whatlep
Registered
In the Coggesrailway Open Day thread http://www.gscalecentral.net/m198733-p2 , there were reports of problems with one of Dave Hub's immaculate Piko repaints - in this case a close cousin of British Rail's class 89, Avocet. The immediate cause was simple to fix, but test running revealed another problem: one of the bogies was fouling the central buffer. The loco simply couldn't negotiate anything sharper than R5 curves.
Taking off the body revealed a horrid hidden history of abuse from one of the owners prior to Dave. For anybody who wants to do major chassis repairs to a Piko diesel or electric Bo-Bo, read on!
A close look at Dave's loco showed that it was not level: the body drooped at one end, causing coupler and buffer to touch. Time to get the body off. The Taurus chassis is beautifully straightforward engineering. Each bogie has a simple pivot over which there is a very large metal weight, which is supposed to be screwed into six lugs moulded on the plastic chassis. At the drooping end my suspicions were aroused by a piece of plasticard under the weight. Removing the weight gave this:
Note that the two right hand lugs (of six) are missing and the plasticard is bowed. It was simply (and not very well) glued in place. Clearly it was too thin to add rigidity and the missing lugs meant the weight wasn't helping either. Pulling off the plasticard showed that something very nasty had happened to the loco:
My guess is that the owner prior to Dave who tried to fit a prmitive radio control system had dropped the loco off a workbench and it landed on the bogie. The force of impact burst the chassis and fractured the two lugs. At times like this, there is only one engineering material to use:
Yep, that's Meccano. A piece from my late father's collection of bits and pieces, probably dating from the 1930s! That fitted nicely underneath the broken plastic with holes drilled thorugh the chassis to match where the missing lugs had been. Because of the forces on the chassis I thought it would be better to spread the loads as widely as possible. Hence the bracing piece of Meccano below the chassis and something more than a simple nut and bolt onto the weight. Instead out of the toolbox came a pair of 50mm hanging bolts, designed to attach items behind plasterboard. These were tightened and, as if by magic, the chassis was level!
A quick check showed that where before the buffer and coupler had been touching, there was now some lovely clear air. Job done. Avocet can fly again!
Taking off the body revealed a horrid hidden history of abuse from one of the owners prior to Dave. For anybody who wants to do major chassis repairs to a Piko diesel or electric Bo-Bo, read on!
A close look at Dave's loco showed that it was not level: the body drooped at one end, causing coupler and buffer to touch. Time to get the body off. The Taurus chassis is beautifully straightforward engineering. Each bogie has a simple pivot over which there is a very large metal weight, which is supposed to be screwed into six lugs moulded on the plastic chassis. At the drooping end my suspicions were aroused by a piece of plasticard under the weight. Removing the weight gave this:
Note that the two right hand lugs (of six) are missing and the plasticard is bowed. It was simply (and not very well) glued in place. Clearly it was too thin to add rigidity and the missing lugs meant the weight wasn't helping either. Pulling off the plasticard showed that something very nasty had happened to the loco:
My guess is that the owner prior to Dave who tried to fit a prmitive radio control system had dropped the loco off a workbench and it landed on the bogie. The force of impact burst the chassis and fractured the two lugs. At times like this, there is only one engineering material to use:
Yep, that's Meccano. A piece from my late father's collection of bits and pieces, probably dating from the 1930s! That fitted nicely underneath the broken plastic with holes drilled thorugh the chassis to match where the missing lugs had been. Because of the forces on the chassis I thought it would be better to spread the loads as widely as possible. Hence the bracing piece of Meccano below the chassis and something more than a simple nut and bolt onto the weight. Instead out of the toolbox came a pair of 50mm hanging bolts, designed to attach items behind plasterboard. These were tightened and, as if by magic, the chassis was level!
A quick check showed that where before the buffer and coupler had been touching, there was now some lovely clear air. Job done. Avocet can fly again!
