bertiedog

That is why Labelle is best... it is not a car grease designed to thin with temperature, but is a grease for model transmissions, that with the Teflon, remains fluid enough in actual use. It also never dries out.

Only from long experience, but try Labelle silicon with Teflon grease. All these problems seem to be makers tolerances being too wide and parts sometimes a bad combination by chance, and, yes mine was totally stripped to find if there was one major fault, which it is not. As mine runs well I have no faulty one to compare the parts with, Stephen

I thought firstly that the blame laid with DCC, but it was checked by others by changing settings, which failed to cure it, and remained even on a battery supply.......so it can't all be down to the DCC or feedback controllers......... I have put a Lenz chip in, and it still runs the same, perfectly smooth, mind you, with the settings way off normal it gives unstable operation. Obviously Dapol have an issue to address, perhaps the motor quality being variable is generating random running.....but how does this still turn up on DC battery testing. Stephen

With the second drawing I would suggest it was the drawing simply not showing the axle for simplicity. If the drawings are usual type done in the Engineer, they are rarely works drawings, and often the engraver took liberties with details. Also a serious point, the wheels would barely remain in gauge without the solid axle, as the wooden frames flexed a lot. A solid axle checks the wheels in gauge all the time, and aligns the bearings, spreading the forces more evenly. Stephen.

Off hand I cannot think of many Loco types that had stub axles, Winan's did on some in the States. The weight of the loco would stress the outer frames to much, without the full axle, which keeps things stable. Stephen.

One thing missing so far is a new finer insulating joiner to be a near match to the new metal joiners. The existing ones work but when painted etc they do show badly in comparison. Not an easy item to slim down. I am using thin PC strip soldered under the gap, with the the copper broken through and cosmetic side plates. Stephen .

Well now.... got confirmation email of the delivery of the balance of the points, so there is no shortage, they have simply received further stock as fully expected, since last week. As to the increase in sales at Xmas with the two major shows it stimulates sales covering far more than just the purchasers at the shows. The work on Middlechurch Marsh track work can now resume at last. Stephen.

Sorry, but Shows and Xmas do result in a peak of sales for new items, And over egging the comment about patchy supply is not correct, but I went on to explain attempting ordering a quantity and exactly explained what happened, and merely passed on comments, from the shops, that they will need new stock. Others raised the spectre of batch production, as happens in the US with several track suppliers. I am just commenting on a situation, nothing about being pedantic, but all three suppliers have outstanding orders, a very good situation for Peco, but means a lot more work for customers tracing suppliers at the moment.

You can blame me me for it, or the Windows spell checker running whilst using firefox, or it could be simply poor eye sight due to age.......It is a struggle typing anyway with arthritis.

It really seems that seats colour remains an unknown on the early railcars, except for the NRM example which they admit is not original material, but changed over the years many times. Most coach fleets had various colours, far more than the railways, where the seat colour indicated class of travel. Was the G W R blue for first, red for second class?...... In many ways the railcars were classless, and the Board may have wanted a selection of colours and patterns on the basis of brightening the stock up a bit. They after all considered them as ultra modern in the 1930's. The main consideration with mouchette cloth seats was durability and the London bus seats, (and Underground seats) ability to absorb dirt into the chair backing, keeping the seats cleaner than with Rexine. The cabs fronts styling is distinctly from the Aero designs, and bears a close match in outline to the De Havilland Rapide Air liner biplane, from the 1930's. On the model seats, to get the complex pattern right it could be done on the computer and then scaled to size or a touch bigger, the seat painted white or cream, and make transfers from the transparent transfer kits for inkjet and laser printers. The soft nature of the transfer should wrap around the seat shape quite well. I 'll be doing the interior over the next couple of weeks or so. Stephen.

Delivery and stock seems a wee bit patchy, but not bad for a brand new production. But I sincerely hope the mention of batch production by some fellow members will not become true, and then lead to shortages. Everything is made in batches, it is up to the expertise of the company to estimate sales and provide enough stock to cover normal demand, which is no longer true for Locos and stock. The track is available widely, so should be the points, but with Warley, London, and Xmas there are going to be delays during peak demand. I have had to go to three suppliers to find stocks, and two shops sold me the last in stock. No issues with any of the points, I do not think they could be improved, bar people being very much tied to a particular pre-grouping specification. Stephen

But I have not got any problem, just suggestions to trace the hunting fault. The performance is smooth and steady, so the faults others have must be bad assembly or parts broken.

This may be nothing, but grasping on straws about the bad runner, but removing one set of gears to the wheels and it not pulling at 50% is very odd indeed as the total power should be evenly split in simple terms. But it does suggest a possible source for so called hunting, in that the bogie must be free to pivot in all directions, about the pivot point and to be able to rock freely both fore and art, and sideways. This allows all four wheels to remain in contact with the track. But if the pivot is restricted in any way, say by wiring or retention screws it maybe the load varies as the drive rotates, pushing down on one pair and then the other and because of the difference in transmission power, they hunt or rhythmically vibrate. Check the pivot carefully and make sure the wiring restricts nothing. Stephen

O Lord, please delivery us from the odd thou or two, comparisons with rival makes, different gauges, .......just use the Peco track with Peco points, they match correctly in use. It is quite fair to compare, but mix and match makes brings such difficulties to light that simply do not matter, Peco sell as a system for RTL track, it works perfectly well with C&L as a bonus. Keep laying the track.............

Resuming work on the layout, after bout of illness, the table version is now being equipped with the track and basic scenery, plus points, which are PC type with live frogs. The card table top was a bit small so added new MDF 6mm top about 6 inches all round, with batten edges, bringing it up to 4ft square, a reasonable area for H0f.,especially as it ca be viewed from any side.

The cab interior is quite different to the later units, as with the Didcot example, with a brake column etc. However is any thing hidden behind the seat in this view? And still no answer on the seat colours so far.......... Still worth fully detailing the cab, even if so sparse on the early design. Running still perfect, it has been lubed with Teflon grease etc., and fitted with second flywheel, with extra outer ballrace support. Stephen

The two pole motor was entirely designed to get around Board of Trade restrictions on Toy and Model production. Mr Farish Snr wanted Pittman motors from the States as supplied in the Formo 060, but were stopped by the Ministry rules. But Farish had the right to make the motors from scratch, using parts and materials from the Farish and Preens pre war stocks of electrical and radio parts they made. The design was unique, moving magnets, stationary coils, switched by a form of commutator that biased the motor to stop where it could start again, The performance was remarkable, very efficient, and a natural flywheel action, but it relied on a centrifugal clutch, which jerked it into action, and easily went out of adjustment The design was heavily patented. In the end the dropping of the rules was the end of the two poll motor, and Farish returned to conventional designs. Stephen

Best pull myself up on this, it is the distance between the tyre to root curve and the back of the opposite wheel that prevents contact. It spaces the flange in the middle of the wing guard channel, held there by the outer running rail, not the guard rails. If the wheel is to modern standards just setting/checking the BB will result in the correct dimensions. Stephen

Well, maybe a faulty winding in one pole, but you mentioned fitting the U/J shaft in one of 8 positions? Is it in a multi sided socket at the motor end? And the other end is a ball and pin u/j? Then one end is sort of a c/v joint and it is absolutely critical to set them out of phase, or else you have a Hookes joint, which will produce exactly the trouble you have. It will be the bogie end that needs turning on the shaft till a sweet spot is found where the joints cancel out the hunting. This is the kind of mechanical mistake that could slip in at the factory, and explain all the problems. Stephen

May be worth checking all the pickups are tensioned against the wheels, it is full 8 wheeled pick up and maybe attempting to run on one or two. I re-tensioned mine as a matter of course before running in. Stephen

Now run in and perfect operation all round, only gripe is the whistle, now replaced with polished brass. Some figures from Monty or Modelux now required. Lets hope the SECR liveried Birdcage coaches turn up before Christmas. Stephen .

Then if not the float, then eccentric gears or wheels or both, every thing else has been eliminated. The only part you could change is the U/J to a CV joint with silicon sleeving tube, but........ Other than that I would eliminate the motor, there is no earthly reason it should hunt........apart from the brushes being too stiff in the slides or the springs too weak. Also it could be an oily commutator, with a coating of carbon black and oil. Modern motors are rarely opened up but in this case it should be, as it is the last possible cause. The most unbelievable case is one pole is not wired in properly causing unbalance to the rotation. Fit a new motor, almost any small motor will fit, £5 upwards on Ebay, double ended type with same shaft size. Stephen

It is coming down to one factor, the fore and aft play between the worm and the housing. At light loading the thrust of the worm keeps the worn in contact with the one end of the housing, but as speed and load varies, it begins to hunt in relation to the load. To cure it may need a very thin washer to take up the play and thick grease on the gears. If the play is there but small, then the bearing might need machining to get a bigger gap to fit a thicker washer. Equally the bearing could be moved if it is not part of the moulding. I have not looked inside the gear box Stephen

There is no risk of shorting, as long as the BB is correct, the guard rail stops any risk of touching. This is not to say that out of gauge Lima, or wheels with rubber tyres that are worn might risk trouble. Old Tri-ang would fail, as would early Doublo. It all depends on checking BB's. An NMRA RP25 wheelset goes through with perfect clearances, and before you state these are American standards, they are the only tried and tested 16.5 track and wheel standard, and are now nearly 60 years old. Stephen

Never set universals at any but 90 to each other, it produces the Hooks effect, where it will cause exactly the effects you have, but it is difficult in this design to get it wrong. U/J's are not constant velocity joints but at 90 degree each cancels the others oscillation out. You could check if the assembly is able to be assembled wrong, I can't on mine as away for a couple of days. This is the only area it can be if it is a mechanical problem. The shaft must float freely, nothing tight when the bogie is running on straight track. The motor must be mounted tight, any play might make it worse. At worst it needs a new U/J, but it is more likely it is miss assembled, and needs re-assembly correctly. Stephen