New to OO9 - Peco loco problem

[jimowers]

I have just started a OO9 layout and am new to loco building as well. So, I decided to try what I thought would be a fairly straightforward loco to begin with having done some wagons first. My problem is not however with the Peco James kit itself but rather the Graham Farish 57xx Pannier donor loco. I cannot take the body off the chassis.
There appears to be a large silver screw which seems to match the position shown on the Peco plan but removing this releases all sorts of things including the pickups. A smaller receed screw is also visible.
So far I have had no success in getting the body off the chassis. Please can anybody help? Many thanks. Jim

[clanky]

if i remember correctly i 'taped up' that end of the chassis before removing removing the screw . when the loco is attached to the chassis with same screw  everything is secured . john

[jimowers]

Very many thanks. I think that I have not quite gone far enough because I saw the loco falling to pieces in front of my eyes! We will give this a try.

[clanky]

jim be very careful that the wheels and con rods are in alignment i did'nt and the plastic cog wheel was chewed up , that's when brian guilmant came to the rescue with is 'aladin's cave cheers john

[jimowers]

And to think that I bought this thinking it would be an easy project!  ::)

I am learning that you need to be very gently with OO9 having just made my first tipper trucks.

Thanks again for your advise John

Jim

[jimowers]

Having finally got the body removed from the chassis I now find that, as others have mentioned, Peco do not seem to realise that GF have changed their loco! There is no longer the vital nut required to fix the chassis contained within the body of the loco because they have now moulded everything (very nicely I must say) out of metal and simply tapped a thread inside a big lump of metal.

I am now waiting to hear from Peco because they have three kits using the 57xx chassis on p39 of the 2009 catalogue.

[clanky]

jim , don't know if you're new to  railway modelling or the gauge , either way ,i would recommend buying a couple of locos and rolling stock from  brian guilmant , ( instant train ) ,then you can concentrate on designing and building your layout . once you have your layout up and running then you will have the time to kit build/bash . by the by what is the name of your layout/line ,very important !!. anyway cheers john .

[jimowers]

You have guessed right - I am new to modelling. Thanks for the advice. I thought that building a Peco loco would be easy but clearly it is not. I am also buying secondhand as you suggest to get me going in the meantime. Thanks again.

[JulienW]

From memory, the bolt (or screw) that hold the Farish chassis to the body is an 8 BA size, or at least it used to be.  Whilst B&Q may not sell BA nuts, your local model shop (or ironmongers - there are some around still!) may have one (they also turn up on eBay).  If the only alternative IS B&Q, they may have something in the metric sizes that's about the same.  8 BA uses a 1.8 mm tapping hole (one it will cut a thread in) and a 2.25mm clearance hole (one that it will slide into), so at a guess you want something like an M2 nut and bolt which should slide through the hole in the chassis and allow you to fit the nut in the Peco body.  Problem is you may end up having to get quite a few from a single B&Q packet.

There is, of course, the posibility that Farish have gone over to a metric thread, or equally some wierd Chinese standard, as a cost recustion exercise.  In which case it may be worth getting a bolt (8 BA or M2) to go with the nut when you get it, just in case!

Hope that helps.

Julien.

[Graeme Dunbar]

Small nuts and bolts are worth looking out for at trade stands at exhibitions and buying a few for stock. I always seem to forget when I put in an order for materials!

[clanky]

jim ,i think your'e on the right track !!!!! . now that you are up and running with a couple of trains you can work out a time table or sequences  for your operational department , and your  civil engineers can get busy building / creating your layout and scenery . lucky you .
somewhere i managed to get completely  bogged down with to many projects at the same time the result is that i have not got a clue which is the most important ,the end result is obvious , no progress !!!!!! . anyway enjoy your  railway and lets hope we see a couple of pics of your progress .
cheers john

[jimowers]

From memory, the bolt (or screw) that hold the Farish chassis to the body is an 8 BA size, or at least it used to be.  Whilst B&Q may not sell BA nuts, your local model shop (or ironmongers - there are some around still!) may have one (they also turn up on eBay).  If the only alternative IS B&Q, they may have something in the metric sizes that's about the same.  8 BA uses a 1.8 mm tapping hole (one it will cut a thread in) and a 2.25mm clearance hole (one that it will slide into), so at a guess you want something like an M2 nut and bolt which should slide through the hole in the chassis and allow you to fit the nut in the Peco body.  Problem is you may end up having to get quite a few from a single B&Q packet.
Julien.

Thanks Julian. It is in fact an M2 nut and Peco has now sent me one having themselves contacted Bachmann so I am a very happy bunny! Have now built the loco body, hence my tardiness in getting back to the forum. I am very pleased with it as a first effort. Apart from the bolt problem I would in fact recommend this kit to anyone with as little experience as myself because it is pretty easy to assemble and the parts are very clean and fit together extremely well.

I am now on to the painting which is a completely different ballgame but hopefully I am getting there. As Clanky suggests I will try to put up a picture soon to show my model.

[jimowers]

As promised I have a picture of the finished loco in 'just out of the workshop' condition.

Please be kind and bear in mind that this is my very first attempt at a kit and painting a loco so it will certainly not be up to the standards of many of you guys. I am at least proud that I have completed a project and that the end result runs on OO9 track!

[MickT]

Well done Jim, a good start and already the loco is showing some character! Don't be over modest - you will quickly find in the Society that there are lots of people who talk about what projects they are intending to start, fewer who start them and those that actually finish them are quite scarce - myself included!

A couple of points of feedback, hopefully constructive, that you might like to consider for improving the model:

1. Paint the upper horizontal surface  of the footplate black.

2. Finish the model with a coat of matt varnish, you could use silk/semi-matt for the upperworks - tank and cab if preferred. Either will considerably improve on the rather garish finish that gloss paint gives.

3. Further reasonably easy improvement can be achieved by fixing to the underside of the footplate at the front either the cylinders and piston rod guides from the Dapol Pug kit, or making some up yourself from plastic tubing and 1mm square section rod to represent outside cylinders that will make the loco look much more credible for narrow gauge. You don't need to worry about trying to manufacture outside valve gear as the cylinders will act as a reasonable mask. You will be surprised how this simple little bit of camouflage improves the looks of the loco.

I did not at first connect your forum name to your letter that I received on Friday. Thanks for that, the set of CDs were posted 1st class straight away and hopefully will arrive with you Monday or Tuesday. Hope you enjoy them and find lots of things to further inspire you within them.

Best Wishes

Mick

[jimowers]

Very many thanks for the encouragement and extremely constructive comments. I will work on these and see how much better I can make this look.

The CDs are really excellent and it is great to be able to view your super photographs off-line. We have already used a lot of your internet photographs as source material for our layout which will get to the scenery stage shortly. The research phase of our project has been very productive and there is so much to learn from seeing how others have achieved such a high level of detail.