Dead loco

By the time you are reading this, I should be at the Trainwest show with the Hellingly Hospital Railway.

As usual, preparation meant a quick wheel clean for all the locos. Opening the stock box, untouched since Uckfield least year, I was surprised to find a nice new motor wrapped in a plastic bag. Wondering why I had such a thing - I don't buy them for fun - it was about to go in a handy drawer when I realised. At the show were killed the Hunslet.

Somehow the power unit in the little engine had died. A quick scout round saw me swap money with Roxey Mouldings for a new one, which was promptly put in the box and forgotten about.

Until now. The defunct motor was quickly removed from the chassis and desoldered. A gear puller make short work of removing the worm, when I remembered I had it and stopped hammering away with a punch to push the shaft out.

The rear shaft had to be shortened and contrary to normal advice I do not employ a slitting disk of file - just a big pair of Zebra wire cutters. Despite being 15 years old, they still make quick work of this even though the result is a motor flying in one direction and a bit of metal in the other.

Re-assembly was the reverse of the above. Putting the screws in to hold the motor in the (High Level Models) gearbox is easier if you fill the slots with Blu-tack but otherwise things were fine. I'll find out better over the weekend.