Odin - a very useful engine ...

 Odin has been to the paint shop and is now in service, first job a bit of shunting ...

it will be a very useful engine ..

LOCO WORKS - Refurbishing Odin (3) - Running problems..fixed

Opened up the motor block to check the interior - looks ok and no obvious problems...

On deeper inspection found a big hole in the front plastic drive gear, lost a tooth and a bit more - DOH !

So not much option for me than to replace the motor block, fortunately I had a similar one available and started work adapting it to fit - offering up to the footplate section it needs a fixing at front and a few padding pieces...

The replacement motion with adaptations to fit the loco body (using a fixit block at the front)

tender coupling mk2 - a simple hoop of wire - does the job

All re-assembled and on a running test with 4 coaches, occasional slippage so will fit a traction weight on top of the motor block - loco works fine and reverses too with problems (so MK2 coupling a winner)

next job is to tart up the paint work.

LOCO WORKS - Refurbishing Odin (2) - The Tender

The detail on the tender tip was basic and had no way to add some coal, so the top was removed ..

A new basic top with room for coal was made using cardboard... (sealed with a coat of PVA glue)

Added some coal, cork tile cut in strips and then broken up into pieces, stuck in place with dilute PVA glue...

LOCO WORKS - Refurbishing Odin (1)

The loco I acquired last month has now gone into the loco works...

It had on inspection few problems that needed correction

• funnel not vertical
• couplings, height mismatches.
• pickup problems when running (stops, hand jiggle and then starts)
• tender wheel set
• repairs needed to tender top.
• footplate not horizontal

Dis-assembled ....

funnel removed, and found some better screws and bolts for re-assembly

put some padding pieces in to get the footplate horizontal and re-attcahed the funnel

I gave the inside of the cab a brush off to remove the dust

New wheels for the tender and a new coupling for the rear of the tender 

a new coupling for the front of the loco...

The coupling between the tender and the loco was mis-matched

and so I levelled up the height and used a the coupling scheme of 'wire pin- link - wire pin '

which works OK, will probably change it for a more practical less fiddly scheme later on.

New loco acquired ...

 The CVR has acquired a new loco, engineers inspection after initial running tests...

Loco bought off Ebay, needs some tlc; runs OK but need a good run in.

Park Ranger ...

 For some fun I have some large plastic dinosaurs in the grass area in the middle of the garden railway. I found a suitable park ranger in jeep for them - a kids toy Jurassic Park jeep.

Track powered locos are Go ...

 Over the last few days have been cleaning the track on the garden layout, I had not used it for track-powered locos since 2 years ago. To start with I used some cleaning fluid, which I sprayed on and let the rain wash it off - this got the worst of the tarnishing and dirt on the track; this was followed by a session with a track rubber.

Today got out my track cleaning loco to buff up the track top

a few 'sticky' areas were cleaned with the track rubber. Once all done, found a couple of areas of track that needed a bit of levelling and so ready to run a train ...

I chose my new little feldbahn loco and a rake of tipper trucks, spent a happy time watching it go round...