Having confirmed my street address with Ron the previous Sunday (noting that some folk could have changed addresses at least once during the 7 yr gestation period) I looked every day this past week for a card in the mail saying there was a package for me at the local p.o. Even went up one day to see if there was anything there, thinking the postman might have put the card in the wrong letterbox. When it hadnt arrived by Friday, asked if I could pick it up my R class from Sans Souci on Sat morning so I could give it a run on the club layout that afternoon. This was duly done. Ron was happy to have one less to worry about posting.
I had some trouble initially getting the plug from the tender to go into the socket on the engine. The plate covering the gap between the engine and tender, while a welcome touch as far as the model goes, kept getting in the way. After a few false starts (which included finding out that the loco wont run unless the cable from the tender is connected fully) I finally got it running. Was impressed with the smoothness, quietness and response, no wobble.........very nice. I set it up with a train of 14 Lima four wheel GY wagons and SEM Z van. Not what you would call a particularly heavy load. It had no problem till it got halfway up a moderate grade, where it slipped to a stand. Oh dear! Later I tied it with a train of 4 Auscision VR coaches and a BP van, plus a Powerline S coach, a pretty typical load for an R class, only to find it had the same problem in the same place.
Obviously needs more weight on the drivers. Anyone else made a discovery like this? Am I going to have to make a liberal application of Bullfrog Snot in the appropriate places? Is there enough room inside the boiler for more weight? I am not game, at this stage, to take the body off the chassis.
Bill
What grade is the moderate? Also is the model full gear driven ie, gears to each wheel or the more usual single gears with side rods to provide the power for the other two drivers? The thing is though is to consider the actual grade & balance that with what was the applicable load for an R on a similar grade on the 1:1 gauge system. The ideal is to get the amount of R/S items to match that up both for goods & passenger services.
I have noticed that the last NSW passenger carriages I purchased was the Austrains FS/BS cars, they were heavier than earlier version owing to the inclusion of interior detail & light boards, the same happened when I fitted internal detail to my RUB car kits, surprising how much heavier they were. This may affect how many carriages the model will pull, especially if the Auscision cars have internal detail which adds some extra weight.
Either way, it seems that you may have to add some extra weight to the area around the drivers. This was a problem with the first run garratts, especially with the front tank, no idea about the 2nd run though.
I fixed the front tank by removing the tank body & placing some thin & small pieces of lead flashing to some cut away areas inside the tank. Although the main area of getting the extra weight to that tank as well as to the bunker was by cutting some lead flashing to the same size as the keeper plate between the drivers. I shaped it to fit around the gear box covers, & drilled holes to align with the screws for the plate also.
I secured all the weights using clear roof & gutter sealant, as it can be removed if needed but holds all the items in place very securely.