I have been rather under the weather for the last three days but, while far from being OK, I can at least get out of bed and do something other than watch TV. So, after lunch to-day, I decided to have a look at one locomotive that was a poor runner, namely, the Hornby R505 Fowler LMS tank. From previous tests I hd the feeling that something was binding and blocking the motor or, less possibly, the chip settings were interfering with each other. A quick check showed that the loco answered to its set address, but I got error readings from CV29, so I reset these. I then changed the start volt reading from 25 (this being an old loco, perhaps near on 20 years old) and reset it to 1.Strangely enough, it started running, but unfortunately it did'nt take long to get back to it old habiit of jamming. I had stripped the loco down to the bare chassis, with no motor but, no matter how much I looked at it from above, below or sides, I could'nt see where the mechanism was binding. I spent the whole afternoon and then, about 21.30 (we use continental time here) I spotted something. I haven't taken any photo, but there is a curved vertical part with a long slot in it and, when compared with the other side, ithe lower end seemed to be closer in than the otherside. I took it between a pair of tweezers and bent it outward very slightly, which wasn't easy, because the overall mechanism tended to move with it. Nevertheless, a couple of tweaks and the problem seems to be solved. To-morrow, abw, I will refit the motor and chip and see what happens.
Also the other day we had a pleasant surprise. It turned out that a person we have known for many years is a model railway fan with a large layout at his home and neither of us had mentioned our interest to the other.
We hope you all had a good time over Christmas. This year our Christmas cake was unanimously acclaimed as the best we have ever made (there's nothing like being modest).
Cheers and all the best for the New Year