outatime

Just for information, I've got one with factory sound and the chuffs came way too often. I adjusted the Chuff-rate, so that there are approx. 4 chuffs in one revolution. CV 267 was set to 125 in my case which comes close enough for low speeds. If you want to go back to the factory setting set the CV to 108.

Could it be possible, that the coupling itself was assembled in the wrong way? Looks like the plastic part of the coupling is upside down, so it should be turned around and the coupling hook fitted from the other side.

It was not that easy, you have to disassemble nearly everything to drop the bogie out. -unsolder connections to the motor and the pickups -unscrew the PCB -remove all the details from the bogie, at least the white pipe. -unscrew the interior -unscrew the metal C-Clip and slide it away -drop the bogie out The Bogie is split in two parts which are attached to each other by three screws. Anyway, there's a lot of work involved. As you can see in the picture, one side bench is missing in my sound fitted model.

Mine had a stiff point as well, I had to disassemble it to where I got the motor out to see what the problem was. The distance between the slide bars was to small at one end, so that the crosshead got stuck a little. I used some small pliers to slightly tweak the slide bar and now mine runs fine.

It's funny that i just finished my collection of every preserved Pannier tank with the arrival of the Rapido 15xx. Now I have to start all over again 😅. I might replace some of the Bachmann ones with sound fitted Accurascale ones. Hopefully the exclusive Version will be a LT Pannier, L92 perhaps, as it was the first in my Pannier collection.

The drawing can be found here as well, scroll all the way down to the pdf: https://www.mylargescale.com/threads/sierra-rwy-locomotive-technical-drawings-available.92515/

The second one would be a nice postcard, it looks like a colourized black and white picture.

You could also modify the sprung middle axle and make sure the pickups are touching the wheels properly. https://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/129125-oo-gauge-gwr-mogul-and-prairie/&do=findComment&comment=4663572

I remember someone writing it is near to impossible because of the loco's construction and therefore fitting a new chassis would require a fair amount of work. Not that it can't be done, but a lot of milling would be involved. See here for the exploded diagram: P4 Wheelsets can be fitted as seen here: https://www.scalefour.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=7398&p=82605 Kind Regards, Björn

I'll go for the Dapol Manor, the rivets of the Accurascale Version are too prominent imho, especially those on the footplate.

There is a good tutorial on how to disassemble the Hattons DJM 14xx/48xx on scalefour.org: https://www.scalefour.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=6127 It doesn’t look like there is a lot of space for a stay alive though.

Well, sorry, probably it still wasn't clean enough after a few wipes with isopropyl alcohol. I just had a look at the rear pony truck and after the use of a small needle file the axle can now move upwards and is still sprung. A softening of the springs is still a good option, they feel quite strong but not strong enough to lift the loco.

Here are two photos showing the modifications to the keeper plate. Now that i've had the loco in my hands again, i can confirm that there is an issue with the rear pony truck as well. The wheel cannot move upwards at all even if the loco is on even track. So it is possible that the pony truck lifts the rear driving wheel in some cases and this reduces the number of contact points to only one axle, the first driving axle. So some work has to be done there as well.

The problem is that if the middle axle is only able to move upwards it means that it is not touching the rails most of the time, just if it was not sprung at all and just as ridgid as the other two driving axles. The rails are never perfectly even and in this case you are left with only three contact points with the rails, for example the last axle and one side of the first (assumed that the rails are not even). Then if only a little dirt on the tracks comes into the equation, the loco will stall. With the sprung axle now working properly, the number of contact points increases from 3 to 5 even in the worst case.

I also received my Dapol Large Praire a couple of days ago. Yesterday i finally had the time to test it and mine also stalled at slow speeds, even on my perfectly clean and straight piece of test track. At first i suspected the pickups, but even after adjusting them, the loco didn't run any better. The Loco has a sprung middle axle which usually is a good idea for better pickup. But in this case, the axle can only move upwards but not downwards. Just hold a ruler or any other piece of straight material on the wheels and you will see that the middle axle ist not moving up as it should. Finally, i modified the keeper plate, so that the middle axle can also move downwards and is therefore properly pressed against the rails. After this modification, the loco ist running perfectly fine without stalling even when crawling very slowly. I will soon remove the keeper plate again for a photo, but at first i had to test that the modification worked. I didn't inspect the rear pony truck at all because it was moving freely in every direction, so this was not the fault with my loco.