Another one sorted!

With the mechanicals finished it was time to put the Lima Prairie tank back together. However, before reattaching the body to the chassis, the opportunity was taken to give the body a bit of a clean.

In fact it had a bath! Using a brush and a popular brand of washing-up liquid, the fairies managed to remove most of the dirt!

Looking better after being dried off with Mrs. Woody's hair drier!

I had missed one thing though. That was, that there was another ballast weight in the coal bunker which had been hidden by the footplate. Looking at it revealed that the dreaded zinc rot had been busy. In fact, left much longer it is likely that the plastic body may well have split as the weight expanded being held in place on those two plastic lugs.

There was nothing else to do but remove it and that took some doing as it was well edged in place!

With it out, it was clear that this was beyond saving. The structural integrity has gone past the point of being safe so I have left it out of the loco.

With the body and pony trucks reattached the loco went back on the tracks for a final testing and it still ran well! Another one sorted!

First off was the fact that there was a track pin attached to the motors magnet - never a good sign!

Work has carried on with the dusting down, cleaning and lubrication of the Lima Prairie tank entrusted to me by Mr. B.

Having struggled to get the body off the chassis as outline two days ago it was time to look at the chassis and see what needed doing. First off was the fact that there was a track pin attached to the motors magnet - never a good sign!

With the pin out of the way it was time to look at the internals of the motor which looked a bit bleak! The commutator was certainly looking the worse for ware. 

The level of dirt was such that even solvent would not clean it so I used a wire brush to remove the gunk.

On the motor casing, the brush holders needed a clean up.

On the other part of the casing the drive cogs were removed for cleaning.

Whilst out, the main cog was given a rub down to remove the three ejector pin marks that stand proud of the surface and can cause unwanted friction in the drive chain.

Having given the various parts of the motor a clean and lubrication with oil and grease where appropriate it was time to remount it in the chassis. However, before that I had to deal with the dreaded zinc pest in the main ballast weight. I filed off the bulge and recreated the flat surface and luckily the rot had not destroyed the structure of the weight.

With that done the weight and motor went back into the chassis and before reattaching the pony trucks and body it was tested.

It ran! Next job is to reattach the above list parts!

What you see is the dreaded zinc rot/zinc pest/zamac rot and there are other unprintable terms for it too!

I started dismantling the Lima Prairie tank that I talked about yesterday. It should have been a simple job to separate the chassis from the body. Just two screws and the two should part company.

Strangely enough the two would not part! I struggled for about 40 minutes before unscrewing the footplate to aid the release.

Once out I could see exactly why I was struggling on what should have been an easy, quick and simple job.

You may not notice it at first but have a look at the grey weight above the middle wheel.

That surface with the bulge is supposed to be flat and it is not!

In fact it is that bulged that it would not allow the chassis out from the body.

So how did they get the chassis into the body originally? Well at that time the surface was flat. What you see is the dreaded zinc rot/zinc pest/zamac rot and there are other unprintable terms for it too! I will let Google explain what this is: -

Diecast rot, also known as zinc pest or metal fatigue, is an irreversible, destructive corrosion process caused by impurities in zinc alloys used for casting. It causes models to swell, buckle, crack, and eventually crumble into pieces, often starting with paint bubbling. 

That all sounds fairly worrying and it can be and many expensive models in the past have been consigned to the bin because of this. But in this case I cannot see any such effect on the chassis at the moment so with the weight not being structural or in line of sight it can be dealt with relatively easily - famous last words!

Looking at the motor and its accumulated muck, that may not be an easy job to clean up!

Meanwhile, far from being cleaned, the Scammell tractor unit from the IBG kit is being made even more dirty with further weathering work.

I also glued in place the stowage cage on the chassis below the cab so that means there are just two door mirrors left to attach!

Ironic in that a UK Western loco ends up on a USA Mid-West layout!

The Pannier is now back together, which, as there are so few parts, didn't take too long. Some white grease on the bearings and some oil on the connector rods should ease the wear on the motor.

As the loco is not DCC it had to try its stuff out on my USA shunting layout - ironic in that a UK Western loco ends up on a USA Mid-West layout! Anyway, it runs and can run reasonably slowly although a crawl is beyond the 1970s motor. With the course wheel flanges it also struggles a bit going through points but other than that it is back to life and off life support! I did love the simplicity of the whole model, made to be played with, made to be easily maintained and made to be repairable! Just need to find some couplers!

The next loco on the bench from Mr. B is this Lima Prairie tank.

I'm on more familiar ground with this one being made by Lima and as it runs/stutters at least I know the motor works. I will start pulling this apart in the next few days.

In the meantime, back to the Scammell tractor unit which has had the start of some weathering on it commenced.

This will be a long process but it does make a big difference to the model.