People give me stuff to repair sometimes. The latest "goodie" to pass across the workbench is a rather sad whitemetal kit for a GWR 9400 class tank engine.The problem I was asked to look at was the gearset which had come out of mesh.
"Could I just adjust it a little" was the request.
As you can see, it wasn't adjustment the thing required, but replacement. On the middle axle, that's not supposed to look like a bevel gear!
Now, I don't mind helping people but if you want a new set of gears then I'm not inclined to go shopping for some gears and donate them. That's not a hard and fast rule, but in this case if I couldn't do the job fast and for no money, this loco was going back with the suggestion that the price it was being sold for was reduced from preposterous to realistic.
Anyway, what I did was to take the Romford wheels off one side, drop the other out with axles still attached. The gear wheel was flipped over and the whole lot reassembled. Amazingly, this worked. Moving the unworn section to where the wear is happening brought the two gears into contact. The results run pretty sweetly.
Now, what this model really needs is new gears. Better pick-ups. A repaint. New handrails. Missing steps re-instated. A cab interior.
Basically, a good dose of TLC. Let's hope the new owner give it this. At least it will run for now.
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