Split Gear on Farish Prototype Deltic DP1

[oreamnos]

I took my lovely light blue Farish DP1 out last night to run.  It hadn't been on the track for maybe a year.  (It usually lives in a wall mounted display cabinet.)

And as soon as it started to move, "click click click click."  It sounded exactly like a split gear from the bad old days.

After disassembly, that's exactly what I found that it was.  Pictures below:

 

 

 

I'm pretty dismayed/annoyed at this for the following reasons:
1.)  First, you'd think Bachmann would have got the split gear problem sorted out by now.

2.)  When I examined the gear closer, while it looks just like a standard Farish axle gear at first glance, it isn't.  Standard Farish axle gears (i.e. Poole Farish and ex-Poole Bachmann Farish) have sixteen (16) teeth.  The ones on the Deltic DP1 have FIFTEEN (15) teeth.  When I tested a standard geared axle before attempting to pursue a repair of the broken gear, I discovered the standard gear would fit but it would bind up.  So I counted the teeth (several times to be sure) and lo and behold, 15 instead of 16 teeth.

I will reach out to BR Lines and see if they have these new 15 teeth gears, but Bob doesn't have them listed on his website so I'm not too hopeful.

My solution in the meantime will be to remove the gear from the axle so that I have an A-1-A bogie.  Of course I'd gladly entertain other ideas on how to repair this problem.

Has anyone counted how many teeth are on the new Class 55 axle gears?  I don't have one of those yet and if they use the same 15 tooth gears as the DP1, if spare gears aren't available, I don't think I will invest in one now.

Matt

[oreamnos]

Problem repaired now thanks to some good advice from Dr. Al.  The thread about what was done can be found here:

http://www.ngaugeforum.co.uk/SMFN/index.php?topic=31385.msg357866#msg357866

 

Matt

[richierich]

Its an annoying problem that detracts from N Gauge modelling. But the manufacturers seem to turn a blind eye.