fiftyfour fiftyfour

The worm gear isn't spinning, the carden shaft spins freely from the motor end and when I separate the parts and try manually turning the worm drive with the carden shaft between my fingers it doesn't budge

Carden shaft spins when its disconnected from the worm, but it's impossible to see what is happening between the shaft end and the worm once the cover goes back over.

And more recently (its been a week long stock healthcheck) I found a very nearly identical issue on a Dapol Class 121, it got warm and then the plastic drive couplers started slipping on the rod and once they started slipping the train (load: one vehicle) came to a stand. I dismantled whilst heavily cursing the "new" stuff vs the Lima stuff which just works out of the box, cleaned up and its better but still not brilliant- I was reluctant to apply glue on a tiny drive shaft but it might come to that if there is a repeat. Back on the HST power car I did think there may be some dirt in the cogs as initially they didn't feel free running, but a little bit of gentle working got them moving. I'm now thinking its the worm shaft housing has contracted with age as its as if something is clamping the worm shaft. I don't know what the thrust washers look like, I don't think is has them unless they are the bits the worm drive sits in?

One of my Hornby HST power cars (circa 2008, the then "new" version, R2704 pack) has decided that after being last operated about four years ago without a problem it wants to play up. It initially crawled along at a very slow pace with only one bogie moving, and bench testing showed the mechanism between the cogs and the carden shaft at the No1 end (cab end) had seized so the good end was fighting against a static end. Stripped it down and built it back up one bit at a time, and its either the housing around the brass thing which I'm going to call a worm drive, or the worm drive locking up against the cogs. Anyone any ideas on a permanent fix please? For now I'm running it without the carden shaft and the brass worm drive so it's only powering one bogie, which seems to have negligible effect on performance but it doesn't feel like that is a long term fix!

Ebay seller was doing them, I had to make the Cheltenham District from two packs, Cheltenham plus Maidstone District from memory.

Yes, they ran "seaside specials" on Sundays, bank holidays and more often in summer school holidays. Just one bus there, five hours or so in Weston for the same bus back. Sometimes it needed to be duplicated or triplicated to cope with demand, it just picked up at a few points in Cheltenham and Gloucester then went straight onto the M5 so probably only took about 90 minutes from Gloucester, even with an Olympian.

wow, that's quite a find- thanks for that. Now to place a massive order!!

Can anyone point me towards a source for the West Yorkshire PTE colours as worn by the Class 141's when they were brand new please. The colours worn by the buses in the same region are quoted as "verona green" and "buttermilk", I've drawn something of a blank so far!

Its only happening on this site, but it didn't happen just now!

using google chrome on a desktop, not gold membership. Just took about seven attempts to get this far, as soon as the screen opens a very dangerous malware "advert" for BT tempting me with offers in Euros for completing a "survey" and also purporting to be from Vodaphone. Luckily my malware is up to date.... I know this has been said a thousand times and we get that you have to monetise the site and turn a substantial profit for your owners but this ain't the right route, as the site is un-useable.

Another three months of silence, how long until we hear the squeal of wheel flanges...

I'm selling off the last of my stock of these replacement interiors as part of a clear out before I move house. £30 for four, including free P&P. You need them if you've got Oxford Rail Mk3's (INTERCITY "swallow" or Virgin), Hornby (InterCity as per this years release, INTERCITY "swallow", most post privatisation liveries) and Lima (again, everything between blue/grey and mid 2000's refits). Not correct for sliding door era. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/185824420447

Mr Colour blisters enamel paints, thankfully only a test piece!

Seen it, ordered it, waiting for it! Thanks for the suggestion, I've now got a model set aside for varnish trials ahead of re-stripping prior to going into a different livery!

Are you using https://www.migjimenez.com/en/ as that's all I could find typing AMMO MIG in? It's out of stock there. There appears to be an acute global shortage of modelling varnish, every single turn I take leads to "no stock"- that was probably the 20th place I've tried.