In my 24 May 2015 blog, I said that I would remove the burnt out motor from railcar No.2, the CVR railtruck, and build a powered van - fitted with radio control and diesel sound - to push the free wheeling unit. Well I finally got round to it.
​ First I removed the motor and gearbox from the railcar and wired a connector plug to the headlight lead; this to connect to a corresponding socket on the van.
 The basis of the van is an IP Engineering freelance laser cut goods van kit. I only intended to use the body, some of the floor and the headstocks; the running gear was put in the oddments box.
 As luck would have it, the internal length of the van is the same as that of the chosen Playmobil power unit, which I had in stock. The power unit was prepared by removing the pick ups, painting the red wheels with black acrylic, and then attaching the headstocks from the IP kit along with my standard Accucraft chopper couplings.

  The floor of the van had to be cut in two to allow the power unit and its large diameter wheels to fit up inside the body.
 I did not stick to the kit instructions when it came to detailing the van, I used vertical bracing on the sides - made from offcuts of the laser cut material - instead of the diagonal bracing supplied. The diagonal bracing on the doors, and vertical bracing on the ​van ends was glued plain side out, as I did not want the laser cut bolt heads showing. GRS wagon corner strapping was added; I used some thinner wood strip for the solebars, rather than the material supplied; this was to ensure the large cast dummy axle guards (GRS) were not too close to rail level. The axle guards were glued in place and rivets inserted in the solebars above these to represent fixing bolts. Some bits of paper clip represent door handles.
 At this stage the body was sprayed with acrylic matt grey paint applied with a rattle can. The solebars, axle guards and headstocks were then painted matt black. Rub on lettering and numbers is from Letraset.

 The corrugated roof was made from a piece of Brandbright roofing material; in order to achieve the correct size, I used the roof material supplied in the kit as a template. The roof was submerged in boiling water for a few minutes, and then strapped to an aerosol can for a few days, to form it to a curved profile. I made some formers from the IP roof material and glued these to the underside of the roof: this not only helps maintain the roof shape, but also provides a rigid structure, like a lid, which can be easily removed and replaced.
  Brake shoes from GRS and Accucraft (for the handbrake) were attached to the power unit: V hangers, made from scratch, and a brake handle from IP, were added to the body. The chassis and body were then united by glueing the underside of the van ends to the top of the headstocks. Vacuum pipes were fitted and the whole was given some light weathering by spraying a waft of matt acrylic olive drab over the van.
 Once the van was cosmetically complete, it was time to fit the electronics.

 The loudspeaker is a bit large, it was too wide to fit it facing down, but when stood on its side in one corner of the van, it fitted in below roof level. The speaker was glued in place, then the original 9.6v rechargeable battery pack was fixed to the floor. The motor is rated at 0-14 volts: lower than its LGB equivalent, so I thought the lower battery voltage would be sufficient - and it was.
 I made a control panel for the on/off switch and charge socket, from a bit of scrap MDF; this was fixed in place with wood screws so that it can be removed for maintenance/battery replacement. The lead for the headlight connection was wired to the on/off switch.
 The various electronic bits were then wired up as per the diagram supplied with the sound unit. Before fixing them in place, I tested that the set up worked: I switched on, nothing happened; then I noticed the polarity of one of the connections was reversed - oops! - this was soon rectified; still nothing, but replacing the 3A fuse solved the problem - always fit a fuse, it could save your expensive equipment when things go wrong.
 I am very pleased with the result, the diesel sound: including start up and shut down is superb, there is a horn too. Speed control is smooth and the top speed with the 9.6v battery pack is a very respectable scale 25mph.

 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!

Shortly after my last post on this topic I received a new motor and gearbox kit from IP Engineering. I opted for the full motor/gearbox assembly as I noticed that the existing motor was failing and often stalled. The new gearbox is to a different design, the components are laser etched from thick plastic sheet and are assembled using screws and nuts with brass spacers. It's a pity it is not made from black plastic instead of white which would avoid the need to paint any parts that are visible after fitting. I painted the offending parts black along with the motor after installation.

I had to reduce the length of the driving axle by 18mm so that it would fit between the frames of the railcar. It was only after cutting 9mm off of each end of the axle that I noticed the gear wheel was not central to the axle. As it had been forced on to a splined part of the axle to prevent slipping, trying to centre it did not seem to be an option. However a spare gear is provided with the gearbox and I happened to have a 1/8 inch diameter axle of the right length in stock. I was therefore able to make up a new axle and gear.

I had to cut away a substantial part of the upper section of the gearbox frame to allow me to fit the gearbox and motor under the floor of the railcar. I did not need that part of the assembly, it's there for locating a fixing pin when the unit is fitted between the frames of a loco. My motor unit is held in place by a strip of brass shaped to form a U bracket.

I have re-assembled the railcar and it runs better than it ever did with the old motor and gearbox, running smoothly in both directions. Something it only did in one direction before.

Further to my post of 26th March where I reported that the Drewry railcar had developed gearbox trouble, I have decided to fit a replacement. I have removed the motor gearbox unit, to do this I had to remove one solebar. I  screwed the solebars in place when I built the railcar in order to make removal for access easier but fittings such as the steps and battery box were guled on to them and these had to be cut off to allow dismantling of the chassis. The ill fated railcar (I dropped it last year causing a fair bit of body damage) is now dismantled awaiting delivery of the new gearbox unit and hopefully it will be back in service soon. The model railcar is following in the footsteps of its full size counterparts which were fairly unreliable and were worn out after eight years service. 

The new gearbox went in with no problems and the gears seem to mesh OK. I have been running the unit in over the last week and so far there have been no problems with the gears. The motor does occasionally stall for no reason, the power supply is OK as the headlight stays on , I don't know what the cause is yet. I will monitor the situation.

The Walker diesel Unit No.2 is now in the workshop after the worm drive in the gearbox was completely stripped. I had already ordered a new gearbox kit with the intention of replacing all of it. However, try as I might, I can't remove the steel worm drive from the motor shaft. It is undamaged and there is no wear so I might just as well leave it where it is. On sliding the new worm wheel on to the leading axle and trying it in the gearbox, the mesh seems perfect with no tightness or binding. I can't understand why the original one was stripped. To be on the safe side I will assemble the new gearbox and see how it goes. 

I am not having much luck with railcar gearboxes. I reported previously that the Drewry railcar number 3 had developed gearbox trouble and is out of use. Also the Unit No.2 has been gradually grinding its way through the brass worm wheel fitted to the front axle, now the T&D inspection car has also developed a problem. The worm wheel slips on the front axle causing erratic running and slipping out of gear. I have tried to remedy this with super glue but as the gear wheel is a tight fit on the axle, there is no gap for the glue to be drawn into by capillary action. Unfortunately it isn't tight enough to prevent slipping. After cleaning the axle thoroughly, I have now applied some threadlock in the hope that this will work, early tests suggest this has fixed the problem but extensive running may prove otherwise. I have purchased a spare gearset for the Unit No.2 and I will fit that later this year.
Another problem with the T&D car is the flimsy nature of the steps, I have broken these twice due to careless handling when trying to access the switch under the steps in order to stop/start the railacar.
To fix this problem, I made a remote lever from some fine copper tube, fitted to the switch and coming out the back of the railcar as a dummy exhaust pipe. I also reinforced the step supports by epoxying some brass rod behind them, this has added more strength to the assembly and it has become a lot easier to stop and start the railcar.

I have decided to change the name of this blog so that I can describe the various workshop maintenance tasks on the TBLR as well as new construction projects.

The Drewry railcar is currently in the workshop as it has developed a gearbox problem and is not running very smoothly. It waits out of use while I decide its fate. I may just tinker with the gearing or completely rebuild the motor unit assembly.