I'm a big fan of the LGB Toy-Train range. Reasonably priced, rugged and colour ful rolling stock that looks nice in the garden and will take the odd spill when you are testing the railway after a long lay-up. It's also cheaper than the main range, especially if you manage to bag some second-hand.
That's how I acquired the wagon above. We don't have a tanker, and this one has my Dad's initials on the side too, so for £25 I picked it up from Exeter. The only downside is, it's a bit grubby, but that is fixable.
German engineering, even for "Toy Trains" means the whole thing can be taken apart with a scredriver. The wheels are sprung out from the swivelling (LGB stuff is designed to go around stupidly tight curves) axleboxes and then these are turned to give acess to the screws.
A few minutes work and the wagon is reduced to its component parts. These than head to a nice sink full of soapy water for a good scrub with an old toothbrush followed by a long rinse in cold water.
The wheels show evidence of plenty of use but I'm not worried about this. Water has obvioulsy got into the axleboxes and corroded the axle ends. Nothing a light sanding with mild abarasive paper can't take care of though.
After this, rebuilding is the reverse of dismantling and the wagon is nearly as good as new.
2 comments:
Cheaper but of no worse quality than the rest of the range. I only use LGB on our coin slot garden railway as it can be relied on.
"Water has obviously got into the axle boxes and corroded the axle ends. Nothing a light sanding with mild abrasive paper can't take care of though."
Fair comment - and interesting points.
I'd imagine this sort of stuff is only to be expected with steel that's probably been handled quite a lot (sweat being slightly acidic) and might also have been run outside a few times.
Just out of curiosity, what grade of "wet & dry" do you generally use for removing surface rust - and what stuff do you use to try and stop it reappearing and lubricate any bearings?
I hope these don't sound like stupid questions - but they are the sort of things that new entrants to garden railways might wish to know.
If you had enough stuff like this (or could encourage readers to contribute viable ideas of their own), I wonder if a reasonably regular "hints & tips" feature could be useful in the magazine.
(Of course, I suspect you might be about to say that it's already there - if so, sorry for wasting your time … .)
Regards,
Huw.
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