G`day Scratch Builders, I recently repaired a broken cylinder on this old Mainline Jubilee and once again had it doing laps on my railway.I was wallowing in my success when a new issue raised it`s ugly little head to my dismay. The gear wheel on the driving axle at the rear of the loco and the gear that connects it to the rest of the drive train were jumping one tooth per one revolution of the wheel. I took the loco apart and checked all the gears and their teeth religiously. I will be blowed if I can find an issue and what`s more their is no possible adjustment. A new gear and axle is available from Peter`s Spares, however as I`m not sure if that is the problem, I felt it could be a pointless exercise, especially as the rest of the gear train is not available as far as I know. So...?????....two options....sell it off as a non runner for spares or repair....or....convert it over to tender drive......I took the latter. I have taken a bit of a punt with the tender drive as it could be the wrong length....it could be the wrong height and consequently, if it`s not relatively cheap, why bother.????....So I searched the Bay and came up with an old Lima tender drive that was supposed to be in good mechanical condition and the top had a minor issue.....I`m not worried about the top.....so I placed a successful bid and got it for AU$30.....not a lot to spend if I can make it work.....that remains to be seen. Here is the tender.....exactly as described.....in good mechanical order and working properly. It just needs a good lube and appears to have plenty of life in it. When it arrived I matched up the wheels with the old tender....not bad...a little bit out...but the tender top wasn`t looking too good at all.....not a good match. So what to do.????....lateral thinking required here folks.....and really the answer was staring me in the face. I have two Jubilees. The other one is working beautifully for it`s age and it has a higher, different tender that is a better match for the Lima. Both locos have exactly the same wheels and cylinders, so in order to have tenders matching the locos that they belong to, I simply swapped the bodies and chassis on the two locos. I now have a loco and tender that match and the tender will fit the Lima tender drive. So here they are just before the change over. 45698 body will now be put onto 45691`s chassis and become a fully functioning loco with the original Mainline chassis and motor set up. 45691 will be fitted to a motorless rolling chassis and be driven by the Lima tender drive. The Lima here with the top removed. Everything is as it should be and it`s a reasonably sturdy mechanism. Now the new top that has to go onto it. Some modifications required. The steps and buffer beam need to be cut off so that the tender top can sit down over the chassis and mechanism. It`s too late now folks.....the deed is done. It was firstly, roughly cut down and then sanded flush to fit properly. Clearances are all good so the tender chassis was divided up and separated to allow easier fitting for the top. It`s much easier to see what`s going on inside the tender and chassis with the motor removed. The top needs some method for attaching it to the chassis. At the moment I`ve only sorted out one end. A brass bolt has been cut down to length to fit through the chassis and connect into this brass nut which is Superglued to the tender top. The happy couple waiting to be joined in married bliss. I intend to connect wires up to each side of the split chassis on the loco and then run them out along the draw bar to the tender and connect them to the motor. The draw bar will have to be adapted to connect up to the back of the loco and because of the wiring, eventually the loco and tender will be permanently connected. That`s where we are at the moment, but I anticipate it won`t take too long to get it running once more......fingers crossed. More as it happens. http://www.clickGormo
Good to see you got that tender for cheap. Great conversion for an otherwise dead and worthless loco to something useful again. I quite like the Lima motor and drive-train, very good for its day and very robust. The Mainline locos suffered from split gears, which can be hard to see, they can be replaced, but the motor is still too noisy for most people, the simple American Bachmann type pancake motor is also hard to get parts for, apart from old motors. My Lima King George V with tender drive is permanently coupled and works quite well. Cheers Tony
If you're not keen on having loco and tender permanently connected Gormo, have a look on the 'Youchoos" (UK) website, as John Gymer does 2, 3 and 4 pin mini plug and socket sets quite cheaply. I've used a few of these on some of my projects, it's easy to superglue either socket or plug to a chassis and leave the other part as a 'flying lead'. Then again, maybe you could get hold of similar in Oz??? I don't know about you, but it gives me a good deal of satisfaction to be able to either repair, rebuild or even resurrect some of the older models, especially ones where the detailing is almost comparable with present-day stuff at a fraction of the price! Keith.
Good thread Gormo. Looking forward to Part 2. Cheers, Gary. ps, How nice would that Jubilee be in the blue livery....??
Nice topic Gormo . I used to like picking up dead or damaged locos from toy and train sales for next to nothing and getting them repaired and running again, very satisfying. Pete.
Thanks Guys, Yes I do get a good deal of satisfaction from resurrecting these old locos. I know where you`re coming from Keith and Pete. This project has actually caused a domino effect in that I have finished up with a spare set of wheels and chassis to suit a Mainline loco. Now at the moment I am also having an issue with the axles in the tender of my Mainline Collet. Once again not worth too much time invested in repair, however the spare wheels and chassis that are left over from the Jubilee are a perfect match and in good working order. So the swapping of parts continues on and is actually a bonus created by this coarse of action. A win,win situation.......provided the Lima tender works out.....as yet to be determined. http://www.clickGormo
G`day Folks, Well as you may remember when we last spoke, that I was trying to work out a method for connecting the other end of the tender top to the Lima chassis. One end had already been sorted as per the pic below. The Lima tender has this slot under the buffer beam which accepts a piece of plastic with a right angle bend on the end to secure it in the slot. I think I might as well try and replicate this method. So I made up a suitable piece from 1mm Aluminium. With a bit of trimming and painting it will disappear inside the tender top. It just has to be located precisely and Superglued into the tender top. As per below The next stage was to add the extra wire connections that will flow through to the loco and connect up to each side of the split chassis. The Lima draw bar has also had to be adapted to the Mainline set up. The Lima draw bar sits quite a bit lower than a lug that projects down under the loco. Problem is by putting a couple of right angle bends in the draw bar, I risk reducing it`s length to the point where the tender will be too close to the loco, especially when negotiating bends. However I thought I`ll take a punt and if it doesn`t work, I`ll make a replacement. The next stage was to fit the wire through, add the weights and slip the new top on and lock it down. I`ve elected to feed the wire to the loco chassis via the keeper plate that screws up under the loco chassis. I had to drill a hole through it to allow the wire to pass through. I`ve just done a simple fit with the wire to the chassis....exactly the same on both sides. Then we wack the loco body on and ready for testing. So here we are folks......it runs. I will put a video up of it running when I get it done.......but for the moment....mission complete and it runs very nicely indeed. http://www.clickGormo
We will have to Knight you Sir resurrection, you are on a roll Gormo congrats on the conversion. Interesting to see the wheels from the Lima tender have Crank pin holes and balance weights, that would normally be seen on a Lima 0-4-0 steam loco. Out of interest what went wrong with the Collets Tender ?? Just worn out axles or a failure ?
Thanks Ian & Chris, I don`t know what`s going on with those wheels Chris but you can`t really notice that they are ex loco wheels if you stand about three feet away from the loco... The Collett tender had all of the above issues. Worn axles. worn axle bearings in the chassis and also the chassis has a slight bow in the middle. The end result of these issues is that the center wheels float around and can easily drop out causing derailment. These are old locos with plastic fatigue.....they should have died a long time ago but I keep giving them Lazarus pills...... Palitoy made these locos to look good and go for a while.......a while was up about 10 to 15 years ago. They didn`t expect some old Aussie bloke in a shed to keep resuscitating these locos and push the envelope a bit further out. The video will have to wait till tomorrow now.....time for Gormo`s kip http://www.clickGormo
Have to say I got value for money from my old Mainline/playtoy BR black pannier Tank it cost $15 and has finally sucum to gear meshing issues it must have done some miles, had it since I was a teen ager and it even got DCC converted had to machine some of the Chassis to do that, it ran for a few more years then locked up with worn out gear Train Can't believe it went so long. For such basic mech's they really have done well.
Yes Chris, Different times and different standards of manufacturing. The detail wasn`t as good in those days but even the cheap alternatives like the Mainline brand worked rather well and lasted as you have found yourself. Now folks, the video as promised. The Mainline Lima Jubilee Test Run http://www.clickGormo
A great thread Gormo. I love seeing the work arounds that you come up with. Smart modelling. Cheers Toto
Despite their age, they are cracking engines. Its brilliant to see them being used as they should be. Well done Gormo! Cheer's, Pete.
Just as an alternative to converting the loco drive to tender drive, I have been informed (on our P1MRC facebook page) that the Bachmann Jubilee chassis possibly fits in under the Mainline body... Newer motor, better running qualities, etc etc... A few modellers have replaced the Mainline chassis with Bachmann chassis on their GWR Manors. But I will say that I enjoyed reading this thread on what is possible. Great work Gormo and it's good to see it run, again. Cheers, Gary.
Thanks Toto, Pete & Gary, Yes the old girl is going again. Converting over to the Bachmann chassis is a really good way to go if you want modern running for the old locos. For those of us on limited incomes, we have to find cheaper alternatives though, as a replacement modern Bachmann chassis wouldn`t come cheap. So we work with what we`ve got and therein lies the challenge....... http://www.clickGormo
