outatime

Just for information, I've got one with factory sound and the chuffs came way too often. I adjusted the Chuff-rate, so that there are approx. 4 chuffs in one revolution. CV 267 was set to 125 in my case which comes close enough for low speeds. If you want to go back to the factory setting set the CV to 108.

Could it be possible, that the coupling itself was assembled in the wrong way? Looks like the plastic part of the coupling is upside down, so it should be turned around and the coupling hook fitted from the other side.

It was not that easy, you have to disassemble nearly everything to drop the bogie out. -unsolder connections to the motor and the pickups -unscrew the PCB -remove all the details from the bogie, at least the white pipe. -unscrew the interior -unscrew the metal C-Clip and slide it away -drop the bogie out The Bogie is split in two parts which are attached to each other by three screws. Anyway, there's a lot of work involved. As you can see in the picture, one side bench is missing in my sound fitted model.

Mine had a stiff point as well, I had to disassemble it to where I got the motor out to see what the problem was. The distance between the slide bars was to small at one end, so that the crosshead got stuck a little. I used some small pliers to slightly tweak the slide bar and now mine runs fine.

It's funny that i just finished my collection of every preserved Pannier tank with the arrival of the Rapido 15xx. Now I have to start all over again 😅. I might replace some of the Bachmann ones with sound fitted Accurascale ones. Hopefully the exclusive Version will be a LT Pannier, L92 perhaps, as it was the first in my Pannier collection.

The drawing can be found here as well, scroll all the way down to the pdf: https://www.mylargescale.com/threads/sierra-rwy-locomotive-technical-drawings-available.92515/

The second one would be a nice postcard, it looks like a colourized black and white picture.

You could also modify the sprung middle axle and make sure the pickups are touching the wheels properly. https://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/129125-oo-gauge-gwr-mogul-and-prairie/&do=findComment&comment=4663572

I remember someone writing it is near to impossible because of the loco's construction and therefore fitting a new chassis would require a fair amount of work. Not that it can't be done, but a lot of milling would be involved. See here for the exploded diagram: P4 Wheelsets can be fitted as seen here: https://www.scalefour.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=7398&p=82605 Kind Regards, Björn

I'll go for the Dapol Manor, the rivets of the Accurascale Version are too prominent imho, especially those on the footplate.

There is a good tutorial on how to disassemble the Hattons DJM 14xx/48xx on scalefour.org: https://www.scalefour.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=6127 It doesn’t look like there is a lot of space for a stay alive though.

Well, sorry, probably it still wasn't clean enough after a few wipes with isopropyl alcohol. I just had a look at the rear pony truck and after the use of a small needle file the axle can now move upwards and is still sprung. A softening of the springs is still a good option, they feel quite strong but not strong enough to lift the loco.

Here are two photos showing the modifications to the keeper plate. Now that i've had the loco in my hands again, i can confirm that there is an issue with the rear pony truck as well. The wheel cannot move upwards at all even if the loco is on even track. So it is possible that the pony truck lifts the rear driving wheel in some cases and this reduces the number of contact points to only one axle, the first driving axle. So some work has to be done there as well.

The problem is that if the middle axle is only able to move upwards it means that it is not touching the rails most of the time, just if it was not sprung at all and just as ridgid as the other two driving axles. The rails are never perfectly even and in this case you are left with only three contact points with the rails, for example the last axle and one side of the first (assumed that the rails are not even). Then if only a little dirt on the tracks comes into the equation, the loco will stall. With the sprung axle now working properly, the number of contact points increases from 3 to 5 even in the worst case.

I also received my Dapol Large Praire a couple of days ago. Yesterday i finally had the time to test it and mine also stalled at slow speeds, even on my perfectly clean and straight piece of test track. At first i suspected the pickups, but even after adjusting them, the loco didn't run any better. The Loco has a sprung middle axle which usually is a good idea for better pickup. But in this case, the axle can only move upwards but not downwards. Just hold a ruler or any other piece of straight material on the wheels and you will see that the middle axle ist not moving up as it should. Finally, i modified the keeper plate, so that the middle axle can also move downwards and is therefore properly pressed against the rails. After this modification, the loco ist running perfectly fine without stalling even when crawling very slowly. I will soon remove the keeper plate again for a photo, but at first i had to test that the modification worked. I didn't inspect the rear pony truck at all because it was moving freely in every direction, so this was not the fault with my loco.

Just a while ago, the now dead link looked like the attached file. Should be an easy fix, although i haven't done it yet to my 16xx. 1852815000_16XXDCCFixRapidoTrainsUK.pdf

This can be a problem with newer peco unifrog points, when the back-to-back of the wheels is set too high. With the peco code 75 electrofrog points, the frog is much longer and ends with the two isolating rail joiners on the left of the picture, so there can't be a short at the marked spot. Edit: This can as well be a problem with insulfrog points as shown in the second picture of the qouted post. But i have never used any insulfrog points, i always went for electrofrog ones.

If you are using the points just as they come out of the packaging, the whole frog is connected to both switch-blades. Thus, the powering of the frog and switch-blades only relies on the electrical contact between the switch-blades and the outer rails. This is ok for dcc, but you can't have any paint in the area where the switch-blades touch the outer rails because it effectively isolates the frog and the switch-blades. That's why your loco is stopping there, all wheels with pickups are on the electrically dead part of the point. I would try getting the paint off in these areas first, but the "proper" way of wiring the point is shown in the picture above in your post. But if you use it, you need an additional switch to power the frog with either + or -, depending on the direction to which the point is set. Regards, Björn

There are several available, just search for next18 adapter board. I found ESU 51999 and Lais DCC 860031. There may be some more around. Now back to topic, my 94xx was sent via parcelforce and according to the tracking it was exported from the uk. I hope it will turn up some time, preferably at my door and not at the customs office. Regards, Bjoern

I just received the receipt from KMRC for my MR-310B 16xx Dart Valley Pannier. So i hope the model will be at my home soon. Regards, Björn

Same for me here, but Hattons via dpd was always here in 2-3 days. Mine is going to be renumbered to 9462, the number which 9466 carried during the anniversary of the South Devon Railway in 2019. I always enjoy using transfers and numberplates from fox-transfers.co.uk. The numberplates can simply be glued over the printed ones. Regards, Björn

I try to use RAL tones wherever possible, because it is difficult for me to obtain UK colors as they won't be sent to germany anymore due to Royal Mail regulations. For this loco i was using RAL 6007 Bottle green which is a really good match, only very slightly darker as the Hornby green. I was using an airbrush to paint the steps and blended them in. I also painted the cab shutter with that colour because after removing the route availability disc i ended up with a little black spot. The Hornby paint appears to be applied in a very thin coat. Here's a link to the exact paint i was using, which one possibly can't get in the uk: https://shop.elita.de/epages/ElitaModelleShop.sf/de_DE/?ObjectID=4408414 Kind Regards, Björn

Sorry for the confusion, i did expect that the loco never carried this livery while still in regular service. However, i chose the preserved Locomotive as a prototype because i simply model the locomotives as i have seen them during my holidays in the uk, which will hopefully be possible again next year. At some time, there may be a thread around here with all my preserved locos. Kind Regards, Björn

Here is my take on 4144, but in the preservation livery like most of my 00 locos. As the base-model was in Great Western lettering livery, i had to add the bunker steps and the upper handrails. After fitting some decals and numberplates from Fox, it now looks like this:

I'm glad that you are back Tom, Thomas looks great, Percy and Toby as well. Regards, Björn