Train Line Mallet on my new line - 3 Short Vids

Hm perhaps if you went in to the store (if you can) GRS would they have to give at that price, perhaps not if they had it dearer on Display. Not sure that the net is covered by Trades Deacription Act. Yes I got mine sub £1K.

There is a link on my New Line Post to a full trip round my line with the Mallet.

Here is the YouTube link:-

http://youtu.be/8ntL_sW1mi8

JonD
 
Last time I was in GRS, a couple of months ago, Matt didn't actually have a Mallet in but said he could get one in a few days for the £999 price; but when I found one on eBay.de for about £900, and then was able to get another £50 off that by going direct to them rather than through eBay, that was enough to tip the balance for me..... ;)

Jon.
 
Well the GRS computer took my order at £999. Perhaps the computer knows better than humans. Let's wait & see if anything arrives.
 
Thanks for the comments on my Vid Guys, now moving on and some problems.

Track Skates
LG R3 Points
When running the Loco in my Fiddle Yard, I noticed (cos I forgot to put the Fiddle Light On) some arcing of the Pickups. This was on the LGB R3 Point Frogs. Effectively the Skate is Touching Both of the Rails at the Frog. I do not have this on the Peco as I have converted them all to Live Frog. So the solution as ever is to bend the Skates a little. As I do not like doing this in situ it is best to remove the Skates and do it in a Vice. The first couple of Pictures show the underneath and the Screws Concerned. Also remember to put the bits in a Container as you dismantle, my preferred option is one of those Plastic Takeaway Cartons, but the Rattle Can Lid shown here is just as effective.

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Here is a set of Skates shown in the vice and the small bend required.

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Finally when everything was put back together I carried out my two tests.
1 The Rule Test, just put a Ruler on each set of wheels and ensure that the Skates also touch correctly in line.
2 The Meter Test, check that all the Wheels on EACH SIDE and the Pickup are Electrically Connected. I normally have one prong on the Skate and Test Each Wheel in turn. In this case for Each Side on Each Bogie.
This found a problem with one Wheel not Picking Up. I thought that the Wire had not been replaced in their effective slots. But no that was not the problem. A `Bullett` end was not touching one of the Wheels. On removal it was found to be broken. Fortunately it was the same size as the Small LGB Bullets which I had a couple of in Stock. All resolved.

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Train Line 45 R2 Points
On these the revised Skates were digging into the Frogs. A little tweaking of the Skates and some filing of the most troublesome Point Frog resolved that issue.

Well worth checking out if you have any of the above issues before sending yours hurtling round the Track. Mine has been adapted to go only max 40KPH as shown in the Vid. I have to say that even this appears to be a headlong dash at times.

Enjoy your Mallets, they really are a superb little engine.
JonD
 
I thought that I would do another Post for the Mods being Carried out. Here are some pics of the brutal cutting to get the Coal Bunker to the size of my Chosen 99 5902 as in around the late 70`s.

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The cuts were carried out using a Razor Saw after first marking the size with a set of Dividers. At this stage I noticed that one of the Screws had a Stripped Thread so a small bit of Plastic Filler was put in the Hole and the Screw returned till it dried out. This was why some of the Pics on the line are without the Bunker in place. I then filed the edges to get a smaller profile, these are made of thinnish Sheet Metal not Battle Ship Steel Plate (you can see the start of this process on the second picture at the left). I then put some small Plasticard edging to represent the Angle Ends and some Rivets from Thin Plastic Rod. A quick repaint of the Bunker and some Weathering and the Bunker was put back in place. Then Coal was glued in with watered down PVA. Here are a couple of pictures of the final effect.

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And finally a few picture taken in 12/2/1981 my first and most affecting visit to the Harz, 99 5002 doing its thing on leaving Alexisbad (2 Pictures) .

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Followed by 99 5903 then in green.

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Sorry about the imaging on the Pics at the right, I was in a hurry and took them from the screen on my PC.

The other Loco Running that day was 99 6001.

What an introduction to the Harz Narrow Gauge.

JonD
 
Interesting mods, JonD, your cut-down coal bunker looks much better than the as-supplied part (not sure I can bring myself to hack mine about though!).
I was curious to read that you'd had shorting problems on your LGB R3 points - mine ran happily on Sunday on a circuit that had two LGB R3s in it, with no apparent problems at all - mind you, all it did was run laps of the main line, so running straight through both of the points - I never tried actually turning off on one; can you recall if your problem was every time it went over a frog whichever direction the point was set?
On the TL45 R2 points, you mentioned the skate "digging in" to the frog and that you had to tweak it a little - was that unbending it slightly?

Just a final question (for the moment!): I notice that in your shots of the coal bunker mod, your loco is missing the lower one of the two push-in steps on the side where the cab meets the water tank - the weird thing is that mine came without exactly the same step, and the supplier I got it from is currently contacting TL45 to try and get one for me; was yours missing too, or have you simply removed it for some reason?

Jon.
 
Jon,
The problems were with just one of my R3's and in both directions. Admittedly at very slow speed, running through at a good lick it was barely noticeable. I did use the bit of line with the troublesome R3 as my Standing 2 Yards for Speed Tests as I use 'ModelSpeed' on my iPhone to help Calibrate the
Top Speed. On these I barely noticed it just Judder when passing over the point.

Trainline Teak was to unbend slightly as you say.

I have to say that I thought the Footstep had got lost in the melee of carting the Mallet around the Garden. Forgot to mention in the previous post. So perhaps it was already lost. Who knows, will make a replacement out of Plasticard or even Tinplate, perhaps the Tinplate would be better. If I use that then I will make a full set of 4.

JonD
 
thanks jon, a great help..
 
Nice loco. I like the bunker mods.
Its on my 'one day' list.
 
Surprising what a little work can do to change a Loco. Next to bash will be all that Pipework on the Left Hand Side. This appeared after the Loco was involved in a smash near Alexisbad in the 70's I think it was.
JonD
 
my green ones just landed at P+S hobbies.. need to nip over to pick it up..
 
 
Parcel came from GRS today. Strange that they couldn't oblige 3 months ago. I am now in the doghouse as SWIMBO was here when it arrived. Permission to purchase was obtained then & I didn't know the authorisation had expired.
 
Looks nice in green, Mike - though that one in P&S's picture seems to have the same problem as mine and JonD's, in that one side step is missing (the two empty holes under the coal bunker)! I'm beginning to wonder if ALL of them arrived with only three steps rather than four....?

Out of interest, how much is P&S charging for them?

Jon.
 
dutchelm said:
Parcel came from GRS today. Strange that they couldn't oblige 3 months ago. I am now in the doghouse as SWIMBO was here when it arrived. Permission to purchase was obtained then & I didn't know the authorisation had expired.
Click to expand...

Always check the expiry date on all Managerial Authorisations, Mike! Mind you, what's a night or two in the doghouse compared to the joy of owning a shiny new Mallet? ;)
Glad you got one at the original price. Now the big question - has yours got all four steps?! :P

Jon.
 
Zerogee said:
Looks nice in green, Mike - though that one in P&S's picture seems to have the same problem as mine and JonD's, in that one side step is missing (the two empty holes under the coal bunker)! I'm beginning to wonder if ALL of them arrived with only three steps rather than four....?

Out of interest, how much is P&S charging for them?

Jon.
Click to expand...

thats between jenny, and paul.. im just happy,shes treating me.. :o
 
For those of you who have or are going for the green one, here are some Pictures of the beast taken during the 2011 Steam Railway Tour of Germany. From the pictures that I took, it looks like the real one had a full complement of Footsteps!

To my eye except for one of my pictures, the colour looks somewhat Darker. However that could be altered if you are brave enough to do some subtle weathering. The bunker looks OK for the current variation, though I suspect it was made larger for the kind of work that she now does. In earlier days the Bunker was much smaller as in my earlier pictures of 5903.

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JonD
 
Zerogee said:
Always check the expiry date on all Managerial Authorisations, Mike! Mind you, what's a night or two in the doghouse compared to the joy of owning a shiny new Mallet? ;)
Glad you got one at the original price. Now the big question - has yours got all four steps?! :P

Jon.
Click to expand...
All 4 steps present. It's not PC to take it out for a run at present. Big problem is "it's just the same as the other one". That's the TSSD
 
Dutchelm Mike: maybe you should point out, in detail, all the ways in which the Harz Mallet is NOT just like the TSSD Mallet..... or then again, maybe you should just keep your head down for a few days..... ;) ;) ;)

The other Mike: do P&S have it (the green one) up on their website yet? I'm assuming they do since you have a photo of it with their watermark across it, but I couldn't find it - actually, I couldn't find anything TL45 related on their store, they don't seem to have a category for them yet?

Jon.
 
Oh dear, looks like I need to give up posting on this Posting on this particular subject. Why do we need this sort of response? There are plenty of ways that things can be looked at. I already posted a Link to a German site that has loads of Pictures of these little babies.

http://www.eisenbahnwelt.com/BildArchiv/19850921/(09.3.53).jpg

This is a good one of 5902 in Green. For interest as you pour over pictures of these Locomotives it becomes apparent that over the Years there have been many changes. I guess that we are lucky that TL have given us a good basis to work with and get what you want (should you choose to be brave enough to hack it). To my mind both of the incarnations are pretty much as they are NOW. Looking at my pictures in comparison with the model Pretty much shows this. Though I suspect that there will be minor differences. Missing Footsteps being amongst them!

Please please please lets us all be friends.
JonD
 
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