roco RTR 009

[invercloy]

Beaten me to it, Mick.  I was going to post a shot or two of my conversions  ;)

It's a simple thing to do, you don't need to be that brave as the only physical modifications i did were to file off the rather european looking smokebox door and replace with a thinned down one from an airfix pug it, glue on a new chimney from a Stenning L&B kit, and construct the new cab out of whitemetal bits and bobs and plasticard.  The cab is removable, so bravery is only required when taking the file to the smokebox.  You could even make the chimney removable if you wanted to return the loco to it's original condition at some point.

One of mine has been great, no wear and tear and runs well.  The other however (and Chris's) both have an issue where the valve gear binds occasionally stopping the loco in it's tracks.  I think i've found a work around by loosening the front screw on the keeper plate which allows a little flexibility for things to slop around a little and it seems to happen less frequently now.

[B.Meldon]

Hi Dave
To add to what has already been said, the outside frame Roco 0-6-0 locos do indeed perform well when new, and my ones are still very good after a couple of years use. The Tillig HOe steam locos also work well, straight out of the box and would appear to last a long time as well, they retail for about

[davanvalley]

Many thanks for the advice given and it is all duly noted. As to when I will pluck up the courage to 'alter' the Roco locos it is difficult to say:-)

I enjoy wagaon and coach kit building but, as I said before, tinkering with locos is usually the kiss of death.

I am testing the locos and stock that I have as I lay the track and have already been grateful for comments on this group about the Peco points. I have opened the clearances out slightly and all now runs well.

I will never exhibit so my locos won't get the amount of use that a lot obviously do. Hopefully that will mean that the problems that some of you have will a good many years off for me.

I am enjoying the change and have found the group to be friendly and helpful. Many thanks.

Regards,
Dave

[petersmith1942]

Have read recent contributions with interest and again thank Brian Meldon for his helpful comments and advice
Peter Smith

[pilotfriend]

Many 009 modellers do not run their locos over any distance and for short periods only. I can attest that the 4 Roco outside frame chassis I have used were inop within a few hours of running with only short term fixes available. The Bachmann class 08 chassis is far far better and half the price too. The Roco valve gear fits easily to it and these chassis, so far, on my layout have performed many many hours of running.

By far the best outside frame chassis available, (at a price) is the Bemo HOe Diesel Loco Class VL3. It is the only chassis one can describe as 'properly engineered and all wheels are driven, a most important feature for long life.
JdF

[invercloy]

John,

I thought you had also experienced problems with brass valve gear on the 08?

Has this developed into a bigger problem, have you fitted roco stuff as a replacement?

[pilotfriend]

Indeed I did suffer from excessive wear when using brass valve gear on class 08 chassis. River Brue now has new chassis with Roco valve gear and runs perfectly. If I was to fit brass gear, I would in future lash out and use the Bemo chassis.
JdF

[MickT]

Indeed I did suffer from excessive wear when using brass valve gear on class 08 chassis. River Brue now has new chassis with Roco valve gear and runs perfectly. If I was to fit brass gear, I would in future lash out and use the Bemo chassis.
JdF

As a possibly slightly irrelevant distraction ( ???), Martin Radcliffe, who brought that superb Leek & Manifold set to NG Midlands last Saturday, informed me that he had used the Bemo 0-6-0 diesel chassis as the basis of both of the superdetailed Kitson locos in the set. I'll include a couple of photos of the set in my Fotopic report of the day as soon as I can get it up to the top of a rather big and tedious non-modelling related essential tasklist this week!

Mick

[invercloy]

Sounds interesting Mick, I look forward to seeing them! :)

Thanks for the response, John, useful to know.

[pilotfriend]

Cost per loco about

[invercloy]

Cost per loco about

[pilotfriend]

Indeed. The coupling rods are in this case more cosmetic than working so a great deal less stress.
JdF

[B.Meldon]

The Bemo 0-6-0 diesel has indeed got gears that drive each axel and also an additional fly crank that is rod driven.

These chassis are not perfect as the motor mountings are at the far end of the motor to the worm drive; this can make the motors noisy but can be addressed by securing the front end of the motor with glue. I have had one of these locos for about five years now and it was second hand when I got it. It is one of the locos that sees the most use on the layout and it still runs very well, but is not the best running loco as it has no fly wheel.

Here is a photo of the Bemo