Re: MSS wheels not suited to tight radii on Peco track
Posted: Sun Sep 01, 2019 5:12 am
Right, and that's the thing that irks me. Mamod's old rolling stock looks like it's toy quality, but it's not bland, and it can be modified. The new Mamod stuff, whilst it's bland and uninteresting, it's likely going to be made of heavier gauge stuff. So you're left at that rather annoying junction of "Do I want it to look good, or work?"CSL wrote: ↑Sat Aug 31, 2019 10:19 pm To be honest, I'm not too surprised. The MSS wheels I initially got looked ropey once I'd realised what was going wrong (at first I thought I'd bent the frames and caused the wheels to bind on them) and made me wonder about production quality at MSS. Replacements didn't improve things either.
Looks like I should steer clear of MSS rolling stock too - a bit of a pity as their ex-Mamod products look better at first sight than new-Mamod (e.g. opening doors).
I will say once their stock is rolling, with all 2 bits of MSS I got, it runs fine. The wheel's a bit wonky on one axle, but that's a "small" gripe. The axle box does also seem to bind a bit when the axle moves to the one side. I'll drop some weights into it, oil it up, and run it behind my Brunel for an hour or two, and see if it improves it somewhat. If you buy a kit, FFS check the wheels on the track before building the set up. I'm lucky I did that before rebuilding my Mamod SL1. Though, at this point, I think I may just get some Roy Wood wheels. Anyone got experience with them? Are they worth it?
The tolerances on the original Mamod wheels aren't great at all, it's an "It'll do" kind of job, but I'm not even gonna bother checking the MSS ones with my micrometer, just for the sake of my own mental health.
The problems I've had with MSS consist of;
*2 sets of wheels that don't fit O gauge track, and the ones that did were machined pretty roughly, and paint doesn't match on the central hubs.
*The trucks I bought had bent frames, and the metal is clearly thinner. (I've not taken my micrometer to them yet, but it's visibly thinner, I'm guessing about half as thick)
*The uprated safety valve I bought has RUSTED, and the gasket that was on it didn't fit. It was literally rattling around the thing.
Also, do the MSS fuel tabs last less long as the old Mamod ones? Am I getting high off the fumes or something? Because they seem to only last a few minutes at most. Am I hallucinating? Definite gas burner upgrade job I think.