Gaiety N2 - driving wheels

Removing the couplings rods was a lot easier than expected, the rivets holding the rods in place were simply levered out using a small screwdriver and a pair of fine tweezers;

These could then be cleaned up and labelled R and L. The rods look like they were stamped out from sheet judging by the way the rear is burred, and the holes are sloppy on the rivets.

I removed the rearmost wheels with a GW Models wheel puller, and again labelled them L and R;

I'm not sure if it is necessary to label each part, but it seems to be good practice.

After removing the remains of the rear insulating bushes everything was thoroughly cleaned, first with Muc-Off (a degreaser used by mountain bikers) then with soapy water and rinsed under the tap before being left out in the hot sun to dry;

New insulating bushes were turned from Acetal rod and fitted;

And the chassis re-assembled;

Quartering was done by eye.

The left rear driver had a pronounced wobble, so the chassis was stripped again and the offending wheel removed. I turned up another bush, but left it undrilled. Then the wheel was mounted in a chuck and the bush drilled in situ;

With everything re-assembled yet again there's still a wobble, not as bad as before but still irritating. I suspect the axle might be slightly bent, this was the wheel that was hanging off when I bought the loco. However, the chassis runs ok with the motor refitted so I'll live with it for now although I may come back to it later.

I have tested the chassis on a length of Peco's finest with leads attached to the brush holders, it runs ok for its age although it's better running forwards than reverse. But as it doesn't have a front coupling and I'm not into shunting I'm not too worried.

Here's the chassis re-united with the body;

The next jobs are to refit the pick-ups and sort out the pony truck.

Paul.

Roxey Mouldings 'Minnie'

This is a model of the tiny electric loco built for the Hellingly Hospital railway, used to pull coal wagons up to the hospital on its own branch from the main line.

The model is a Roxey Mouldings whitemetal kit sitting on a Tenshodo Spud power bogie. Spuds are used under a number of small industrial loco kits, being small, cheap and reliable although they do need some weight over them to tame their running.

I built this in 2009. The kit went together pretty well from what I remember, but care is needed when assembling the main body to get it square, one side on mine is a little off, but it's difficult to spot.

The trolley pole is a dummy, unsprung and without a shoe to act on an overhead wire.

I used Revel Aqua Color 331 'Purple Red' as the main body colour, sprayed over Hycote auto primer. A coat of Phoenix Precision satin airbrushing varnish seals the deal. Buffer heads are Vallejo Oily Steel, the bell Humbrol Brass, the lamp a mix of Revel white with a touch of steel and finished with a coat of gloss varnish. The interior is Revel Stone Grey above waist height and black below.

It can't be seen in the photos but there is an electrical panel inside the cab, between two windows, made from styrene off-cuts.

I modified the spud, converting it to EM and fitting driving rods;

To do this I removed the original wheelsets and stripped them down to remove the spur gears. Then new axles were cut from 2mm dia. silver steel, 21mm long. These had the gears fitted along with new wheels, I've used Gibson 10mm discs but any wagon wheels that fit a 2mm axle will work.

To convert the wheels to rod drive I drilled through one of the moulded holes in each wheel to suit a Gibson 4M42A crankpin. Coupling rods are made from 3mm x 1.5mm brass strip. I used Gibson 4M67/2 2mm bore washers to space the wheels out for EM. The wheelsets once assembled just drop into the bogie, but as this is rod drive care, and no small amount of adjustment, is needed for a smooth running loco. The bogie is held captive by a screw inside the cab.

This was a nice interesting build, built with no layout in mind but rather just for the joy of making a nice loco. It's a shelf queen, and to take these photos meant removing the loco from my display cabinet for the first time in at least 5 years.

Paul.

Gaiety N2 - stripping and cleaning the motor

There's a lot of old grease and much around the motor and gears which needed removing. But first I removed the pony truck, which is held in place by a large rivet with a split end, closing the split allows the rivet to be removed and the pony truck just drops out;

I'll return to that later.

The motor/gearbox assembly is held in place from underneath with two brass screws which can be accessed when the wheels are removed;

The motor removed;

The motor brushes were removed for cleaning;

The two sides are held together by 10BA screws, the lower ones being countersunk;

Note the contrate gear, unusual in the model railway world.

The unit stripped and cleaned;

For cleaning I used lighter fluid and cotton buds on the whole, although the spur gear attached to the right hand side did have a squirt of Muc-Off and a rinse under the tap.

Here it is cleaned and re-assembled;

Note that there's a screw missing at the top right, above the brushes. The screw holes in the sides don't line up with the hole in the upper motor casting, I suspect that it's always been missing. Since taking the photo above I've used a 12BA screw to take the place of the missing one. I also noted that the unit has been stripped down before.

I lubricated it with clock oil, making sure to soak the felt pads, there's one hidden away at the non-brush end of the motor that can't be accessed without removing one side. I haven't removed the spur gear from the motor shaft, I believe that these can wear and can be removed, reversed and refitted, mine has little appreciable wear so I left it alone. As a rule I prefer to do as little to old motors as possible, they can be quite temperamental when disturbed. At the moment the motor is clamped into a vice and spinning away.

Whilst I was sorting the motor I cleaned the body and main chassis casting under the tap with a toothbrush and hand soap. The next job will be to sort out the driving wheels, which I fear will not be easy.

Paul.