[berth44]

"Yip yip" I can do it, I've learned,so I'm baaaaaaaaaaaack!! I think there are a couple left, so I'll send these....Dave


P/s the car is not a train, but it's for sale!!!!

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[berth44]

No stopping me now, here are some of 'The Duke' This is it finished, some very light 'weathering' is evident and it showing off it's new 'backdated' tender....Dave

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[SkyFire]

Is that the poor car we were in, that was hassled by that loonie in the 4wd, thinking if so, not surpried you want to get rid of it.

Photos are looking good. Have a K for getting the photos worked out.

[SkyFire]

The Duke is looking good.

[berth44]

Some general views of the 'new' sheds, coaling and ash plants and the turntable...Dave

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[SkyFire]

The sheds and coaling / ash plants look good. Always wanted a nice big shed for the layout, but with having a small layout, there is no room for one. Maybe one day, the layout will grow big enough for a decent size shed.

[berth44]

More views of the layout, there's a lot to be done!!..Dave

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[SkyFire]

Think I might have to bring my track cleaning train round and give it a run over the track.

[berth44]

The last photo above will eventually be the ballast loading depot, I think I'm about done, the Warship is the old Mainline one, but it runs pretty well

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[berth44]

Got the 'circuit board' for the 'Western' today and I've just fixed it in place....perfect!!!... great service from Rails and Dapol......Dave

[SkyFire]

Good to hear, hope no more problems with it.

[berth44]

It's still going well, thanks Anthony, just some final detailing from the 'pack' and it'll be finished finished. I went into the garage yesterday for the sole purpose of 'tidying', that didn't happen, funny that? I decided to 'look for' the missing nameplates from my two Warships, might be in their boxes, so into my loco cupboard I went, "Hmmm" I wonder if this loco goes??, so I took apart at least 7 old Tri-ang and Tri-ang Hornby tender drive locos and got them going again, even hauling a trains!!, mind you, these old 'cam' motors with rubber tires don't pull too much, obviously through lack of weight? Two of the above 'tender drives' were 'Evening Stars' I had 'detailed' one of them fully, IE, I had removed all the moulded 'hand rails', repainted (Gloss shiny black..ex works) and renumbered it to 92203, but it was a 'non runner'.
The second was 'Evening Star' itself, all the moulded handrails were off, and that was it, but it was a great runner, but wait, I have 'Backmanns' much better version, so I just transferred bodies, 92203 is a perfect runner,but will never come up to 'Bacmanns' standard, but I will use it, the other goes to the spares department, maybe one day to 'morph' into a 'Crosti Boiler' version?
I was quite pleased with that outcome!
It seems the older the better (to work on), an old Tri-ang DMU and an 'EM2' were placed on the track, both dead as a do dos! Now these have the old ancient motors with 'magnadhesion', obviously I had worked previously on the DMU motor as the 'knurled' wheels were replaced with plain old wheels, ( no tires, there was no magnets in this unit). Anyway, I stripped one down at a time, EM2 first, I cleaned it up, I usually use a very fine 'wet and dry' emery paper on the armature,or is it the commutator??, the shiny bit!, (to be) I go easy on it getting it really clean, I also replaced the 'brushes' (I found a few in my 'South African' box!!). I also required to solder a wee bit brass ( a strip) onto one of the brass pick ups that no longer contacted the wheel. I also had to 'work free' a plastic bush thing that is on the motors shaft between the motor itself and one of the worm gears, (imprisoned?) once I was satisfied it was 'free-er' I put the thing back together, and 'hey presto', it goes great, not even a spark!! The DMU motor was way easier, it runs like a new unit, and surprisingly, very quiet, but again, back into it's box, 'cause these units ('Metro Carmel") are really crap, no interiors, non flushed windows, way too short (I have the 'latest' Hornby version, it'll be replaced by the new Backmann unit..eventually))
I found it a pleasure to work on these two ancient motors, something I did quite a lot in the 'old days' this type of motor was used in 'Tri-ngs' first production A1As in the 60s,(man) these were always poor runners, anyhoo, it was fun getting back!
Last to receive attention was my original Britannia, circa 59/60. it went, but it was noisy. I thought I'd clean the 2 scale foot thick wheels, removing the body to do so, I placed it in my Peco cradle, and using the 'cleaners' I bumped up the power, all seamed OK, them smoke started to pour out of the motor, 'oops!!, quickly cutting power!!, I observed that solder had melted on the 'shiny bit' and the plastic holder that retained the brushes had 'melted' and the brushes were now at a strange angle at their contact with the 'shiny bit', but the strange thing, it was running even better than before!!??, I put the body back on, it was still running, so I put it back in its box for later attention!!
That brought my day to an end and I was quite happy with what I had done,(wife was pissed off!!) obviously,plenty to do for the future!!....Dave

[SkyFire]

Good that you managed to bring a few locos back from the boneyard and into the land of the living.

SWMBO - what would we do without them, just it would be nice if they would take a bit more of an interest in our model building and help out with it.

[berth44]

What's a SWMBO Anthony??.....Dave

[SkyFire]

She, What Must Be Obeyed, (also known as her indoors, among other things).