Purchase for the layout (loco/rolling stock/kit/other) you regretted the most?

[Steamport Southport]

4 minutes ago, Johann Marsbar said:

 

BEC did a  J17 body kit which fitted on a Triang 0-6-0 chassis and one of those was the first whitemetal kits I ever constructed.  The proportions are very suspect in places but it still looks like what it is supposed to represent and still happily operates on my layout some 45 years later!

 

A quick Google suggests it was a manufacturer called Jaycraft and was a J19.

 

https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/jaycraft-ger-lner-br-j19-00-scale-481968135

 

One of those things you picked up at an exhibition and think "that'll be easy"!

 

The photo in the link also brings back a memory that you had to provide the tender from the B12 as well. Probably still got it somewhere.

 

 

Jason

Edited January 18, 2022 by Steamport Southport

[melmerby]

5 hours ago, Johnson044 said:

 that reminds me - Peco Electrolube - I can smell it now!

What an earth would you use Electrolube for?

Not designed for model railways, but works extremely well in switches with moving contacts (it's intended purpose)

I've got a can of Electrolube but wouldn't let it get near my trains.

[SR71]

1 hour ago, melmerby said:

What an earth would you use Electrolube for?

Not designed for model railways, but works extremely well in switches with moving contacts (it's intended purpose)

I've got a can of Electrolube but wouldn't let it get near my trains.

 

From what I've witnessed you point the straw up the gap between the body and the chassis then spray liberally all over the commutator & bearings and then let it dribble onto the pick ups and the backs of the wheels.

 

The engine then, either immediately or shortly after, proceeds to run like a V8 on 4 cylinders at either 0 or 300mph sparking like a Catherine wheel. Leave for a while to collect carpet fluff and then it's baked solid. 

 

While I joke it's easy to be wise after the event. I remember it being promoted (I can't remember who by) for model railway use. Judging by the numbers I fixed they had a good thing selling it for a while too.

[2E Sub Shed]

Many years ago, used to hear tales from friends in the TV & Audio Repair trade of the use of WD40 by users in tape recorders and the subsequent arrival in their workshops. Another product used for the wrong purpose.

[melmerby]

16 minutes ago, 2E Sub Shed said:

Many years ago, used to hear tales from friends in the TV & Audio Repair trade of the use of WD40 by users in tape recorders and the subsequent arrival in their workshops. Another product used for the wrong purpose.

It's a water dispersant!

Probably sprayed on the heads or the friction pads in the drive train.

It'll also knacker drive belts.

Edited January 18, 2022 by melmerby

[97406]

Q Kits class 40. MTK class 304. Both utter pants!

[KDG]

Hattons RHTT and Dapol MRA wagons.

 

Look lovely, but if you look too hard at them they either:-

 

1. Fall off the track, when everything else stays on.

2. Randomly uncouple.

3. Disintegrate.

 

So I've put them away again until I can be more bothered to do something about it all.

[RedgateModels]

Bachmann Crab, ran like a bag of poo and I realised I really don’t like parallel boilered locos. Sold it on and bought an 8F

[Johnson044]

On 18/01/2022 at 15:03, melmerby said:

What an earth would you use Electrolube for?

Not designed for model railways, but works extremely well in switches with moving contacts (it's intended purpose)

I've got a can of Electrolube but wouldn't let it get near my trains.

Just seemed like a great way to encourage gunge into accrete inside delicate mechanisms.

 

[Johnson044]

During an on-and-off flirtation with other scales I requested a red N gauge Lima 4f for Christmas when I was about 11 years old. It wasn't the most beautiful of objects. I eventually made it into a crude 4-4-0. 

 

A Grafar LMS version of the GER Holden tank was another one. Very fragile mechanism and strange slotted ends to the coupling rods. I later repeated the mistake with their LMS "Standard tank" which was a sort of bloated Jinty- ah yes - of course! THAT's where all the Electrolube got squirted!

[The Johnster]

I've seen a moderately effective conversion of a bloated Jinty 'standard tank' into a Rhymney R 0-6-2T, basically new cab/bunker, trailing wheels, and handrails.

[melmerby]

On 19/01/2022 at 17:55, RedgateModels said:

Bachmann Crab, ran like a bag of poo and I realised I really don’t like parallel boilered locos. Sold it on and bought an 8F

No problem with mine, runs like a dream.

One of the problems with Baccy mechs is the horrible 'margarine' they use(d) as a lubricant.

If left, it eventually went hard and the wretched things wont run properly. I've had two or three like that but once properly degreased and re-lubed with clock oil or similar they run nicely.

 

I did have one Bachmann loco that stuck fairly solid at a particular point on the wheel rotation and it turned out to be a plastic lump on a gear wheel tooth. Suitably removed it ran well.

[Steamport Southport]

Bachmann Crab?

 

Should have tried a Lima one.....

 

 

 

[33C]

1 minute ago, Steamport Southport said:

Bachmann Crab?

 

Should have tried a Lima one.....

 

 

 

Much prefer the Lima ones! Once I had put the lead weights in the vice and returned them to their original shape they all run beautifully, likewise my Wills on a modified Dublo chassis. Heavy old lump!