Piko OBB (blue/cream) Railbus....

Zerogee

Zerogee

Clencher's Bogleman
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I just seem to have become the slightly unexpected winner of the blue/cream OBB railbus pair that was on evilBay..... I put in what I thought was a relatively low bid several days ago, quite expecting to be outbid on it, and indeed in the final moments I WAS outbid - then suddenly the high bidder retracted their bid, and I ended up winning it after all. While this could, possibly, be taken by a more cynical person as being slightly suspicious, nevertheless I have what appears to be a nice railbus set heading my way for what I feel was a very fair price in the end.

Now, I've had a search on the forum for the various comments and advice on these, and have found Whatlep's very useful PDF report on one, but I just wondered if anyone else could offer (or direct me to) any other tips or suggestions? It's definitely going to need chipping, and sound - and I'm rather tempted to try a Massoth XL plus SUSI-connected Dietz X3 as has been talked about quite a lot on here recently.

In particular, I do recall reading something about the unusual skates on these causing some trouble (shorting out?) over certain trackwork and points, can anyone direct me to further info on this?

Thanks in advance,
Jon.
 
Zerogee said:
I just seem to have become the slightly unexpected winner of the blue/cream OBB railbus pair that was on evilBay..... I put in what I thought was a relatively low bid several days ago, quite expecting to be outbid on it, and indeed in the final moments I WAS outbid - then suddenly the high bidder retracted their bid, and I ended up winning it after all. While this could, possibly, be taken by a more cynical person as being slightly suspicious, nevertheless I have what appears to be a nice railbus set heading my way for what I feel was a very fair price in the end.

Now, I've had a search on the forum for the various comments and advice on these, and have found Whatlep's very useful PDF report on one, but I just wondered if anyone else could offer (or direct me to) any other tips or suggestions? It's definitely going to need chipping, and sound - and I'm rather tempted to try a Massoth XL plus SUSI-connected Dietz X3 as has been talked about quite a lot on here recently.

In particular, I do recall reading something about the unusual skates on these causing some trouble (shorting out?) over certain trackwork and points, can anyone direct me to further info on this?

Thanks in advance,
Jon.
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Yes I think the seller was trying to trot up the bidding with a friend,but had to retract when they relised they had outbid you.If you are happy with the price paid no problem.
I have a red piko railbus and apart from first setting up on the track(the skates never seem to locate first time) it runs ok.Never had any problem with it causing any shorts.I run on aristo stainless track and points.
 
It would seem a pretty good idea to chip this strainght away. I seem to remember Mike burning out the motor running his extensively on digital 0.
Bredebahn ran his red one here a couple of years back and we had no problem with skates on LGB R3s.
 
Should add after Stockers post,I run R2s and analogue
 
Zerogee said:
Now, I've had a search on the forum for the various comments and advice on these, and have found Whatlep's very useful PDF report on one, but I just wondered if anyone else could offer (or direct me to) any other tips or suggestions? It's definitely going to need chipping, and sound - and I'm rather tempted to try a Massoth XL plus SUSI-connected Dietz X3 as has been talked about quite a lot on here recently.

In particular, I do recall reading something about the unusual skates on these causing some trouble (shorting out?) over certain trackwork and points, can anyone direct me to further info on this?
Click to expand...
Hi Jon

There isn't a lot of room to play with in the railbus for chips and so on, assuming you want to keep the electronics out of the passenger compartment. I'd check your proposed chip sizes carefully and examine the railbus for room before buying the chips. Massoth ones do fit in the toilet compartment (!), but it's a bit of a squeeze.

As a hint & tip, were I chipping the railbus again, I'd keep the ends of the wires from the pickups and motors where the analogue circuit board is and use extra lengths of wire to connect them to the DCC chip. It works out much neater and makes it easier to get everything back together again without trapping wires. The lighting loom has enough wire free to connect directly to the chip once the motor/pickup wires are connected and proved OK.

On the skates, I've never had an issue with them. I think Ian (coggesrailway) may have had an issue on LGB R5s as he came up with a cunning way of making the bogies self-aligning without skates using black rubber bands.

Congrats on your acquisition, by the way! :thumbup:

P.S. Just read previous posts about the motor & DCC. Mine was one of the first batch and ran fine on DCC in analogue mode for several weeks before I got round to chipping it. It hasn't had the motor frequency changed either, BUT later batches carried an explicit warning in the instructions not to run on DCC unless chipped. Best to check the instruction manual and follow other posters' advice, just in case.
 
yep the skates seem to drop into the LGB R5 points, giving a clonk or a derail. I took them off, and as peter says, sprung the bogies to centre with small black rubber bands. This works well. They don't run well at all well without the skates in place, or any alternative tracking mechanism.
 
CoggesRailway said:
yep the skates seem to drop into the LGB R5 points, giving a clonk or a derail. I took them off, and as peter says, sprung the bogies to centre with small black rubber bands. This works well. They don't run well at all well without the skates in place, or any alternative tracking mechanism.
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Hi Ian, thanks for that - do you have a link back to your original thread about this, please? I do recall reading it at the time. I assume it's only on R5 points that you had this problem; did you find that the removal of the skates didn't adversely affect the power pickup and running of the bus?

Jon.
 
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