The locomotive shop - 28xx no 2811 part 4
Entry posted by drduncan
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It has been quite a while since my last post, and even longer since my last update on 2811's progress - aside from some sulphurous mutterings in other posts which just may have indicated I was vexed and discontented.
The causes of this winter (well autumn) of discontent were various:
- First, there was the tender issue expounded on at length in my last blog entry. In particular the rewiring to match the loco wiring was rather timeconsuming and is seems that Hornby used spit to solder the electrical leads to the motor.
- Second, there was the rather brassey finish to the Hornby motion once the chemical blacking had been cleaned off.
I thought I'd just have to persevere with (1) but with (2) I could use Alan Gibson 28xx rods which were in nickel silver. A set was purchased. They arrived. I cursed. The Alan Gibson set were designed to be soldered up from 2 layers, but woe of woes, they weren't designed to be articulated, they were 2 single pieces per side. So I bit the bullet and chopped them up, layered up the pieces and and after much sweating and filing I had an articulated set of rods - but one vital section had to be made up of effectively two halves that shared no common joint over the knuckle which meant they had to be very carefully measured if they were to fit the Hornby chassis.
Still, everything would be fine, wouldn't it????...
Only it wasn't. Having fitted the rods I offered up the chassis to a test track and was somewhat surprised to find the wheels were too far apart. I'd used the GW wheel press to assemble the Alan Gibson wheelsets and this requires the axle to be the correct length. I measured and found that the axles were just over 0.5mm too long - in other words I'd got P4 not EM axles. I rang Colin at Alan Gibson and explained the problem and asked him to chuck some replacement axles in the post. However, Colin explained that all the axles were P4 length and that people turned them down to the right length. It was apparently a legacy issue that he'd been unable to address in time and there had been previously economic issues as the demand for P4/EM 3mm axles was too low to to justify both. While this position is reasonable up to a point, it still left me with an effectvely unusable wheelset (no lathe you see), and above all I feel that if something is supplied with P4 axles you really can't describe it as an EM conversion pack (it contains EM profile wheels after all, not P4 ones, despite all the discussion on the MRJ 234 threat about P4 with EM flange profiles), especially if there is no warning note for the unsuspecting customer who unreasonably expects the EM convserion kit to be, well, for EM gauge...
Fortunately, I know a man that does have a lathe and can use it. So I prevailed on the sage of Fareham to reduce the axle length for me - oh and mind the gear axle fixed to one of them... Richard soon retunred the axles and I assembled the wheels again (which were by this time getting a bit loose on the axles - Colin did offer to recentre them but I decided to use the trusty Loctite 603 rather than have a further delay). The loco was placed on the test track and immediately started showing quartering issues, which was strange as it had been assembled with the GW wheel press. After a bit of head scratching I realised that similar problems (binding, crankpins unscrewing etc) would also be caused by that worrying rod made from two seperate pieces being a fraction out for length. Much swearing. [it's noticeable that Alan Gibson don't do a conversion sheet for the 28xx, it seems for good reason]
So back to the brassey Hornby rods which were treated to a wipe of polished steel paint. They still looked awful but they should at least have the same spacing as the axle bearings.
The loco was again placed on the test track and power applied. It moved smoothly for a few inches and then the final drive gear wheel started spinning on its axle despite the loctite. Even superglue wouldn't hold it. Essentially, the Hornby driven axle had rasied splines which made the final drive too loose a fit on the smooth Alan Gibson axle.
By this time I was contemplating taking up stamp collecting.
So I contemplated asking Ultrascale for a replacement final drive. I also contemplated getting their drop in wheel sets but ruled it out as it would cost more than I paid for the loco - and take at least 6 months.
The way ahead is simple. I'm probably going to throw the chassis away, get a Comet one somehow (which is designed to fit the Hornby body) . This may seem extreme, but the object of the exercise is to get a working loco, not produce a never ending stream of web content and Empire Mills has an exhibtion looming and we need working and reliable locos. If I'm lucky (and on balance the luck in the project must be due to change in my favour) I'll be able to ream out the wheels to take a 1/8th inch axle so the only cost wil be comet chassis, motor and gear box, which while more than I had intended to spend is still less than the Ultrascale drop in wheel set, but I'll have to call in another favour with the sage of Fareham to get the axles. Mind you, if I can't get the wheels off the 603 encrusted axles then with the cost of a new set of wheels the Ultrascale option might not be so expensive (except in time.) Glup. Anyway the comet option (which was discussed with Scanman of this parish at Expo EM as a possible option if it all went horribly wrong - he'd just bought a comet chassis, sensible chap, and advised me that the 28xx rod set available as a separate item from comet was for the old 28xx model not the same as the one supplied with the new all singing and dancing comet 28xx chassis) will give me a good chassis that will be sprung or flexichas, so there will be some compensation for me....
Happily the body conversion has been a doddle so far. And this will get a separate post in due course.
Above all, the thing that really irritates me is the fact that I have not yet found a half decent reason to blame Gareth, my occasional modelling partner in crime, for this debarcle. More thought on the subject is clearly needed...
In the meantime, I'll do something far more constructuve with my time - the Dean Goods High Level Kits chassis is coming along veery nicely.
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