Dapol Class 121Slipping Drive

 18/12/2024

This is the second time the drive shafts have failed! The knuckle on the end of the shaft just slips. Unfortunately there are no spare parts available at the time of writing. Fortunately I have the old set from the previous failure I cleaned the parts in isopropyl alcohol run a triangular needle file across the mating portion of the shaft and glued the knuckle with cyanoacrylate. That didn’t work Dapol will supply them on an exchange basis. So the loco and the defective drive shafts are going back after the holidays

 UPDATE

Replacement drive shafts have arrived back; I’m glad to see that the design has been changed. To my mind this is a much better design.

Restoration and rebuild of Western Hills station part 2

 

I Sprayed the completed lights poles with Halfords rattle can Rover Damask red which is a close proximity to LMS maroon, next is to fit all those fiddly little LEDs. Meanwhile I've sprayed 18 GWR style platform benches from model railway scenes with Halfords rattle can Rover Russet brown a close proximity to GWR chocolate.

Restoration and rebuild of Western Hills station

 

14/12/2024

 Continuing with the restoration and rebuild of Western Hills station I needed some station lights I have a bag full of cheap and cheerful eBay station platform lightswhich are a scale height of around 10 feet. They just don't look right so I decided to use evergreen plastic extrusions to fabricate some new lights. They will be a scale height of around about 14 feet I commenced by cutting 3/32 inch round tube to 67 millimetres long for the pole next I need a base so I used 1/8 inch square tube bored out to 3/32 inch to length of 15 millimetres lastly a collar made from 1/8 tube two millimetres long again bored out to 3/32 inch.

Assembly quite straight forward slide the square base up the tube leaving 15 millimetres protruding.  Slide the collar on the top leaving around 2 millimetres protruding run liquid cement around the joints. The next task is to disassemble the cheap and cheerful Chinese lights. All we need to keep is the globe and the top cover. I cut the spigot off the top cover which allows them to come away from the pole.

For the light source I used miniature micro LED’s type 0402 pre-wired from eBay they are so very tiny.

Bachmann Webb Coal Tank 7841 sound fitting

 10/12/2024

7841 is now fitted with a Zimo MS581N18G sound chip and a Sugar Cube SCUBE8 from https://www.youchoos.co.uk/. The speaker fits in the space beneath the bunker after removing the spacer! It must have spring clips (not solder pads) there is no wiring just plug and play. I took the opportunity to fit some crew from the modelu range the terrier crew fits into the cab nicely.

Bachmann Webb Coal Tank 7841

 27/11/2024

Pix Valley announce their latest arrival, in pristine condition after another extensive overhaul into full running order Bachmann Webb Coal Tank 7841 its fitted with a LaisDcc Next 18 chip. A little jigging around with the CV’s it is running exceptionally well. It will be due for a sound upgrade when funds permit.

Kit built Webb Coal Tank 7821

23/11/2024 

A few weeks ago I was gifted a very well kit built Webb Coal Tank 7821, I always liked this locomotive. Unfortunately testing at home on DC it was apparent things were not quite right. The motor was hesitant to start and although the commutator was clean it was arcing and drawing over 2 amps! I scoured the internet for a replacement motor only to find a GEM unfinished kit selling for £125 + postage. However I stumbled on this locomotive on eBay  35-051 Bachmann Webb Coal Tank 7841 DCC fitted £75 free post.

Model Rail (Heljan) British Rail Class 11 shunter revisited part 2

11/11/2024

I am in the process of fitting ‘GoldCaps’ Energy Storage Capacitors to try to resolve the issue of stalling. This was the response from John at youchoos; “The simplest stay-alive to add to the MS581 is a pair of mini GoldCaps, connected in series.  The MS581 is designed to take those directly with no additional circuitry... has to be exactly 2 of the GoldCaps , no less, no more, to get the correct voltage (around 5V).”  I ordered the following KIT-YC1FGOLDCAP6 - 6x Mini GoldCaps 2.7V 1F. They arrived this morning two were joined in series and wrapped in Kapton tape. Then I set about modifying the control desk in the cab to accept the capacitors. Basically pop off the control desk it is held in place by two moulded pins and glue 40 thou strips of plastic strip on the mating faces repaint matt black and cut a slot in the bulkhead for the cables.  After testing on the rolling road what a difference no more stalling or glitch sound well worth the effort.