Peco/ Kato England

[Tony Clarke]

I dropped my model of Princess about 1ft onto a carpet and 3 of the crank pins fell oput. I have managed to push them back in but have no confidence in their staying in place. There is an earlier thread on this topic  but no solutions were  dfescribed. Is there a solution?

[Robin Webster]

I don't own a princess nor do I know who the manufacturer is, but I have a couple of old Arnold steam loco's where I had lost the crank pins and non were available as spare parts. I replaced the crank pins with 1mm screws. I had to cut the screws to fit as they were a bit too long. It was very fiddly work, but it worked and still works.
Spare parts should be available if the model has been manufactured in the last few years.(hopefully)
Hope this helps.
Robin.

[Robin Webster]

Opps, I missed your heading Peco/kato.
Robin.

[JulienW]

I think you have a couple of options Tony.

You could take the pins back out, add a very small amount of some sort of adhesive to hold them in place and put the pins back in, being careful not to get the adhesive squelching out from the crank pin hole and sticking the rods on place. I'm not sure what to suggest as the adhesive though. Superglue and the like will be too powerful with the risk of sticking everything up solid and I have a feeling that the various retaining compounds need a metal present to cure so will not work on a plastic crank pin in a plastic wheel centre. I wonder if something like copydex or PVA might do the job whilst allowing the pins to be removed at a later date.

The other option is that I think that following issues with loose crank pins Kato & Peco came up with an improved design. My understanding is that these are available from Peco, so it might be worth dropping them an email to ask. You'll still have to pull out the old ones to fit the new, but they should stay in place.

Hope that helps.

[Tony Clarke]

I have just emailed Peco to ask whether they have devised a solution. I decided that the chances of getting adhesive into the hole without smearing it anywhere else were very low.

[Tony Clarke]

I should have reported this earlier. Peco have increased the size of the crank pins to prevent their falling out. A packet can be obtained from Peco by sending an A3 size self addressed envelope with a large envelope stamp.

[Hugh Norwood]

I hope that is A5 size!  <grin>

Thank you, though, useful information!

[Peter Boulter]

Yes, the A3 envelope is for the 1:1 scale pins.   ;D  :D

[Tony Clarke]

My mistake. It is A5

[Ozymandius]

I had a crankpin fall out of my Kato "Prince" I emailed Peco and they replied the same day, envelope dispatched and new crankpins arrived very quickly (given Post office "limitations" at the time).

Very impressed by the Peco customer service and subsequently no issues, so far with the new pins.

I hope this helps and a big thumbs up for Peco and their customer service.

best regards
Tony

[Pete Williams]

I have a Loco - ordered on the 9th August at TMC - having a decoder fitted.
still waiting'
Someday my 'Prince' will come!

[Graeme Dunbar]

I have a Loco - ordered on the 9th August at TMC - having a decoder fitted.
still waiting'
Someday my 'Prince' will come!

I'm sure it will be 'charming' when it does.  :)

[Hugh Norwood]

The loco formerly known as Prince... Or should that be latterly known as...?

[Dougie Bromley]

Hi, anyone got an instruction leaflet in English please ? Bought "Princess" from traintrax but instruction leaflet is in Japanese.

[David Banks]

Hi All,
 On a related topic about the England loco's, I know that Palmerston has not been released yet, but I am worried that the colour shown on the gifs, shows what,at best,could be described as "dark red", and not the dark maroon that I have a photo of (see attached). Has anyone else noticed this, or seen a pre-production model in real life? I know That Prince is sometimes described as either red or maroon, depending on which supplier's website you visit. I want to pre-order one but not if the colour is not right.
Cheers