Mamod rolling stock gauge change. 32 to 45

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Boustrophedon
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Mamod rolling stock gauge change. 32 to 45

Post by Boustrophedon » Wed Jul 12, 2017 6:48 pm

I run a 45mm gauge track as at least one of my other locos is 45mm only. So I am in the process of re-gauging the Mamod and fitting a silver soldered boiler whilst I am at it.

I acquired a tender which was obviously designed to be re-gaugeable by just unclipping two little rubber bands holding the bearings in place and changing the spacers about on the axles. The Mamod website says that the carriages can easily be re-gauged but I suspect they now have the same system as the tender.

My carriages on the other hand look as if I will have to drill lots of rivets out just to free the wheelsets and then buy or make new wheel sets. That is unless there is an easier way.

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f.schulz
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Re: Mamod rolling stock gauge change. 32 to 45

Post by f.schulz » Wed Jul 12, 2017 10:19 pm

You can do this by bending the sheets with the axle bushes out of another until You can remove and change the axles.

I know this from my tender, hauled by a Regner Konrad, which is regaugabel too.

I have to do this often,when I visit friends driving on 45mm LGB track, for I drive on 32mm MSS track in my garden.

For the engine there it is necessary to use the offered regauge set.

A very good idea to tune up with the silver soldered boiler, I did so and spent additional a gas burner set, but I saw that the the boiler is not longer offered by Dreamsteam. The tune up with them and the piston upgrade kit was a full success!

Wishes

Fritz

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Chris Cairns
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Re: Mamod rolling stock gauge change. 32 to 45

Post by Chris Cairns » Thu Jul 13, 2017 2:13 am

Your tender is from the 2nd Generation of the Mamod Steam Railway Company (the current Terry family run Mamod) whereas your coach sounds like it is from the 1st Generation (1980s) or an MSS built one - the RW5.
RW5A.jpg
RW5A.jpg (57.05 KiB) Viewed 4474 times
The 1st Generation rolling stock used a common chassis for all 6 wagons, and if you are careful you should not need to drill out any rivets to change the wheelsets over.
RollingStockBasicChassis.jpg
RollingStockBasicChassis.jpg (32.28 KiB) Viewed 4474 times
The chassis side frames on the factory built version are riveted to the floor panel in the centre, and the end plates are held into the drag beam (same as used on the rear of the SL locos) by the buffers. The drag beam is also riveted to the floor panel and this is the possible weak point as the rivet tail has little to grip on in that slot.

Remove the buffers and carefully pull out the chassis side frames to remove the wheelsets (do one axle at a time). Fit the 45mm wheelsets and replace the buffers. I find that the wheelset axle ends can be quite rough (thus jamming in the axleboxes) so run a file around them to chamfer their ends.

Or is your coach one of the early toy ones from the 2nd Generation that were not re-gaugeable?
NewMamodPassengerCoach_02.jpg
NewMamodPassengerCoach_02.jpg (36.44 KiB) Viewed 4474 times
Chris Cairns

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Re: Mamod rolling stock gauge change. 32 to 45

Post by Boustrophedon » Thu Jul 13, 2017 9:21 am

Thanks Chris that was a great help, I just could not work out how they were held together.

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Re: Mamod rolling stock gauge change. 32 to 45

Post by Boustrophedon » Sun Jul 16, 2017 3:29 pm

Change of plan. I'm going to dell the carriages and the tender and keep the loco.

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