Mainly work on trying to get the Tornado working without its DCC chip. This is the chassis without the body applied.
There’s aslo been a considerable amount of work getting wood for the table: more on that tomorrow.
I took the body off the Tornado to get a closer look at the damaged front beams and uncovered a little surprise.
This tiny board is a Digital Command Control chip, which is a key part of the digital control systems for model railways. Essentially, it allows you to control trains with a computer, rather than a dial on a box.
I’m not in the market to upgrade my fleet to digital control so I’m taking it out, but it was an interesting find, especially since the previous owner had said nothing about it (and may not have known).
I know I ought to be concentrating on repairing locomotives in the order I acquired them, but since the Duke of Gloucester runs so well without its repairs I feel bad touching it when others in my collection are suffering more. Take the Peppercorn A1 “Tornado” for example. I acquired this locomotive and it arrived in poor cosmetic state due to being partially crushed in the post, as well as being a slightly inconsistent runner when going backward. Here’s a quick look at the locomotive’s current state.
It’s a pretty striking locomotive, side on — if you ignore the fact the tender is in two parts. That said, this should be an easy fix. What isn’t so obvious in this photo, however, is the damage this locomotive has had to each end.
Neither coupling exists any more — both appear to have shattered in transit. This means that it can’t pull or push rakes of carriages at all. The front buffer beam has been pushed into the main body, causing one side to buckle slightly and both the buffers have snapped internally. Neither smoke deflector stays attached while running although this can easily be fixed with some glue. In fact, due to the amount of repairs it requires, I’ve actually created a repairs and accessories group for my parts list which is already pushing the estimated price up somewhat.
There’s a lot going for this locomotive — it runs pretty smoothly when it does run — but the task of restoring it to its righteous glory is daunting and, asides from one other locomotive I’ve yet to mention on the site, feels like it will be one of the hardest challenges for me going forwards.
The model of the Gresley A4 Bittern holds a very special place in my heart. This is because the locomotive was the first one I owned, back in the mid 1990s as part of starter set R581. As I put in the model’s notes page, this train has essentially been part of my childhood and has always been on the layouts I made. So when I removed it from storage in February 2020 and found that it wasnt working, I was quite upset. The locomotive wheels were completely seized up and wouldn’t turn, meaning that no matter how hard it tried, the motor could not move the train at all.
One of the first things to realise about this locomotive is that it is made of two separate components: the tender, which houses the main ringfield motor; and the front of the locomotive which houses the electrical pickups. Separating the tender and attaching it to another, similarly-styled locomotive showed that the motor still worked fine. In fact, it was interesting to see the Flying Scotsman zooming around using the Bittern’s motor tender. This narrowed down the main problems to the front of the locomotive.
The front of the locomotive could move short distances before the wheels locked up, so I first tried oiling the axles. This helped a bit, so I tried oiling the valve gear mechanism movement points. This helped quite a lot and the wheels appeared free to move again. Setting the locomotive back on the rails, it ran pretty well around the test loop. However, after a few loops of the layout, the wheels siezed up again. Further work was required!
Carefully removing the bottom of the locomotive, I found that the lubricant in the bearings had gone completely solid. The little oil I’d added to the axles had been unable to get into the bearings at all. Using a cotton bud and some isopropyl alcohol, I spent several hours over the next few days removing the remaining solidified lubricant. I also took some time cleaning out the valve gear movement points, just to be on the safe side.
Once the last trace of the old lubricant was removed, I doused the bearings and movement points in 3-in-1 oil and put the locomotive back together. I placed it back on the layout and ran it at a consistent slow speed for approximately thirty minutes with no issue — pretty much confirming it was fixed. I’m keeping an eye on it, but I think it’s behaving itself now!
Almost all of the models I have acquired recently have been second-hand and from these there have been a portion that were acquired at a significant discount due to them being damaged. For the ones that need work, I’ve already started looking at getting them repaired: either professionally or by myself. Additionally, for all the locomotives that have been in storage for a significant amount of time, I’m giving them an oil and a motor service before running them again.
There have been several locomotives that have required major servicing, of which some are ongoing. Each of these has had a different set of challenges to get back into running state and will eventually receive a full post for each problem, but at a high level:
Locomotives I have recently added to my collection:
…and models that have been in storage for eighteen years:
There are a few model locomotives I have not removed from their boxes yet, and so this list may change as time goes on.