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2 hours ago, pwr said:

It still annoys me that Heljan despite now acknowledging that there was a problem with the gears, have singularly failed to provide any form of redress for those unlucky enough to suffer this and the news that Gaugemaster have no spares is concerning as the problem persists.

 

Paul R

 

I just hope that this will be the last one that I have to change. I done one of my Class 47's late last year and hopefully this will last. if not my only option is to contact Ultrascale again but its not ideal as these could cost the owner pretty packet.

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20 hours ago, pwr said:

It still annoys me that Heljan despite now acknowledging that there was a problem with the gears, have singularly failed to provide any form of redress for those unlucky enough to suffer this and the news that Gaugemaster have no spares is concerning as the problem persists.

 

Paul R

Just as well that Ultrscale do all the gears now, just replaced axle gears on my Cl.33.

Alan

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I did plan ahead with mine as I expect further failures. I have a Hymek, 37 and 47 that fall into this bucket and all share the same gears so I bought 3 sets. Got mine from Howes when they were spares stockists. 

 

Paul R

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The past couple of days have been spent setting up the loco's to start to obey the signals that will be installed on the railway over the next few weeks. This will hopefully prevent any operator from pathing two trains onto the same section of track. If the signal is red the train will automatically slow and stop and when a clear aspect is shown the train will start up and proceed onto the next section.

 

40099 showing how it responds to the signal prior to entering the garage.

 

 

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This morning we set up a few more loco's to obey the signals and when we got to setting up D1501 I noticed that the loco was running a little bit rough so I clean the wheels and noticed that the number 1 motor was sticking at slow speed so a further investigation led me to this........ Yes, another split gear ..... this is starting to get expensive :angry:...

 

IMG_6552.JPG.7990376f6f61fe46138a65f4c8768d7b.JPG

 

 

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I feel your pain on this issue

I have been trying to work on a low cost solution for this using cheap gears from ebay and have them working, but will need time to tell if it is a long term solution . When I remove the split gear I relieve the peaks of the serrations with a needle file to give less of an interference fit and reduce the stresses in the gear. Maybe I should start a thread on RM Web for this issue and post my findings and bodgings to date

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4 hours ago, class27 said:

I feel your pain on this issue

I have been trying to work on a low cost solution for this using cheap gears from ebay and have them working, but will need time to tell if it is a long term solution . When I remove the split gear I relieve the peaks of the serrations with a needle file to give less of an interference fit and reduce the stresses in the gear. Maybe I should start a thread on RM Web for this issue and post my findings and bodgings to date

 

Please do....... as I don't think Heljan are going to do anything in readdressing the issue. 

 

That's 2 loco's in one week, it's lucky that I purchased some gears from Howes about 10-12 months ago

 

Jim

Edited by jcarta
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18 hours ago, jcarta said:

 

Please do....... as I don't think Heljan are going to do anything in readdressing the issue. 

 

That's 2 loco's in one week, it's lucky that I purchased some gears from Howes about 10-12 months ago

 

Jim

 

Correct even though they had have acknowledged there was a problem. All they say is its now fixed but that doesn't help us poor sods that have had to replace and continue to replace gears. And to top it all Gaugemaster have no stock of spares so you have to pay more and get an Exactoscale set. 

 

Its just not good enough.

 

Paul R

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4 hours ago, pwr said:

 

Correct even though they had have acknowledged there was a problem. All they say is its now fixed but that doesn't help us poor sods that have had to replace and continue to replace gears. And to top it all Gaugemaster have no stock of spares so you have to pay more and get an Exactoscale set. 

 

Its just not good enough.

 

Paul R

I guess I'm lucky in that I've fitted 00 Sound Chips to most of my Heljan, and therefore had to remove one Motor from each. As far as I know none of mine have split, unless removing the Motor haas hidden it with no load going through the gears.

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1 hour ago, Andrew P said:

I guess I'm lucky in that I've fitted 00 Sound Chips to most of my Heljan, and therefore had to remove one Motor from each. As far as I know none of mine have split, unless removing the Motor haas hidden it with no load going through the gears.

 

Andy..... The annoying part of this is Heljan are going to do "f%*k All" about replacing the cost that modellers have spent in addition to replacing the gears that have split even though we have spent an exceptional amount of money in the first place....usually to the tune of £500 - £600 in purchasing the item......

 

Jim 

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6 hours ago, pwr said:

 

Correct even though they had have acknowledged there was a problem. All they say is its now fixed but that doesn't help us poor sods that have had to replace and continue to replace gears. And to top it all Gaugemaster have no stock of spares so you have to pay more and get an Exactoscale set. 

 

Its just not good enough.

 

Paul R

 

I just hope there will be a company in the future that can deliver a ready to run loco without the issue. 

 

Heljan loco's are great but the after sales ........ STINK                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    

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On a slightly brighter note - pity we can't say that about today's weather - I've managed to swing another day off 'cos it looks like it could rain any minute. So . . . . 

 

Instead of track laying I can carry on with fitting lights to Jim's recently acquired Skytrex Class 31.

 

Don't ask me how I know that decoders have a common positive whereas common negative is more usual elsewhere. I did actually know that, I just didn't remember it until I'd wired one end and run the wires to the middle of the body.

 

P.S. Don't tell Jim!

Edited by Ray H
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HI, i dont know if this idea would help   (i do not have a Heljan loco) but looking at the picture the splines  look to big for the gear ,  you would still have to replace a split gear -- but put the axel in a lathe / piller drill and reduce splines, a little  with a file  now place gear onto shaft  and drill down through the  plastic/ nylon  gear shoulder , and axel with a fine drill  and put a suitable pin  (mills ) etc  to stop any chance of the gear slipping just an idea  regards  Dave 

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Dave

 

Thanks for your response and that's a good idea but I will have to wait until our club opens up to put your idea into reality. The gears have since been replaced and the loco now runs so smoothly.... like it should do. I am waiting for a delivery from Ultrascale so my Class 26 can get back on the rails.....

 

Jim

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6 hours ago, Ray H said:

On a slightly brighter note - pity we can't say that about today's weather - I've managed to swing another day off 'cos it looks like it could rain any minute. So . . . . 

 

Instead of track laying I can carry on with fitting lights to Jim's recently acquired Skytrex Class 31.

 

Don't ask me how I know that decoders have a common positive whereas common negative is more usual elsewhere. I did actually know that, I just didn't remember it until I'd wired one end and run the wires to the middle of the body.

 

P.S. Don't tell Jim!

 

I won't tell him sssshh :good:

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The gears arrived yesterday from Ultrascale for the Class 26 doorstop, so this morning I set to work on changing them. On stripping the bogies down it was noticed that three out of the four drive gears had split so all four got change so I don't have to worry about them going again. That is two loco's done in two weekends.

 

Here are the offending gears from the Class 26 and Class 47

 

IMG_6575.JPG.648c449ca49464ef4dcf9a345e76bcf7.JPG

Edited by jcarta
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Now onto something more interesting, the railway. We have been sorting out the signals in between the showers and setting up the loco's to obey them. Once that was sorted we decided to add a splash of colour to what is a rather dull roof felt colour at Oldbrook Junction, so we added some artificial grass. I will add some fencing in the near future but I think it suits the railway.

 

IMG_6531.jpg.07fe9d2dbc8e8a050a8a4976440c9b0b.jpg

IMG_6530.jpg.d164d91998de259b772da8b3c0102e4b.jpg

IMG_6532.jpg.8660f192eae6879b23a46c91880fad89.jpg 

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Over the weekend we had a chance to work on the last part of the railway, Knowmoor. This area has drastically changed, layout wise and although they has been minor alterations to our original plans we think it has worked out well.

Knowmoor is a terminus so we have a station with several platforms, a motorail siding and a couple of freight sidings also a small depot.

 

Here are a few pictures as we are progressing....

 

IMG_6581.JPG.a7c34b2f93a2f742b38b4dae086af543.JPG

IMG_6578.JPG.d332c275f0755c8a12fe0cae01ddd6af.JPG

IMG_6593.jpg.6c7b3af00a66b696f28a4bd4c75d23e3.jpg

IMG_6586.jpg.1b7599e1350aa2030cda2810a39b967b.jpg

 

We checked the electrical side of it this morning and it works as it should, so our next move will be to fit the manual points followed by frog juicers and servo's

 

Jim

Edited by jcarta
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My 47673 was the first loco into the redesigned Knowmoor.

 

I've always had a soft spot for class 47s !!!!

 

The point operating servos will be connected to accessory decoders installed on the accessory bus and operated by push buttons connected to an NCE mini panel that is also connected to the accessory bus. That system has worked well on the layout since installed when the Mark 1 layout was built.

 

However, the revised layout at Knowmoor will only have a few signals but each has a multitude of possible route settings. My initial thought was that we might need a second mini panel because the number of signalled routes far exceeded the capacity of a single mini panel.

 

Side tracking briefly, some of the servos at Ayr Road set the points to their reverse position on layout power up and we were having to change them individually via the throttle before we could run trains. That was until I tried using the NCE macro facility to switch the errant turnouts as a group.

 

Why the side track? I hadn't appreciated that the min panel can support macros until I checked the user guide last night so it looks as though we can use a push button connected to the mini panel to run a macro to set the relevant route. One mini panel will be more than enough for that!

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Another sunny day so after my opo had a day off on Sunday he was straight back at the coal face doing what he does best, making things happen :locomotive:.  Ray has connected up a few more servos and installed a few more frog juicers so when we install another 12 volt supply to the other end of the railway all the bits and bobs will become live. 

 

I have started on the station platforms at Knowmoor but we have stopped at the moment until all the other servos and frog juicers are installed beneath the platform and then it will be time to start on signalling the area.

 

So a few pictures from yesterday to be getting on with.....

 

Platform structure at Knowmoor

IMG_6667.jpg.b0ef7345cdb6b367127e078c1ff0a732.jpg

 

One of the buildings that house the servo & frog juicers and this will be covered with a signal box on the times we operate the railway.

IMG_6668.jpg.bda863def68bd1d829963ee002c5d69e.jpg

 

Oldbrook Junction, another signal box that needs completing but it hides some electrical equipment. This signal box use to control a junction but Dr Beeching said that the branch was not sustainable so the track has started to be lifted.

IMG_6669.jpg.8420c243e613a3c7ac0a517e42aaa4c4.jpg

IMG_6670.jpg.e4d52f34d568f2fdf8ca17b6e06e2aba.jpg

 

Jim

 

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Another glorious day in the tropical district of Milton Keynes :sungum: 

 

I managed to sneak in about 20 minutes running a Class 40 around Knowmoor so here is the big bruiser on shed awaiting re-fuelling.

 

IMG_6674.jpg.27d24293e625e24787654505aaa22580.jpg

 

IMG_6676.jpg.06e17f1e50a6a93b7c375924887287b3.jpg

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And there was me thinking he was going to spend the afternoon ballasting the track!

 

We're using a MERG member's PCB that combines the relevant parts of the MERG state accessory decoder with a couple of Servo4 kits to work the servos. We've mounted each assembled board in a weatherproof box screwed to the front of the layout. Three boards have been connected up and are working brilliantly. Board 5 has yet to be installed and will only have a couple of servos connected to it.

 

Board 4 has been installed and we attempted to connect the first couple of several servos to it yesterday. The boards are mounted in the box with the connections to the outside world - 12v dc and the accessory bus - at the bottom resulting in the connections for the servos - grouped in two horizontal side by side sets of four - at the top of the board. This is the same for each of the five boards.

 

We must have spent a good half an hour yesterday trying to get the first two servos on board 4 working. We even tried them on the uninstalled board 5 (with just its 12v dc connected) without luck.

 

I was on the verge of removing board 4 and taking it and board 5 home to work on when my eyes caught the markings alongside the pins the servo leads are pushed on to. I'd been trying the left hand two sets of servo pins on each group of four and because there were only two servos leads ready to be connected, I was only trying to set up servos on pins 1 & 2 or 5 & 6. I'd completely forgotten that the servo pins are numbered 1 to 8 from the right rather than from the left. The servos worked perfectly once I connected them to the "right" pins.

 

The servos pin groups are numbered that way because of the way the MERG Servo4 kits and the decoder have been merged on the board. The servo numbers would also read from the left if the boards were mounted the other way up!

 

I blame working in the sunshine (even though there was a parasol over me).

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