blueeighties

Yup, use this process all of the time.

Nice. Very informative for the customer. If the gestation period is anything like the Alpha switch Ds and solenoid accessory decoder restocking times, I wouldn't hold your breath. I have never known a company to be out of stock of key core components for nigh on 12 months now, and can't give a firm restock date. Very odd.

This is in relation to a 00 gauge model, but I thought the fault tracing/finding would be useful to share. The Hornby class 56. A really good model, with a few silly faults. I have owned, continue to own, and work on loads of them. One thing has always bugged me, the running. I generally strip them right back to the bare bones, silly Hornby pcb dumped, and re wired with new correct colour lighting units. I thought I had found the running issue by removing the large capacitor on the motor terminals. This week I had a seized drivetrain to sort out, so completely stripped it down. Hornby are known for using a 'concrete' grease, which over time dries and causes the chassis to become stiff, or sometimes seized if not ran very often. So apart it came, and out with the degreaser. Once everything was nice and clean, I decided to check that all of the geartrain was properly free running. It's not. I have discovered that the main drive cogs, which transfer the drive from the motor worm to the wheels, have a tight spot and bind. I checked another chassis...exactly the same. So I'm now thinking I have found the issue. The series of photos show a greased up drivetrain upon disassembly, then cleaned, and then finally marked with paint where the tight spot is. I can't see any visible cracking or gear issues, so this must be down to crap manufacturing tolerances. Going to file the offending teeth down a bit in the hope that this will resuly in a silky smooth running chassis. Only took 5 years to find this!!

Which particular models are these then? Replacements have always been orderable across the range from Heljans spares distributor, Howes of Oxford.

nd work in progress number 2! Again Heljan 0 gauge, this time a big Western. The paintwork is being taken back to a very distressed finish, quite tricky, a lot more weathering to go once I'm happy with this first stage.

Work in progress number 1. A Heljan 0 gauge class 20. My customer purchased this numbered and weathered, the weathering is actually a pretty decent job, but unfortunately the transfer application was not, and the numbers were just hanging off. Have re done these, added sound, and a characteristic blue engine room door, some further weathering to blend everything in next.

37426...Y Lein fecker Heljan 0 gauge, cantrail stripe added, (and yes I have a couple of wee bits to touch up), numbered, detailed and weathered. I think this is the one and only 0 gauge loco that's leaving the workshop this year with no sound fitted.

A factory weathered Bachmann 37032 'Mirage' which has been given some further weathering treatment. And Legoman sound

Repainted, detailed and weathered Bachman class 37.

Adding the additional lamp bracket to 37426 nose ends. Made up from scrap pieces of brass.

Not my usual 'bag', but recently built some basic gantries with colour light signals for a customers layout. Also installing Heathcote Electronics control boards for automatic operation.

Bogies shmogies....

A nice pair of weathered and detailed Bachmann 37s.

I was thinking that too.

Hi Peter. That shed looks great. I immediately thought 'Holyhead' so you have captured it well! Regarding the TTS decoders, I was asked to install a couple once and both had issues with running and lights...one failing completely. I don't touch them now, the usual poorly thought out and unreliable Hornby electrical.