Sam Kennion

You might be better off repainting a body from BR Lines and pestering Steve to finally provide his etched chassis and upgrades. 🤔😎

Just stumbled upon this. Please could you re-post the track plan? Also, any news on progress?

I think the KiHa 40 is a second generation chassis (iirc), but as you say with the original type of motor. These have the bogies held on by tension springs which pull them towards the chassis. The original chassis had compression springs to transmit the electricity from the bogies to the chassis. The problem was that the compression springs also pushed the gears on the driven axles away from the main drive gear on the chassis and out of mesh thus loosing drive! So even with the same motor, the second generation design in the KiHa 40 is much better and should be capable of running well. I don’t think any of the later designs are any better at running if the track is too dirty, people probably just don't show track cleaning because it's dull.

There can also be issues with the magnets on the wheels coming loose, in effect the tyre, so the axle might be spinning but not moving the wheel/tyre. Or a split gear muff on a driven axle. Or fluff in the mechanism. Or a spring come loose etc. Or just dirt on the wheels. Or a split pinion on the motor. It is possible to get it running again. Have you managed it yet? If not, let me know.

Really? Are you sure? I do hope so as the Matheson wagon is still miles better than any other similar open wagon from any of the other manufacturers. It may even be the best outright but I haven't compared it to some of the latest offerings. I hope they offer their 3 link couplings too as they are a great fit in BachFar wagons.

Please could you share details of the prototypes Julia? Also how did you make the axles and what dimensions are they please? Sam

Interesting Klaus. Any photos or drawings of the prototype of that loco please? Are those the right wheels? You seem to have an outside cylinder to attach but no crank pins!? Sam

Valentin, I see that Mike beat me to it, but if he doesn't end up taking the loco or ends up deciding it doesn't suit him, then I think I can make something of it. Sam.

It's in the wrong forum then! I can still use them then, on the garden railway!

Educated guess on the gauge (and the rest). I'm fairly sure they'll be useful.

'Want one!' Well, I don’t want just ONE, I want several please! What wheelbase are they and what gauge? What wheels are you going to use with them? Sam

Hi Hendreladis, Are these items still available please? I'm afraid that I don't have any of the items you list and doubt that I have anything sufficiently esoteric to swap but maybe we can come to a suitable arrangement. Cheers, Sam

You might want to also get a small number of axles/wheelsets that are the next length up from what you have measured (or even both the next two sizes). RTR axles are often quite a sloppy fit and you may well find that longer finescale axles actually run better than the same length you took out.

Three photos of Holywell Town. The headshunt looks challengingley short, though it is improved a bit if you go through the 'middle' road (left hand track as you approach from the 'main' line).