John M Upton

At the rate they are disappearing from the Coastway West, 313215 to Bognor this afternoon may well have been my last one: 313220 was going to Brighton by the way. I am booked one tomorrow on the same job but the chances are pretty good it will be a 377.

313206 and 313212 just screamed through Chichester on today's ScrapEx to Eastleigh, 5Z01: A second Southsea/Littlehampton/Bognor circuit switched to 377 today, if that pattern continues it will be down to one on Thursday and none on Friday.

313201 (a.k.a. the infamous blue one) was also on display in the photos I have seen, that has not been announced either, just original 1970's condition blue/grey so I wonder if a retailer exclusive is in the offing?

One of the four Southsea/Littlehampton/Bognor circuits replaced by 377302 from this morning: I suspect a second one will fall tomorrow and there is a good chance last West Coastway 313 could be Thursday now.

Last day of 313's on the Coastway West will now be Friday instead of Saturday. Last service train of them all will be one off Seaford about five o'clock ish on the Saturday as the service shuts down completely by half six. Hardly any trains running at all on Saturday for some unfathomable reason.

Less than a week to go and a reduced timetable due to an overtime ban I knew nothing about this week:

It's the Royal version of the old Rail Express System (res) livery which was Post Office red with that dark grey upper stripe and the silly "morse code" logo thing, they also had the contract at the time for the Royal Train locos so came up with this regalised version with a cast plate for the silly logo. Thankfully then along came EWS who binned the RES identity along with the daft logo.

GWR going into the artificial reef business? Drag the whole lot down to Dawlish and chuck them in the sea, about the only thing the old D stock is good for.

Who are they? Haven't heard anything about this and I actually live and work in Barnham!

Interesting to note that the OO scale 'spin off' as it were has made it to retail before the originally intended N scale version for the NGS (due in a few weeks apparently, my credit car awaits the call...) Actually it is also interesting to look at these new OO scale versions as it gives an upscaled sample of what I await in the smaller scale.

There was a photo in one of the Platform 5 combined volumes of that era, may have it lurking around here somewhere...

The only rebranded NSE Mk1's I can recall were some where the blue was replaced by Intercity Executive Dark Grey for some reason.

A trick some bidders do is to put in a ridiculously high bid on an item them declare 'oops, I made a mistake, honest Guv' and withdraw it but done deliberately with the sole intention of finding our what a rival bidders top bid actually is. Caught someone doing that on an item of mine a few years back, they were duly added to the Banned Bidders list...

I like driving them but from a passenger comfort perspective, they are years beyond their scrap by date. The general consensus among the regular travelling public is that they cannot wait to see the back of them but they have attracted a new following among some very vocal youngsters who seem to have be going mad every time they see one but who will probably move swiftly onto the next "trendy motive power/stock" that happens to be on vogue, never to be seen on the Sussex Coast again. The fact remains, they are life expires, worn out as 313213 decided to demonstrate in the early hours of this morning when on leaving Bognor, it threw a hissy fit and shut itself down completely leaving me, four passengers and my guard sitting there in complete darkness for ten minutes until I managed to get it going again!! One thing that will go though is safety critical guards, when the 313's retire, they become On Board Supervisors and the Sussex Coast becomes 100% DOO.

On nights again... 313205 and 313213 in Bognor Regis at about half two this morning. Not long left for these veterans now.

I have done a separate How To thread on Proto 2000 GP cracked gear replacing:

Found this one in WHSmiths this morning that seems to have slipped under the radar here: Pretty good but a few fuzzy pictures and some major typo errors on Page 73, Levant should be Lavant, Porterfield should be Portfield and Fisherton should be Fishbourne!

At this point, now is a good opportunity to clean the axle less trucks of any residual hard grease, dust, dirt, polystyrene packaging balls and other detritus: You have two options for replacing the gears, option one is Walthers own replacement parts, catalogue number 920-584408 which is two pairs (four wheels) complete with gears, these are expensive, virtually unobtainable in the UK and you need two packs. The better option comes from Athearn in the form of their spare parts pack number 60024: These are designed as replacements for their SD-40 model and there are six in a pack so if you are buying any (UK availability also pretty much non-existent but try TMR Distributing in Canada https://www.tmrdistributing.com/presta/index.php?id_product=12465&controller=product&search_query=60024&results=1 which has cheaper postage than the US) then buy two packs and you have enough for three locos. The axle holes in the Athearn gears are a little smaller than the Proto 2000 stub axles so you will need to carefully drill out a little bit of the plastic from the gear on each side: Test fit the wheel carefully, it should be a push fit but tight: Ensure that the bearing nuts can still rotate freely, a little adjustment may be required. Hopefully after ten or fifteen minutes, you should have four newly regeared wheel sets on your workbench: Drop the axles back into the truck frames and replace the retaining bottom clips but don’t put the truck side frames back on just yet. Now test the chassis again, hopefully you should now have a running chassis, this may need to be run in a little to allow the gearing to settle, if there is any binding, remove the wheelsets and adjust accordingly.

Proto 2000 GP Series Loco Cracked Gear Replacement Guide Following on from some feedback in one of my workbench threads, I have written this guide for those who have Proto 2000 GP series locos with cracked gear problems. This is a common problem and affects Proto 2000 GP models of pretty much every type, I have personally encountered the issue on pretty much every GP I have bought (nearly all cheap “Spares or Repair” second hand) with the exception of their GP60 as I have never had one but all the others (7, 9, 18, 20 and 30) have all passed across my workbench at some time or other. So, here we go. First is our subject: A GP9 Phase III in Rock Island livery, an unusual example as this one managed to make it through the post without suffering any damaged handrails! First things first, test it. If it takes power, that is a good start but if you hear knocking noises like a wheel flat, clicking or it jams up then you have cracked gears. If it doesn’t take power, you will need to investigate possible problems with disconnected wires and/or duff DCC installations. This one clicked and knocked like a spanner in a tumble dryer. Time to open it up: Proto 2000 GP’s seem to have had several different ways of getting in over the years. Originally, they were supplied with the body and chassis separate in the box (later Walthers production of the same models dispenses with this nonsense), levering off the fuel tank which is secured with double sided tape(!) is your first step, also unscrew and remove the couplings or take off the end lower fairings. Underneath the fuel tank on some you will find two small screws which hold the body on, this one doesn’t have them and with the end lower parts already fallen off, the body simply lifted off which was when the two missing cab side window glazing pieces reappeared! Fairly standard chassis here, there were variations as the years went by. Turn it over and place it on your work bench wheels up then use a screwdriver to gently lever off the truck side frames: Each truck side frame has two parts, the main frame side, and an inner spacer, place them to one side. Remove all four side frames and you should have the chassis looking like this: The wheel sets are held in by a base clip part, secured in four places and levered off with a screwdriver: You may find that the clip parts have a build-up of old grease on them, this is a good opportunity to remove it: The wheelsets should just lift out: Rotate them and you should find that if the gear is cracked, they will rotate very freely as the gear is no longer gripping the axle stub properly. There’s the problem: Not easy to see but get the light at the right angle and the crack appears to the naked eye. Pull the metal wheelsets off the cracked cog, they should come off very easily. You may find that one set is actually not cracked but I recommend you replace them all anyway. That should leave you with eight wheels with stub axles and their square bearing nuts: And the old gears: THROW THEM AWAY NOW!!!! If you keep them on the bench, there is a danger of getting them mixed up with the replacement ones.

Well... https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/285271622104 It's a old Blue Box, it is not a GP60 and it is not an even an EMD despite a photo showing the instruction sheet in the sellers hands telling him what it actually is!!! Also the decimal point is about two points too far to the right... And thrown in for free is the usual dead relative sob story. Sorry, like this horrendously overpriced auction, I ain't buying it....

Most will be able to, 208 is a non runner though but that could be sandwiched in between two runners easily enough for a one way trip.

This morning at Chichester, London Bridge bound (Victoria was shut for engineering works - again!) As an aside, 313 Scrap-Ex moves have appeared in the system for the next couple of weeks for Hove Yard or Lovers Walk to Eastleigh which seems to suggest that 201 and 208 will be going as soon as early next week and there is a chance that others may be pulled before the 20th of May.

Three in the morning down Littlehampton and it was time to wake them up...

Painting, a non specific coat of dark green:

Beware, the replacement B4 bogie packs recently issued, Bachmann have ballsed up and the old pre Blue Ribband tooling ones have been produced in error.