BR 15xx Pannier Tank 1501 Part 2

Well what can I say the outer packaging looked as if it had been used as a football! The locomotive box did not show any sign of damage. Unpacking reviled the chimney had fallen off! Oh dear to be honest not a show stopper. Setup on the rolling road loco address set to 1501 off we go sound on hang on its going in reverse!  I had to reset the polarity and run to loco on the rolling road a total of ½ an hour in each direction. Most defiantly a massive improvement on the 1st lemon. Chimney reattached using Glue N Glaze.

“Fringford Manor”

19/10/2023

She may be a plain Jane; I watched her for over year and a half but she kept at a respectable distance. Then out of the blue a knock on my door and there she was. I invited her in and took her upstairs, I carefully removed her outer wrap; my heart was pounding with anticipation what lays underneath her well padded exterior my trembling hands removed the top covering and there she was in all her glory “Fringford Manor”. Gently lifting her up I was besotted by her slender body I gazed longingly at her exquisite lines unlike her siblings her body art is minimalistic but perfectly applied truly she is a work of art.  Now I wanted to see how she performed with her belly full of fire! Running in on the rolling road at half speed you can only hear the faint purr from the motor and drive train, a quick play with the sound switched on didn’t disappoint me ether. Closer examination revealed all her fine details; I could wax lyrical about what I see but to put in into a nutshell Perfection! Time to ft the footplate crew, I bought the Modelu crew but had some difficulty in setting the driver at the correct angle. I had to resort to some drastic surgery and amputated the driver’s right leg!  Fortunately the fireman escaped surgery. My only reservation is the rivet size looks a little on the large size, but this is hardly noticeable. Time to get some real coal in the tender, I made a tee shaped platform from foamboard embedding a steel weight from a redundant wagon towards the top of the foamboard tower to aid removal with a magnet sprinkle fine coal particles first and then larger lumps. I guess the same technique could be employed on freight wagons. Top tip!

 

Planting people 02/10/2023

Over the last couple of weeks I spent some time painting OO gauge figures from various sources. Some good some well “could have done better”! I must have a good look at the traders at the Great Electric Train Show for some loco crews. 

As you van see the camera highlight the imperfections particularly the “hikers” Boots need tweaking

If you want to be on TV stand on one leg outstretch your right arm and repeat “I’m a little teapot....”

NB . No loco crews at the Great Electric Train Show I ordered 4 direct from ModelU

A Walk Among the Sleepers

Overheard at Pixvalley today between the chief engineer and the fat controller!

 

BR 15xx Pannier Tank Part 1

 

15/09/2023

BR 15xx Pannier Tank - 1501 Lined Black Early Crest arrived from Rails of Sheffield.

I am very disappointed with the finish. The chimney with a gap glue marks on cab front and the whistle wonky front steps fell off in the box!  Although this is not unusual for fine detail to "fall off"

20/09/2023 Returned to Rapido under warranty

27/09/2023 To say I am disappointed will be an understatement; I received my 15xx back today in a worse condition than it was sent! The whistle has been reattached resulting in more glue marks and discoloration from the Cyanoacrylate the smoke box door looks as if it has had some action taken resulting in scratch marks. 

I cannot accept this repair and want a replacement locomotive.  

15/10/2023

I received my 15xx back Rapido did not replace the loco merely the body shell. It arrive back yesterday 14th when I was at the GETS 23 in Milton Keynes tried running it this morning it won’t run; reading the address on the program track errors out a decoder rest failed. I need this loco replaced.

Rails replied

Thank you for your email, we are sorry to hear you are experiencing issues with your 15xx, please find attached our freepost Royal Mail returns label. We have allocated a replacement, which will be checked over prior to dispatch, upon receipt of your return.

Bachmann OO WD 2-8-0 sound installation

 

My Bachmann WD 2-8-0 model was hard-wired for DCC operation. 

Now I’ve decided to upgrade to sound. The loco has no space in the boiler, so I will to take the pickups and motor wires back into the tender. By removing some of the sloping plastic from underneath the coal load to create a bit more room for an 8 pin socket a couple of 15X11mm ESU 'sugarcube' 8 ohm speakers  connected in parallel will give a 4 ohm load sighted towards the rear of the tender my selected chip will be a Zimo MS450 from my preferred suppler YouChoos. 

Check the speaker for a correct fit each side of the tender mounting pillar. I then glued the sugarcubes on a strip of 20thou plastic card stuck down with double sided tape.  An 8 Pin DCC compact socket from illuminated_models  is screwed to the metal weight I tapped the plate with a 3mm thread sitting on some plastic standoffs making sure the underside of the socket is insulated from the metal weight 20thou plastic card stuck down with double sided tape was used.

The route for the 4 wires from the loco to tender is via a hole drilled in the curved back of the chassis pickup assembly I left the wires long roughly to the site where the sugarcubes, having dipped the ends in the correct colour paint for identification! A hole was drilled in front of the mounting pillar then the wires threaded through the large hole in the metal weight. 

Now it’s just a case of plugging in the decoder I used a cheap redundant non sound decoder to test, I guess you could prove the wiring by using a blanking plug.

10/03/2023 Sound chip arrived I wired the speakers and tested on my ESU 53900 rig and reset the chip ID to 3085. All that was left to do was to plug the chip into the tender tidy the umbilical cables between the loco and tender and screw the tender together. I’m very pleased with the end result