Simon Glidewell
Western Thunderer
Evening all! I was wondering if anyone here has the Heljan 1366xx pannier tank and has experienced the same problem as me, and if so did you find a way of fixing it? Basically, these locos seem to suffer from a VERY rigid chassis which affects reliability from an electrical pickup point of view. I believe, having yet to examine the offending loco, that the axles don't run in brass bearings, but in moulded plastic housings. This means the axle sideways play is very stiff and added to that, no downwards play either making for a nightmare situation. I'm sure this causes a wheel or two to lift off the track... and bingo, stalling... frequently! My thought is to semi compensate the chassis by freeing up the axle housings a tad (oil and vigourous sideways movement by hand) and filing some light axle shaped notches in the keeper plate to let the wheels drop and stay in contact with the rails. Not sure how to improve the phosphor bronze pickup arrangement though. Any thoughts?