CrazyRS

On 24/01/2022 at 16:14, Dominion said:

Not the drawbar, but I have got rid of the crabbing.

The white part in the attached photo is a piece of evergreen strip.

6.2mm wide, 0.4 thick and about 13.5 mm long.

It is just inserted between the front of the tender draw bar and the tip of the petal shaped 2 lobe hole at the front of the tender chassis.

It has the effect of making a flat bearing face for the tender draw bar, so load does not create any tendency to pull left or right. 

So far it has stayed in place nicely with no fixing mechanism, just a snug fit.

The bottom edge is sitting just above the forward projection of the draw bar.

I inserted it with tweezers from the top as I had the top plate off anyway.

There is a fine spring in there which I have not bothered to reinsert as the plastic strip is holding the draw bar to back of its travel anyway.

The loco just pulled 10 Bachmann and Hornby lit Pullmans with no crabbing.

Tom

PS 0.75mm was too thick. 0.5mm might work but I didn't have any in stock.

Also it may be possible to insert it from the underside without disassembly though I have not tried that yet.

 

Thanks for the tip. I’ve done this modification tonight, an it’s worked a treat. 
 

On 25/01/2022 at 17:54, The Black Hat said:

Quick question - how many of those thinking of getting rid of the 'horrid drawbar' are running on analogue.... ?

I think the answer for that will be everyone, where as digital modellers will readily accept it and like the extra ability for sound in tender. 

Me. 
 

On 25/01/2022 at 19:16, 31A said:

 

I have!

 

Not for the faint hearted, or not the way I did it anyway.

 

Basically, I cut two plates from 10 thou sheet brass approximately 25mm x 9mm, with holes drilled in two corners to fit beneath the retaining screws under the cab, and under the front of the tender.  Then made a drawbar from a piece of brass etch scrap; I think it was a bit thicker than 10 thou, but not important.  Made holes in the plates for pivot bolts and soldered 10 BA nuts above these holes.  The pivot bolts are 10 BA bolts with a washer and a slice of tube soldered to them.  So far so good.

 

 

 

The drag beam beneath the cab has a slot in it which the drawbar of the real loco would pass through and I hoped to use this for the new drawbar.  Obviously I had to remove the close coupling system.  The one on the tender was easy enough (see @Dominion pictures above) but the one under the cab has a cover plate which is attached by screws which are under the can floor.  I couldn't reach these screws so I demolished the close coupling drawbar with Xuron cutters!  If the drawbar is to pass through the slot in the drag beam, the pivot bolts have to be on the top side of the plates and hence unreachable once everything is in place.  I had to cut a notch in the tender drag beam to accommodate the new drawbar.

 

I did some running trials at this point.  Initially all good, but there was binding on the sharpest curves.  I found the cab doors (on the tender) were fouling the edges of the cab, so I took about 1mm off their edges.  It also seemed that the fall plate was binding on the handbrake and water scoop stanchions on the tender footplate, so I trimmed some metal off the fall plate.  But mainly the binding was because the drawbar needed to swing more than I'd expected and slot in the loco drag beam was too small, so I had to extend it to either side, in fact into the other slots which exist on either side of it.

 

If I hadn't tried to fit the drawbar through this slot, but underneath the drag beams (as is often the case with model locos) things would have been a lot easier!

 

I wanted to keep the tender pickups but didn't want to risk soldering in that area of the tender, so I ran new wires from the PCB on the loco and terminated them in slams washers.  These are then clamped to the tender pickups by small self tapping screws, tapped into holes drilled through them into the plastic tender floor.  They have to be small as they mustn't be able to cause a short circuit by coming into contact with the weight block above the floor!  One is painted red to identify which pickup it goes to.  These wires have to pass from the PCB beneath the cab floor by passing through the space previously occupied by the close coupling arm, so you have to get this out somehow, by brute force and ignorance!  The wires then pass through the same slot in the loco drag beam as the drawbar.

 

 

 

Anyway after all that, all is now well.  As well as getting rid of the plastic lump, I was able to reduce the gap between loco and tender to 4mm, which is normal on my layout and will go round the sharpest curves (Peco Code 75 Double Slips).  If I was to do it again I would probably fit the drawbar lower down, which would save a lot of bother.  And also do it before I'd fitted the additional bits from the bits bag!

 

 

 

 

Oh wow, that’s impressive! I do like this idea. Maybe I’ll attempted something similar when I’ve completed some other jobs. 

Has anyone devised a plan to rid there V2 of the horrid drawbar yet?

7 hours ago, Mitch91 said:

I've been running mine today for the first time and after the usual running in period it seems to be a very jerky runner. It also requires a nudge to get it going. Has anyone else had this problem?

Yes I had that problem with my first Novelty. So I returned that an my replacements arrived today, just finished running it in now. Although my second did have a slight jerk/tight spot, it’s sorted it’s self out after running in light engine in both directions followed my running with a heavy train.

As a note my heavy rake consisted of 7 superdetail Hornby teaks, hauled with ease. All I have to hand here as mainly our LMS stock is kept at my fathers. As a Comparison, I then removed the traction tires and tried again with the same rake, although it would pull it was struggling, so reduced the rake to 5, an it runs perfectly which is more than adequate.  We’ve got various rakes of Ratio built coaches that the Precedent will run with.
 

Personally I did think the loco ran better without traction tires, others may have different experiences. Time to get the various items fitted that came with the detailing kit ready for taking at the club on Monday night, where will be paired with our ratio coaches 

On 10/01/2022 at 22:59, Compound2632 said:

Yes, first LMS livery was the same as we see on Bachmann's Midland-liveried engine but with the large digits on the tank side and the roundel on the bunker.

 

But I would confidently expect that Bachmann's first re-run of these will include a version in early LMS livery - it's a no-brainer.

Thank you again for the confirmation. Yes, your probably correct, it’s is a no brainier for Bachmann, but I don’t fancy waiting 3 years. I’ve done the same with Bachmann’s NER green J72, I’ve renumbered that in LNER livery. 

On 06/01/2022 at 22:05, Compound2632 said:

 

All those engines that passed to the LMS had the first LMS passenger livery, i.e. Midland crimson lake livery with the LMS roundel replacing the Midland coat of arms on the bunker, and the number in 18" numerals on the tank side. They retained their Midland numbers. This is not the quite same as the livery on Bachmann's Midland-liveried version, which represents an intermediate style of c. 1905-1908. Black was adopted from 1928; I'm not sure if there's any detailed information on repainting dates, some may have continued in their old red livery for a few years. But none were ever red with LMS on the tank sides.

 

 

[Embedded link to Warwickshire Railways image ref. mrn330.]

 

NB. This particular engine is a member of the 2228 Class, which had slightly taller tanks and bunker than Bachmann's 1532 Class.

Thanks for the information. My plan is to take Bachmann's Midland 1539 and renumber into LMS livery.

On 07/01/2022 at 15:30, Compound2632 said:

Midland Engines No. 1 ‘1833’ and ‘2228’ Class bogie passenger tanks

I'm sure my father has a copy of that book, next time I'm visiting I'll venture into the library an have a look.

Good evening, 

Is anyone able to tell me if the LMS had any of there 1532 Class in crimson lake livery before they where painted black? An if so what numbers. I have looked online an can’t find any livery information. 

On 08/12/2017 at 22:16, RFS said:

As you're running DC then the Gaugemaster DCC80 is not what you need.  Instead you need a single Gaugemaster GM500 (see http://www.gaugemaster.com/item_details.asp?code=GM500&style=main&strType=&Mcode=Gaugemaster+GM500 ). 

 

This is a relay with two built in changeover switches designed to be switched in conjunction with a solenoid point motor.  You need to wire each frog separately to its two switches.  The GM500 is then wired to be switched by the point motor that controls the route over the crossing. 

 

On the link I gave above, there are further links to wiring diagrams for various uses. 

Would a GM500 still be suitable if two controllers have use of the crossing?

Finally, good on you Hornby!

A question if I may regarding your point bending very early on during the building of Grantham. Did you find a limit to what your could bend your points too? I only ask as I wonder if it would be possible to take a double slip point to basically create this sort of  curvature?

Thanks in advance. 

Thanks for the tip, but I’ve checked already, they don’t sell the doors or lamp irons. Not even Hornby does for that matter!

Thanks Mick, I’ll drop him a line!

I’ve purchased a couple of second hand Hornby A4’s recently that require replacement cab doors & lamp irons, after a google search I can only find them done by ‘Peasholm Models’ but they don’t seem to be available anymore.

Could anyone point me in the right direction to obtaining some please?

WANTED!!!!

Two Coronation Mailcoach kits;

•MC11

•MC14

Needed to complete a set I’m building.