Finally gettiing out of my system.

Whilst idly perusing the 'bay' for Southern locos, I came across an auction for a pre-owned Hornby H Class 0-4-4 in olive green livery.  I think that this loco in this particular livery sold out years ago soon after release.  Anyway, what caught my eye was the auction starting price of £40.00p. I saw an H Class last weekend at my club show in BR Black livery retailing new for £117.00p.  The seller stated that it didn't run very well and the whistle had broken off.  He had fitted a crew in the cab.  I decided to take a chance on getting a real donkey, but after all, how difficult could it be to get a loco running? Famous last words!  

Much to my surprise I won the auction and became the proud owner for the sum of £56.65p.
The loco quickly arrived and I put it on the track to give it a run.  It moved about two to three inches in either direction before stopping dead.  Not having a clue about this particular loco, I took to the internet to ascertain what problems had been encountered with this model.  They seemed to range from problems with a hot motor or the white 'gunk' in the gears causing problems or the pick-ups on the rear bogie not maintaining contact with the wheels.  

So, armed with this knowledge I took a breath and removed the body.  There appeared to be an excess of oil so I wiped a piece of kitchen roll over the motor and cleaned it off any other surface where it was apparent.  I removed the driving wheels and cleaned the rear faces ( where the pick-ups make contact) and the treads with solvent to remove any dirt.  Next I removed the cover to the gear train and removed the nylon gears. These were wiped off and I poked around with a small screwdriver inside the gear housing to remove all of the white grease much beloved of the Chinese manufacturer. The pick-ups on the  rear bogie were adjusted to ensure that contact was made when the wheels moved from side to side.  I removed the motor (breaking one of the fine wires in the process necessitating a small extension piece having to be soldered in place).  The motor was tested and was found to be running hot.  I removed the two brushes and cleaned the commutator with solvent on a stiff paint brush.  I also gently cleaned out the slots in the commutator with a scalpel blade to remove any waste carbon.  One of the brushes needed replacement and luckily I had a couple of spares to hand from a defunct Bachmann Class 04 Diesel shunter. Lastly, I noticed that one of the hexagonal nuts had become loose on the coupling rods, so all were tightened with a nut spinner.  I would now add that all of the foregoing took place over about five days.  As soon as I seemed to solve one problem, another popped up to stop the loco from running.  Lastly, I lightly oiled the gear train and the coupling rods.

And the result?  A sweetly running loco which performs smoothly with no trace of hesitation.
The original whistle had been a plastic affair so I'm not surprised that it snapped off at some stage.  I ordered a brass sprue containing four rather nice whistles from Peter's Spares and duly fitted one atop the cab.  The Hornby couplings have been replaced with my preferred Bachmann type.  The brake rods appeared to be missing.  Enquiries of Hornby revealed that they don't carry spares of this item.  However, I enquired of the original owner and he appears to have found them and is kindly sending them on to me.

The loco makes a very nice addition to my Southern fleet and here she is in all her diminutive glory…

You can be lucky Terry - looks a nice little loco.
You could start a loco maintenance business.

Very nice. Glad to see you had the gumption to get stuck in and fix it up and turn it into a good runner.

Well done Terry - always great to see a master at work ….. :thumbs

I particularly like the way you say "I removed the wheels/the nylon gears/motor"  etc. as if doing each was as simple as flicking a light switch !

Doing any of those tasks would severely test my abilities and, most likely, lead to failure !   Don't ask how I know ….. :roll:

Bravo Terry I purchased an M7 by the same manufacturer from a club member. It has been suggested that it “Couldn’t pull the skin off a rice pudding “ . Luckily I haven’t got any. I tried to order something from Peters Spares one time but the bloke who answered the phone couldn’t help me???   Best wishes Kevin 

Thanks all.  Actually, on more than one occasion I thought that it had defeated me.  But after each failure I gave the matter some thought and had another go.  I figured that basically there are only so many things that could be wrong so systematically worked my way through the list. The loose hexagonal nut securing the coupling rod was not on my list. I just happened to notice that it was poking out after the loco stalled once again.  At the end of the day I'm not really sure what the problem was but suspect that it was simply one of the carbon brushes required changing.  The cylindrical carbon brush is much narrower than the hole in the housing in which it sits either side of the commutator.  I think this allowed the remaining stub of the worn carbon brush to dislodge itself and lose contact with the commutator. Also, before dismantling any part of the loco I took a close-up photo so that I had a reference as to how it all went back together again.  Here are a few of the photos to give you an idea of what is 'under the bonnet' so to speak:
 

Nice one. As Lonnie Donegon said, not mushroom inside.

The Farleigh locomotive fleet continues to expand.

A few years ago I was very pleased to hear that Hattons were going to release the ex-SECR P Class 0-6-0.  I had once built the Wills' white metal kit of this loco which was expertly painted and lined by a work colleague in Southern Railway Olive Green.  I was very fond of this loco although I don't remember what became of it as the years rolled by.  When the Hattons' model became available I bought the BR black version.  I couldn't justify buying the SR Olive Green liveried version as I was not intending to build a Southern themed layout anytime soon.  How times change?  Of course, by the time I started to construct Farleigh the Olive Green version had sold out.  For nostalgic reasons I wish that I had bought that version instead of the BR one and for some time have regretted it.  Despite regular searches on Google, Ebay and Hattons' website looking for a secondhand model, one has never surfaced. 


Last week I was perusing the internet and was just about to shut down my computer when a thought came into my head which told me to search again.  I can't explain why but I had a confident feeling that today I would be lucky.  I typed the relevant details into Google and immediately spotted an entry for a shop indicating that two new models in SR Olive Green were available.  A quick telephone call confirmed that the models were available so one was immediately  ordered.


 After a long search here is the smallest loco in my Southern fleet…

What a little beauty  :cool:.

Lovely little loco. Good on you for persevering.

Recently I have turned my attention to adding some more detail to the layout, especially in the goods yard.  I decided to permanently fix two coal heaps to the surface of the yard instead of having them removable as previously mentioned.  I have it in mind to affix more spilt coal around the general area.  Keeping with the coal theme, the following recently rode into town…

Hi Terry.  Well done, I can see that you feed your horse well . Nice modelling. Best wishes Kevin 

That's really nice modelling.

Who cleans up after the horse.

I suppose that's what the barrow is for ?

Thanks both.  The man with the wheelbarrow needs it for his roses!

Terry

Great pictures of great modelling Terry.  I have captured both to use as jigsaws!!  Very inspirational.

Barry

Good modelling and Dobbin looks happy.

Love it Terry.  :thumbs

Have you added coal to the sacks ?

Thanks all.  Peter, the sacks are as produced by Peco.  I just cut them down a bit as they are rather tall.  More like coke sacks.  And they have had a spray of matt varnish to remove the shiny plastic look.

Tonight, on a whim, I decided to extend the short piece of scenery in the fiddle yard to improve the view when looking under the bridge from the scenic section.  If you remember from way back in this thread, I added some scenery to the fiddle yard to give the impression that the scenery carried on into the distance on the fiddle yard side of the bridge.  I'll post a photo when it is complete.


Terry

I've got some coal for those sacks. I'll even grind it up before sending it.  ;-)