IP Engineering Loco kits - any experiences?

[beancounter]

Has anyone built any of the smaller IP loco kits? I'm thinking about the MotorRail (Fenor) kit, to haul my PW train.
Would it be suitable for a first attempt at loco kits? (I've built rolling stock kits before, but never motive power).

cheers

 

[hornbeam]

On the whole they are good kits. I've known people who have had problems with gears slipping on axles, and personally I dont like their wheels, but they come with good clear instructions and they are very very helpfull. so if you were to damage a part i'm sure they would send you another. What kits have you built so far?

 

[annieshalt]

john send pauly a pm he has built quite a few of their kits.

 

[beancounter]

What kits have you built so far?

Various wagon kits in OO. Not much in large scale (Bachmann and Hartland don't really count, since they're pretty much clip-together jobbies). Loads of lineside stuff, tho'...

 

[xtorange]

I am having fun (that is with a capital f) trying to get the flycranks and rods on a 4 wheel chassis to turn smoothly. 6 new AAs and i still have to encourage the axles to turn. What am I missing????

 

[Neil Robinson]

I am having fun (that is with a capital f) trying to get the flycranks and rods on a 4 wheel chassis to turn smoothly. 6 new AAs and i still have to encourage the axles to turn. What am I missing????

Maybe a bind due to quartering being slightly out.
Remove both rods and see if that improves the running.

 

[Rosco]

Hello. You could try the IP Rapier as a first loco kit £29.95. Mine took a couple of evenings to paint & build and have been very happy with it.
IP kits have pretty good instructions.

 

[Rhinochugger]

I am having fun (that is with a capital f) trying to get the flycranks and rods on a 4 wheel chassis to turn smoothly. 6 new AAs and i still have to encourage the axles to turn. What am I missing????

Hi, start with one thing at a time.

Does the motor/gearbox run freely outside of the loco?

Does the motor/gearbox run freely when it's in the chassis frames - that is with one axle in its bearings?

Does the non-powered axle run freely in it's bearings?

Quartering can be fun, but the method that I've adopted with reasonable success is to tighten up both cranks on one side, and the crank on the driven axle on the other side. Then just pinch the grub screw on the last crank so that it can move round the axle if forced, then run the motor for a few revolutions of the cranks.

If the mechanism is still a bit stiff, have you glued the bearings in place yet? The instructions on my 0-6-0 told me when 'not to do it yet' but never said when to do it 'now'. You only need one bearing slightly out of kilter to create a fair drag.

The other thing to try is to give the motor a bit of a kick with a standard 00 12v transformer, and to get the mechanism spinning enough for the brass bearings to bed down a bit.

Failing that, drop me a PM and I'll try and think of something else.

This is an IP 0-6-0 chassis