Shameful Modelling Bodgery

[FoxUnpopuli]

Modeling Bodgery!

 

So no names, no pack-drill, but I've been buying a lot of second-hand locomotives and stock recently, knowing some heavy servicing (and possibly scrapping for spares) would be required.  Some little bits of bodgery have been discovered (and fixed) along the way, but last night after testing this immaculately presented Mainline Collett Goods on the track and it running just fine, I split it open to discover this:

 

 

I'm not sure if the leg of the capacitor is supposed to be an extra pickup, or there was any method at all in what could euphemistically be called the 'replacement' for the missing brush retainer.

 

I'm amazed it runs at all, but it does.  I will, however, be replacing the 'repair'!  I suspect someone got a bit heavy-handed trying to remove the body and bent the retainer beyond repair (I have not yet stripped the loco further to see if the spring is in there - unlikely but possible.)  Colletts have a knack, you have to spread the running boards apart near the firebox to cleanly remove the motor from inside the body - they're pretty tight.

 

So, bring out your dead, previously badly repaired, hacked, or questionably surgically altered locos and stock for some good-natured ribbing - even yours!  What horrible bodges have you witnessed in your modelling travels?

 

- Mark.

[jcm@gwr]

A while ago, I helped a young club member start in O gauge.

He is autistic, and as he had Marklin H0 at home, we (parents & I) decided that

7mm was a safer bet at the club. We went to Ally Pally and picked up an Atlas

F9 unit. Once home, I popped the body off to give it a check over and lube.

Much to my amazement, the previous owner had either lost or broken the 

motor mounts, so had set the motor in a bed of silicone!

No photos I'm afraid, but it ran okay for a couple of years, before one of the

bogies disintegrated.

[doctor quinn]

My first Danish loco was a Heljan My picked up at a swap meet for £13! The previous owner had decided that it needed flangeless center wheels on each bogie and crudely hacked them off using the coarsest file they could find. It still ran really well but now sits on a very nice set of Back Beetle RP25s.

[Talltim]

20 minutes ago, doctor quinn said:

crudely hacked them off using the coarsest file they could find. 

That sounds like a bastard

[FoxUnpopuli]

23 hours ago, doctor quinn said:

My first Danish loco was a Heljan My picked up at a swap meet for £13! The previous owner had decided that it needed flangeless center wheels on each bogie and crudely hacked them off using the coarsest file they could find. It still ran really well but now sits on a very nice set of Back Beetle RP25s.

 

Oddly enough, that appears to have happened to a Bachmann V1/3 I recently acquired as part of an eBay job lot.

 

It had a hard life, by the looks...

 

 

Awful paint wear aside, the body isn't terrible, so may get a repaint and find its way back to service.  The chassis has already been condemned and will serve only as a donor for bits!

 

I haven't taken many photos of the job lot, they've mostly just suffered typical Bachmann age-related breakages.  There are some awfully painted motions though, so much so they hardly turn - lots of scrubbing to do.  However, some of the locos have such battered motions/linkages, it makes me wonder what people actually do with them.  Bowling practice?  This was my makeshift workbench yesterday: