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Two problem cases

Barry Ten

Entry posted by Barry Ten

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Here are a couple of kitbuilt locos which, in their different ways, need some decisions taken.

 

The C2X was my first kit and proved to be quite a saga. I've gone over it before but the gist is that, after building the loco in 2000, I could never get it to run satisfactorily. Finally, I took it along to one of the Missenden Abbey weekends where Tony Wright was able to take a look at it and confirm that there was nothing fundamentally wrong with my chassis build, just problems with pickups and (possibly gear meshing). Tony fashioned some new pickups for me on the weekend and the result was a definite improvement, but the loco still sounded like a bag of spanners and was not capable of prolonged smooth and steady running. Finally, I swapped out the original gearbox for a new DJH one and - voila - the loco ran the way I had always wanted it to.

 

With our house move in 2007 I put the C2X back in its box but when I took it out again one of the pickups had come adrift and the model needed some work. I put it back in the box until tonight. Rather than fix the pickup, I decided to strip out the rather ugly and obtrusive arrangement that I had originally installed, so tonight I put some much more discrete and tidy pickups in place. After some tweaking the model now runs very well again but (isn't there always a but?) I realised that one of my new pickup pads fouls the retaining screw for the body, so that will have to be moved before I can get it all screwed together again.

 

More problematically, in terms of the loco's future, is that there's no room for a decoder. Back in 2000 I definitely wasn't thinking about DCC, so I filled the boiler with a goodly amount of lead. The tender, as designed by DJH, is also a sealed unit, although in theory I could remove the base of the coal bunker to access the interior. A simpler option may be to just backdate the loco to Southern days as I am edging closer to the idea that my pre-nationalisation stock will remain largely analogue.

 

blogentry-6720-0-44889100-1372713655.jpg

 

I must admit to not having much reference material when I built this loco, so I've no idea (especially after 13 years) whether it would even be feasible to back-date it to LBSC colours.

 

Another problem case is this DJH 1366 tank:

 

blogentry-6720-0-59805000-1372713730.jpg

 

Unlike the C2X I had no difficulties getting it to run well, perhaps because I went for a DJH gearbox from the outset. In fact, it still runs really well, at least by my standards. But I had a heck of a job getting the bodywork to sit square, and I've never been entirely happy with the outcome. I doubt that anyone else would notice, not unless they picked up the loco and examined it carefully, but there are aspects to it that bother me and I've never been sure to what to do about them. The model is glued together - epoxy and cyano - so dismantling it would not be straightforward. I've thought about razoring the boiler/tanks away from the cab/footplate and re-establishing the relationship, and even obtaining a completely new set of castings. Or perhaps I should just accept the model for what it is, and live with its shortcomings? Again, there is scant room for a decoder although it would probably be easier than squeezing one into the C2X. I certainly want to do something with the 1366 as it is a shame to waste a decent chassis.

 

Edit: I've taken this photo of the front of the engine which has helped me get a better idea of the issues:

 

blogentry-6720-0-19561000-1372884297_thumb.jpg

 

Although I was convinced that something was off in terms of the horizontal relationship between the pannier tanks and the buffer beam, it turns out not actually to be the case - it is all pretty level and parallel. My Photoshop skills were not good enough to add some horizontal reference lines, but you can check the horizontal-ness of it just by scrolling the image up and down on your browser window. But the boiler and panniers are definitely skewed to the right, as you can tell by dropping a line from either the left or right side of the panniers and seeing where it transects the buffer beam. In fact looking carefully at the model, I can now see where the smokebox saddle is slightly offset from its correct position. My guess is that I was so concerned with getting everything level that I didn't pay quite enough attention to centering the boiler/pannier assembly.

 

Since everything else is level and square, it would be a shame not to have a go at fixing this, is my view. But can it be done without completely disassembling the model? I'm willing to try, anyway. My plan of attack would be to carefully cut through the base of the smokebox saddle with a razor saw, so that the saddle is no longer connected to the footplate, and then try using gentle coercion to persuade the boiler/pannier assembly to shift slightly to the left compared to its present position, before reattaching the saddle. It's probably no more than a mm, so I reckon that it should be possible to achieve that without disturbing the cab, since the change in angle along the length of the loco will be extremely slight.

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Sidecar Racer
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 Hi Al .

a total dismantle with a glue fixed body is a piece of cake , a tin of nitromores

and a sealable container .

 

 Place body in container , pour the gunk on to the inside where all the glue

is , and leave for a day , it should all fall to pieces nicely then .

 

 Wear gloves when dealing with the nitomores though , and dont get in in your

eyes either .

 

 I've done several like this that needed a full re-build , and even if it was soldered

with low melt a kettle of boiling water does the job .

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Captain Kernow
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I agree with Mike re dismantling the loco body, Al, but I can't see much wrong with it from the photo. I'd ask myself whether the time and money spent re-furbishing this loco will result in a commensurate increase in the looks and running qualities of the loco, and consequently, a commensurate increase in the pleasure you derive from it.

 

Otherwise, I'd be tempted to do what I've done from time to time and say 'it is what it is. It's not too bad as it is and I'd like to progress with other projects now....'

 

Of course, I think we can all guarantee that if you spend time dismantling or doing anything to either of these lovely locos, then Bachmann or someone will bring out a RTR one....!

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Mike G

Why not put the chip in the tender. The engine is close coupled to it's tender and I'm assuming the tender is also whitemetal - plenty of weight, so 4 thin wires - with slack - running back to the engine should not prove a problem going around curves.

Just a thought.

 

Mike

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Barry Ten
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Hi Mike - that's true, but as I mentioned, the tender is a closed box - there's no way to get into it without cutting away the metal floor of the coal area. I might end up doing that, though. I put a decoder in my King tender without difficulties.

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Sidecar Racer
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As a follow up to my initial post , I too built one of the 1366 class many years  ago when I was still

at the learning stage of kit building .

 

Being a bit naive I assumed that kits of working loco's would go together like an Airfix car kit , you

just glued it all together and away it would go . So unsuprisingly my 1366 also had a distinct list to

the tank assembly . It was'nt untill I really started to get back into modelling properly after my 30 year

sabattical that it was realised that you cant do a loco kit in a day and get right that I took it to bits and

rebuilt it using low melt solder . It certainly looks better for it .

 

I do wonder if in using epoxy there is a chance that things can move under there own weight while

the glue is fully hardening , at least with a solder job it's fixed firmly first time .

 

As Tim says it looks okay in the photo and the camera never lie's does it ? 

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Barry Ten
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I'll post a pic when I get a chance which will hopefully clarify the distortion and give me a clue as to what remedial work might be worthwhile. There are two main issues: once I'd painted the model, I noticed that the left and right pannier aren't equidistant in length from the smokebox, suggesting that the whole boiler assembly is skewed very slightly to one side. Secondly, also looking from the front, there's something "off" in the relationship between the buffer beam and the pannier tanks, with one or both not sitting level.

 

I did take a fair bit of care building the body, and remember carefully inserting etched brass packing pieces and so on to get the boiler sitting perfectly horizontal when viewed from the side. I got that bit right! As you say, though, distortion can creep in very gradually and I think there are some errors which are maybe hard to detect in bare metal.

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Sidecar Racer
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then try using gentle coercion to persuade the boiler/pannier assembly to shift

 

 

Ahh yes , hit wiv a ammer guv .

 

 Al thats a lot of work for so little gain , it certainly looks better than my example did , but if

you fel the need than so be it .

 

 Certainly with my eyesight as it is I would'nt notice a problem from normal viewing

distance and even more because it's such a small loco anyway .

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Barry Ten
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You're right, Mike, but it is one of those things that's going to keep bothering me until I do something about it!

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