Farish 47 grounding on points

[ian b]

Hello all!

 

Just got a farish 47035 and it is having the grounding issue mentioned by others. After running half an hour each way I took a look underneath and was surprised at the amount of scratches on the chassis where it had caught point frogs.

 

Does anyone know whether it would cause any issues were I to take some emery paper to the frame and smooth them back so they clear? Also, how much can I safely take back?

 

Any advice would be appreciated!

 

Ian B

[steam-driven boy]

Hi Ian,

There's a whole topic relating to various issues with the initial batch on RMweb3, If you scroll down to Dr Al's post from April 21 on the last page you'll see a photo and description of his fix.

Don't forget this will invalidate your warranty, you might want to think about getting it replaced as it doesn't seem to have affected all models.

 

Regards, Gerry.

[BROADTRAIN1979]

Hi, my remedy, was to slightly file, the gear housings and that cured it, for me. As it runs like a top. my warranty has expired anyway

[Dr Al]

In addition to my post on RMweb3 (thanks to previous poster for pointing it out ), I'd also recommend removing the bogies and the clip on bogie frames before taking a file to them. Otherwise you risk damaging the wheels if the file slips. The bogies are just a snap fit, and the frame just clips onto the bogie, so both are easily removed.

 

This only affects the first 4 batches of locos (Green and blue D1500, 1764, 47035, 47404) - all since have had the tooling modified by Bachmann.

 

Cheers,

Alan

 

Does anyone know whether it would cause any issues were I to take some emery paper to the frame and smooth them back so they clear? Also, how much can I safely take back?

 

Any advice would be appreciated!

 

Ian B

[the fuzzler]

Does this apply to any of the class 57 models ?

[Dr Al]

Does this apply to any of the class 57 models ?

 

No, the 57 has more clearance, so there are no issues.

 

Cheers,

Alan

[woodenhead]

Arghhh - my 47035 has begun doing this - which is strange for a loco I've had 10 years.

 

Except I had the bogie frame off to remove a split pin and it was a PITA to put it back on, I mustn't have used it other than to test drive it worked.

 

So it must be the fit of the frame that is the issue not that it drags on the points per se.

 

Not having a good day playing trains, why is it such a pfaff.

[Crepello]

Sorry to hear that--my sympathies are with you. I started a thread somewhere about the current 47 being more 'fussy' through  points than other Farish diesels. The received wisdom was to carefully file down the gear covers, testing as you go.

We should perhaps remember the difficult introduction for the new 47; I suspect the mods carried out to correct the bogie gap were not a complete re-design of the bogie.

[fezza]

It's an obvious point but make sure it's not dodgy contacts on the pickups. I thought one of my more recent 47 models was grounding, but it turned out to be pickups losing contact over slightly uneven points. 

[fezza]

One of my brand new 47s failed today. The cogging noise suggested its gears jamming, but I've lost patience and its going back. Totally unacceptable. Every 47 batch has had problems. 

 

Please, please, please Kato make your next British product a 47....

[rogerzilla]

Further to fezza's first point, I have one that occasionally cut out when transitioning from a curve to a straight.  On levering off the bogies, the electrical contact prongs were slightly splayed on one of them.  I bent them back to vertical, cleaned the sprung contact strips on either side of the worms, and it doesn't cut out any more.

 

Coming out of a point would also show up a slightly bad contact here.