BosKonay Posted February 16, 2014 Posted February 16, 2014 Absolutely fantastic! Was the conversion much work Kirley? Fair play to Anthony. She runs like a Murphy 071! Quote
Kirley Posted February 17, 2014 Author Posted February 17, 2014 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. 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. I filled the well with the cut down steel plates and added further weights between the two bogies. 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. I’m delighted how effective this modification is. Now what to do with my other 3 A Class Locomotives? Quote
Kirley Posted February 20, 2014 Author Posted February 20, 2014 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. This meant removing the large fuel tank and cutting it down to size and adding some other bits and pieces. 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. I've still to remove the Lima bogie frames and put them on the new chassis, O yes! and to work out the lights. 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. 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. 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? Quote
Riversuir226 Posted February 20, 2014 Posted February 20, 2014 66 all the way Kirley, great work on both the A class and 201. Quote
irishthump Posted February 20, 2014 Posted February 20, 2014 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? What about a stay-alive capacitor? Quote
heirflick Posted February 21, 2014 Posted February 21, 2014 fantastic work on the A and 201! cant wait to see the finished projects. Quote
Kirley Posted February 21, 2014 Author Posted February 21, 2014 What about a stay-alive capacitor? Please tell me more, and your answer in non technical language would be welcome. Quote
BosKonay Posted February 21, 2014 Posted February 21, 2014 Check out the DCC Concepts decoders - D2SAP - 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. Quote
irishthump Posted February 21, 2014 Posted February 21, 2014 Check out the DCC Concepts decoders - D2SAP - To be honest I've heard varying reports on the DCC Concepts decoders, but if it can make a Lima run smoothly without cutting out it's doing well! The TCS Keep Alive units seem the most effective, especially if you use insulfrog turnouts. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zoqXxxAtmZA Quote
BosKonay Posted February 21, 2014 Posted February 21, 2014 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 Quote
Mayner Posted February 21, 2014 Posted February 21, 2014 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. Quote
Kirley Posted March 1, 2014 Author Posted March 1, 2014 One A Class complete A7 and my Lima 201 No. 209 repainted with an adapted Bachmann Class 66 chassis. See my Layout page for some video action. Quote
Kirley Posted March 3, 2014 Author Posted March 3, 2014 Finished the initial painting and wired up a second motor bogie so it was time for a test run. No problems with traction now. Quote
enniscorthyman Posted March 3, 2014 Posted March 3, 2014 Great stuff.probably not much room for a speaker and A class sound chip. Quote
Kirley Posted March 9, 2014 Author Posted March 9, 2014 Tried something different with lights. I used Fibre Optics and bent them to fit into my A Class as Headlights and Marker Lights. My workbench, mainly detailing the A & C Class, fitting windows and paint touch ups prior to adding the decals, white stripes etc. The Lima 201's in the background are going to be either doubled motored or a Class 66 chassis replacement. Quote
Barl Posted March 10, 2014 Posted March 10, 2014 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. Quote
enniscorthyman Posted March 11, 2014 Posted March 11, 2014 Great job as that looks tricky enough. Quote
Kirley Posted March 18, 2014 Author Posted March 18, 2014 Almost completed up-grading my A and C Class locomotives. All the A Class’s have now double power bogies and the C/Class 104 have a SW9/1200 chassis. Quote
BosKonay Posted March 18, 2014 Posted March 18, 2014 What a fleet!! They look the business, but the running has to give you great satisfaction! Nice job! <jealous!> Quote
scahalane Posted March 18, 2014 Posted March 18, 2014 Stunning line up!! I always have a soft spot for the A's. Quote
Kirley Posted March 19, 2014 Author Posted March 19, 2014 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!) Quote
Glenderg Posted March 19, 2014 Posted March 19, 2014 Oh wow, they look superb. Looking forward to them a wee bit dirty, but they look the biz... When can we expect a vid of them in action? Quote
scahalane Posted March 19, 2014 Posted March 19, 2014 Oh they look stunning, did you use a plasticard C Channel for where the tank meets the main frame? Quote
heirflick Posted March 19, 2014 Posted March 19, 2014 beautifil rake and well done. did you ever considder the orange CIE livery? Quote
Kirley Posted March 20, 2014 Author Posted March 20, 2014 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. 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. Quote
Glenderg Posted March 20, 2014 Posted March 20, 2014 Really impressive. What manufacturer are they from ? Quote
Kirley Posted March 20, 2014 Author Posted March 20, 2014 They are excellent, I was lucky to get the end of a run of Cement Bubbles last Autumn. They were made by someone who is not on this site and not interested in commissions for his work. Quote
jhb171achill Posted March 20, 2014 Posted March 20, 2014 These things had three liveries. All over grey from introduction until about 1972, then orange with grey chassis, later Irish Cement cream. Quote
heirflick Posted March 20, 2014 Posted March 20, 2014 j - were they definately grey not black on the orange bubbles? Quote
jhb171achill Posted March 20, 2014 Posted March 20, 2014 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. Quote
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