Although these are HO scale and therefore undersize for my S scale layout, they run fine as the track gauge is 16.5 mm (Sn3 1/2). I bought this set because I have always like the Sydney suburban trains and travelled on them several times in the 1960's and 70's. As a"bonus", some of this particular style were built by the Walsh Island Dockyard in Newcastle, my hometown.
There were a few surprises when I opened the box and gave them a test run on the layout:
- The cars are not decalled. Decals are included for a variety of car numbers, non-smoking designations and the "waratah" emblems.
- The power car drives on 2 axles only, being the 2 end axles of the car. These axles have traction tires. The other axles on the bogies pick up power but are not driven.
- The 3 non-powered cars are very light, as they have plastic bodies & chassis and no additional weight.
- When running through points, the sideframes on some of the non-powered bogies actually project below rail level, and foul diverging rail.
- The plastic knuckle couplers are bogie-mounted, and have zero sideways movement. This means they won't uncouple with a magnetic uncoupler as the couplers can't swing sideways.
I am gradually working to resolve/improve these issues.
When running my Tulloch models I found that one of the coupler leads was hitting the points and derailing the train. You should be able to carefully push these up or clip them so that they no longer foul the rail.
ReplyDeleteOn another carriage in a different set the side frames were too low and this was fixed by removing the plate over the wheels and checking the wheels to make sure they are in correct place. The plate can then be clipped into place.