Roundhouse Bulldog

My Bulldog arrived on Wednesday, and had its inaugural run out yesterday on passenger duty.
A little incongruous, but we were visiting an open day.


Surprised to find the battery pack reduced to 6 cells vs 8 in Little John.
Therefore, the loco runs more slowly, but I can't yet tell about haulage power.
I did get the inpression it was slowing down after about 20 mins continuous running.
Perhaps the battery needs a few charge cycles.

BullJohn.jpg

Must change those axle crank screws ASAP!
 
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image.jpeg Rob, my Bulldog "Maria" has now been run for sixteen hours on two charges and covered twenty two miles. It was hauling seven skips each loaded with ballast.
I did charge the batteries as soon as I arrived home from Glendale Junction.
 
That's interesting. I also charged immediately on delivery.

Yesterday, after a fresh charge, V=8.8, I set it going on my shed track with passenger stock to 2.7Kg, and a speedo truck.
The indicated speed was 19-24 mph, the track not being billiard table standard.
After around 3½ h, speed was 17-21, and eventually died at 4½ h, V=6.0
I'm quite happy with a 4h continuous run time.

A previous trial on the garden line found it struggling on the 1:40 grades.
I may still try to get another pair of cells into it, as Little John.
Have changed the axle crank screws.
 
MRail said:
A previous trial on the garden line found it struggling on the 1:40 grades.
Click to expand...


Hm, I've got some 1:30 so maybe it wouldn't be such a good fit for my line after all.

One thing that has always surprised me about the Roundhouse diesels is the nylon gear train - other manufacturers of reasonable quality products seem to be moving to all metal gears, or have always been there. Has there been any experience of problems?

Steve
 
spoz said:
nylon gear train - Has there been any experience of problems?
Steve
Click to expand...
The nylon gears are quite substantial so I don't think wear need be a major concern.

One problem with Little John occurred under load on a grade which may be nearer 1in30 than 40.
The loco stalled and the worm wound itself off the motor shaft. There was no wheel slip.
I roughened the shaft and refitted the worm. There's been no further problem.
I think the worm ought to have been pinned to the shaft, a job I'm rather reluctant to attempt.
I see that Bulldog has the worm mounted on a hex insert. Perhaps mine wasn't the only problem.

On another occasion, LJ recovered a cold Taliesin to shed via the same grade.

I've now investigated Bulldog, and fitted 2 more cells making it exactly equal to LJ for speed etc. (scale 44mph!)
I expect it to be better on grades.
Just now having an in-shed timed endurance trial. (set to 20mph).
 
Similar metal gears wear more quickly than nylon and metal.
 
spoz said:
Hm, I've got some 1:30 so maybe it wouldn't be such a good fit for my line after all.

One thing that has always surprised me about the Roundhouse diesels is the nylon gear train - other manufacturers of reasonable quality products seem to be moving to all metal gears, or have always been there. Has there been any experience of problems?

Steve
Click to expand...

I stripped the nylon gears on one of my Little Johns, a tiny piece of ballast was the culprit. I took the loco to Roundhouse who replaced the gears whilst I waited.
 
MRail said:
Just now having an in-shed timed endurance trial. (set to 20mph).
Click to expand...

Endurance trial went well. Started on RC approx ½ power, indicating around 18-20mph, with train of 3Kg.
At 4½h there was a slight speed drop, so increased RC by 1 notch on stick, (yes, I have changed the RC).
At 5h speed dropped subtantially, so increased RC to full power, and speed restored.
At 5¾h loco slowed to a crawl, and stalled on curve.

Quite happy with that!
 
Yes, that's pretty good, No load conditions I presume? - Which would mean, what, at least 3 hours or so with a decent train?.

Good to hear that there seem to have been few gear issues (and those quickly fixed, although Doncaster is rather a long way from South Australia) - must be using very good quality nylon although I take the point about the mass of the gears. A case of where there's no such thing as over-engineering?

Steve
 
Just 39 hours to go before I can pick up my latest two Bulldogs from Glendale Junction.:clap:. The Bulldogs actually arrived last Friday but I was otherwise engaged and couldn't get to pick them up. Needless to say I will be carrying out acceptance trials on Thursday at the CFR.:).
 
Both new Bulldogs collected fron Glendale Junction this morning. The locomotives will be named "Marcia" and "Maisia". They will be put through their paces tomorrow morning.
 
Locomotives back on shed after an eight hour running session. Maisia ran the eight hours nonstop with five Accucraft L & B wagons. Marcia also had five Accucraft L & B wagons but ran in between the live steam operations.image.jpeg
 
Maisia and Marcia have been in service on the CFR for the last six weeks. Both locomotives have performed faultlessly and have each clocked up 96 hours running over those six weeks. The radio control handset for Marcia failed on the second weekend(jammed throttle). A trip to Roundhouse was undertaken and a replacement handset was exchanged for the faulty one. Both locomotives will be back in action tomorrow.image.jpeg
 
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