GRS Kits

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wot4wayne

Registered
I’m looking at the GRS 0-4-0 steam outline chassis 45mm and the industrial peckett 0-4-0 body kit, my question is (because I’m newish to garden railway)how good is the pulling power of these models, I know how good LGB / PIKO locos converted to battery power pull so would I be right in expecting the GRS kits to do the same.
Any help and or advice would be very much appreciated
 
Hi Wayne

I've not used one, but the motor is a Como with a head end gear train which is a well proven piece of kit.

The only thing regarding pulling power is that the chassis will not have any facility for traction tyres, so you will be limited to the adhesion of metal wheels on brass rail.

I've not gone as small as 0-4-0 yet. But 0-6-0 and 4 wheel bogies both battery power don't seem to have a problem with adhesion on predominantly level track.

Hope this helps
 
I can't give you a definitive number of axles / bogies, but as long as you remember to add weight (I didn't first time round) then you should be fine. - I have had five starter-set coaches plus brake-van, or three medium hoppers full of real coal behind the same chassis. This was on R3 curves, level track.
The hoppers come-up quite weighty if you fill them!
 
Thank you both for the information, now that I know these kits are worth looking at I will keep this in mind for my next loco build.
 
The chassis is on the pricey side IMHO.

However, it's designed for the loco, so should be an easy fit. Also, there are not many suppliers of piston / valve gear.


te tum, te tum

There are not that many suppliers of scratch build parts for the G scaler :-[ :-[ :-[ :-[
 
P
Rhinochugger said:
Hi Wayne

I've not used one, but the motor is a Como with a head end gear train which is a well proven piece of kit.

The only thing regarding pulling power is that the chassis will not have any facility for traction tyres, so you will be limited to the adhesion of metal wheels on brass rail.

I've not gone as small as 0-4-0 yet. But 0-6-0 and 4 wheel bogies both battery power don't seem to have a problem with adhesion on predominantly level track.

Hope this helps
Click to expand...
Personally I hate Traction Tyres. They have the effect of reducing Electrical Pick up somewhat. Plus give us the false sense of security to put in Gradients that are too steep. Just last Saturday a guy was bleating on about how he not could get his LGB Mallet to pull more than 3 Coaches. Was on about putting a Power Unit in to a Coach Bogie, then it was suggested that an LGB Power Tender might be thing. His real problem was the 1 in 12 Gradient the he had built. Without Traction Tyres it is probable that the Mallet would just about have manage to drag itself up.
JonD
 
Yes, my railroad is both skate free and traction tyre free.


I only mentioned the fact because most people are familiar with LGB specifications. LGB were forced into traction tyres because of R1 & R2 radius track.
 
Not keen on traction tyres here either, but I do think skates help keep the track clean. On damp evenings skate fitted locos seem to pick up better on my line.

Sorry - bit early for thread drift.
 
Yes, I agree - I also have a skate free railroad and some track powered locos are jittery at dusk.
 
I've got two of the small GRS locos, the cabbed Hunslet and the Kerr Stuart. Both are the earlier versions where the body was in kit form and fitted the LGB Otto chassis. They've both been converted to battery RC and they're some of my favourite locos. However, their pulling power isn't particularly impressive, but there again, probably much as you would expect in real life from locos of this size.

I understand that the bodies are now supplied as a single moulding with a few detailing parts to add. I'm not sure if these can still be made to fit the Otto chassis or whether GRS have done this to make sure that you also buy their chassis kit?

The biggest problem with these early kits was the standard of the instructions which left a LOT to be desired (and that's a massive understatement). I bought my Kerr Stuart second hand and un-built. It looked as if the original buyer had opened the box, looked at the instructions and promptly shut the box again for good. ;D I had the advantage that I had already built the Hunslet (eventually), so I had a good idea of where everything went. The advantage of the later, one piece body, is that you don't have to decipher how it all fits together.

BTW if anyone still has an unmade body kit for the Kerr Stuart, Hunslet, or Peckett that they've shut in the box having looked at the rubbish instructions and if you're interested in selling it, please let me know via PM. I have an Otto chassis ready to go. :D
 
I have three locos built from GRS kits - a very early Barclay 2-4-0, a more recent Peckett 0-4-0 and a much more recent Hunslet which uses resin mouldings. All use LGB 0-4-0 motor blocks. I've actually found the pulling power of these locos to be pretty good. This afternoon, I decided to do a very quick, rough and dirty haulage test on the Barclay (the only one I've converted to battery power so far). Nothing scientific - I didn't oil the wagons (in fact you can hear one squeaking as it goes past) and the loco wasn't even on full charge - I just hoiked it off the shelf. I attached 21 wagons and then gave it a short run. Here's the result - no hesitation, no wheel-spin, not even slowed down by the 1:40 gradient.

http://youtu.be/alL1JfWtP3M

It's really a testament to the LGB motor blocks (the Barclay has an old, very old, LGB2090 block). It has a 12v li-ion battery and a Deltang Rx60 combined receiver/ESC. I would have added a few more wagons but got a text from the missus asking to be picked up from Crewe station so reluctantly had to take everything back indoors (life does get in the way of scientific endeavour sometimes!). If I get time, I'll try converting one of the 0-4-0s (with Toytrain motor blocks) to battery power and give it a go. I wonder if it will be more powerful as it has smaller wheels??

I've found since going over to battery power that the locos can haul more stock - probably because the track and the driving wheels are less shiny and the skates have been removed - and not a traction tyre in sight (though of course I could put them on all four drivers if I was so inclined)!

Rik
PS - I concur with what Mel has said about the p-poor instructions. But they are reasonably straightforward to construct - especially now most of the work has been done already with the resin mouldings
 
21`is a pretty good number. No doubt the battery weight helps. Is the lead still in there as well?

Nice established railway - moss on the rocks looks good.
 
I have one of the older kits for a Peckett 0-4-0, whose construction I have been putting off for, um, a long time :-[ I confess that the instructions put me off, but I did do some test fitting, and it should not be too difficult to assemble.
It will go on an LGB Toytrain chassis that I picked up about the same time, which I will convert to battery/rc power.
Glad to hear that it can pull a decent load. 21 wagons is more than I am likely to string together.
 
On the subject of pick-ups and skates - one of the first locos I converted to battery was the LGB 0-4-0 diesel kof which wouldn't pull the skin off a rice pudding on track power (although adding some extra weight improved things a bit). Removing the pick-ups and skates transformed it and it's now an amazing puller. I always liken the effect of them as like riding a bicycle with the brakes acting on the wheels (pick-ups) while dragging your feet on the ground (skates). ;)

Talking about weight, the beauty of the early version of the GRS kits is that there's plenty of spaces to fill with lead. I'd imagine that this may not be possible with the single resin mouldings?
 
yb281 said:
Talking about weight, the beauty of the early version of the GRS kits is that there's plenty of spaces to fill with lead. I'd imagine that this may not be possible with the single resin mouldings?
Click to expand...
As far as I can tell, Mel, there's about the same amount of space. With the Hunslet kit, it looked to me as if the resin mouldings were formed from the assembled sections of the old Plasticard version - unless they've updated them since I made mine.

Rik
 
ge_rik said:
As far as I can tell, Mel, there's about the same amount of space. With the Hunslet kit, it looked to me as if the resin mouldings were formed from the assembled sections of the old Plasticard version - unless they've updated them since I made mine.

Rik
Click to expand...

So do you think they could still be made to fit an Otto chassis Rik?
 
stockers said:
21`is a pretty good number. No doubt the battery weight helps. Is the lead still in there as well?
Click to expand...
It weighs 2.3kg overall. My Stainz weighs just over 1.8kg. Not sure how this compares with other locos of a similar size.

Rik
 
yb281 said:
So do you think they could still be made to fit an Otto chassis Rik?
Click to expand...
Mel
My Hunslet is on an Otto style chassis so, unless they've changed the mouldings sine I got mine, the bodies should still fit without any modification.

Rik
 
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