Hunslet 16" 0-6-0 Saddle Tank - 00 Gauge

[Chris116]

10 minutes ago, AY Mod said:

 

It wasn't coal but his shovel looks a bit shiny.

Maybe he burnt the bacon!

[rogerzilla]

He's declinkering.  It was very clean clinker.

[No Decorum]

Beatrice with sound has finally arrived. Beautiful little loco but a hopeless runner. Thanks to the postings of people in RMweb who got their Hunslets without sound and did battle with them, I removed the baseplate and found grease everywhere. I removed as much as I could and lightly oiled the bearings. Running is now much improved. Thanks, chaps!

 

I think it’s a bit odd having the centre drivers sprung but one-piece coupling rods.

[RapidoCorbs]

34 minutes ago, No Decorum said:

Beatrice with sound has finally arrived. Beautiful little loco but a hopeless runner. Thanks to the postings of people in RMweb who got their Hunslets without sound and did battle with them, I removed the baseplate and found grease everywhere. I removed as much as I could and lightly oiled the bearings. Running is now much improved. Thanks, chaps!

 

I think it’s a bit odd having the centre drivers sprung but one-piece coupling rods.

 

Glad you got it sorted, we will be advising the factory that they may have been a bit over-zealous with the grease.

[ikks]

Picked up mine yeterday, popped it on the rolling road, ran like a dream, very smooth and quiet..........good one Rapido.............Rgds  Mike

[Ruston]

On 22/02/2023 at 19:55, AMJ said:

A quick test run of my factory fitted DCC sound loco

 

Is it a special 3-cylinder version? The exhaust doesn't seem to match the wheel rotation.

[Grouse101]

Anyone else having issues with the DCC sound fitted version? Arrived today, put on test track and it lets out a whistle then nothing. After thinking it might be a connection issue and re-arranging my rolling road it randomly worked perfectly for about 15 minutes. I had to turn off off and go do something. When I turn it back on, same thing, whistle then silence and refused to move. I can hear a feint buzzing in the engine and I know the track has power, but it won't receive commands. I've tried two controllers. If I pick it up off the track and put it down again then it's whistle, but everything cuts out after about a second. 

[No Decorum]

5 hours ago, Grouse101 said:

Anyone else having issues with the DCC sound fitted version? Arrived today, put on test track and it lets out a whistle then nothing. After thinking it might be a connection issue and re-arranging my rolling road it randomly worked perfectly for about 15 minutes. I had to turn off off and go do something. When I turn it back on, same thing, whistle then silence and refused to move. I can hear a feint buzzing in the engine and I know the track has power, but it won't receive commands. I've tried two controllers. If I pick it up off the track and put it down again then it's whistle, but everything cuts out after about a second. 

I had similar trouble with mine but, as reported above, I cleaned the grease out of the bearings, lightly oiled them and it’s been fine.

[big jim]

Had mine running on the rollers this evening for a couple of hours in both directions in readyness to chip up later in the week, ran beautifully throughout, inwas a bit worried having read some of the posts about them gradually getting worse as they ran in but no such issues thankfully 

 

i managed to pick up a DCC fitted ‘Beatrice’ off eBay the other night for £90 which im pleased about, hopefully it will arrive next week to add to the heritage fleet 

[SRman]

On 24/02/2023 at 20:37, No Decorum said:

... snipped ...

 

I think it’s a bit odd having the centre drivers sprung but one-piece coupling rods.

 

I agree there. Even though mine ran fine right from the start, I did note a couple of bits of track where mine *almost* lifts a wheel to come off the track. I can't help wondering whether enlarging the hole in the centre of the coupling rod might allow slightly more vertical play. or whether that would ruin the running qualities altogether - assuming there is sufficient metal in the centre to allow this. The rods do seem fairly chunky, but I haven't had a really close look to investigate this further.

 

[davknigh]

On 24/02/2023 at 04:37, No Decorum said:

(Snipped)

I think it’s a bit odd having the centre drivers sprung but one-piece coupling rods.

Certainly other RTR with sprung drivers have articulated rods such as the blue boxed variants. Come to that, the Rapido CPR Hudsons have articulated rods so it’s not as if their factory hasn’t done it before. Replacements are available from Judith Edge and Alan Gibson if you don’t mind soldering.

 

Cheers,

 

David

[No Decorum]

10 hours ago, SRman said:

 

I agree there. Even though mine ran fine right from the start, I did note a couple of bits of track where mine *almost* lifts a wheel to come off the track. I can't help wondering whether enlarging the hole in the centre of the coupling rod might allow slightly more vertical play. or whether that would ruin the running qualities altogether - assuming there is sufficient metal in the centre to allow this. The rods do seem fairly chunky, but I haven't had a really close look to investigate this further.

 

I’d be doubtful about enlarging the hole. DJ produced a couple of models (0-4-2T and Adams O2) which had geared drive to both driving axles. To allow for this, there were large holes in the coupling rods. The resulting slop led to the coupling rods assuming odd angles. Certainly, with careful design and assembly, articulated coupling rods work well but building-in, or adding, slop is better avoided, I think. Turning again to DJ’s Austerities, using solid coupling rods largely prevented them assuming odd angles. Jointed rods, I fancy, would have seen them flailing about. The good news is that my Beatrice runs excellently whether or not the springing works, once the grease was cleaned out. Perhaps changes in gradient might catch it out; I don’t know.

[SRman]

27 minutes ago, No Decorum said:

I’d be doubtful about enlarging the hole. DJ produced a couple of models (0-4-2T and Adams O2) which had geared drive to both driving axles. To allow for this, there were large holes in the coupling rods. The resulting slop led to the coupling rods assuming odd angles. Certainly, with careful design and assembly, articulated coupling rods work well but building-in, or adding, slop is better avoided, I think. Turning again to DJ’s Austerities, using solid coupling rods largely prevented them assuming odd angles. Jointed rods, I fancy, would have seen them flailing about. The good news is that my Beatrice runs excellently whether or not the springing works, once the grease was cleaned out. Perhaps changes in gradient might catch it out; I don’t know.

 

As it happens, I checked mine not long ago, and the centre coupling rod hole allows enough vertical movement on the centre axle for it to travel its full distance vertically anyway.

[MrTea]

My sound-fitted Beatrice arrived in the post mid-week and today was the first chance I had to check the model out.

 

 

I think she’s been worth the wait. The level of detail is excellent and the livery is really well applied. 
 

I’m impressed with the sound quality too. The whistles play well without distortion and the overall package seems well balanced.
 

The performance seems pretty good. I’ve experienced a few stutters reversing over set track points but to be fair not everything agrees with those. Perhaps I might look at getting stay alive fitted in the future. 

[PaulRhB]

5 minutes ago, MrTea said:

I’ve experienced a few stutters reversing over set track points but to be fair not everything agrees with those.

 

Check the wheels as mine had a fair bit of paint or blackening residue on the outside of the tread and they stuttered a bit on the rollers, once that was polished off they ran great. 
 

5 minutes ago, MrTea said:

Perhaps I might look at getting stay alive fitted in the future. 

 

I’ve done that to both of mine and they about 8” - 12” on it depending on speed so you could even grot over the track! 

[SRman]

My Rapido Hunslet now has a crew fitted, with the fireman leaning on his shovel, and both driver and fireman bathed in the flickering glow from the open firebox. I pulled the roof off the cab to make fitting the crew easier - it was only lightly glued in place. The next job is to put a little real coal in the bunker.

*Note, this is a duplicate of a post in my own layout thread, just in case you've seen it before and think you are going mad. 😉

 

 

[No Decorum]

7 hours ago, SRman said:

My Rapido Hunslet now has a crew fitted, with the fireman leaning on his shovel, and both driver and fireman bathed in the flickering glow from the open firebox. I pulled the roof off the cab to make fitting the crew easier - it was only lightly glued in place. The next job is to put a little real coal in the bunker.

*Note, this is a duplicate of a post in my own layout thread, just in case you've seen it before and think you are going mad. 😉

 

 

May I ask where you sourced your crew? It’s been on my mind to ask about a suitable crew because Beatrice looks a little silly with an empty cab.

[SRman]

23 minutes ago, No Decorum said:

May I ask where you sourced your crew? It’s been on my mind to ask about a suitable crew because Beatrice looks a little silly with an empty cab.

 

These were ones Hatton's marketed for their Andrew Barclay locos, but they, and some others I have, were really from ModelU, 3D printed loco crews.

[Modelu Chris]

3 hours ago, No Decorum said:

May I ask where you sourced your crew? It’s been on my mind to ask about a suitable crew because Beatrice looks a little silly with an empty cab.

 

Although this is a Modelu crew, we are due to release a crew made for this loco very soon!

[Grouse101]

Quick update on my running issues. A decoder reset seems to have worked. I've also removed the base keeper plate, cleaned out the big blobs of white grease and reapplied lubricant slightly less aggressively. However, it looks like the pipework that runs down the side of the boiler from the whistles is damaged at the bottom where it meets the running plate, probably my fault. I can't even work out where that pipework fits in :-(

[Zunnan]

Grease removal has pretty much solved my hesitant Hunslet, though I wouldn't describe the original grease application as heavy; it just got to places you wouldn't want it to go. Now lightly re-lubed on the gear only and with a bit of graphite powder where the bearings sit in the chassis and on the axles at the bearings. Day and night difference in running.

[No Decorum]

2 hours ago, Modelu Chris said:

 

Although this is a Modelu crew, we are due to release a crew made for this loco very soon!

It’s wonderful how you are making crews for specific models - a big step forward in modelling.

[Modelu Chris]

33 minutes ago, No Decorum said:

It’s wonderful how you are making crews for specific models - a big step forward in modelling.

 

Thank you, with all the work going into these new locomotives we want to make sure we can have a perfect crew for it. I have a box of already released locomotives currently on my desk that I hope to slowly add crews to.

 

To get back on topic, we have a "Beatrice" loco in the office and it really is a fantastic locomotive. For those that are unsure I fully recommend!

Edited February 27, 2023 by Modelu Chris

[AlfaZagato]

Mine finally arrived.    Growly on running.   Saw the heavy grease mentioned beforehand.   What's the best means to clean it?

[No Decorum]

7 hours ago, AlfaZagato said:

Mine finally arrived.    Growly on running.   Saw the heavy grease mentioned beforehand.   What's the best means to clean it?

I just used a cotton bud. (I have great sympathy for sea creatures  but I do lament the loss of the strong plastic shafts on buds.)