Silver Sidelines

Flushed with success after fettling Bucklebury Grange I thought I would tackle some of the other unresolved locomotive issues. Bachmann 3440 City of Truro City of Truro arrived from the National Railway Museum in January 2010. I remember being well impressed by the livery and the detail. It ran slowly and smoothly and was carefully put away – too good (expensive) for day to day use. Fast forward to January 2014 and Bachmann’s Dukedog arrives. 9017 was a superb runner, smooth and rock steady. It had me thinking because City of Truro did have a tendency to swing from side to side. I would investigate. Underside of City of Truro The driving wheels on City of Truro are geared to reduce problems with quartering. I did wonder if the driving wheels were not true on their axles. I would try some replacements. Steve at Barwell indicated that the wheels could be removed without splitting the chassis and body. Also that the outside cranks simply ‘pull off’.

It is a great feeling when things turn out well. Bucklebury Grange arrived at the beginning of summer. Hornby Bucklebury Grange (left) Overton Grange (right) The first model was returned to the seller, something about the way it ran. The replacement model was an improvement, so it stayed. How many models can you send back? However at higher speeds it still seemed to roll around. I began to imagine that one or more of the driving wheels was not central on its axle. Bucklebury Grange was banished to one of the shed roads. Now on RMweb RonnieS has been investigating how to add some extra weight to a Hornby Grange. I would have a look at Overton Grange (one that I added lead to earlier) and at the same time, try and sort Bucklebury Grange. Adding lead shot to the smokebox Adding lead is relatively straightforward. I made a cylinder out of a 65x65mm heavy duty brown paper which I pushed into the smokebox before filling with around 50gm of lead shot. A bit like a cartr