Mending the Mini-Train

The Mini-Train is broken in many ways. For a start, the boiler unit has been dropped and broken in half. That's pretty terminal for most people, but not someone armed with a bottle of strong-smelling MEK.

The solvent quickly restored the parts, but not perfectly. Not enough for a collector, but fine for someone happy to do a bit of filling and planning a repaint.

A bigger problem is that even when loaded with a fresh C-Cell, the motor didn't spin.

Taking the model apart by undoing a single cross-head screw underneath and then wiggling the red frame clear, exposing the motor. It's a horribly cheap one and I was confident I had a suitable replacement in stock somewhere.

With this in mind, I desoldered the wires and peeled back the retailing tabs on the plastic end. Carefully pulling it away, I could see that the commutator and brushes were covered in sticky goo. My guess is some grease that has solidified, but it looked capable of stopping electricity.

Wiping everything clean with a bit of kitchen towel soaked in WD40 did the job. A quick polish with a fibreglass pencil and all seemed well.

After reassembly, the motor was rigged up to some power via flyleads and slowly turned. After a few seconds, it speed up and ran sweetly. A little oil on the bearings and everything seems fine.

Back in the loco, there was a little fiddling with the contacts in the switch, which is underneath the loco, and I have a working model. This sort of "toy" is pretty simple and easy for the amateur to fiddle with so it's always worth having a go.

My plans now involve fitting a more convenient switch and detailing the body. To which end, a big order for bits has been placed, but I may have to wait a bit for delivery.

Faller Mini-Playtrain

Since I got back properly in garden railways, the amount of RTR stuff that's been made available at the budget end of the market has fascinated me. I've already explained my love of Faller's insane Hit Train. Now my collection has been swelled by a very reasonably priced Mini-Playtrain. 

The set was produced in two colours - blue and yellow or the more attractive (and common) red and green. UK sets came with a station, Germans had to do without this. More details on the sets here.

Running on 32mm gauge track, the model is supposed to be filled with Busy-Body* type figures. 

The coaches should have canopies which are missing from my model. Normal figures with legs that bend downward aren't quite as good a fit, but I think something can be done.

However, it's the loco that interests me.

Looking at it, what I don't see is a steam engine. Those controls are for a diesel. Despite appearances, this is a model of a fake chuffer. The sort of thing you find in amusement parks that looks nice, offers a train ride but doesn't need to be steamed at 7 in the morning.

So, my plan is to take this non-working (that's why it was cheap on eBay) model and make it into an amusement part loco. A 16mm figure will stand on the footplate OK. Get the right one and even the tension lock coupling will work, but that will be replaced with a more conventional 16mm thing.

I'll scrape some detail off and replace it. The "smokebox" will need to go black for authenticity, but I'll keep the green and red bits, although they will be painted too.

Silly, but my kind of silly.

*Busy-Body figures appeared just before Playpeople and disappeared pretty quickly after these appeared. I think I had a set, then many sets of Playmobil. Oddly, I can't quickly find much on the web about them.