Wheels, axles and bearings...oh my!

The trike is home out of storage, lifted up to stand on its rear so the wheels and axles can be removed. All rather simple as it only took a couple of hours to strip the under-carriage. I did try to knock myself out. I didn't leave the axle hub nut on and as I was winding the puller up the hub flew off just missing my head.

I also take back the bit I said about the hubs not being off since 1955. Some ingenious son of a gun cut up an old Fanta can to use as a shim on the tapered axle. I guess sometime in the 70's, early 80's the insulation bush had worn and started to slip on the axle.

It's off to use a 60 tonne press to remove the rear axle hubs. This will be safer and easier. The rear axle on this Wickham is split so they will fit in the press as the front axle is to long for it.

There is a deadline to this repair job. On the 15th and 16th September the Goulburn Crookwell Heritage Railway is having a members running weekend. Anyone reading this is welcome to come and have a look and join if you wish to get involved.

The Wickam on its rear.

The axles. As you can see the split rear axle.

That's better

Now I have the right colour. The flash from the camera makes it lighter and blue-er than it is.

The overhaul is complete and the engine has been re-assembled

I have brought Wickham 526 out of storage and sat it on it's end ready to do the wheel bearings. I have already found out I'm in for some fun trying to remove the wheel hubs. Probably never been off since the trike was made in 1955.

The 1" square sample looked so good

All the parts arrived to re-assemble the Wisconsins. Both engines went back together without any problems, so they are as good as new. Mind you, not an easy thing to do these days. Production stopped on these engines over 20 years ago, new parts are very hard to come by and have many emails saying "discontinued", "No longer available". Lucky I found a supplier in the US for the more common servicing parts, however I still had to rely heavily on trading with other restorers and recycling parts from other engines.



I got to the stage for painting. The old paint was removed and surfaces cleaned. This time around I thought I would choose a custom colour with a higher quality paint other than the $3 spray can I previously used.

Got to the paint shop asked for the enamel paint chart looking for a industrial grey with a touch of blue (blue being my favorite colour). 'Storm Blue' was chosen...disaster followed.

I feel like booking myself in to the optometrist.

  

All Done but just getting started

Here are some pictures of the completed extension for Munibung and my new model workshop.

I'm very happy the way it turned out despite the delays. Part of Munibung has already been moved into the new room. It will be located under the small window. A new work bench will go under the large window (hence the power points)

The most important thing is the cat approves



Model railway-ing has taken a bit of a back seat as I have been working on the trikes. With the acquisitions of the TIC it has enabled the use of their engines to repair others.

When I pulled apart Wickham 526s engine , the poor thing was worn out and in a worse state than I thought, nothing a complete overhaul won't fix. At the same time I have been working on an engine for a friend.

Right now I am waiting on a parcel from the US of A with some Wisconsin parts to complete the rebuilds.



Motorcar Consortium Ltd.

You might have gathered already that not only are my interest with model railway but the also the 12" to the 1' as well. Particularly track vehicles know as trikes, motorcars or section cars. I have been involved with them since I was 10 years old when my Uncle started collecting Railway paraphernalia in 1988. Since then it's has been a bit of a passion to restore and run these vehicles on the rail. 

I first heard about the Motorcar Consortium a few years ago, it is only recently that they have been accepting memberships.

The consortium is organising a  induction workshop set for the 1st and 2nd of September 2012. I encourage anyone that would like to be involved to sign up by making contact with them through their website.

Below is a short video of a VW gang car in action leaving the Crookwell railway yard.



A post for post sake

Just thought I would waste some electrons and post a small update.

The new extension to the layout room is almost finished, the carpet is yet to be delivered and laid. I must say the room turned out pretty good considering some of the compromises that had to be made.

I haven't been playing with the models railway for a while. The last time a train ran would have been 5 months and that was to show a friend how it all worked otherwise it would be close to a year. That still hasn't stopped me from attending shows and stockpiling models.

I have spent some time tinkering with the new trikes in the collection. Since the TICs I have managed to collect two more flat top trailers, and another Villiers quadracycle. Parts from the new TICs are being used for my Wickham, 526. It is undergoing some repairs.

Other than that there has been little spare time.


That's about it for now. Next update will have some photos of the new room and other things.

Just what have I gotten myself into???

Yep! I've done it now. I held off for so long because I knew what it would do and it did do what I thought it would do and now that it has done what it did. Now I'm convinced by what it did do is the best thing to do for the future of my layout.

 The chance for a cheap one turned up and I thought a little play around wouldn't hurt and besides all that button pressing would surely turn me off? Not a chance.

For the last couple of weeks I have been running up and down on my 8' portable layout (glorified test track). This weekend I picked up a couple more decoders and a USB controller from the MRRC stand at the Canberra show.

Once the extension is finished and Munibung is moved the full conversion to DCC is likely to take place. The rate the extension is coming along, that could be while yet. ;)