Model Railway Forum

A quiet Sunday afternoon, lawns mowed, SWMBO contented, time for a rail session. The last session my West country rebelled against the controller and wouldn't stop. Reconfigured loco. Adjusted CV4, Works fine now. Right, now for some serious express work. Wellington (Hornby castle class) came out. Only run in, no actual track work.
Terrible. The loco sat there stuttering. Cleaned wheels - no different. Pulled off the bottom plate- Oil everywhere. This loco has hardly been used and certainly not lubricated. This came from the factory.
I need to strip the loco right down. Another frustrating session

Sometimes get that. Or when one gets a model running brilliantly. Puts it away. Goes to try it again after a few months and it plays up...
These days I prefer straight DC as there is less to look for when things act up. One of the difficult ones is if a tinsy bit of oil finds its way onto the commutator and brushes. These days I put a small amount on the motors axles by paintbrush.

What seems to be my bête noire are wagons that will behave faultlessly then for no apparent reason suddenly start derailing if I simply look at them. Then once they have been admonished they return to being well behaved - do I sound paranoid?

Engines also will throw a wobbly for no good reason just when you want them to run without difficulty, then magically revert to being well behaved.

I suspect that model trains come from the factory with separate personalities.

Malcolm 0-6-0 wrote: ↑Mon Nov 12, 2018 8:57 am .... wagons that will behave faultlessly then for no apparent reason suddenly start derailing if I simply look at them. Engines also will throw a wobbly for no good reason just when you want them to run without difficulty .....

Seems more pronounced to me if you are showing your layout to someone. R-

Years ago when my layout was in the loft, somebody I met in a model shop came to see it. I switched on the power, changed a set of points and they disintergrated. The blades completely fell off.

Is hillarions looking back at things that act up just as one is going to show ones lovely model railway to others.
I once read about a man who took his model railway to an exhibition and though in the past all worked immaculately, however at the whole two days of exhibition, he had no power to his track. He spent the whole two days pushing stock with his finger and he said no one noticed! He said even the mayor came round to see the layout and no one noticed.
It would be amusing to hear other funny situations like this...

I am still trying to figure out what black cat crossed my path
Dismantled the castle. Cleaned excessive amounts of oil from pickups and base
Plate of the loco. Put it back together, on to the rolling road. Shudder., pop!
One of the phospo bronze wipers caught of the leading driver, went through the spokes and jammed the connecting rod which promptly came off the piston slide rails.
So back in the box, New base Plate from Peters Spares ordered. Another frustrating Sunday afternoon

You'll get there, even if you end up rebuilding the entire loco.

Parts arrived from Peters Spares (one week after ordering for delivery to Aus. I'm impressed) Started work on the castle. Is it just my heavy handedness or this loco is so fragile. Tried to reconnect the piston crosshead to the connecting rod and the slide rails parted company with the piston block. No signs of any glue so I assume the slide rails just fit. Had to remove the connecting rod pin to reconnect the cross head. Then the slide rails came out on the other side. In the end had to use a clothes peg to hold everything together. Pick up the body and the nameplate and central splasher fell off.
What holds these locos together!!!!!!!

I'm of the opinion that some modern models are not even meant to be picked up by the owner, let alone dismantled or serviced. Last year I bought a Beattie Well Tank which although secondhand appeared to have never been out of the box, let alone run.

As a consequence of this the lubrication seemed to have dried and it wouldn't run when placed on the track. I decided to take the body off and just check the insides and apply a little lubricant. Just the simple task of removing the body resulted in breakage of some delicate detail, which took some fiddly repair. Fortunately all the loco needed to make it run was lubrication and it's a lovely performer which matches the delightful detail. But these modern models are so fragile.

I'm not condemning the wonderful standard of detail we now have but sometimes I pine for the days when dismantling a loco required removal of one prominent screw and the innards just dropped out.