Jump to content
 

Graham Farish Split Gears again


Peter J
 Share

Recommended Posts

I've seen a 4MT 2-6-0 with a split gear on tender drive, as well as a B1 and 2 LMS black 5s.

 

Not common, but happens.

Cheers,

Alan

 

With my luck with Farish tender drives I was bound to get one - but two sent off for repair at the same time is a bit silly.  The daft thing is that I'd not spotted the Jubilee- it was sent with a different problem on the loco end (disintegrated valve gear).  BR Lines found the split gear when testing it following repair.  The A1 I knew about as I could hear it clicking.  I now have a horrible feeling that a second Pacific may have a split gear, but it is still running and not too loud yet so I'll see what develops at Newcastle this weekend.

 

Les

Link to post
Share on other sites

It's the split gears, overheating motors, broken tender to loco wires, wobbles, noisy mechanisms, poor pickups, bad back to backs, dodgy valve gear, dodgy soldering, slack QC and dodgy components that make N gauge life interesting.

Link to post
Share on other sites

It's the split gears, overheating motors, broken tender to loco wires, wobbles, noisy mechanisms, poor pickups, bad back to backs, dodgy valve gear, dodgy soldering, slack QC and dodgy components that make N gauge life interesting.

 

Phew . . . at least I mitigate that list and avoid the 'broken tender to loco wires' and 'dodgy valve gear' by running only diesels and electrics :jester: 

The others are all part of the fun and excitement. :nono: 

 

G.

Link to post
Share on other sites

As I have a love of both in decent quantities it does mean I have seen a lot of issues but to be fair I have plenty of locos that (for the time being) run very well. We do expect a lot of these tiny machines but they deprive us of increasing amounts of hard earned cash.

Link to post
Share on other sites

I don't have so much experience with steam but there is one famous exhibition layout that switched to the diesel era because they got so fed up with the reliability of steam outline.

 

This is 2016. Producing reliable locos in this scale is not nuclear science. Continental European stock is not perfect but does not seem to suffer the systemic problems associated with UK models. I would genuinely like to know why...

Link to post
Share on other sites

  • 4 months later...

Having just picked up the sound fitted 108, it seems to be fitted with white nylon gears. They are certainly white anyway!

 

Some of the first 3MT tanks are white geared as well as some 08s and the Railfreight 20. Not sure if this implies they are buying some gears in and getting varied supply, or whether they are transitioning to a nylon gear (perhaps unlikely given newer batches of the 3MT seem to have 'normal' black gears).

 

Interesting, nonetheless.

Cheers,

Alan

Link to post
Share on other sites

I don't have so much experience with steam but there is one famous exhibition layout that switched to the diesel era because they got so fed up with the reliability of steam outline.

 

This is 2016. Producing reliable locos in this scale is not nuclear science. Continental European stock is not perfect but does not seem to suffer the systemic problems associated with UK models. I would genuinely like to know why...

 

Don't know if it applies to the latest models, but my older Fleischmann locos have brass gears.

 

Chris

Link to post
Share on other sites

  • 2 months later...

I have an old (Poole-built) pannier whose gear collapsed the second time I ran it, about 3 weeks after the guarantee expired. Postage from Spain to get it repaired was hardly worth it, so ever since it has sat sadly outside the loco shed. What's worse, as I was trying to find out what was wrong, I managed to damage the coupling rods. Grrr.

As to the ready replacement of the gears on Bachmann's 0n30 models- perhaps that's because they are (basically) for the USA market, and Americans are rather more litigious-minded than we are? Just a thought...

Link to post
Share on other sites

  • 4 weeks later...
  • 3 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...

Two more failures since my last post including another 47. Seems Farish are replicating the prototype reliability of 47s on the Waterloo Exeter in the early 90s.

 

It is too frustrating to be fun any more. Most of my focus is on 00 now purely due to reliability. I want to replicate an operational railway not an engineering shop.

Link to post
Share on other sites

  • RMweb Premium

One of my Large Logo 37's has been spending the week in the main works in Barwell.  It has been repaired speedily and on its way back to me tomorrow though so not all is lost.

 

And yes, it was a broken gear cog in one of the bogies.

Link to post
Share on other sites

  • 3 weeks later...

The answer to the problem of split gears :

Bachmann should ask Chris at CJM why his gears don't split.

I have owned many of his Locos for over 15 years now, and guess what ?

NO split gears !!!

 

Bachmann, please learn the error of your ways and kindly Stop taking us for Fools.

Link to post
Share on other sites

Bachmann, please learn the error of your ways and kindly Stop taking us for Fools.

 

There you go again. I have posted on here previously about the improvements that Farish made to gears. And of course there is a difference in price.

Link to post
Share on other sites

There you go again. I have posted on here previously about the improvements that Farish made to gears. And of course there is a difference in price.

 

Although I rather doubt that the extra you pay for a CJM model is down to the material used in the gears. I suspect it might be because every model is hand-painted to a super-high standard...

Link to post
Share on other sites

  • RMweb Gold

Well, I've encountered failures in the following Farish models of Chinese extraction.

 

Class 24 (2 out of 3) — spare gears not available, BR Lines have "thousands" on order;

Class 31 (old body, Chinese chassis) — 3 out of 4, plus one other "dead on arrival" with the same issue

Class 20 (old body, Chinese chassis) — all 3

Class 40 — one out of 2

Class 158 — one out of 2

 

Class 3MT — one out of 2

B1 — one out of 2

 

All of these have largely been stored, but test run from time to time. NONE of the Dapol locos stored in the same conditions have failed in any way. Room temperature in the range 15-27 deg. C.

 

I have as yet had no problems with the latest class 20s and 31s, nor with any class 25s as yet—either the old-style body with Chinese chassis or the latest type (or with any J39s, although they have the same mechanism as the B1). No problems with class 37s either, or 101/108/150 DMUs. Other steam types have also been OK—so far.

 

None of these have failed while under warranty, and I haven't sent any to Bachman. The 3MT has been repaired by BR Lines—it now runs better than it ever did even when new. I haven't had any others repaired—what's the point when they could fail again, given that it isn't clear what, if anything, makes this more or less likely to happen.

 

This seems to be batch-related; note the high number of failures on 31s but not 37s—you would expect the mechanisms to be very similar.

 

I find the failure rate unsustainable. I'm no longer purchasing Farish locos. They may have been relatively cheap once but are not good value.

Edited by D9020 Nimbus
Link to post
Share on other sites

I believe that the gears that CJM use in their models are either Brass or some kind of metal substance.

The Farish gears, so I'm told are plastic and can overtime "Cure" and become brittle, and either weld themselves together or indeed snap.

If Bachmann are aware of this issue then maybe it is time to go back to the drawing board, so as to improve perception of customer service.

Link to post
Share on other sites

I think folks need to remember that things have improved a lot - Farish from 20 years ago was at epidemic levels of split gears - it's far far less now; while of course not perfect.

Also, this is not unique to Farish - I've just replaced a split gear on a Dapol 45xx and Class 73, and have replaced a few others in the past, as well as some Fleischmann locos.

 

None of these have failed while under warranty, and I haven't sent any to Bachman. The 3MT has been repaired by BR Lines—it now runs better than it ever did even when new. I haven't had any others repaired—what's the point when they could fail again, given that it isn't clear what, if anything, makes this more or less likely to happen.

 

The fitting of them is the key - if you fit them correctly (i.e. ream out the central hole so only the absolutely necessary stress is put on the gear) it's unlikely that there will be future problems. It's the gears being too stressy a fit that is the cause.

 

This is well known for the class 20s you identify - always a problem with Poole models, but for the Bachmann production the 12 tooth gears were fitted to a different style stub axle that had a larger diameter boss on it putting these under even greater stress. Very common for all 4 of them to go, but very simple and cheap to repair (less than £4 parts if you do yourself).

 

With regards 24s, it may be worth checking in with BR Lines again - they have a lot of gears now listed in the Bachmann section that only went up recently.

 

All of them should be very cheap to repair though - and the B1 should have a spare geared wheelset in the box anyway that will have a gear - for the diesels if we assumed 2 gears per loco and 4 per class 20, the parts cost to get all running would be in the region of £20. There's plenty of point to repairing them - and if you learn how to fit the gears yourself you can gain confidence that they are fit correctly and won't go again.

 

It's not clear if batches are seen to have more or less - for example you list the DMUs as not having problems, yet others (including myself) have seen a significant number of these with gears failed (2x 150s and 2x 108s in my case). Class 37s will depend if you mean old or new tool - if new tool the axles wheelsets are different to the old tool 31; if old tool then the wheelsets are identical.

 

Cheers,

Alan

Link to post
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

Of the 6 Farish locos I bought in the last two years 2 have split gears. That is a slightly higher proportion than older Farish - and all the complaints on this board suggest my experience is not atypical. The problem is still there.

Link to post
Share on other sites

  • 6 months later...

The Farish class 24's have larger driving wheels than most other loco's (I think the actual loco's have too) - I've purchased a couple of secondhand one's which were listed as faulty & both had split gears but I managed to buy replacement axles from BR Lines, however I've just messaged them to ask if they have any more in stock & have been told they are £18 (EIGHTEEN POUNDS) per axle plus postage, outrageous!

Link to post
Share on other sites

The Farish class 24's have larger driving wheels than most other loco's (I think the actual loco's have too) - I've purchased a couple of secondhand one's which were listed as faulty & both had split gears but I managed to buy replacement axles from BR Lines, however I've just messaged them to ask if they have any more in stock & have been told they are £18 (EIGHTEEN POUNDS) per axle plus postage, outrageous!

 

Ouch. The Farish Class 24 is a favourite for conversion to 2mm finescale (wheels a bargain at only £4.50 an axle and split-proof with brass gears). So if we cannot tempt you over to the dark side, you might at least be able to find a 2mm modeller out there who has a set of the N gauge wheels he has removed that they could sell you.

 

Or if you are handy at those things, get the gears yourself. If BRLines dont have them they are a standard metric size and there are Polish companies that will do you brass sets for not very much.

 

Chris

Edited by Chris Higgs
  • Like 1
Link to post
Share on other sites

Ouch. The Farish Class 24 is a favourite for conversion to 2mm finescale (wheels a bargain at only £4.50 an axle and split-proof with brass gears). So if we cannot tempt you over to the dark side, you might at least be able to find a 2mm modeller out there who has a set of the N gauge wheels he has removed that they could sell you.

 

Or if you are handy at those things, get the gears yourself. If BRLines dont have them they are a standard metric size and there are Polish companies that will do you brass sets for not very much.

 

Chris

 

 

The Farish class 24's have larger driving wheels than most other loco's (I think the actual loco's have too) - I've purchased a couple of secondhand one's which were listed as faulty & both had split gears but I managed to buy replacement axles from BR Lines, however I've just messaged them to ask if they have any more in stock & have been told they are £18 (EIGHTEEN POUNDS) per axle plus postage, outrageous!

 

The 24's have exactly the same axle as a 25, but why replace an entire axle? You can easily slide off the wheel to replace the gear. I am sure the gear wheels are pretty standard throughput the BachFarr range. Can the brass gear wheels from the 2FS range be transferred to standard axles? Or the back to back altered? Not thought of that option before, but not been necessary with any of my 24/25 fleet yet, as no split gears as yet.

Link to post
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
 Share

×
×
  • Create New...