I was at The Rocks by Rail Museum today where we had the last Driver for a Fiver event of the year. Just one more event in a fortnight and we close for the Winter. WOW! That all went quick! Today we had an unusual high number of visitors for an event so close to the end of season which was great and there many smiling faces and some lovely complimentary comments.
Back at WMD HQ I had some time servicing the Triang 3F Jinty. I had a bit of a surprise when removing the body to find that there is a syncrosmoke mechanism fitted. This was a novelty that Triang used on some locos. Basically a small container with a heated wire has a small quantity of oil poured into it through the funnel. The wire heats the oil which smokes and there is a mechanically driven mechanism that then emits puffs of smoke just like a real steam engine. Unfortunately it is not just like a real engine, but as a kid it was great fun! I need to find the right oil to test whether it still works - I am sure I have some in my stock of useful stuff!
Moving back to the job in hand, there was a broken pick up and a wire that came off in my hands, so some brass strip and soldering solved those problems.
Broken pickup to the right of the picture.
The wheels were cleaned with an initial wash of rubbing alcohol and cotton buds and then a brass wire brush. The motor brushes were removed and the commutator on the motor cleaned before the also cleaned brushes were reinstalled. The couplings were bent and misaligned so they were straightened with some pliars. After that a quick wipe over of the body itself removed most of the grime but it could probably do with a wash in some water and detergent.
Back on the tracks it runs smoothly on plain track even down to a reasonably slow speed without hesitation. However it still has problems going through the points due to the coarseness of the wheels but I will live with that as I do like this model. Just need to do something with the transfers but that is for another day.
No comments:
Post a Comment