Wobbly N Dapol Class 52 - Hattons Project #3

[n9]

This is the third of the "Fine when last run" locos I purchased from Hattons recently (2D-003-012.)

 

This is pretty much how all 3 bogies (including the spare) work on it:

 

 

 

 

 

I'm reminded of pizzas being tossed. Clearly the wheels and/or axles are all out of kilt, and the loco has no hope of running without wobbling all over the place.

 

Here's another look at the assembly:

 

 

From what I've gleaned from 00 posts (and I fear it's a similar story for this N,) the stub axle design is something of a nightmare. In one post I read here, a lathe and pretty much a complete rebuild of the wheel and axle assembly took place to get rid of the wobble.

 

But... is there a more sensible fix that I've missed? If not, what are my options? Would replacement bogies (assuming I can get them) be doomed to suffer the same fate?

 

I completely stripped and cleaned the bogie assembly shown in the video and reseated everything as squarely as it will go, mainly just to discount gunk and build-up of crud being a possible cause, but to no avail.

 

I'll end by saying these posts aren't intended as a dig at Hattons, because I've generally found their support to be good and largely I'm up for tinkering and fixing when I can, but I do think that faults like these should be clear in their descriptions and the items priced accordingly. They weren't.

 

Here are the other threads regarding these locos if you're interested:

 

 

 

Thanks!

 

 

 

 

[n9]

I've just located some replacement bogies which I'm considering buying. So another way you can help, if you know about these things, is if you can tell me what caused these wobbly wheels. Was it a bad production run? Is it just a bad design inherent to this model?

 

Thank you!

Edited February 4 by n9
Spelling

[woodenhead]

I think mine is similar but not enough for me to worry unduly about and it was a bit jerky.  I just tossed in a Lais when I did the sound converrsion and let it be, it's fine now and I don't notice the wheels.

 

My only annoyance was that Dapol glued in the wiring loom so I need to put in my own wires if I want the lighting back

[n9]

3 minutes ago, woodenhead said:

My only annoyance was that Dapol glued in the wiring loom so I need to put in my own wires if I want the lighting back

 

Oh no! I didn't get that far into the loco. Thankfully mine seems to be fine in all other respects. I have other locos that wobble a bit and I'm okay with that, but this one is considerably worse. But useful to know there are reasonable performers out there.

[woodenhead]

2 hours ago, n9 said:

 

Oh no! I didn't get that far into the loco. Thankfully mine seems to be fine in all other respects. I have other locos that wobble a bit and I'm okay with that, but this one is considerably worse. But useful to know there are reasonable performers out there.

When, I could put if but I know you too well now, you open the body you'll find the lights are on connectors and it is the but from the connector to the LEDs that is glued - to the underside of the cab interior.  I was removing said interiors for space for my stay alive and the speaker, so presently no lights on the loco and whilst I was concerned before I started that I might miss the cab interior, my eyesight is sufficiently deteriorated not to notice and hence not care.  The sound though is awesome!

[n9]

18 hours ago, woodenhead said:

When, I could put if but I know you too well now, you open the body you'll find the lights are on connectors and it is the but from the connector to the LEDs that is glued - to the underside of the cab interior.  I was removing said interiors for space for my stay alive and the speaker, so presently no lights on the loco and whilst I was concerned before I started that I might miss the cab interior, my eyesight is sufficiently deteriorated not to notice and hence not care.  The sound though is awesome!

 

Oh I see. You mean this glue?

 

 

You're right, the light board does indeed appear to be glued to the underside of the cab. I can see that being annoying if you need to get in there.

 

In fairness, I'm going to order driveshafts plus worms in addition to new bogies because I noticed they occassionally weren't meshing properly, so I just had to open it up to inspect that side of things 🙂