The Duchess is rotting!

A strange title to this post but as I hinted yesterday I now have first hand experience of what is termed as mazak rot. Many die cast parts to models are made out of this alloy. Unfortunately, unless the manufacturing process removes all the contaminates they do, over time, start a crystallization process which makes the casting swell and become brittle. There is a more technical description on Wikipedia - click here.

In the case of the Duchess of Sutherland the keeper plate which keeps the wheels in the chassis has this rot. It caused it to swell, bend and when I tried to straighten it, shattered into several pieces! Oh dear as I said or possible words to that effect!

A spare part would be a good way to solve the problem but an internet search revealed spare keeper plates are as rare as rocking horse droppings and as I don't have a 3D printer or the skills to CAD a new part that option is out - for the moment anyway. So out came the Gorilla Super Glue and I glued the parts together. It doesn't look pretty and wont last but it is hidden away and allows me to see if the loco runs fully. 

Whilst I let the glue harden I cleaned up the wheel rims, the axles and the chassis mounting points and lubricated them.

Whilst I was at it I also checked and adjusted the back to back measurements on the wheels.

With the 'repaired' keeper plate back in place the body was reattached and the tender added and the loco tested. After a somewhat stuttering and sticky start it actually ran reasonably well. 

The tender mounting point to the loco needs adjustment but I was impressed enough to think it is worth spending a bit of time and money to try to deal with the keeper plate problem. I may well end up making one from sheet brass or similar if there are no spares out there. Stay tuned on that one.

On My Last Great Project the first baseboard support has had four of its six legs added and things appear to fit together and line up - so far anyway!

As my wood butchery skills are questionable I have added these adjusters to each leg which means I stand some sort of chance on getting things level when these are installed in the Man Cave. Unlike the Duchess I hope that I won't be dealing with any wood rot on these in the future!

  

Dealing with a Duchess.

Whilst any self respecting Duchess would steer clear of dealing with me unfortunately the Hornby Duchess of Sutherland locomotive has no choice! So I started dealing with her tender behind! I better clarify that in that it is the tender drive that actually powers her. 

The motor did not want to run when placed on the track and even with the loco itself coupled up to complete the electrical circuit there was nothing. So without wasting time the tender body came off to reveal the motor.

The two metal ballast weights at either end were taken off which allowed the motor to be removed.

The motor is one of Hornby's pancake type similar to what Lima used. They are generally fairly robust so it was not until I removed the plastic cover to find this.

The commutator and brushes were covered in an oil/grease mix which unsurprisingly stopped electricity flowing as it should! Out came some cotton buds and IPA or rubbing alcohol as it used to be called and all was cleaned. Back together the tender was connected to the main loco chassis minus the loco body and surprisingly there is a light bulb on the front that I did not know about until it illuminated. A good sign. 

The tender motor certainly ran but there was something wrong with the chassis. It just did not want to move! Time for a close examination. Taking the keeper plate off the bottom of the loco chassis revealed a very bent piece of metal.

Just bend it back flat would be most peoples initial thought and mine too. However I was soon going to experience first hand something that I have read of and seen on videos many times and dreaded ever finding in my models. More on that tomorrow in my continuing story of dealing with a Duchess!

 

Repetitive Strain Injury!

No model making or related matters for me today. A bit of a busy few days have gone by with much of my time nursing the sickly WMD HQ fleet of cats who appear to have picked up something that they are sharing with each other. At times the house has been more like a cat themed vomitorium but with some vet visits, a few tests, some pills and a now empty wallet I am hoping that the corner has been turned. I hope so for my sanity. So far I have hand fed over 700 cat biscuits to the two most sickly cats who refused to eat. They like to play the two in, one out game which makes that 700 biscuits feel more like over a thousand! The things we do for our pets! Mrs. Woody says I am so good at the hand feeding that it would not be right for her to take over from me! I think she just wants to avoid the Repetitive Strain Injury that I seem to be developing from this task!

Given no model making time I did spend a few minutes searching down a spare motor for the Hornby Open Cab Pannier tank I featured a few posts ago. That should arrive soon but I think I will be looking for more spares for some more locos pulled out of the gift box I got given last week. 

First off a rather nice LMS express loco the Duchess of Sutherland. This looks to be a 1980s Hornby model with what was not the most reliable drive train. The motor was in the tender and the tender wheels were driven. It had the advantage that the moulding of the locomotive itself did not have to be compromised to get a motor inside but the tender drive was not the most reliable or powerful and many modellers found them disappointing. I can not comment on that yet as for some yet to be determined reason this model is a non-runner. However it is such a nice model that it deserves some TLC so when I have a chance I will dismantle it and determine what is wrong.

The second loco is an earlier model from Hornby of the Class 37. Still carrying its pre TOPS number it would not in real life have been in the blue livery for very long having been repainted from the green that was common place during much of the 1960s. The model dates probably from the early 1970s as the power bogie only has 4 wheels, not the 6 that the real loco had. I have no idea why Triang originally did this and Hornby continued it but they also did it with their class 31. It is a dirty model but has a certain charm even though just like the Hornby Duchess of Sutherland it is a non runner so I will need to investigate! In the meantime a few photos posed on my terminus model which looks 1970s so suits it well.

Hopefully the Vomitorium issues will be ending but I need to do a thorough house clean so I can see that being tomorrows task - Can you get Repetitive Strain Injury from polishing? I don't think that Mrs. Woody would belive me even if you did!