TRAINLINE MALLET mods to a Green Trainline Mallet.

Very, very nice, JonD - love the new cable runs!

Well, my 5902 turned up this morning - not bad, as ordered from Modell-Land on Sunday! All present and correct, WITH a bag of coal (sorry Alan!) and this time, all four side steps (though one was admittedly in the bottom of the box...).
Haven't even had the chance to put her on the test rollers yet.... as she is Zimo-chipped it will be interesting to compare the sounds with my Massoth-chipped black 5901.

Very pleased with it, the green paintjob somehow makes it look much less "plastic" than the black one. Don't know how many of the tweaks and mods I will follow, JonD, but I'm certainly enjoying reading all about yours! :)

Also ordered a big bundle of magazines in the same shipment - now got the last year-and-a-half or so of both Gartenbahn Profi and Volldampf to read through (well, OK, to look at the pictures and try to figure some of the words out...) ;)

Keep up the good work, and please keep posting the pics!

Jon.
 
I was unable to zoom in sufficiently on the iPad to see properly, but has an extra 'e' crept into Deutsche Reichsbahn, by the way? Not sure if this was on the original or replacement decals.
 
ViaEstrecha said:
I was unable to zoom in sufficiently on the iPad to see properly, but has an extra 'e' crept into Deutsche Reichsbahn, by the way? Not sure if this was on the original or replacement decals.
Click to expand...

Yes it is still there, in spite of a kind mail advising me the error of my ways. Also there on my Black one. Spolling nevour wus mi string pint! Another Print run required me thinks.
JonD
 
Ah I do sympathise - I am always very nervous about my Spanish signage and most things end up having several iterations, but I am fortunate now to have found a couple of native speakers to check it out and make suggestions. Trouble is, they are always far too diplomatic whereas I need overseeing by a pedant! :)
 
dunnyrail said:
Yes it is still there, in spite of a kind mail advising me the error of my ways. Also there on my Black one. Spolling nevour wus mi string pint! Another Print run required me thinks.
JonD
Click to expand...

The trouble is, once something like this has been pointed out then you will see it EVERY time you look at the loco.... otherwise it might have happily gone unnoticed for ages... ;)

On more serious subjects, last night I was looking through one of the GB Profi mags that arrived in the same parcel as the loco, and there is an extensive article on fettling and tweaking the TL45 black Mallet.... now as I've said, my German is so weak that I struggle to figure out much of the text, but there are bits in there that I might take the trouble to type into Google Translate - in particular, something about putting a thin (0.5mm) shim under the motor in the REAR gearbox only - apparently to space the worms away from the drive gear by an extra fraction... I will know more if/when I get some of it translated, but it would APPEAR as though this might be to cure the problem of premature gear wear and/or the matter of the two gearboxes running slightly differently?

From a brief news piece in another issue, on the release of the green 5902, what little I can decipher again SEEMS to mention this topic, and imply (I think) that the same problem MAY have been cured at the factory now, and the current batch of 5902 models have already had this fix performed on them....?

Mike: can you recall exactly what the problems were with your 5902, that P&S had to repair/rebuild? Was that down to gear troubles?

Jon.
 
If you post a photo of the page I will happily try to translate it for you.
 
That's very kind - the text is quite small, I'll have to try later and see if I can take a clear enough picture of the relevant part of the article....

Thanks!

Jon.
 
The rear box was subject to a modification by TL. So it may already have been resolved but always worth a check.
 
Zerogee said:
The trouble is, once something like this has been pointed out then you will see it EVERY time you look at the loco.... otherwise it might have happily gone unnoticed for ages... ;)

On more serious subjects, last night I was looking through one of the GB Profi mags that arrived in the same parcel as the loco, and there is an extensive article on fettling and tweaking the TL45 black Mallet.... now as I've said, my German is so weak that I struggle to figure out much of the text, but there are bits in there that I might take the trouble to type into Google Translate - in particular, something about putting a thin (0.5mm) shim under the motor in the REAR gearbox only - apparently to space the worms away from the drive gear by an extra fraction... I will know more if/when I get some of it translated, but it would APPEAR as though this might be to cure the problem of premature gear wear and/or the matter of the two gearboxes running slightly differently?

From a brief news piece in another issue, on the release of the green 5902, what little I can decipher again SEEMS to mention this topic, and imply (I think) that the same problem MAY have been cured at the factory now, and the current batch of 5902 models have already had this fix performed on them....?

Mike: can you recall exactly what the problems were with your 5902, that P&S had to repair/rebuild? Was that down to gear troubles?

Jon.
Click to expand...
the two motor blocks were running at differnt speeds.. the rear was pushing up ..running faster than the front.. acording to p+s, he has change the gears and motor block.. and a few other tweeks.er er misses..
 
stockers said:
The rear box was subject to a modification by TL. So it may already have been resolved but always worth a check.
Click to expand...

Thanks Alan.... can I ask where you found that info, is it just word of mouth or has there been any kind of "official" statement from TL about it?
Just wondering if you have any other info on it at all, such as how to tell a modified loco from an unmodified one?

Jon.
 
Interesting notes re the Rear Motor Block on the Black one. I was warned that pulling this apart can cause serious problems as the Wiring to the Massoth Chip is somewhat tight. Or can you do the Mod from below?

My work today on the Green Mallet has been small stuff. More painting of Figures and some Fireman`s Tools plus a bit of work on the rear of the Cab.

Job  10 Vac Pipes revised Completed.
This Job looked for the Vac Pipes to be turned around so that they faced upwards. This was easily done as they are a Slot in Fit to the removable Buffer Beam. A couple of screws behind the Air Tanks just below the cab allow this to come off. 2 New Slots were Sawed and Filed to shape. Plus some more Cooper Wire and Brass tube soldered and bent made the piping Runs which now joint up to the Vac Pipes. I think that these will actually be Air Pipes, but I will refer to them wrongly to keep in line with my original job List. Pic shows the result of this work. The small bit of scratching caused during fitting will be lost in weathering.

image.jpg

Job 9 Pump on Left below Cab Completed
This was a tricky little blighter, I used the inevitable Copper Wire as it is a Round Bar. By Flattening one end I was able to solder a small pice of Drilled Brass cut Square. This was then re drilled to take a 12BA Screw. Another shorter pice was fabricated the same way. Then the 12BA Screw put in from the rear with a Washer between the two bars, some Paper then a Nut. This was then soldered to keep in place. The Paper stops the Solder gumming up the complete thing as it needs to Waggle. A bend put on the Front and it was passed through the bottom Hole of the Expansion Link. To be honest it should have gone in the Top Hole, but this meant cutting some Plastic away from the Bar and this was probably a step too far in that it may have weakened the Valve Gear assembly. You can probably just make out where I did attempt to remove some of the meat. This will be tidied up with a bit of filler and lost with weathering. Sometimes you just do have to compromise. The other end just goes through a Hole in the Cab with the Wire bent over. When running it does Waggle quite nicely. The Job was very reminiscent of my 7MM days making up Valve Gear. The next pic shows this and some if the Firemen`s tools.

image.jpg

Job 7 Fire Irons etc Completed
I needed in the end to make 2 Shovels and a Fire Pricker. The Shovels are a small piece of Tinplate cut to shape with the ends rounded off a little. A small section to the rear being bent up. A length of Copper Wire was Flattened at one end, cleaned up square and Soldered to the Tinplate. Bent up as seen in Pictures it will live in front of the Coal Bunker, this is the Shovel used to get Coal From Wagons into the Bunker. The Fireman`s shovel is somewhat shorter in length and has a Cross Bar. It can be seen in the last picture in the Fireman`s Hand. The Pricker was some more of the Copper Wire with a flattened end, filed out to shape and the Curved End bent round some small pliers.

image.jpg

The final Picture shows the Cab with the Driver and Fireman in place. A small piece of Copper Wire was bent up to give the Driver a Regulator to hold. This is Superglued in place on the Fire Box and in his Hand. It helps with the Pin in His foot and feet Superglued in place to ensure that he does not escape his onerous duties. The fireman has had his Shovel Superglued in place and also has a pin in his foot. He is not as yet glued in place as his Shovel and much of the Bras Wire will require Painting Black.
JonD
 
Beddhist said:
If you post a photo of the page I will happily try to translate it for you.
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Hi Peter, I dropped you a PM earlier this evening about this, hope you got it? I've taken the photos of the relevant parts of the article, but need to email them to you directly.

Thanks!

Jon.
 
I've located (thanks to the GB Profi article) a couple of youtube vids that appear to be relevant.... the narration is all in German, unfortunately.....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vIsTi1mu6YU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7zrl4AVnwo&feature=youtu.be

The Youtube description of this second clip, run through Google Translate, is as follows:
............
Elimination of bad runnability loud train-Line Garden Railways.
Can be found on the homepage www.train-line45.de
Changes are probably very expensive since the locomotive must be broken to open the landing gear from the top. The are loading plate, I used brass, has a size of approximately 11x29mm and thickness of 0.5 mm.
It can also refer directly from Train Line.
As a conclusion: No stuttering and chug more drives now run properly even at extremely slow speeds.
.............

Hope these might be a help to anyone else with the black 5901.... though judging from the problems Mike had with his, then at least the first batch of 5902 green ones may have similar troubles.... hopefully the later 5902 batches have been factory-fixed. :-\

Jon.
 
From the first vid it looks like the Axle Fix is done from underneath. The Motor Fix needs the Motor Blocks to be taken out so that the Meta/Plasticl is put in at the Top. I have to say that my Black one does have a Max Speed of around 40KPH which would appear to not cause any problems (Massoth CV's revised to reduce Max Speed). Have not timed the Green one as yet. But as I have now managed to find a set of British CV's for the Zimo Decoder this is easily sorted if too fast like matey in Vid 2 run his up too. Looks like it would give the Eurostar a run for it's Money.

http://www.zimo.at/web2010/documents/MX695-Eng-V1-07-20-11.pdf

Has anyone a set of the Function Button Instructions in English. Been searching for these with no luck. Also as the Functions go into the 20's is it possible to go above F19 with a Massoth Handset to get to these Sounds?
JonD
 
dunnyrail said:
From the first vid it looks like the Axle Fix is done from underneath. The Motor Fix needs the Motor Blocks to be taken out so that the Meta/Plasticl is put in at the Top. I have to say that my Black one does have a Max Speed of around 40KPH which would appear to not cause any problems (Massoth CV's revised to reduce Max Speed). Have not timed the Green one as yet. But as I have now managed to find a set of British CV's for the Zimo Decoder this is easily sorted if too fast like matey in Vid 2 run his up too. Looks like it would give the Eurostar a run for it's Money.

http://www.zimo.at/web2010/documents/MX695-Eng-V1-07-20-11.pdf

Has anyone a set of the Function Button Instructions in English. Been searching for these with no luck. Also as the Functions go into the 20's is it possible to go above F19 with a Massoth Handset to get to these Sounds?
JonD
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Jon, you need Navigator Firmware 1.90 or 1.91 - and you need to activate Special Mode A3 - this should give you up to F28. You will need to ensure that your Dimax central station is at firmware 2.62 and your receivers are at 1.9 (8133001) or 2.1 (8133101) at least.

If you are not sure that your receivers have the right firmware - do the update anyway and make note of it.
 
Zerogee said:
Thanks Alan.... can I ask where you found that info, is it just word of mouth or has there been any kind of "official" statement from TL about it?
Just wondering if you have any other info on it at all, such as how to tell a modified loco from an unmodified one?

Jon.
Click to expand...
Was word of mouth from a German friend. Apparently it was on German forums at the time. Also, there are now 4 screws in the cover, used to be 2. I am not aware of TL admitting it, neither have they acknowledged that the skate holding lug has been improved, but it's easy to see.
 
stockers said:
Was word of mouth from a German friend. Apparently it was on German forums at the time. Also, there are now 4 screws in the cover, used to be 2. I am not aware of TL admitting it, neither have they acknowledged that the skate holding lug has been improved, but it's easy to see.
Click to expand...

Thanks Alan, that's very interesting - particularly as I've had a look at both my new green 5902 AND my order black 5901, and BOTH have four screws in each gearbox bottom plate! The also both appear to have the same design of skate retaining lug, which seems to work (I've not had any of the loose skate problems that folks have mentioned in the past). I'm wondering if this means that both the locos have the revised gearboxes - it is possible, since I wasn't an "early adopter" of the black 5901, I waited till they'd been out a good few months before I took the plunge on one.

Another interesting point - I have today done some tests with both black 5901 and green 5902, by suspending the loco by its four corners of the body (using four small boxes, under the front tank corners and under the cab steps) so that there was no weight or load at all on either power unit. I fed DCC power to the loco via croc clips on the skates, and noted some interesting results - though there is still a SLIGHT speed difference between front and rear gearboxes on both models, it is nowhere near as pronounced as the difference visible when the loco is on test rollers..... this was prompted by some things I deciphered from one of the German articles, and also a reply to an email I send to Bernd at Modell-Land; it appears that the front/rear weight distribution of the loco is "off" due to the location of the ballast weights, in that there is much more weight resting on the front power unit than on the rear one!
One of the suggested ideas in the article was to put some heavy metal-cast crew into the cab to help ballast the rear of the loco - I've got a couple of the solid zinc-cast Prehm HSB crew figures, which I'm going to try and see if they are enough to help a bit. Also recommended was some sheet lead ballast added to the inside walls of the cab, I might try a bit of this too.

One other thing I have noticed is how radically different the driving characteristics of the two locos are (5901 with Massoth decoder, 5902 with Zimo) - the Zimo-chipped 5902 seems to have an ENORMOUS amount of inertia programmed into it - start and acceleration is very slow, and deceleration and stopping is similarly "realistic" - you have to really think ahead because it takes several seconds to bring the loco to a halt unless you hit the Emergency Stop! ;)

Jon.
 
I understand that the gearbox mod was a fairly early change - so hopefully yours are all new type.
My 5902 is Massoth and seems to have a lot of inertia. Maybe its the way TL have set them up. I'll have a look at the settings one day. The inertia also helps with the over run sounds and breal squeal (instead of constant chuffing) when slowing down - have to say, this is the best I have heard on the 5902..
I dont seem to have a speed difference between bogies, although I have not checked in great detail. Most twin motored locos have some difference anyway. Your idea of weight distribution could well be spot on. As for weight, the power/grip is excellent so I wont be adding much weight. we dont know if these mechanisms are going to turn out bomb proof yet, do we?

Just checked my e-mails. I was told about the gearbox modification on 26th March 2014.

In your youtube links above - I see it is a two screw box they are modifying..
 
nice to see the "brass taps" sold as a spare.. shame they wont ship to the uk :o
 
muns said:
......... and you need to activate Special Mode A3 - this should give you up to F28. ........
Click to expand...

Mark,

How do you activate "special modes" on the Navvy? I know I could probably find it somewhere in the Massoth handbook, but I find those extremely hard to take in - I'm sure you can explain it much more simply! ;)

Thanks,
Jon.
 
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