC chip stowed in the boiler and a ton of lead in the tanks. The Markit wheels are insulated/uninsulated pairs so pickups are now only needed on one side. A problem halved!

After trial runs at Loughan Quay, 556 is now back on home turf and earning its keep.

 

Alan

 

[Galteemore]

What a pain Alan! Interesting defects and rather unusual. Hope mine runs as well as that one. 

[Tullygrainey]

1 hour ago, Galteemore said:

What a pain Alan! Interesting defects and rather unusual. Hope mine runs as well as that one. 

I'm quite sure it will David

[jhb171achill]

Great to see a layout in full 1950s mode. What's that carriage in the middle of the rake?

[Colonel]

Quite a saga - rare to get such a range of faults in pretty much all the working parts, especially when they all came from different manufacturers. More than entitled to feel a bit vexed!

[Tullygrainey]

11 hours ago, jhb171achill said:

Great to see a layout in full 1950s mode. What's that carriage in the middle of the rake?

Kieran, whose models those are, tells me it’s a 1st Class Saloon coach

[jhb171achill]

6 hours ago, Tullygrainey said:

Kieran, whose models those are, tells me it’s a 1st Class Saloon coach

Yes, the GSWR had several of that ilk!