Wright writes.....

[St Enodoc]

7 minutes ago, Clive Mortimore said:

turn a 3/4 inch left handed thread in a blind hole, off centre in a rectangular block of steel?

Not necessarily left-handed but just about everything I drilled and tapped was off-centre.

[Mark Laidlay]

49 minutes ago, St Enodoc said:

Yes it is - but not at Dorrigo...

Then how many different heritage railways can I ride this coming weekend?

Mark in Melbourne

[t-b-g]

We live in a world of computers, CAD, CNC machines, 3D printing.

 

The traditional skills we have as modellers will soon be as redundant as jobs like a tracer in a drawing office, a wheeltapper or a fogman sitting in a hut on a gloomy day.

 

Things move on. Always have. Always will.

 

I am just glad that my modelling times have been spent when I could get the bits we needed to build the models I want to build. If nobody else wants to build anything for themselves, that is really not my problem at all. I don't feel any great need to pass on my skills to a younger generation that doesn't either want or need them. When I do my tutoring at Missenden, the vast majority of people who come along are older than me and I can count the number of young, keen, enthusiastic modellers I know who want to build things the "old school" way on the fingers of one hand.

 

Modern methods can produce some stunning results but if the hobby had been all about drawing something in CAD and having it laser cut or 3D printed, I would never have bothered starting out. I am happy with a file, a piercing saw and a soldering iron but honing my modelling skills at a computer keyboard doesn't fill me with any enthusiasm at all. I will leave that to those who do find that sort of thing satisfying. 

 

 

[St Enodoc]

20 minutes ago, Mark Laidlay said:

Then how many different heritage railways can I ride this coming weekend?

Mark in Melbourne

Not guaranteeing that they're all open or have turn-up-and-go tickets available but you can try:

 

https://www.nswrailmuseum.com.au/ at Thirlmere

https://www.valleyheightsrailmuseum.info/ at Valley Heights

https://zigzagrailway.au/ at Clarence

https://www.sydneytramwaymuseum.com.au/ at Loftus

https://www.richmondvalerailwaymuseum.org/ at Richmond Vale

https://timbertown.com.au/portfolio-view/timbertown-steam-train-experience/ at Wauchope

https://byronbaytrain.com.au/ at Byron Bay

https://www.facebook.com/people/Campbelltown-Narrow-Gauge-Railway/100083644537171/ at Campbelltown

https://ilrms.com.au/ at Albion Park Rail

 

Have fun!

[Clive Mortimore]

46 minutes ago, St Enodoc said:

Not necessarily left-handed but just about everything I drilled and tapped was off-centre.

To make things even more interesting it was square thread, so I had to use a parting tool. There was a similar block with a right hand thread and a bolt joining them with a right and left hand threads. The job was a replacement for an adjuster on the ship's wheel of the army's landing craft.

[St Enodoc]

Just now, Clive Mortimore said:

To make things even more interesting it was square thread, so I had to use a parting tool. There was a similar block with a right hand thread and a bolt joining them with a right and left hand threads. The job was a replacement for an adjuster on the ship's wheel of the army's landing craft.

From memory, I only ever turned external threads on the lathe.

[34theletterbetweenB&D]

2 hours ago, Chamby said:

The demise of a capability/willingness to ‘build it oneself’ is surely down, in part, to the removal of metalworking as a school subject all those years ago.  I fondly remember my ‘double metalwork’ lessons, which alternated half-termly with woodwork, as an enjoyable part of the school curriculum until the time came to make my GCE choices.  Long gone, this must have had an impact on our hobby’s character.

I had the benefit of Hertfordshire's progressive education, and at secondary boys all took metalwork and woodwork until GCE O level choices were made. At that point the demands of ten O levels meant it was 'all academic' other than P.T., within school hours. (But by then I could use machine tools, braze, weld, forge and cast soft metals, and make not very good concealed dovetails.)

 

Except that, as a result of lobbying by several fathers a small group of boys were taken through the O level tech drag course in lunch hours (invaluable) by a volunteer member of staff, and after school one could engage in practical projects (competitive Kart construction,  joinery, vehicle maintenance, and plenty more) thanks to more volunteering by staff.

 

And then there was 'the other thing'. Computing became available, thanks to the BBCX facility running on the Hatfield Polytechnic mainframe. That influenced my chosen academic direction in maths and science at A level from 'hands on' to the prospects for automated instrumental techniques, and I was not alone in seeing computing as where the opportunity lay.

 

Make inputs here, 'make it happen' physically anywhere, was the mindset formed in me and my techy oriented fellows by the time I was eighteen. Different world from 'got to make it yourself' by the end of the 1960s, to anyone with their eyes open.

[Jesse Sim]

2 hours ago, Tony Wright said:

Thanks Brian,

 

We'll have to wait and see.............

 

Meanwhile,

 

 

Here are three of Bytham's quartet of B16s (there used to be two more!). The fourth member is my ancient B16/3 (61448, now very rarely used), built from a Nu-Cast kit when it first appeared. 

 

The B16/1 was built/painted/weathered from a much-altered DJH kit by Tony Geary.

The B16/2 was built from a much-altered PDK kit by Mike Edge, re-motored/repainted by me and weathered by Tom Foster.

The B16/3 was built by me from a much-altered Nu-Cast kit and painted by Geoff Haynes.

 

Regards,

 

Tony. 

 

 

Seeing as B16’s have arisen in conversation…

 

 

Ive got a DJH B16 that you fitted wheels and motor to Tony back in 2019, she’s since been fitted with a decoder and she doesn’t want to pull anything. 
 

She runs fine by herself, really goes, but then struggles with quite a light load behind her- which is odd for an all white metal loco. The local loco repairmen, who’s brilliant, really knows his stuff and can get anything working (to bad he’s a tw*t), put her on a pull test and said she’s not slipping etc etc. It’s really confusing, I know you’ll say “take the decoder out” which I might still do and replace it with another…..but…

 

Has anyone got any ideas? 

Edited August 24, 2023 by Jesse Sim

[Northmoor]

1 hour ago, Clive Mortimore said:

What is the point in teaching kids how to make things when we don't have a manufacturing base anymore and most manufacturing that is left is done by computer operated robots.

 

Where do the months of me learning to bench fit using files, scrapers etc fit into today's manufacturing?

 

As for young people not wanting to make kits because they don't know how to make things, utter tosh. There are not so many younger people interested in toy trains as there was.

 

We have also got to look at the many railway modellers who take up the hobby later in life, many don't have a practical skills background. How many retired lawyers, bankers, IT specialist have had to use a lathe to turn a 3/4 inch left handed thread in a blind hole, off centre in a rectangular block of steel? That is why they by stuff off the shelf.

Your last two paragraphs I can agree with Clive.  It is an important factor in the cost of restoration on preserved railways; 40 years ago there was an army of people with heavy engineering experience who could apply it at weekends on a locomotive.  Nowadays a new diesel group will only have two engineers but twenty volunteers to run the website.

 

Your first statement though is largely a myth, so often repeated it is believed to be true by almost everyone.  We have a huge manufacturing base in the UK, what it isn't is in the same form as what many see as the golden era (usually 1960s) when plants employed mass labour to churn out products that all too often, customers were wanting less and less.  They might not be British-owned (though I've never understood why that's so important to people), but we make substantially more cars in the UK than the car-loving country of Italy.  The Japanese set up car production plants in the UK not just because of government support - that only buys you so much - but because we had the skills to do it and do it well (Nissan used to send their managers to Sunderland to learn best practice).  British manufacturing though is increasingly focussed on low-volume, high value items which we are one of the world leaders.  Yes, lots of that is done with automated robots and CNC machines, but someone has to programme and maintain those machines and every one of those will have started out learning how to use a file and turn a thread, because otherwise, how do they understand what they are asking the machine to do?  At school I also learned to do things like climb a rope, play the tambourine and cut things out with scissors and glue them to paper.  None of these I've had to do very much in my professional life; does that mean we shouldn't teach children to use scissors and glue?

 

One final but very important aspect of why manufacturing is seen as unimportant in the UK, is measuring it by the number of people directly employed by it (the trades unions are the keenest on measuring the success of organisations by the number of employees in them).  Consider the car plant of 1970, which turned out N cars per year with perhaps 20,000 workers on site, ALL of which were employed by British Leyland or whoever.  Every one would have been classed as a manufacturing worker.

 

Now consider the same plant in the 2020s.  It probably produces 2-3 times more cars per annum, but now employs 5-6000 people.  Much of that is down to the automation of the production line as you suggested, however consider that there are probably 1-2000 on site who are not directly employed by the manufacturer.  Cleaners, catering staff, maintenance fitters (probably from the suppliers of the robots and other plant), IT support and possibly even HR/payroll, will be contractors and all of those companies will class themselves as service companies.  To the macro-economist this shows that services are more important than manufacturing, but all those people would be out of a job if the manufacturing didn't exist.

 

Coming back to model railways though, it's not about the ability to solder a metal kit or roll your own boiler barrel.  What is sad is the people seemingly unable to use a small screwdriver to change some couplings, or repair a broken part back on without smearing glue all over the model.  Since accessing the batteries in a lot of domestic items requires you to remove a small screw, you have to assume there are a lot of perfectly working items in landfill or scrapped because the batteries had run out.

[Roger Sunderland]

Tony

Railtec do a nice sheet of transfers for Siphons. I rate their transfers very highly. Their specific loco numbers- you choose number/shed- come with a 3D (raised numerals) front number plate and shed plate, as well as the cab side number. First class in my opinion.

[Barry Ten]

42 minutes ago, Jesse Sim said:

Seeing as B16’s have arisen in conversation…

 

 

Ive got a DJH B16 that you fitted wheels and motor to Tony back in 2019, she’s since been fitted with a decoder and she doesn’t want to pull anything. 
 

She runs fine by herself, really goes, but then struggles with quite a light load behind her- which is odd for an all white metal loco. The local loco repairmen, who’s brilliant, really knows his stuff and can get anything working (to bad he’s a tw*t), put her on a pull test and said she’s not slipping etc etc. It’s really confusing, I know you’ll say “take the decoder out” which I might still do and replace it with another…..but…

 

Has anyone got any ideas? 

 

It might be a weakened motor - I've had one (connected to a DJH gearbox) that was gutless and slow. The loco would run fine under test, but couldn't pull anything. The wheels wouldn't slip under any circumstances, which indicates a lack of torque. That could be due to an over-stiff chassis, gearbox, or weakened motor.

 

If the wheels slip, I always take it as a good sign that the motor has lots of power, it just isn't being transferred to the rails efficiently, but that can always be resolved with more weight and/or better balancing.

[Bernard Lamb]

Re crafts being taught at school. We had both wood and metal work classes included in the weekly timetable. There was a list of items and you worked your way through them from rable lamps to foot stools to tea trays. You then progressed into metal work and when you could cut, bend and join metal you were let loose on something like this. I made this sledge around 1958 when I was 15. It could do with a repaint, but it is not in bad nick for 65 years old. When you were 16 you could choose a subject. That was how I came to make my first model railway baseboard. Hertfordshire was mentioned in a previous post. There was a time when the county council had a very progressive education policy and material was provided for projects like this.

Bernard 

 

[TrevorP1]

Another vote for Railtec transfers. Always excellent service and Steve is very helpful. No connection, just a satisfied customer.

[34theletterbetweenB&D]

1 hour ago, Jesse Sim said:

...I know you’ll say “take the decoder out” which I might still do and replace it with another….

I would also suggest the removal of the decoder. They are not all equal by any means, and ideally the drive train should be assessed independently of the decoder to ensure the root cause of the problem is identified. 

 

 

[Chuffer Davies]

2 hours ago, Jesse Sim said:

Seeing as B16’s have arisen in conversation…

 

 

Ive got a DJH B16 that you fitted wheels and motor to Tony back in 2019, she’s since been fitted with a decoder and she doesn’t want to pull anything. 
 

She runs fine by herself, really goes, but then struggles with quite a light load behind her- which is odd for an all white metal loco. The local loco repairmen, who’s brilliant, really knows his stuff and can get anything working (to bad he’s a tw*t), put her on a pull test and said she’s not slipping etc etc. It’s really confusing, I know you’ll say “take the decoder out” which I might still do and replace it with another…..but…

 

Has anyone got any ideas? 

Hi Jesse,

We need more information.  Is the loco slipping, in which case it’s an adhesion issue, or is the motor slowing down, in which case it’s a power issue?  If adhesion then check if the bogie and/or the tender is lifting the driving wheels off the track.  This was a recent problem with the rear pony truck of the new Dapol GW Prairie.  If power is the issue it would definitely be worth trying it without the decoder to determine whether it is the motor or the decoder where the problem lies.

Best of luck,

Frank,

 

[Bucoops]

3 hours ago, Jesse Sim said:

Seeing as B16’s have arisen in conversation…

 

 

Ive got a DJH B16 that you fitted wheels and motor to Tony back in 2019, she’s since been fitted with a decoder and she doesn’t want to pull anything. 
 

She runs fine by herself, really goes, but then struggles with quite a light load behind her- which is odd for an all white metal loco. The local loco repairmen, who’s brilliant, really knows his stuff and can get anything working (to bad he’s a tw*t), put her on a pull test and said she’s not slipping etc etc. It’s really confusing, I know you’ll say “take the decoder out” which I might still do and replace it with another…..but…

 

Has anyone got any ideas? 

 

Have you tried wheels downwards? It being a British Loco, not Aussie. 

[Tony Wright]

5 hours ago, Jesse Sim said:

Seeing as B16’s have arisen in conversation…

 

 

Ive got a DJH B16 that you fitted wheels and motor to Tony back in 2019, she’s since been fitted with a decoder and she doesn’t want to pull anything. 
 

She runs fine by herself, really goes, but then struggles with quite a light load behind her- which is odd for an all white metal loco. The local loco repairmen, who’s brilliant, really knows his stuff and can get anything working (to bad he’s a tw*t), put her on a pull test and said she’s not slipping etc etc. It’s really confusing, I know you’ll say “take the decoder out” which I might still do and replace it with another…..but…

 

Has anyone got any ideas? 

Good evening Jesse,

 

Reading your post (interpreted one way) suggests that the wheels and motor were fitted to me! Punctuation, my dear boy, punctuation......

 

Thus - I've got a DJH B16 that you fitted wheels and motor to, Tony, back in 2019. She's........ Or better - Tony, I've got a DJH B16 which you fitted wheels and motor to, back in 2019...........

 

Anyway, did we run that B16 on Little Bytham? It was four years ago, and at my age................

 

Did it pull anything then? A few suggestions, following up some already sound advice given by other posters

1. Remove the bogie, and run it without it (the bogie might be taking too much of the loco's weight). 

2. Arrange the drawbar so that some of the tender's weight is transferred to the back end of the loco.

3. Is there space inside for more weight? I add ballast, even to white metal locos. 

4. Run the loco against a block on the test track. If it won't slip, then it's a motor problem.

 

I hope these might help. 

 

Don't worry, count it a plus that I'm prepared to comment on your grammar! 

 

Best regards,

 

Tony. 

[96701]

8 hours ago, Clive Mortimore said:

How many retired lawyers, bankers, IT specialist have had to use a lathe to turn a 3/4 inch left handed thread in a blind hole, off centre in a rectangular block of steel? That is why they buy stuff off the shelf.

Who on earth would want to buy a 3/4 inch left handed thread in a blind hole, off centre in a rectangular block of steel?

[polybear]

19 minutes ago, 96701 said:

Who on earth would want to buy a 3/4 inch left handed thread in a blind hole, off centre in a rectangular block of steel?

 

And who sells them?

 

 

[Tony Wright]

Some interesting comments regarding skill........... Or lack of it!

 

All I can say is that it's been a privilege to 'help' young/inexperienced modellers in the last few years. Some are now not as young as they were, have far more experience and certainly don't really need my help any more.

 

A few examples............

 

 

Keiron Higham's weathering on a Hornby A3.

 

 

Jack Weightman's build of a South Eastern Finecast C12. Made when he was in his teens.

 

 

And, more-recently, his building of a Comet J39 chassis.

 

 

Robin (can't remember his surname) was building this DJH A3. 

 

 

Dylan Sanderson is building a DJH Britannia.

 

 

He also made this white metal wagon for me. Thank you again, Dylan.

 

 

Jamie (surname?) from the Ely Club brought along this Bachmann/King K2 he'd made.

 

 

Ollie Kew weathered this Hornby J50.

 

 

Tom Wright built this Magna Models J10 when he was in his mid-teens (he's now 42!). 

 

Jesse Sim is a name becoming well known in railway modelling circles now (with considerable justification). 

 

Some examples of his talent............

 

 

 

He built this etched brass plate wagon for me. Thank you again, Jesse.

 

 

 

These are examples of his wagon building.

 

 

And how's this for weathering?

 

 

And, what about this? A scratch-built C9 started years ago by a long-deceased modeller. In no time, he'd built the chassis, put together the bodywork so far and got it running! 

 

With all the above models, I've assisted in a modest way - either by practical help or offering advice. That none of the modellers really need me any more, is a testament to their own abilities, fortitude and growing self-reliance.

 

With (young) talent like this, the hobby's future is in good shape! 

 

 

 

 

[Bucoops]

4 minutes ago, Tony Wright said:

Some interesting comments regarding skill........... Or lack of it!

 

All I can say is that it's been a privilege to 'help' young/inexperienced modellers in the last few years. Some are now not as young as they were, have far more experience and certainly don't really need my help any more.

 

A few examples............

 

 

Keiron Higham's weathering on a Hornby A3.

 

 

Jack Weightman's build of a South Eastern Finecast C12. Made when he was in his teens.

 

 

And, more-recently, his building of a Comet J39 chassis.

 

 

Robin (can't remember his surname) was building this DJH A3. 

 

 

Dylan Sanderson is building a DJH Britannia.

 

 

He also made this white metal wagon for me. Thank you again, Dylan.

 

 

Jamie (surname?) from the Ely Club brought along this Bachmann/King K2 he'd made.

 

 

Ollie Kew weathered this Hornby J50.

 

 

Tom Wright built this Magna Models J10 when he was in his mid-teens (he's now 42!). 

 

Jesse Sim is a name becoming well known in railway modelling circles now (with considerable justification). 

 

Some examples of his talent............

 

 

 

He built this etched brass plate wagon for me. Thank you again, Jesse.

 

 

 

These are examples of his wagon building.

 

 

And how's this for weathering?

 

 

And, what about this? A scratch-built C9 started years ago by a long-deceased modeller. In no time, he'd built the chassis, put together the bodywork so far and got it running! 

 

With all the above models, I've assisted in a modest way - either by practical help or offering advice. That none of the modellers really need me any more, is a testament to their own abilities, fortitude and growing self-reliance.

 

With (young) talent like this, the hobby's future is in good shape! 

 

 

 

 

 

This is what the hobby is all about.

[Clive Mortimore]

57 minutes ago, 96701 said:

Who on earth would want to buy a 3/4 inch left handed thread in a blind hole, off centre in a rectangular block of steel?

The army needed them for its landing craft, and I was a gun fitter who had been trained on lathes and other machines stationed in the wrong place at the wrong time so I had to make them. To make things even more interesting it was square thread, so I had to use a parting tool. There was a similar block with a right hand thread and a bolt joining them with a right and left hand threads. The job was a replacement for an adjuster on the ship's wheel of the army's landing craft.

 

The funniest job I had was to make an adapter when they changed fuel supplier, their pies wouldn't fit the fuel cap on the landing craft. I was told by the ASM (senior warrant officer)  to make it 2 /12 inches BSF at one end and 2 inches BSF the other. I did enquire did he mean BSP not BSF , no it was to be BSF. When he disappeared I asked the AQSM (one rank lower) was he right when he said BSF, the AQSM said "Make his one and the correct one, and when his doesn't fit you have one ready for him." They weren't always the best of buddies. I even guessed right it was a taper BSP thread on both the fuel cap and the end of the pipe.

[Jol Wilkinson]

9 hours ago, Clive Mortimore said:

What is the point in teaching kids how to make things when we don't have a manufacturing base anymore and most manufacturing that is left is done by computer operated robots.

 

Where do the months of me learning to bench fit using files, scrapers etc fit into today's manufacturing?

 

As for young people not wanting to make kits because they don't know how to make things, utter tosh. There are not so many younger people interested in toy trains as there was.

 

We have also got to look at the many railway modellers who take up the hobby later in life, many don't have a practical skills background. How many retired lawyers, bankers, IT specialist have had to use a lathe to turn a 3/4 inch left handed thread in a blind hole, off centre in a rectangular block of steel? That is why they buy stuff off the shelf.

 

Blunt, but I would expect nothing less of you, Clive. The gross exaggeration I didn't expect.

 

7 hours ago, Northmoor said:

Your last two paragraphs I can agree with Clive.  It is an important factor in the cost of restoration on preserved railways; 40 years ago there was an army of people with heavy engineering experience who could apply it at weekends on a locomotive.  Nowadays a new diesel group will only have two engineers but twenty volunteers to run the website.

 

Your first statement though is largely a myth, so often repeated it is believed to be true by almost everyone.  We have a huge manufacturing base in the UK, what it isn't is in the same form as what many see as the golden era (usually 1960s) when plants employed mass labour to churn out products that all too often, customers were wanting less and less.  They might not be British-owned (though I've never understood why that's so important to people), but we make substantially more cars in the UK than the car-loving country of Italy.  The Japanese set up car production plants in the UK not just because of government support - that only buys you so much - but because we had the skills to do it and do it well (Nissan used to send their managers to Sunderland to learn best practice).  British manufacturing though is increasingly focussed on low-volume, high value items which we are one of the world leaders.  Yes, lots of that is done with automated robots and CNC machines, but someone has to programme and maintain those machines and every one of those will have started out learning how to use a file and turn a thread, because otherwise, how do they understand what they are asking the machine to do?  At school I also learned to do things like climb a rope, play the tambourine and cut things out with scissors and glue them to paper.  None of these I've had to do very much in my professional life; does that mean we shouldn't teach children to use scissors and glue?

 

One final but very important aspect of why manufacturing is seen as unimportant in the UK, is measuring it by the number of people directly employed by it (the trades unions are the keenest on measuring the success of organisations by the number of employees in them).  Consider the car plant of 1970, which turned out N cars per year with perhaps 20,000 workers on site, ALL of which were employed by British Leyland or whoever.  Every one would have been classed as a manufacturing worker.

 

Now consider the same plant in the 2020s.  It probably produces 2-3 times more cars per annum, but now employs 5-6000 people.  Much of that is down to the automation of the production line as you suggested, however consider that there are probably 1-2000 on site who are not directly employed by the manufacturer.  Cleaners, catering staff, maintenance fitters (probably from the suppliers of the robots and other plant), IT support and possibly even HR/payroll, will be contractors and all of those companies will class themselves as service companies.  To the macro-economist this shows that services are more important than manufacturing, but all those people would be out of a job if the manufacturing didn't exist.

 

Coming back to model railways though, it's not about the ability to solder a metal kit or roll your own boiler barrel.  What is sad is the people seemingly unable to use a small screwdriver to change some couplings, or repair a broken part back on without smearing glue all over the model.  Since accessing the batteries in a lot of domestic items requires you to remove a small screw, you have to assume there are a lot of perfectly working items in landfill or scrapped because the batteries had run out.

 

Your last paragraph sums it up well. Within the two generations of my wife's family most have degrees but none have what my old physics teacher called "uncommon sense". Fix a dripping tap, sort out a simple electrical problem, etc. and guess who get a call for help? Would  word work/metal work lessons at school have helped? Possibly not but some sort of practical based teaching - call them life skills - might have helped to provide some confidence in fixing simple issues around their home or hobby.

 

As Tony W has pointed out, there are many within this hobby who can't/won't undertake a simple repair or alteration such as re-gauging a set of wagon wheels or re-fitting a tension lock coupling. Are they, as Clive suggest, incapable of such things because they didn't do a toolmakers apprenticeship or similar.

[nest]

Evening all

 

First time posting in this thread but have been following the recent discourse on skill interesting. I am 28 and have to have a go at a brass kit although have a strong desire to do so. The relevant subjects at school that would have been helpful were unfortunately woefully taught with little investment or inspiration. This has left me in the situation of having to start from scratch with learning how to solder etc. Conveniently there’s plenty of resource available but it would have been nice to have had a firmer grounding in the relevant skills. I currently look at the work here with both envy and a desire to have a go. The current offering of RTR does not meet my interests which is potentially a blessing in disguise in pushing me to make the jump.

Into the great unknown!

 

I’m sure there was a point I was trying to make but it’s gone now…

 

Nestor 

[Jesse Sim]

7 hours ago, Barry Ten said:

 

It might be a weakened motor - I've had one (connected to a DJH gearbox) that was gutless and slow. The loco would run fine under test, but couldn't pull anything. The wheels wouldn't slip under any circumstances, which indicates a lack of torque. That could be due to an over-stiff chassis, gearbox, or weakened motor.

 

If the wheels slip, I always take it as a good sign that the motor has lots of power, it just isn't being transferred to the rails efficiently, but that can always be resolved with more weight and/or better balancing.

 

Aye that’s exactly what it’s doing, the wheels don’t slip she’s just gutless. 
 

 

6 hours ago, 34theletterbetweenB&D said:

I would also suggest the removal of the decoder. They are not all equal by any means, and ideally the drive train should be assessed independently of the decoder to ensure the root cause of the problem is identified. 

 

 

 

I do agree some run different to others…. 
 

5 hours ago, Bucoops said:

 

Have you tried wheels downwards? It being a British Loco, not Aussie. 

Do the letters FO mean anything to you? 
 

3 hours ago, Tony Wright said:

Good evening Jesse,

 

Reading your post (interpreted one way) suggests that the wheels and motor were fitted to me! Punctuation, my dear boy, punctuation......

 

Thus - I've got a DJH B16 that you fitted wheels and motor to, Tony, back in 2019. She's........ Or better - Tony, I've got a DJH B16 which you fitted wheels and motor to, back in 2019...........

 

Anyway, did we run that B16 on Little Bytham? It was four years ago, and at my age................

 

Did it pull anything then? A few suggestions, following up some already sound advice given by other posters

1. Remove the bogie, and run it without it (the bogie might be taking too much of the loco's weight). 

2. Arrange the drawbar so that some of the tender's weight is transferred to the back end of the loco.

3. Is there space inside for more weight? I add ballast, even to white metal locos. 

4. Run the loco against a block on the test track. If it won't slip, then it's a motor problem.

 

I hope these might help. 

 

Don't worry, count it a plus that I'm prepared to comment on your grammar! 

 

Best regards,

 

Tony. 

It was late at night for me Tony, my england gets betterer after a few coffees! 
 

My grammar and punctuation has improved in leaps and bounds these last few years, i just need to work on my photography, my articles suffering because of it… anyway, just my criticism. 
 

I appreciate all the help, from yourself and the others on here. 
 

I’m going to try a few things and see what I can find. 
 

The motor came from your cupboard Tony, so if the motor is gutless you can have it back 🤣