Dapol A4 pony truck.

[Jonny]

Has anyone else on here had trouble with the pony truck on the A4 derailing when riding over frogs/points.  This happens on two A4's.The back to back on both loco's is as it should be.  This doesn't happen on any other loco's. 

I was wondering if fitting a small spring to help push the truck down would help.

Many thanks

Jon

[daveg]

I've found that problem on a number of Dapol kettles.

Checking with a B2B gauge and then *gentle* running in seems to have fixed the problem for me.

Dave G

[Newportnobby]

Hi Jon,

It will only take you about 5 minutes but it may be worth checking out if the pony truck has been centralised properly. OK, mine showed a different problem but the cause may be the same maybe........

http://www.ngaugeforum.co.uk/SMFN/index.php?topic=6732.0

[Jonny]

Nobby

Many thanks

The problem in that post is the front bogie. They also had an issue on these two locos.  Which thanks to that post was easy fix.  The problem now is the rear pony truck under the cab. It just bounces along . With now weight or spring it just drops where it wants generally off the rails.

Cheers

Jon.

Also had a problem with the circuit board burning chips out in one. But that's now fixed.  Took the ruddy thing out and hard wired a dcc chip in. Added 5 grams of weight in it too. Tender feels much better weight

[Newportnobby]

I have to admit to the same intermittent fault with mine, but generally I find this down to (a) poor track laying e.g. not good fishplate connections leading into the point or (b) 'lumpy' Peco points which can really only be solved by much pinning/gluing to keep the blighters as flat as possible

[Jonny]

Finally seem to have sorted the problem on one of them.  The back to back was checked and triple checked with the gauge. Set spot on but soon as it ran over points or round a bend. Off it came   . Track was also checked for gauge issues.  None.


So out of sheer madness I pushed the wheels in. Low and behold the stupid thing stays on.

Who knows coz I'm baffled.

At least it stays on.

[Jonny]

A quick video of the two A4's running at last.

http://static.photobucket.com/player.swf?file=http://vid32.photobucket.com/albums/d12/58herbie/20131229_100054.mp4

<a href=http://s32.photobucket.com/albums/d12/58herbie/?action=view&current=20131229_100054.mp4 target=_blank><img src=http://static.photobucket.com/player.swf?file=http://vid32.photobucket.com/albums/d12/58herbie/20131229_100054.mp4 border=0 alt=></a>

[Newportnobby]

Verrrry nice, Jonny
Good to see them with long rakes too

[Jonny]

Thanks Nobby.


Thanks for the nice comment.

Wild swan is the better runner. As quiet as a farish tender drive.  Mallard on the other hand is as noisy as could be. Going to change the drive shaft as the noise seems to come from there.seems very sloppy in its fit. Both handle the long rakes better than short.

Jon

[Jonny]

Sorry another video of the A4's running on dads layout.

http://static.photobucket.com/player.swf?file=http://vid32.photobucket.com/albums/d12/58herbie/20131230_114248.mp4

<a href=http://s32.photobucket.com/albums/d12/58herbie/?action=view&current=20131230_114248.mp4 target=_blank><img src=http://static.photobucket.com/player.swf?file=http://vid32.photobucket.com/albums/d12/58herbie/20131230_114248.mp4 border=0 alt=></a>

Jonny

[Agrippa]

Those videos were very good, mind you running at high speed on the edge of that  grassy embankment looked a bit risky!   

[Jonny]

Thanks for the nice comment. Dads yet to add fencing around the bank.

I'm working on merg kits to add train detection to control the colour light signals for him. Thenhe ccan ballast it .


Hopefully then I can rope him in to help build my layout.

:-)

Jonny