Grovenor

The pony trucks have a ridiculous amount of sideplay and hence easily get out of line with the track, you may well find that adding some washers on each end of the axle will solve the problem, failing that a bit of lead (car tyre sellers usually have lots of scrap from balancing wheels) and a tube of glue will allow you to make your own weight, you don't have to wait for a ready made one. Keith

Post 1778 above suggests that Heljan's other steam locos are not fault free. Keith

i suspect the seller has been asked to get rid of the pre-production sample, probably close to cost price bearing in mind the skilled craftsman expecting £500 a day or thereabouts. This is the source http://time-vault.co.uk/pages/oe/orientexpressbuy.aspx Remarkably they claim to have 4 reserved! This is obviously for the executive toy market, no expense spared! Keith

Was discussed at some length about a week ago. Keith

They must sell enough for it to be worth their while! So i would put the ignorance on the buyers. Keith

Coupling probably went missing with the box, but why did a never used model need a full motor stripdown? Keith

I particularly like this one.http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/ATLAS-1-87-HO-G-3-3-SLM-1894-Tram-Diecast-9001-/141489626322?pt=UK_ToysGames_DiecastVehicles_DiecastVehicles_JN&hash=item20f1705cd2 Keith

Looking at the prices for the 24 sold, the '9' is missing! Keith

True in theory, but at the turnout sizes under discussion the curvature and lack of cant means that the main road will have a speed limit and most likely at least as severe as that through the divergence. (but usually one of our modelling compromises is to consider curves to be of a much larger radius than we actually make them). Keith

This is true from a commercial turnout viewpoint as Martin said, but not for the real thing. Think about it this way, if the crossover was straight then you would have no problem with it being made up from two left hand turnouts, curving the whole formation does not change this. It is when you get to the fine detail that the distinction between left and right hand is defined. For the switches the divergent stock rail, left hand in this case would have a set to match the planing of the switch to keep the alignment of the main road correct. Then with a traditional built up crossing, the point rail should be in the main road and the splice rail in the diverging track. These two items effectively define the hand of the turnout irrespective of curvature. If you produvce a curved turnout in Templot then use the command to swap the hand you will see the difference. Keith

All the Gibson wheels I have are fitted with steel tyres and steel axles. I don't know about 'et al' but the Steam era/branchlines wheels are nickel silver with brass axles, but disc wheels only, no spoked or 3-hole last time I looked. Keith

Ah well, according to today's paper, there is now a Chinese clone of a Range Rover Evoque with photos to prove it, so decoders are just small beer. Keith

Same here, I checked the motors with a 9V battery and they seem to run OK and gripping the shaft when running the torque, as big herb says, seems OK. They are now in the spares box as my originals have not yet failed. Flywheels yes, but there are no gears attached the connection to the gear is via a universal joint, see big herb's photo above. Brian, Have you said this to Hattons? And if so what was the response? If not, why not? You must be their best customer for these locos. (answers are not compulsory!). Regards Keith

Interestingly the Alibaba salesman sends a TCS data sheet to describe his decoders. Keith

We have free choice in these matters, having purchased the loco its my choice to alter it as I wish, and to decide, in the event of any failure whether I should take up the warranty or use my own skills to fix it myself. Mine has not failed yet, and next time it leaves its box it will be to be rewheeled for P4. After that I will be unlikely to send it back but would chase the supplier for a replacement motor should it fail. Regards Keith

They already have flywheels which are 11 mm long and you would need to cut the rear shaft short anyway, an extra 4mm flywheel does not seem worth the extra effort. Keith

What I don't understand is why you did not just use the Alan Gibson Wheels (item 4800/7) in the first place, then the whole conversion just takes a few minutes. Of course its a bit late now you have reamed out the gears. Regards Keith

Try here http://www.norgrove.me.uk/permanent_way_notes.htm regards Keith

Those sideframes look more like frames for a class 20, did HD use the same ones? In which case they are not rare! At £100 for 4 sideframes I wonder what he will be asking for the other bits? Keith

When the moulds were new those pins were a good tight fit and did not need glueing, things have probably changed with wear to the moulds. You just need to take care to glue the pin to the body mount but not to the bogie. Keith

No, but no less wrong than it looks now! Unfortunately no-one makes any models of terminal insulators on their brackets so far as I know and making them in bulk would be a nightmare job. Regards Keith

I found one loose radius rod on mine, looking at them, they are only held in place by friction of the valve rod in the valve chest, all that is needed to hold it in place is a dab of paint or glue on the valve rod where it enters the valve chest. Even loose it is hard to see how it would cause the gear to jam. I would be more suspicious of the excessive sideplay on the driving wheels, especially the front set which is enough to let the crankpins foul the rear of the crossheads. Regards Keith

Better to follow the real thing and bend the rail except for crossings getting close to 90 degrees. Keith

I note that the spares page has not been populated yet. http://www.ehattons.com/garrattspares Keith

If the returns ratio reported on here of close to 50% is being replicated more generally then I would imagine they are already sitting bolt upright. Where are they finding the replacement locos? This must be destroying their profit margin for such a limited run loco unless its really a very easy fix and they are just recycling them. Keith