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Kirley

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Was the conversion much work Kirley?

 

No Stephen, it was fairly straight forward. I had to break the reduced Class 55 chassis at the join and replace the dummy bogie end with the new motor bogie chassis support.

 

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As you can see my cutting was not very straight but I used Roket powder to fill the gap. It’s marvellous stuff and does what it says on bottle.

You just cover the gap with Superglue and pour a little of the powder into the recess. It dries rock hard in seconds and is very strong.

 

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I filled the well with the cut down steel plates and added further weights between the two bogies.

 

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The wiring was straight forward; the track pickup wires from front and back are joined and connected to the 8 pin decoder plate.

The wires from the motors are tested to ensure all the wheels turn in the same direction before connection to the decoder plate.

 

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I’m delighted how effective this modification is. Now what to do with my other 3 A Class Locomotives?

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I've started on converting a Class 66 chassis to fit a Lima 201 body and have been doing some under frame detailing to get it near the 201.

 

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This meant removing the large fuel tank and cutting it down to size and adding some other bits and pieces.

 

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Used SSM's detailing kit, drilled holes for lights and masked off the warning panel and the NIR logo as I'm going to repaint with NIR InterCity blue.

 

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I've still to remove the Lima bogie frames and put them on the new chassis, O yes! and to work out the lights.

 

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This means I was left with a redundant Lima 201 chassis so I decided to have a go at improving the traction of this notorious power unit by adding another power bogie.

 

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It was straight forward enough to do except you had to cut the body at one end rather than in the middle otherwise you would end up with a large fuel tank at each end.

 

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So for the test run.........I'mm , once a tractor always a tractor! It screeched and rasped into life and took off like a Ferguson tractor except not as good. I played about with some of the decoder settings to see if that would make a difference but no.

 

I'm coming round to the opinion that the pick up from the track is not good enough. With the original chassis you had pick up on the motor bogie from one side only as there are traction tyres (lovely things) on the other side but you had pick up from both tracks at the rear bogie. I don't have this now with the two motor bogies - anyone any suggestions about a remedy or do I just wait until I can pick up another Class 66 chassis?

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Check out the DCC Concepts decoders - D2SAP -

 

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You solder the harness to the chassis in the normal way, connect the two wires from the decoder to the capacitor, then plug it in. The Cap then provides a 'keep alive' to keep things moving over dirt, insulfrogs, etc.

 

I got one to try out and fitted it to an old lima pancake in a TGV model, and it actually worked a charm. It won't improve the motor's running qualities, but will smooth out things and stop it stalling on poor pickups.

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I'm happy with the one I got to test, I've still some completely unpowered frogs around the layout and she keeps the loco moving despite the lack of power (as the lima model takes power only from one bogie)

 

I'm hoping to test it in something smaller too, to see how it improves slow running

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Lenz seem to have been the first to come up with their USP System which uses a capacitor to get around problems with poor power pick up dirty track

 

 

I have fitted a Bachmann large scale 2-6-0 & a rail truck with USP decoders. They will both run faultlessly outdoors even when other locos are running erratically or have stopped when the rail becomes tarnished in humid conditions.

 

The capacitor has other benefits the most noticeable I have never had to clean the wheels on the 2-6-0 and the plating on the tyres is still good after 4 years the plating is completely eroded on my other Bachmann large scale locos.

 

The trick with reversing on the sheet of paper works, you have to learn to drive the 2-6-0 takes about 10" to stop from full speed when it runs onto a dead section & the capacitor will stay charged and the loco is controllable with only one rail connected to the power.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Tried something different with lights. I used Fibre Optics and bent them to fit into my A Class as Headlights and Marker Lights.

 

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My workbench, mainly detailing the A & C Class, fitting windows and paint touch ups prior to adding the decals, white stripes etc.

 

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The Lima 201's in the background are going to be either doubled motored or a Class 66 chassis replacement.

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They all look great Kirley, the 201 seems to sit nicely on the 66 chassis! That looks like a very neat job with the fibre-optic lighting on the A-class; I did something similar with mine but it was very fiddly and I'm not entirely happy with it but yours looks a much better set up.

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Added wheels, couplings and decals to the Cement Bubbles before weathering.

 

As well as using an oven to shaping Plasticard (as per Glenderg's wagon roofs) you can use the glass top on the cooker for getting a level surface (preferably switched off!)

 

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did you use a plasticard C Channel for where the tank meets the main frame?

 

This is the way I got the Resin bodies, I had to supply the chassis and piping.

 

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Richie- I hope to put up a video after they are weathered.

 

Heirflick- on reflection I should have done some in the earlier livery as I have a small rake of MIR Bubbles but the desire of having a long rake of bubbles won over.

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Grey, Mr Flick; at least on any I ever saw. Few Irish wagons ever had black chassis, and grey was still the predominant overall wagon colour when they started painting the actual "bubble" orange.

 

I suspect some were painted at Inchicore and others at Limerick. It is therefore conceivable that Limerick might have painted some a different colour. My own photos, and from recollection, all others I have ever seen, show grey. Even if any had been painted black, cement dust would have turned them grey very quickly indeed.

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