amdaley

Hello Everyone. A friend of mine has a Z21 & has asked if he can use Tortoise point motors on his layout with it ? What sort of accessory decoders should he use & how should they be connected to his system ?? I don't know anything about the Roco system myself so I am looking for help in how to advise him ? Thanks everyone. Regards. Tony.

That was fast Les. The UK minister for housing could do with you lot

This is the one I used. trains@oxforddiecast.co.uk

I was waiting for that one

But at least you could re use the string I don't think there's much use for old parcel tape Now the question will be. What's cheaper ? String or Parcel tape ?

I think the situation was that there was a problem with the shop in that the building had a problem which meant that Hattons were going to move at some stage. However it seems the problems were worse that at first thought so the move had to be done sooner. I would say that the entire building has a problem of some kind & that's why its still vacant. Tony.

Update on this. I sent an email to Oxford & they were able to send me a new coupling including the chassis fitting for a small payment. They were very helpful until I asked some questions about the Dean Goods,then the emails stopped

Hi Everyone. I was working on my EKR Radial tonight & while bringing it up to eye level I caught the rear coupling on the edge of the baseboard & snapped it off where it meets the chassis. Can anyone advise me on how I can remedy this as the coupling base seems to be part of the chassis. I'm not sure how easy it would be to drill the die cast chassis > Unless I stick a coupling box under the rear of the metal chassis. If I decide to do that what would be the best adhesive to use ? Any advise would be appreciated. Thank you. Tony.

My thinking was that normally when double heading there is enough play in the couplings between the two locos which helps even out the difference there may be in motor speeds. You can often see the locos hunting back & forth. However in the case of the Garratt even though there are two chassis as well they are bolted rigidly together with no play at all between the two so they fight against each other even more. I've no doubt that there are other factors as well like motor quality because when the motors are replaced with quality items the problem seem to go away ? Then again as Dave said the new motors may be from the same batch which eliminates the speed differences. I understand what Dave is referring to about motor batches running at the same speed. I have two Hattons Dapol LMS twins. One runs slightly faster than the other. They were bought at different times. I had originally thought of buying the Hattons Dapol No 10000 & the Rails Bachmann No 10001 but got fed up waiting for the Rails one so I bought another Dapol one from Hattons. Since I run DCC I will speed match the two Twins when I get around to it. Of course if I was running DC I couldn't do anything at all.

Strange you should say that as I never thought of it that way. Back when I got mine I ran it for about 20 minutes each way on a rolling road with no problem but as soon as I placed it on the track it failed withing minutes. On the rolling road each motor was able to run at its own pace but started fighting when put on a rigid track. I also noticed that one chassis ran slightly slower that the other one.

What about a quad art set. Would that work? Tony

That's great to hear. Two pieces of good news about Olivias today. Perhaps the tide has turned for them in 2017.

Thanks Keith. I read all about fitting new motors back in this thread. I think the point being made at the time & upteen times since was why should anyone have to take apart a brand new £200 loco to replace the motors. Not everyone has the skill, the time or the inclination to do so. I sent my faulty one back long ago. I would love a Garratt & would have no problem buying a new one if only it wasn't from Olivias.

Hi Colin. Happy New Year. Not from Olivias. We have heard to many bad things about this company for me to ignore. Every shop has its mishaps from time to time but Olivias seem to have just to many. I was very disappointed when my original Hattons one died within minutes having waited three years for it to arrive so I would gladly buy another if given the opportunity & if I could be sure that the problems had been overcome. Maybe if I lived in the UK within driving distance of Sheffield I might take a chance with Olivias but not at a distance.

They seem to be one's which were returned faulty to Heljan & bought by Olivias who then repaired them with new motors.

That's good news Peter. Many people were burned by the original version so its nice to hear a good news story regarding the model.

Did you take something from the bogie or the loco body ?

Congratulations Dave on a very successful year & long may it continue. Happy New Year & continued success for the future.

Lay it on its side on a table or work bench & apply voltage from your controller to each set of wheels & see if the motor runs any faster that way. I don't have a model like it so I don't know how many motors are in it or how the various units are coupled together. Maybe someone who has a similar set might enlighten us.

Check that the wheels are clean & don't forget the backs of the wheels. Also insure that the pickups are making good contact.

Time to get the Dremel out so

Cheers for the video. Nice to hear what the loco sounds like. When you say track needs to be dead flat do you mean the loco doesn't like gradients or is unforgiving of poorly laid track ?

Best keep my money in my pocket so.

Or maybe too busy fighting with each other

I recently asked the highlighted question above. Despite all the "experts" on here only Mike Wiltshire bothered to answer me. Thanks Mike. Perhaps there aren't that many experts on here after all Happy Christmas everyone.