Minitrix 2-6-2 Body removal

[Roy Schofield]

I've just acquired, what appears to be, a decent Minitrix model 2030 2-6-2 loco from Ebay.  I'm planning to use it with a Gem Mountaineer kit I bought recently from the society sales table. 

My problem is that I can't see how to remove the body from the chassis and I'd appreciate some guidance so that I don't wreck the chassis.

Roy

[MickT]

The smokebox door can be removed with the aid of a small screwdriver blade or fingernail. Inside, you will find a small screw, undo this and........voila, she comes apart!

Mick

[Roy Schofield]

Mick,
        Many thanks - I can put the hammer and chisel away now.

Roy

[Malcolm]

Roy
Would be interested in a photo of body on chassis in due course as this is something I have thought of doing myself.  Have chassis but no body as yet.
Malcolm

[Tigger]

Justa thought - I believe you have to remove the N Gauge buffers as well because they hold the body in place.  They just pull out.

[Roy Schofield]

Thanks for all your comments.  Life has been rather fraught recently - hence the slow reply.

It doesn't seem necessary to remove the buffers on my body. Looking at the article by Ted Polet in last December's News there are some small differences between his chassis and mine, so perhaps there are variations on the body fixing methods.

Running the loco since it arrived it is a bit "sticky" to start even after some running in. It does appear to have very little, if any use, so it may free up with time but I'm seriously thinking about fitting a Mashima motor and getting it to run smoothly before building the Gem kit.  I'm not too sure which motor Ted used but I think it was probably a Mashima 9/16 so I'll try that.

Malcolm - I did notice that Parkside had a kit on their stand at NG South.

Roy

[tedp]

Yes, I did indeed use the Mashima 16/9 open frame motor in my remotoring project. I have used other motors in earlier conversions, but this one is best. Do you have the photos? They will show you how to do it.

[Roy Schofield]

Ted
    I do have the article, it's very useful and really the reason I decided to use the Minitrix chassis.  Many thanks for your comments.

Roy

[Tigger]

One weak point which I identified many years ago with the chassis is the nylon block which mounts the wormwheel.  This has a tendency to crack from the bearing hole.  If you've got a Minitrix-powered loco which runs smoothly in one direction but not the other, this is often a sign of this happening and it's more often the left-hand-side of the block which fractures first.  It can't be glued - the only solution with which I found success is to fuse the nylon across the crack by gently applying a soldering iron to that area - an idea suggested to me by Don Boreham when I told him that my model of Argyll was so afflicted.

I suspect the major cause of the failure is the extra stress suffered by the block induced by the mechanism having to transport a far heavier loco that that for which it was designed.  As I've always stuffed as much weight into my models as I possibly can and every one of my Minitrix locos has suffered at least once, I suspect this is a very plausible theory!

[Roy Schofield]

Tigger,
     Thanks for the tip.  I'll keep an eye on that.

Roy

[Tigger]

Glad to help, Roy.

I think all mine are repaired at the moment but if I get another failure I'll take a photo and also one of a repaired block.  By memory the signs are 'notchy' or' jumpy' movement (difficult to describe) in forward and smooth in reverse (indicating a failure on the left-hand side), caused by the worm being able to come out of mesh from the wormwheel in one direction due to the rotation but being held in position when it rotates the other way.  Hope that makes sense.

[Roy Schofield]

Just a brief update on the progress made with my Mountaineer model.  It has been a very slow process, partly for domestic reasons but also as both body and chassis needed a good deal of modification to (a) get things to fit together and (b) to make the model look something like the real thing.  I also spent some time fitting a Mashima motor and getting the chassis to run before starting on the body.

The Gem kit is designed to fit an Arnold chassis and if built as designed ended is about 18 scale inches too short.  The chassis needed various bits removed to fit the body, mainly the "tower" used to hold the original body onto the chassis.  In general the Gem castings are pretty good with very few blemishes and didn't need too much cleaning or filling.  The roof casting is too narrow and I'll need to make my own to replace it.

I had to extend the front pony truck to get the wheels in the correct place.  The rear truck is pretty much OK as built.  I've found that the loco can runs quite happily over 9 inch radius points at any speed.  The picture shows the current state.

My thanks to you all for your advice.

Roy

[Malcolm]

Roy
I like this very much.  As an owner of the kit on an Arnold chassis the missing rear pony truck has always been something I was very conscious of.  It was also clear from this and other forums many like me had stuck with the Arnold [in my case 20+ year old and still going strong] but I am strongly tempted to go for the change especially as I am am familiar with the minitrix as I have a few in the fleet and a new one lying to hand.
Thanks for posting, much appreciated
Malcolm