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From Rugby, Warwickshire; Went to Marlborough Secondary School; Studied at Rugby College of Engineering Technology; Worked at HM Forces - British Army; Studied at Royal School of Military Engineering; Former Maintenance Technician at International Computers Limited; Former IT Support at GlaxoSmithKline Pharmaceuticals Ltd; Lives in Letchworth

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Monday 8 April 2024

 

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 5th heading for the A74M and onto the  M6 and M1 arriving at 09:15 on the 8th 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.

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. 

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 require when he has had a good run. I also managed to squeeze a sugar cube speaker into the smoke box 


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