Hello

pricei

Western Thunderer
Hi everyone,
I live in Worcestershire and, thanks to a recent house move, am now blessed with a reasonably sized attic where I can realise a long-held ambition to build an O-gauge layout. I'm planning a fiddle yard-to-terminus design featuring green/blue-era UK diesels.

I've already gleaned a lot of useful info from some of the forum posts relating to DCC conversion of 7mm locos. Sadly, my project didn't get off to the best of starts when I recently unboxed all of the Heljan diesels I'd carefully acquired over the last ten years only to discover that five out of seven were unusable due to split gears. Having now googled the subject, I understand I'm not alone in suffering from this particular issue!

Ian
 

simond

Western Thunderer
Ian

Try to talk to Jim Snowden - he may be still a GoG member but I do know he posted on RMWeb. He produced a solution.

there may be gear replacements available

my contempt for a supplier who creates, and fails to resolve, such a problem, is perhaps better not put in words...

Atb
Simon
 

pricei

Western Thunderer
Thanks Simon. I did email Heljan directly (after Gaugemaster told me they had no spares) and was advised that replacements had been delayed due to COVID-19 - they were expected no later than Q1/2021. Fortunately, I then came across a thread on a different forum that mentioned Ultrascale were able to produce replacement brass gears so I've ordered some of those. They should arrive next week.

Ian
 

Lancastrian

Western Thunderer
Hi Ian,

Welcome to aboard the WT train. Good luck with your plans and I hope the gear replacement goes well.

Another Ian :D
 

pricei

Western Thunderer
Thanks Ian. The replacement gears arrived and I've installed a set into my Class 33. I still need to run the loco in but they appear to mesh smoothly so far. Photo of the original (split) gears and brass replacements below if you're interested. The larger diameter brass cog is slightly angled which is designed to allow it to mesh better with the worm.
Ian

IMG_20200725_145607 - Copy.jpg
 
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