BWsTrains

Hi, I'm a newcomer to the Blogs area and like the structure where discrete sub-topics are listed and readily accessed, please don't give up, your various themes are of great interest. To give an example, from your main blog listing I spotted the crossing gates change you'd originally covered in Jan that I'd never have found buried in 100+ pages of someone's linear Forum post. As I'm into making the same change on my layout your comments were most helpful, thx Tired of scrolling through endless forum pages where often pleasantries, banter and chitchat swamp the meaty bits Colin

Hi, is what you say about the Castle beats true also of Kings?

less time spent on wine n' wimmin seems in order here

From a fellow Aus, here, you can always request a test before dispatch. Normally I do, given the impossibility of return because of high cost. They then come with "Tested by "H"" sticker and I guess in event of issue they'd then be up for cost of return. BTW see my earlier post here, my new 6424 had a bad grinding noise which was due to gear rubbing against back of Cab plate. I had to resort to surgery to fix to my satisfaction as it was the one time I'd skipped the test request!. Check to ensure the lube you applied didn't just solve that issue for a short while. It appears to be a design fault with the gear aligned too near that part of the body causing it to grate. Others have reported similar issue. Have also bought 2 pre-owned Baccy pannier locos from them and am 100% satisfied given originals are no longer available.

Thanks, I'm not a slave to detailing as I share my layout with my grandchildren (that are by any standard very careful "operators" for their age but still not perfect). A photo was more for my information and future reference at this stage. The links to Dart etc are appreciated and I do like the look of the coach in an overall sense as you noted. Please post a pic when you have something you're happy with. Regards, Colin

Any chance you could post a photo of yours with the detail kit in place that would be appreciated. Pity Hornby didn't even bother update the coupling to the modern narrow type.

This is a useful resource for info on most model releases. https://www.modelraildatabase.com/classes/details/77/ Here I'm on the Class 64xx page, you'll see the answer (in modern times) is no, only GWR or BR. Somewhere on their site they list how far back thru the Bachmann and Hornby catalogues they've covered

Agreed! And why not? They have their place. I'm just a boy with his toys and my grandchildren (male and female 3-8) also love them and are already well on the path to careful and constructive railway modelling, my keen assistants. A quest for authenticity has it's place if you have the $$$ and the desire. The pure pleasure of the smiles on my grandchildrens' faces when their King chuffs out of the station is priceless to me, matched beats or not. And when our era has moved on, surely its a credible goal to have furthered our hobby through them? Colin

Sounds like a faulty Chip to me, I reprogrammed several CVs on mine. According to the pamphlet that came with your King, many CVs are addressable including CV1, 3, 4, 10, CV150-4 for Motor control so I don't describe the available CVs as only basic. Notably CV 2,5 and 6 are not available but my King runs just fine as it was. Others might know if using CVs 150-54 is another way to get similar effects as adjusting CVs 2, 5 and 6?

The bearings are not necessarily "without oil". You could run a test by mixing a typical lubricating oil with the 90% alcohol you used. I've a strong suspicion these two are immiscible, i.e. the oil won't dissolve in the alcohol. As I recall from my chemistry experience of many years ago, ethanol and oil don't mix, especially if it was 90% ethanol (+10% water). What ethanol (i.e. Methylated Spirits) would dissolve or shift is more polar crud and that could improve conductivity as you observed.

You are correct, my mistake. Only the 57xx is sprung but both that and the 64xx run perfectly on my layout, best of all my locos. I guess my question changes. If these two locos are such great reliable runners, one with a rigid chassis, why so much difficulty being experienced on other small loco types? BTW I chose the 57xx and 64xx over the 14xx because some experienced folk here recommended them for their reliable running, and very sound advice that has proved to be.

There is a trap I discovered about "Stay-Alive" when trying to fix a running problem with a 4575 Class over just a couple of points (insulfrog) in forward but not reverse. My local shop convinced me to put in a DCC Concepts Zen nano chip with Stay-alive but that did nothing and some running tests on track covered with masking tape to break contact quickly showed I was getting a fraction of a second of extra "alive" running. A quick look at the small capacitor supplied should have told me that. Further reading of the DCC Concepts guff warned against over sizing capacitors with the tiny Nano sized DCC chips - risk of burn out? Re the Zimo SC68 1) has the size to work but might be a risk if used with small DCC chips which tend to be put in small locos, worth checking. 2) will it fit? the bunker seems the only possible spot on the 14xx and that's no good if running Sound Also if 14xx stalls so easily, it seems to me most likely it's the rigid chassis structure at fault. My similarly sized 57xx and 64xx Bachmanns with their sprung middle axles sail thru everything at even the slowest speed whereas the larger 4575 is not sprung and has the odd running issue.

Nice to see a good old thread jump back to life! I came here to understand the quirks of 1930s GWR coach configurations as I'm just getting into the topic. Two attractive Clerestories are already gracing my tracks and now new 57' Colletts just hitting the shelves. So the Posts here proved most fruitful in several ways, Rovex's #9 post was indeed the picture worth 1000 words, also info on the mix of types fits well for me so thanks to everyone. BTW when I was commenting about seat turning, I'd missed #35. Do they rotate seat orientation on HSTs these days?

In Japan and Spain they flip all the seats around 180 degrees (in just a few minutes) in these turn-around situations, I've seen it done! Totally disoriented me the first time I found my reserved seat had "changed" sides in the carriage

Hi. FWIW as I'm on a learning path like you, see my recent post where I added weights to a Toad Brake van. Your experience with the Cambrians is getting me thinking about wagon building myself. http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/121359-weighting-a-toad/ I really like the modern flat car wheel weights that come in 5g and 10g combination strips, you can break off what you need. Depending on your level of adherence to "prototypical" they are even thin enough to virtually disappear underneath the chassis of open wagons where there is often very limited space in between the chassis and body. I apply a thin film of acrylic filler over the area of the weight, this is strong enough to hold it firmly but can be prised off if required. Being lead they can also be hammered to thinner / wider. Hope this helps.

Let us know how you go. I've been lucky with my Hatton's purchases so far, all have run well and haven't had the issue arise of a return from Oz. My recent 64xx was a close shave but I fixed that myself.

Under DC or DCC was that? My comments were with a Zimo 6 Pin installed and I found it ran best with their recommended settings for CVs 2,5,6 to produce a "Clipped linear Speed Curve" (10,160, 90). With lower CV6 it was more sluggish but this might better suit shunting which I've yet to try.

Hi, Two years on and I struck exactly the same issue with 6424, moderate grinding noise when running but return to UK from Aus is just not on for me. Without the body shell attached, this ran as seamlessly as my 5775, purrfectly you might say, quietest engines I've ever owned. Further exploration showed that there is a very small tolerance between the rearmost gear and the inside of the cab front. We were the unlucky ones where the gear just rubs against the wall on our models. With time you have probably eroded away enough plastic for the problem to resolve. My solution was first to try running in for a further 2 hrs, when this had no effect out came my scalpel and I now have a genuine firebox opening as the wall is already recessed and quite thin there! This with a bit of further trimming fully resolved the issue for me. Colin

Sorry, I was not talking about the Zimo site, I coped OK with that but about the Bachmann site where it's not very friendly or easy to find the relevant manual at page http://www.Bachmann.co.uk/service/dug.php. My comments were intended for others future reference and help. If you don't know up front that Bachmann 36-358 is a Zimo chip, you can go clicking thru various poorly titled links on that page to PDFs for other chips. Colin

To close out this Post, my Bachmann / Zimo 6 Pin DCC finally arrived and all has gone perfectly. Very easy to fit. Even using my limited "Select" Controller, my 64xx faithfully obeys all the various CV settings I've tweaked using the eLink. Bachmann documentation is far from helpful, just a hard to find hyperlink to The Zimo site in German. So for the record, the 36-568 = Zimo MX622n and The Zimo downloadable manual covers this and many other Chips' CV settings

Dave, Let me be clear that my word “ensure” did not and was not meant to imply “no testing was done”. Nor was my commentary intended in any way as “mischievous”. You have misunderstood my (correct) usage of the word admission “an acknowledgment of the truth of something” The serious modellers in this place would be expected more often than not to use quality and NMRA compatible DCC devices, chips and controllers, yet still have encountered a wide range of issues. It seems you have been most unfortunate to have conducted testing that failed to pick up these issues that only appeared after product launch. There are many possible explanations and is an issue that your development team must be reflecting on.

Dave, that is a remarkable admission this deep into the project. Surely ensuring DCC chip / motor compatibility would have been of highest priority during design. For me in Australia where return in case of fault is ruled out by the costs involved, to read here of model after model with running issues has turned me right off buying a 14xx.

OK, thanks everyone for helping. Bachmann now ordered with fingers only so lightly crossed,

that That is probably due to default CV settings that you can't change using the Select. Should be able to change them with Elite and the Chip instructions will have which CV controls what factor. One of them covers the time delay before starting, another the acceleration rate.

Thanks very much, most appreciative for the feedback