Opinions wanted on GF A1 and Princess Coronation

[georgehgv]

Decided on a Princess, City of Bradford good price at Gaugemaster with their weekend discount and carriage at £2.50 I also picked up a couple of Oxford Transits.

Still waiting for the return of the Duchess.

A2 Peppercorn in Apple Green looks good, and may just climb top of my Birthday List.

[Les1952]

Having had a good play with the pair of Duchesses Howard Staniforth has on Armathwaite I can't fault their looks on a moving train or their performance.  I get to view a lot of locos under much higher mileage conditions than most.  Each Duchess ran over a mile during the Farnham show last year and was still running sweetly at the end of it.  My only reason for not buying one is that they are totally inappropriate for the layout.

On the other hand I'm jinxed as far as Farish tender drives are concerned.  My two A1s seem incapable of reaching the end of an exhibition.  One is now away ar BR Lines for a new motor, the previous one having gone up in smoke in spectacular form.  The earlier failures on this loco were down to the decoder losing the plot- cured by improving the circuit breaker on the layout.  By the time it failed it had run about three-quarters of a mile of three miles it has been rostered for.  This loco should be pictured in next month's Railway Modeller, by the way.

The other has mysteriously stopped on two occasions during a show- it now transpires that on each occasion it was the Bachmann decoder picking up a short from somewhere on the circuit board of the loco itself.  Both times the decoder was only fit for scrap.  The loco is back in service with copious quantities of Kapton tape on the circuit board after careful inspecton to find any dodgy part- I think it is the soldering where the decoder actually connects to the board that is the issue.  It also has a Lenz decoder inside as these are more forgiving of momentary short circuits.  This loco has run well under half a mile over three exhibitions.

Oddly enough so far the J39 is the only Farish tender drive that has beaten the jinx.  My older one has run three miles and the younger one about one mile, with no problems so far.

All the very best
Les