Locomotive Annie

Well I've just tried the same six Evolta batteries in my Banbao freight loco which also works on a RC system and it ran just fine with good speed & etc. So now I'm well and truly stumped and haven't a clue what could be wrong with my loco. It's sitting in disgrace in the cripple siding beside my half built loco shed at the moment and it can stay there until I'm in the mood to delve into its RC circuit board.

The batteries were all brand new out of the packet, so unless they are duds I'm not sure what the problem might be. Unfortunately I don't have a multimeter anymore to test the voltage since my daughter blew mine up. It's the older RC system, not PF Electricsteam. I thought Panasonic Evoltas were supposed to be pretty darn good, - or at least their adverts say so

For the very first time I attempted to give my newly built steam electric loco a run and the result was fairly underwhelming. The loco is built on a brand new RC train plate, the motor is brand new, the RC tramsmitter is brand new and so is the connector wire between the electrics and the motor bogie. I'm using Panasonic Evolta batteries for the first run instead of rechargeables and not a great deal happened when I pushed the go button. Yes the 'on' switch on the loco was indeed 'on' by the way. It sort of wanted to go so I checked all the connections and made sure all the contacts in the battery holder were shiny bright and still the response was very weak. Since I did have a second new RC motor block I substituted it for the motor that was in the loco and things were slightly better in that the loco could now move backwards and forwards without being prodded, but it didn't convince me that it would be able to haul anything. At the moment I've got the loco doing circuits on a circle of large radius track, but I can't say I'm very convinced. Any ideas as to what might be the problem? - because I'm feeling really stumped here.

That's a really nicely detailed service station, - the hippie in the VW van is a great touch.

It's actually quite scary as to how many bricks a two road engine shed will absorb. I'm building one at the moment and have already had to order in more bricks because I'd under estimated just how many I would need.

Those LEDs sound to be very useful for railway purposes Zephyr. I would seriously love to see photos of your semaphore signals though as my own line will be mainly using them.

Wow, - that's a really cool setup Zephyr..

Your 8 wide Emerald Night is a fine locomotive Daedalus. 8 wide works really well for steam locos and it will come as no surprise that I prefer to work in 8 wide myself. Unfortunately an Emerald Night is beyond my budget at the moment, but I suppose I can keep dreaming.

The engine shed is half built Joe and the turntable is still being figured out in my head. It's really surprising just how many bricks an engine shed absorbs before it's done and I've had to wait for new supplies to arrive.

Ooooo a Friends themed entry, - I'm looking forward to seeing this

I guess with the traction tyre thing I'll know more once I'm able to run some tests. For the moment though all eight driving wheels have traction tyres so I suppose I'll work from there. I did build a weight brick into the loco cab through and I may yet build one into the boiler.

Thanks Werlu The receiver may end up in either the cab or the tender depending on what works out to be the most practical solution. If I end up putting it in the tender I'm going to need to lengthen the tender some more as the battery box I'm using presently takes up the whole length of the tender. Those wires you can see in the photo are the two wiring harness leads from the PF motor bogies and I'd placed them on the tender top just for the sake of neatness. Once No: 317 is complete they will be coiled up inside the cab. Thanks Electricsteam I was thinking about another steam electric for the challenge actually. This time I'd build it with a more classic appearance which should make for a fun build. I completely agree Spitfire. I liked the look of the 9volt steamers from the train baseplate upwards, but below the baseplate ..... meh... not so much. To tell the truth I was surprised at just how much of a transformation the BBB medium wheels made. Suddenly No: 317 looked like a proper steam loco Thanks Frank Until the PF conversion is properly sorted out and everything is running properly the tender might remain a bit messy, but the plan is for there to be some kind of cover over the battery box disguised to look like a pile of coal. I'm trying out an experiment with the BBB medium wheels as I discovered it was possible to stretch the traction tyres I have for my 12volt locos over the BBB wheel rims. it's a bit of a fiddle to do, but so far the experiment looks to be promising.

Very very nice. The brick bricks look really good. I love the new additions and all the exquisite details. Only problem is that I'm building a two road loco shed myself at the moment and after seeing your beautiful loco shed I feel like putting my one in the bin

That's a good looking loco Murdoch, I like Anthony Sava's designs and I have his small Garratt plans which is the next loco on my build list. Due to the fairly challenging nature of the trackplan for the Kotanga Tramway I've pretty much standardised on dual power bogie articulated steamers for my 'big' engines, but I might have a closer look at a Sava 4-6-0 myself just to give myself some variety in my loco building projects. I like the herald/logo you've created for your line and that should look good on your Baldwin's tender sides. Very much looking forward to seeing this loco once it's built

This is My Own Train 10205-1. Yes really. Well it did start out that way; - I purchased it off Bricklink, - a slightly played with 10205-1 with no box, but with instructions, with crooked stickers and all parts present with one or two minor substitutions. It's been hanging around a while in a large clip top plastic bag waiting for me to do something with it. It came to pass that I'd decided it was time for me to learn about PF so I decided to use the MOT 10205-1 as a guinea pig, - only I didn't fancy having a steam loco with diesel trucks. Easy peasy on went eight BBB medium wheels and four sets of Technic coupling rods, and somehow it all happened from there. It began with the tender. The standard MOT tender is a poor wee underfed thing that could barely fit one 'AA' battery. I had a 9volt battery case that took 'AA' batteries so I decided to use it, basically building the 8 wide tender around the battery case and mounting it all on two four wheel trucks. An 8 wide tender needs an 8 wide cab to follow after and so it went from there. I wanted a good sized cab to act as a junction box and a place to put the PF receiver unit and the new 8 wide cab is 2 studs longer than standard not counting the roof overhang or fall plate. The boiler is 1 stud longer than standard and overall I think the loco's proportions are reasonably good. My new No: 317 looks like a Mallet, but is really a Meyer as both power bogies are fully articulated. I chickened out with trying to fit connecting rods for the present as I would like to get the loco running properly first and if it looks to be a really useful engine I'll buy a set of Zephyr's rods for it and finish everything off properly. Still a few little jobs to do such as sorting out the tender coupling and fitting the PF receiver once it arrives. The cab roof needs some more curved slopes to match the ones in the middle as I'd run out and made do with the 2x4 ones. The red bands on the domes and cylinders came about because I didn't have enough 2x2 circular plates in black so I used the red ones. It was supposed to be just a temporary fix, but now I'm thinking the red bands can stay. I've only just now realised that I'm going to need a turntable now so I'd better hurry up and finish my two road engine shed so I can do a proper survey and peg out where it's going to be put. There will be more to come with No: 317 and as I make progress I'll post more pictures and updates here.

Congratulations on your win. That's a great looking trophy by the way.

An excellent upgrade to your decoupler camelboy. Thanks for posting the videos as they make everything crystal clear.

That's a really interesting group of locomotives you've got there. Your steam engine looks particularly good and it's a great first attempt. The monorail loco and tank car are certainly something different and I'll be keen to see how the monorail fits into your modular layout.

At first I thought it was too, but it wasn't until I was working on building up my layout that I finally noticed the difference. It's not that much of a problem, it just means that individual Banbao track pieces can't be used to replace Lego or Enlighten ones in a track formation.

I've been buying clone sets direct from China for a while now, - mostly because it's the only way I can afford to continue to enjoy this hobby, - and it's becoming very noticeable that the Chinese manufacturers are upping their game. The brick quality is improved for a start and with the better manufacturers like Banbao and Enlighten the quality is very close to that of Lego. At one time I wouldn't buy Wange sets because their brick clutch was so poor, but the latest Wange sets I've purchased contained bricks that were perfectly molded with excellent clutch and were a delight to use. With the lower end manufacturers set design and brick quality remains pretty mixed, but I tend to avoid those anyway unless they're so heavily discounted it's worth the bother of going through all the bricks in the set and throwing away the duds. As I mentioned in my review you do get a lot of train set for your money. There are weak points in the loco design in that the power connection to the motor block isn't very robust, the batteries aren't the easiest to change and housing for the RC receiver is too darn wide, but on the other hand the actual structure of the loco and the two cars in the set are pretty darn solid items once put together and can be handled without bits falling off. By buying direct out of China this set can be had for close to $100 ($101.09) including shipping which is a pretty good deal.

Don't go there it's a Lego thing. Hrw-Amen, are you wanting the signal to operate with the points that lead into the siding or are you just wanting an off/on type setup? I did something like this for my kids with their H0 layout when they were small and as I remember it wasn't terribly hard to do,

Your loco looks great in that colour scheme.

That's pretty darn cool, - I really like the horns mounted on the radiator shell.

Wow! - what a busy city. As always modulars make for an impressive street, but I was particularly delighted by the building under construction. There were some very interesting details on the construction site and of course the cranes are fantastic.

I particularly like the dark green window frames and the way the shops are placed either side of a walk through arcade. It very much reminds me of the Edwardian era shops that were commonplace here in New Zealand before the developers and their wrecking balls got hold of them. The interiors are a delight and I love how you've fitted pieces from the Friends sets into your interiors.