Heljan oo gauge class 47 wheels short on chassis

[alfmoss]

I bought a used but as new Heljan class 47 a few years ago off a trader at an exhibition and fitted a DCC chip. It ran well at first then occasionally would stop. Then a chip fried. Put back to DC, tested on rollers seemed ok so fitted a Lenz gold, responded ok. A little while later fitted an ESU sound chip, but this kept stopping and shutting down going into restart etc, very frustrating. then the ESU burnt out. Put back to DC and ran on oval test track and after quite a while I noticed the wheels sparking when they rubbed against the chassis of the loco as the bogie rocked forward and backward. The tops of the wheels are too close to the chassis and had gradually worn through the painted surface and occasionally shorted on the bare metal. I wondered if anybody else had experienced this and do you think there is any point in approaching Heljan ?

[34theletterbetweenB&D]

Howes of Oxford handle the service side as Heljan's agents in the UK. Look on the service sheet for the contact details.

 

Personally, I'd cut small 'wheel arches' in the underside to clear the flanges wherever the witness marks appear on the paint or by wear through to exposed metal. Had to do this on several steam models, where metal body components are in close proximity to tops of flanges, causing exactly the shorting you are describing

 

Never had this trouble cause decoders to fail though. That suggests to me that a decoder plug pin may be in contact with the chassis block, a known happening on many models. If it happens to be one of the decoder output pins, then on the block becoming live to one rail, decoder failure may occur. A strip of insulating tape below the socket is a good insurance against this.

[Grovenor]

It could also be your chassis block expanding with zinc pest, have a good look at it.

Regards