Railcar number 2 is a well built and interesting looking vehicle, but it has never been a very good runner. It lacks power and has been quite unreliable. The unit was completed in May 2010 and within two years it had worn its gearbox out, this was replaced three years ago. It has now failed again due to a burnt out motor. I don't think the little Mashima 12 volt motor was up to the job, even though it was only running on 9.6 volts.
 Before the failure, I was contemplating fitting radio control to this model, but I think that would be a waste of resources. 
 Rather than replace the motor, I will remove the burnt out one and, in due course I will build a self propelled goods van to power the freewheeling unit. I will fit the van with radio control and a diesel sound unit. The drive will probably come from a Playmobil chassis that I have in stock, that should give up to 20 years running, the one fitted in Loco number 2 has!

 Using the 80 watt iron has made soldering the bodywork an easier task, however, one has to be careful not to overheat the parts being soldered as this can cause warping. The roof needed some reshaping to get a decent fit over the two ends, but try as I might, I could not get it to touch the top of the sides. The roof is only soldered to the ends and to a roof support which is roughly in the centre of the body.
 The roof is fitted with an even overhang on both sides and ends, but the hole for the chimney and the hole for the safety valve in the removable roof section, do not line up with the chimney and safety valve on the power unit. I was able to bodge this with the chimney by moving the chimney roof ring as far forward as it would go without leaving part of the larger roof hole showing behind it. The safety valve hole however, need enlarging quite a lot towards the front and slightly to the left (the boiler is probably not mounted exactly upright). The roof ring for the safety valve was not large enough to cover the remainder of the hole in the roof and so I cut out a small piece of scrap brass and soldered this in place to fill the hole. 
 This bodgery should not be noticeable once the condensing tubes are in place
on the roof.
 I had difficulty fixing the lower body trim in place as there is not enough meat on the bottom edge of the body to fix a clamp to hold the trim in place. In the end I opted to fix the two trims in place with epoxy resin, these are not a good fit as my corner trims were not as flush as they should be, leaving a gap between the body and the trim as it goes round the corners. Since the body received a degreasing in the dishwasher, some of the epoxy has come adrift. I will either try re-fixing with cyano adhesive or attempt soldering it back on.
 The roof fence was tacked together nice and square before fitting to the roof but promptly fell apart as I applied the heat to the very fiddly and highly frustrating fence support posts. I was getting close to abandoning the project at this stage! Anyway I got it all soldered in place eventually, doing a little bit at a time. The roof fence now has a warp in it that I can't cure without running the risk of some bits falling off again if I apply more heat, so it will have to stay that way.
 The main body is now complete, apart from having to resolve the issue of the lower trim. The next stage is to assemble the condensing apparatus, I have already cut the 46 tubes from their frets and cleaned them up.