[berth44]

I've completed 'the Duke', (almost) and it lookin' pretty good with it's 'new backdated tender', once I get the loco and tender re-connected,that's it, that's just one wee screw, and it's a pig to get back into its hole, once that's done, I'll fill it up with coal, it be...truly finished!..."aaar"
The 'Western' came this morning,(as 'luck' would have it,I'm off work today,and I personally received it!) I haven't opened it up yet, the wife is here to take me to the 'Dentist', you can only suffer the pain so long,and then you gotta go!!, did I say "as luck would have it???"...no luck with XXXXX toofacke!!!!!
So I have an appointment at 11.30, and it's coming 'oot' it's half way there already and I can't eat for the damn thing wobbling about, and I'm shaking with the thought of it,the fact that when I sit on the chair it's cost me 190 bucks,when the 'job' is done,how much more will it cost more than another 'Western!!'...Dave

[bluedot0]

Try a little bit of bluetack on the end of the screwdriver to briefly hold the screw while you fix it in place.......have fun at the fang farrier and fangs for the update......Phil

[berth44]

Bluetack?, why didn't I think of that Phil,probably 'cause I aint got none!!..."Oh the pain, the pain, toof is oot, a bit of stuff had to be poked oot, pain level very high, so I've just battered two panadol intae me, no more work for the rest of the week!!, need to go and lie doon, but first....., the brand new 'Western'
First up , brilliantly packed,takes ages to get out the box and it seems to be intact, 'great' nothing is broken.
Does it have the 'Wow' factor,yes it's very good,better than the 'Heljan', but not by miles! It's especially better bogie wise, the wheel axles to me good have been a fraction longer to allow total flushness with the wheels, as it is,the axle tips are about 1mm shy of perfect 'flushness', it's noticeable when you look at the 'real things' j The jury is out on the window frames, on the Heljan the frames have rivets and the side window frame looks better, especially with a side window open. the 'roof cap' thing,(always a big issue on this model) there's not much in it to me....it has 'etched' plates,that's good..
To finish,,looking through the pain and numb lips "oooooooooo" into the garage I go for a 'trial' run, it goes,nice and smooth take off,a bit noisy I thought, anyhoo, I'll wind it up a bit, and 'WOW" it literally blew up, there was a flash and a big poll of burny electrical smelling smoke...total failure!!!! I'll let 'Rails' know ASAP, but they are still in bed yet......A very disappointed and totally pissed off...Dave

[SkyFire]

Wow terminal failure on the maiden run, what did the crew do to her. Interesting that we seem to be getting quite a few failures from brand new locos right now and yet in the past it would take years before something failed. I'm starting to get the feeling that quality control has gone through the floor.

[berth44]

I'm desperately holding back on getting to the motor,it seems easy enough to get to,but what can I do if it has burnt out??, I would be hoping to find something 'extra textrical' (??) so that there is an easy fix, but I've packed it all up and I await a reply from rails to see what's what. Unfortunately, I'm thinking that these models are once again sold out, so they'll be no 'replacement', in that case it'll probably be off to Dapol for the 'fix', so I'll be lucky to see it back before 1/2 the year is out!!, I'll wait and see what Rails say....
Anyhoo, was it a good day??, I had the 'joy' of getting the 'Western', the shattering of that 'joy' with a total 'failure' was perhaps my punishment for trying to keep it secret??? So, between that and the 'toof extraction' costing a hefty 240 bucks!!, plus a 210 buck diesel hydraulic failure, it's not been a good day!!, but I suppose I should be happy that my bad 'toof' is out and the extreme pain has gone, 'health' as one says comes first.......and 3 days off work to get over it!!, (a bit 'woosy' perhaps, but with retirement in March, I reckon I'll need to use some 'sickies', this is as good an excuse as you'll ever get!, but what do they say?? "use 'em or loose 'em!")
Right,time for more 'pain killers' and hopefully a goods night sleep...nighty night......Dave

[berth44]

Sleep??..whatsat??? Rails got back to me, it's back to Dapol,so I've wrote back and said who's payin' the 50 bucks postage from my end?? I've asked Rails to contact Dapol again and see if they'll send me out a new motor and associated electrics and I'll fix it myself, that's what 'Backmann' did with my Blue Pullman,sent me the motor, I don't think Dapol will comply, we'll see, dem poms are still in bed!!...Dave

[SkyFire]

Hope they do send the motor out. Have a feeling that if it, had been Hornby, they would have said, send the loco back to the UK and you pay the postage.

[berth44]

Fingers crossed Anthony! I let 'Rails' know of our little 'failures' and politely asked a few questions, "are locos test run before being shipped to far away places?, perhaps it would be a good idea if they were then we wouldn't have this trouble of having to send stuff back!"..
I also mentioned 'factory tested?'....."I don't think so" I had two Hornby locos that virtually fell off the track,straight out of the box!!" and the dig, "yes,they were from you!" I finished off by quoting the 'time factor' of returning a loco.....2 weeks to get over there, unlimited time in a workshop, then a further 2 weeks to get back to us...not entirely fair when you have forked out way over 100 quid, 200 + of our dollars for something that you so desperately want. That's Ok for you living over there, there's 'somewhere' just up the road'...you have a wee inconvenience!!
I think I said a bit much, but bugger it, I think for a few moments of their time running a loco back and forward on a wee 'test' track' is not too much to ask for...is it?? I've seen me buying a loco in the UK from a shop ,and there he is intae the box, the loco is removed and its on a wee bit of track going forward and reverse, no problems, back intae the box it goes!!...definately a lot of hard work...cough cough!!.....Dave

[berth44]

I got a reply from 'Rails',not the one I wanted to hear,the manager is not in today,so the young lady who replied my E Mail will talk to her tomorrow ....bugger!!, what's another day??..annoying,thats what!!
Well, I could stand it no longer, got the 'Western' "oot the boax", unscrewed the body and removed it from the chassis, see if anything 'stood out'....no!
To gain access to the motor 6 tiny screws are removed and this plastic cover comes off, this also has the 'electronics bay' fixed to it. You can't get it right off for wires that are attached to the motor, but you can now access the motor with ease. I 'freewheeled' the two brass 'do das' and the motor seemed to be pretty free spinning and the 'drive chain' was working fine to the bogies, the motor didn't smell as if it were destroyed by fire.
So, i placed the loco chassis on the track, took a chance and applied some power, I had hoped by some miracle that it would speed off, alas no, but it did move!!, the motor was only just turning over, even at full power, fortunately, there was no more burning smell,so I'm thinking,perhaps the motor is fine and it's maybe the electrics?? So off the track it came, and with two wires attached to the controllers ' +&-' , I decided to bypass the 'electrics bay' and make the contact on the motor itself, it nearly took off!! , even the lights came on, head and tail,(which is correct), a wee smile came over me!!
On trying it again, the smoke returned, but it was coming from the 'electronic bay', I'm 'thing king' that's the culprit... and is totally shot!!
Right, now I'll wait and see what Dapols' response is, I've requested that they send me the motor and the electrics and I can 'do the 'transplant' myself, hopefully they'll agree to that, if they don't?, well, I could remove the electrics and wire the motor straight to the contacts from the bogies *this is what I did to get a Backmann class 25 back on the road, I had used it with DCC, couldn't be bothered with that, took out the chip for DC running,and it wouldn't move, so I put it to bed as a total failure!!, So many many moons later I decided to look at it again, (as something to do!!) and decided it would be a good idea to take the motor out, this I did, and it run perfectly!! So, out came all that 'electric gizzmo stuff' and I just attached the motor to the bogie contacts, now it joins the others in it's class, as a perfect runner!!
Anyhoo, to finish, the only problem of removing the electrics entirely (that I can see) will probably render the lights inoperable, IE, the 'directional thingy', let's see what happens first before I decide on what to do, watch this space!!.....Dave

[SkyFire]

I could probaly fix the directional lighting problem, once all the electrics are removed. Had to fix it with an older loco here, a few years ago.

[berth44]

I'll keep that in mind Anthony, thanks. The 'Duke' is now re-united with his tender, the crew are on the footplate and the tender is fully coaled. It's at the head of a 'semi' and it's performing pretty well. I'll need to 'weather' the boiler top, it looks 'too clean' just a bit of 'soot' to match its 'slightly' weathered chassis...Looks way better in it's 60s guise!.....Dave

P/S, it's been a really bad week, (in some ways), now we have a 'hot' water leak behind the kitchen sink in the frigging wall, so the hot water is off as I await the return of the plumber!!, the 'toofs' good mind you, a lot of 'hooha about the moolah' but me gub feels all the better for it, the rest done me good, didn't miss work at all.........now, whens the back going to play up!!

[SkyFire]

Things only come in three's and you've had your three, so you should be fine from now on.

[berth44]

Not train news unfortunately...the plumber just left, not good news I'm afraid, the leaking pipe is in the concrete slab out of the reach for a 'quick fix', that means removing the kitchen units, (sink etc etc) to access and removal of part of the slab to get to the pipe and replace it!!!, I'm thinking that part of the external wall will have to come out as well, ("oh for the love of me, it just gets worse!!)
To makes matters worse, we've just had new bench tops and new floors (same floor throughout our house!), so it's a big job,'huger' if the floor gets damaged!!, and here's me bothered over my 'Western'.....Dave

[SkyFire]

Major bugger. Hope nothing else goes wrong for you my friend.

[bluedot0]

A rough trot ....one would say ole fruit......Phil