It is a well thought out kit but many of the parts are small fabrications from etched brass and I found them very fiddly! One area that I really struggled with was the pick-ups. One side is live which is okay, the other side has an etched strip which is intended to wipe the back of the wheel rims. Space is tight and I just couldn’t get this to work properly in 014. My eventual solution was to bend this strip over its fixing bolt so that it now wipes on the wheel tread rather than the back of the rim. It was really fiddly to fit as space is so tight but so far seems to be working acceptably.

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One thing to bear in mind is that the instructions (like so many kits) are on a CD/DVD which was a great idea at the time but many mobile devices don’t have these drives.? I think some manufacturers are now making their instructions either downloadable or just putting them on line.? However, I suspect someone on here would be able to help if you have any difficulties yourself.

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There are a few brief words on my build on my website including what I did to the plastic cranks.

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I wish I had thought about Paul’s High Level motor upgrade as the Mashima doesn’t appear to have the slow speed performance I desire.? I may try changing it to see if it helps.

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Cheers, Robin

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I agree Duncan, one of my cranks was already split before fitting so I carefully bored them out to take 2mm top hat brass bushes.? The brass takes the stress induced by the Loctite used to retain the cranks when quartering is set and stops any stress getting to the plastic crank itself.? For completely different reasons I have replaced my cranks with brass ones cut from 1mm thick bar.? Generally these have worked well but I think I have got the centres wrong on one of the gearbox drive shaft cranks.? Mine runs better but not as well as I would like for shunting at exhibitions.? I think I need to remove the offending crank, fill the crankpin hole and re-drill to the right centres. Just need to find out which crank is wrong! I don’t know how I managed to get the centres wrong as they were all jig drilled the same but I suspect that a surface imperfection threw the small diameter drill off a bit.

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Cheers, Robin

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Duncan,

Yes I left the brim of the hat behind the crank.? At the time I didn’t have any small diameter bearings so I had to open out the hole in the crank quite a bit.? You have to be careful as the plastic is quite soft and I think it would be quite easy to get the enlarged hole off centre.

Regards,

Robin

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That is stunning Giles, I might send you my Baldwin for a ‘Tweak’!? That’s the sort of running I was hoping for but I’m not quite there yet.? Further investigation has revealed that one of the uninsulated wheels has a very pronounced wobble so I need to investigate the little brass bush that has been pressed into the wheel.

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Cheers, Robin

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I absolutely agree about the HI 1320 - a lovely motor, and greatly better than the mashimas. I'm fitting one with a load-hauler gearbox to my Gas works Peckett, which being RC will only get fed 3.7V max, so I need it's low end performance.

Here's a short piece of it running.