Hi Y'all,
I have a 009 Minitrains Baldwin loco that runs smoothly, with its headlight bright, oneway
but at half speed in tother direction, with the headlight flashing rapidly.
Has anybody had a similar problem or an idea what the problem may be?
reagards richard stranks
Hi Richard,
Assuming you've not converted it to DCC (I read your post to MERG ;) ), then possibly take a look at the pickups to see if they have not been installed correctly and are "chattering" in one direction.
I'm not sure if it could be a fault with the LED board causing intermittent shorts, but you should be able check that quite easily because the LED board is part of the body shell and comes away with it. It has two metal fingers that press against the split chassis.
I wonder if the quality control has dropped? I bought one recently from Brian and one of the couplers has been glued in skew.
Edit: Doh! put brain in gear before typing. If it is indeed split chassis (it looks like it) then there shouldn't be any pickups. Therefore I'm stumped. I suppose it could be that the axles are not being seated correctly by what looks like the keeper plate.
Other than remove the body shell (which comes away easily) I've not delved any further.
Hi Graham,
Thanks for your ideas.
On a rolling road the front axle wobbled around alarmingly.
At very slow speeds the mechanism locked up and needed
a reverse burst to free it.
I've sent it back to Brian at the 009 shop rather than dive into
the works. Tho' I must do so later to convert to DCC.
PS. Thought I recognised you from MERG when I joined 009 soc.
regards richard 6080
Almost certainly a cracked drive gear on the front axel then.
This is very common on the 1960
Yo peeps
The replacement Baldwin steamer from 'Brian-the-shop' runs as sweet as a nut.
End of story, for me anyway!
Thanks all, richard 6080
I recently reviewed a Minitrains diesel for a magazine. It barely worked. It is a 1960s product and a poor one at that
JdF
I saw the Baldwin at Haywards Heath and it ran very well. Ian Turner told me that there had been some problem with a couple that Brian had received which were sent back and replaced. Ian managed to fix one with a drop of oil and checking the pickups I think.
Certainly ran nice and smoothly, I'll be considering using one in a small shunting loco.