Mending my ways

I'm a bit of a lightening artist and so end up with half finished projects in draws and on shelves all over the place so yesterday I decided that it was time I sorted out a few locos that didn't run properly or had other problems.

First thing to do was to raise the height of the rear coupler on Gloria the new Hunslet. This was straight forward enough and all is now well. The only problem with Gloria echoes an issue that Jerry M had when it visited the FR a few years ago; the buffer beams are very low and bang into the platform. Jerry M snapped a bit off on the platform in Harbour Station but Gloria just gets wedged on Underhill. It is fine at Three Bridges and Rocky Beach so I'll just have to make sure Underhill Town platforms fit it ok.

Next on the list was the Farish 04 chassis under my EuroNG NS3. It never ran very well and I suspected that it was the usual Farish badly set pick ups. A quick dismantle and fettle up and all was well. I've never used this loco much so it may end up on the transfer list now it works ok.

Oberon had only ever ran intermittently which was annoying as I really like the look of the little loco. There was nothing wrong with the chassis when it was out of the body but as soon as it went back in it just hummed in an alarming way. I unbolted it and moved it back slightly and it ran which confirmed my suspicion that I had drilled the mounting hole slightly too far forward and the flywheel was binding on the inside of the cab. Fortunately I had drilled it so far forward that there was room for another hole in the right place without weakening the footplate. With this done all was well so a touch up to the paintwork and the crew back in place and some lamps in place and he was ready to join Titania for a picture.

A right pair of faeries

 

I'm not sure if I mentioned sorting out the fiddle yard physical connection but anyway I have so it now works properly and I have been, ahem, testing it. What absolute luxury, I've never had so much off stage space. I just need to make Underhill Town so the trains have somewhere decent to go to...

 

Testing in full swing