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GEM80_Pom

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  1. To clarify, I bought the loco as a 2nd hand item, so I don't know its age. I am glad to hear that Bachmann will be using white nylon in future: I remember buying a Poole Class 25 back in 1987, when white nylon first replaced brass gears, and it has been my quietest and most reliable loco so far. I have compared the sizes & positions of the idler gears with a similar loco... and they match. The idler gears in the functioning loco are also free to slide from side-to-side but they never quite lose contact/mesh with each other. However, the lack of alignment in the functioning loco makes me think the forces are being concentrated on an unnecessarily thin width of the gears' teeth 😧 To explain why one loco works and the other doesn't: the widths of the bogies' inner channels are ever-so-slightly wider in the non-functioning loco (i.e. the sides bow slightly outwards), consequently allowing the gears to decouple. If the bogies are made of a thermoplastic then I will try heating them in hot water and then squeezing the bogies to a narrower dimension (after stripping all removable items first of course 😉).
  2. Firstly, this is not about split gears... it seems Bachmann have found a new way to make their models "fail to proceed" 🙄. I have a new-ish Class 66 (371-379) where the motor spins but the loco doesn't move (makes for a great sound-effect in a double-header 😂 ). I unclipped the bogies and both have the same problem: the intermediate idler gears that transfer power to the wheel axles were out-of-mesh with their neighbouring gears. The axles for these idler gears are smooth and consequently the gears are free to slide sideways. Also, the width of the bogie's inner channel, where the gears are, is just wide enough to allow adjacent gears to sit on opposite sides of the channel and consequently they don't touch each other. Even if I slide the gears back into a meshed state, the gears soon slide into an unmeshed state again after a few seconds of running the loco. My questions are: Has anyone else experienced this? ... what model(s) of loco? Has anyone taken this up with Bachmann? ... and what was their response? Is there a way to fix this problem? ...I can only think of looking for miniature washers, or fashioning bushes out of wire insulation, to keep the gears positioned in the middle of the axle. In the photos below, power comes from gear '1', then to gear '2', then on to gear '3'. However, gear '2' is always unmeshed on the opposite side from gear '1'.
  3. I have come into possession of a pre-loved Standard Class 5MT model (372-726) that is in need of some TLC... 1. Traction Tyres: I believe this model is supposed to be fitted with traction tyres, fitted to at least one of the axles: is it safe to assume it is the centre axle (because this is the only axle driven by the motor)? will any traction tyre from any brand (e.g. Minitrix) suit, or does it need to be a certain, correct thickness? 2. Valve Gear: one of the pins on the valve gear doesn't have a properly formed head and consequently the outer link falls off. Any tips for a simple (low skill) fix? I checked "BR Lines" and "Peters Spares" website but they don't sell spare sets of valve gear: are there any other sources of spares I can check? Thank you for reading this, Neil
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