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.

Model Rail (Heljan) British Rail Class 11 shunter revisited

 

28/10/2024

I’m not sure if I am just unlucky or there is an issue with quality control; I’m having issues with my class 11 loco; it’s fitted with a Zimo MS581N18 sound chip. Randomly it stops and the sound stops. This happens at various parts on my layout even on my 2 foot programming track a slight nudge sideways it starts to move however I have to turn on the sound. I suspect it is a pickup issue, but due to the position of the pickup wipers it is difficult to see them to ascertain if they are the culprits. The locomotive was returned to Kernow modelrail centre for attention. However a replacement was sent virtually by return although it was tested it still has issues randomly stopping after an initial run in for an hour and a half in each direction. I’m not 100% sure if the inside of the wheel sets are chemically blackened if the is the case this may be the cause of the stalling.

Model Rail (Heljan) British Rail Class 11 shunter

 

Today on Pix Valley we are proud to announce our latest arrival, in pristine condition after extensive rebuild to full running order 12100 British Rail Class 11 shunter (the daddy of the 08 gronk) as normal procedure in Pix Valley it was run on the rolling road for 30 minutes in each direction before being chipped. Unfortunately I noticed that when running in the cab light didn’t work! Waved the magic wand till I was blue in the face LOL I selected a Zimo MS581N18 sound chip from https://www.youchoos.co.uk/ using the Class 08 sound file as both locomotive share the same English Electric 6KT engine. Installation is very straight forward two screws behind the side tool boxes release the body taking care to tease it up as its very tight fit. The cab light issue was down to one of the bronze tabs detached from the keeper plate screwed to the under side of the roof moulding. A spot of cyanoacrylate solve the issue.  Fit the MS581 after the blanking plug was removed there is a built in speaker on the PCB all that remains was to replace the body shell that’s it job done. Due to the orientation of the chip to clear the cab light pad it was necessary to set the decoder to reverse polarity, CV’s were tweaked to

CV 2 Start Voltage 5
CV 3 Acc Momentum 20
CV 4 Dec Momentum 15
CV 5 Top Voltage 0
CV 6 Mid Voltage 0      
CV29 reverse direction 39
CV266 Volume 75

 

 

D8015 British Rail Class 20/0 (English Electric Type 1)

 

20/05/2024

Today on Pix Valley we are proud to announce our latest arrival, in pristine condition after extensive rebuild to full running order D8015 British Rail Class 20/0 (English Electric Type 1) as normal procedure in Pix Valley it was run on the rolling road for 30 minutes in each direction before being chipped. I selected a Zimo MX645PluX22 sound chip from https://www.youchoos.co.uk/.

Installation is very straight forward two screws under the NEM couplings release the body taking care as the lighting cables are attached to the PCB. Pop out the blanking plug and pop in the MX645 as there is a built in speaker pre-wired replace the body shell that’s all there is to do.

I may upgrade the speaker to a SugarCube24X15X7-2W t give a richer sound!

Percy from DC to DCC Part 2

Next up solder the four wires to the DCC NEM662 NEXT18 female socket to 14 wire adaptor PCB from BLW Technical Services Ltd on eBay.

With the chip connected I reprogrammed the address to 6 tested on the rolling road.I wrapped as I did with the Thomas conversion the PCB and chip in Kapton tape to protect the chip from short circuits

The chip sits nicely in the space under the coal load. 

Percy from DC to DCC Part 1

The body is held on by 4 clips 2 near the cylinders and 2 by the cab.

The motor is retained by a single screw and spring clip. 

Once these are undone the motor assembly can be removed the chassis

Next remove the pick ups from the inside of the chassis this will free the motor from the chassis.

Gently separate the motor from its mounting frame 

Clip away all the old wires keeping the left pickup for reuse later.

Next solder new wires to the pickups black left red right and 2 new wires onto the motor grey left orange right.

Wrap the motor can in Kapton tape and refit the pickups and refit motor to its frame.

Replace the assembly back into the chassis 

Test run the motor with a 9 volt battery on the grey and orange wires.

Percy with his lady friends arrives at Pix Valley railway

22/04/2024 

Percy Annie & Clarabel together with a pristine Thomas body shell arrived from EBay £39.00 apparently Percy need new gears Something to keep me occupied during the rainy season! Yes after the body off Percy and removing the motor I could not turn the wheels further investigation reviled that the rear wheel set has had the crank pin forced tight against the coupling rods binding the movement a slight tweak with a Pair of long nosed pliers did the trick. 

 Closer examination of the worm showed it to be damaged due to the jammed mechanism; a rummage in my spare parts box I have spare 0-6-0 & 0-4-0 gear sets a new worm fitted. A light lubrication and reassembly I now have a happy Percy.

 

08/04/2024

Thomas arrives at Pix Valley railway

After a protracted journey of some 11 days Thomas arrived at Pix Valley railway starting in Llandrindod Wells travelling north to Argyle for a quick stop over back on the road on the 5^th heading for the A74M and onto the  M6 and M1 arriving at 09:15 on the 8^th April.

Thomas need a little TLC an the odd fettle more will become apparent when he is in the shed however first impression he has a drive train issue.

Thomas was wheeled into the shed, Body lifted from the chassis to show the extent of the issue the left side pickup are twisted out of true, excessive oil and some gritty black debris (I suspect loose ballast) around the gears the traction tyres X8101 are shot and cracks around the screw holes in the base plate X8019 I have ordered up replacement parts I performed a quick check on the motor with 12Vdc all seems to be working correctly.

Gritty debris 10x magnification 

Do I scrap Thomas or source replacement parts checking on line the wheel sets are unavailable as spares. I have found a "working” chassis so it’s worth a buy in now of £20.

13/04/2024

The replacement chassis arrived this morning and was test run on DC all working fine although he has a pronounced wobble.

16/04/2024

The replacement chassis was stripped although had been messed about with big time the quartering was all screwed up on the wheels so the rods were binding. Strip down and investigated it seems that the screw which holds the motor to the chassis had been stripped and wasn't holding the motor in mesh with the gears. This resulted in the nylon gears being slightly damaged. Next requirement is to clean up and re-tap the thread in the chassis to hold the motor. The existing hole was deepened with a 1.55mm drill and tapped to 2mm a longer 2 mm screw from the bits box held the motor in place.

It was obvious the wheels had be off previously and refitted by eye! Each axle was disassembled the wheels cleaned and re-quartered using my quartering jig, for some reason the Hornby Thomas leads with the left will rather than the norm of the right this was not a problem because I could correct it when I reassembled wheels. New traction tyres fitted to the centre wheels and the the back to back with a gauge.

 Cleaned and reassembled light oil on the moving parts by reducing the length of the springs on the trailing axle by one coil has cured his wobble.

Next18 socket fitted and chip programmed he starts off at notch 1 some fine tweaking may be require when he has had a good run.

I also managed to squeeze a sugar cube speaker into the smoke box 

Thomas wheel quartering commenced all the wheels were removed from the axels cleaned and pressed back onto the correct quartering using my jig, 

checking the back to back with a gauge. It was obvious the wheels had be off and refitted by eye!

Next18 socket fitted and chip programmed he starts off at notch 1 some fine tweaking may be required when he has had a good run. I also managed to squeeze a sugar cube speaker into the smoke box