Back in July when I resurrected my Mainline ex LMS 2P 4-4-0 I must have been very lucky because

has the engine running perfectly smoothly. Since then attempts to run at slow speed have resulted in the engine stalling on a diamond crossing and worse still coming to an unexpected dead stop in out of the way non scenic sections of the layout.

Peco Streamline Mini Diamond and Mainline ex LMS 2P

 

The diamond crossing provides the clue.

Peco Insulfrog Short Diamond

 

The Mainline 2P only has electrical pickups on its two pairs of driving wheels. The tender drive unit is based on the old Airfix design with all plastic wheels and rubber tyres. The spacing of the dead plastic frogs on the Code 100 Peco small diamond crossing match perfectly with the wheel spacing of the driving wheels on the 2P and it is not surprising that the engine stalls on this piece of track.

Mainline ex LMS 2P

 

As to the other locations I am ashamed to say that close examination of the track where the engine had unexpectedly stopped usually showed a tiny build up of dirt on the rail head. The axles on the Mainline 2P are not sprung and perhaps uneven track combined with dirt on the rail head was sufficient to interrupt the electric current to the motor and bring the engine to a dead stop.

 

I think I am correct in saying that the Peco Electrofrog short crossing is only available with Code 75 rail. I could build my own crossing in with Code 100 rail but that would not solve the problems caused by dirty and uneven track. My favoured solution was to add electrical pickups to the front bogie.

Hornby X6475 front bogie for Hornby R3028 Class 2P

 

As luck would have it Hornby have made available as spare part X6475 the front bogie from their latest engine drive 2P (R3028). The bogie provided by Hornby requires wiring. My first attempts shown above used some plastic coated wire stripped from a telephone cable. The bogie comes in two parts and the view below shows the top with the wipers for the wheels removed to aid soldering.

Second attempt using more flexible wire showing wipers

 

The plastic coating turned out to be very rigid and prevented free movement of the bogie. My second attempt utilised some rather old instrument wire from Farnell in Leeds. The wire appeared to have a soft natural rubber coating and was more flexible and to my liking.

Farnell Wire from the 80s or 90s

 

The design of the Mainline Chassis is interesting. It would appear to incorporate a ready made passage for wiring from the front bogie to the chassis bottom.

The underside of the Mainline chassis showing readymade opening for wiring between the bogie and chassis bottom

 

Also the arrangement for current collection from the driving wheels inside the chassis bottom appears to have ready made tags for soldering additional wires from the front bogie Did Palitoy design for bogie pickups and were they omitted perhaps to save costs?

Inside Mainline Chassis Bottom showing solder tags for wires from the bogie

 

For the record I used two 37mm lengths of wire for joining the bogie to the contacts in the chassis bottom. This was the length before stripping any of the insulation to make the soldered joints.

The finished product Mainline 2Pwith Hornby X6475 bogie

 

Certainly I think a very satisfying modification and well worth the outlay on the Hornby spare part. For those of you with a couple of minutes to spare there is video showing the modified 2P negotiating the offending diamond crossing.

http://youtu.be/ET4mDLEovw8

The layout uses cab control. All the pointwork was laid ‘straight out of the box, joined by Peco rail joiners. There was only one set of track feeds to perhaps seven or eight feet of track.

Brake rodding – repaired using 0.5mm drill and brass dressmaking pin

 

I must be starting to lose my touch but I snapped off one of the locating pins for the brake rodding. Not to worry it is easily repairable. I used a 0.5mm drill bit rolled between the fingers to make a small hole in the end of the plastic moulding where the broken pin had been. I then cut off a short section from a brass dressmaker’s pin which I positioned in the newly drilled hole before pushing it further into the plastic with a heated soldering iron. I guess care is needed to avoid too much heat. On cooling the pin is held rigidly in the plastic and the repair can be painted black to match the rest of the plastic moulding.

 

Another good outcome.