Roundhouse George

[Sylvian Tennant]

Wow, she is a pretty little thing... I thinkI'll be looking at her if I go live steam

[Steven.T]

Well after a very succesful day with George today I am very pleased with the loco! Ran perfectly straight away, no glitches or problems, just the b***** kept running out of Gas

The tender drawbar was a bit high causing the front tender axle to be off the rails slightly, and the tender buffer is FAR too low, but someone from Roundhouse is going to look into this for me!

Hauled it's (short) rake of trucks with ease, Just need to finish my coaches off and buy some more to run behind it!





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Steven

[taliesin]

You must be well pleased Steve, regards Rob

[Keith S]

I like those red wagons. That really is an excellent looking engine.

[MTA]

I really like that, it reminds me of the Exmoor engines you see on many a miniature line

Well spotted, sir! I KNEW I'd seen it somewhere before, but couldn't quite put my finger on it.

I should know, having driven two of their products on a regular basis up until a couple of years ago. Some livery inspiration for those thinking of a George or Mildred:

[Dr. Bond of the DVLR]

That bottom one is lovely but is missing one thing....

[Matt]

a white roof perhaps?

[MTA]

A proper chimney? i.e. without a Swindon cap...

[Dr. Bond of the DVLR]

Very true mat, a white roof would work wonders. And true too Si, Stove pipe chimney all the way!

[Steven.T]

Recieved some tender wheelsets for George yesterday, to enable me to run on 45mm track (!).

I came to fit them tonight, to find the 45mm axles supplied have points on the end of them, as seen here:





I think these points may just need cutting off, but I have emailed Roundhouse to check, as I can't see any other way of getting these in without dismantling the whole thing!


I must admit, have had a few niggles, namely the tender buffer being too low, which is a bit annoying, ho hum.

Cheers,
Steven

[DolwyddelanLightRail]

namely the tender buffer being too low, which is a bit annoying, ho hum.

I'm finding that very annoying on my Lady Anne, the buffers are very low on that as well, I think it may be a RH thing!

[Steven.T]

The front buffer is fine, just the rear one! On a slight gradient it could cause problems, you would think Roundhouse would have a set standard...?

[Pendo Pilot]

you would think Roundhouse would have a set standard...?

I have 4 different Roundhouse loco's, all have different buffer heights!! Biggest difference is diesel chassis buffer to Lady Anne buffer, the diesel one only touches the top of the LA one by a few mm!

[SapperAnt]

Prefer it sans tender to be honest...

[Keith S]

Those stick-outy things on the 45mm wheelsets fit into the backs of the dummy journal boxes on the frames.

I built the tender kit, and the journal boxes and dummy springs are a white metal casting which fits into a hole on the tender frame. The points on the axles stick into these. The real bearing surface is still the same as the 32mm wheels, those points just float inside the castings. You will need to loosen the screws holding the frame sides to the frame spacers in order to pop the wheels in, then screw the frame back together. You don't need to completely disassemble it though.

If you cut off those little pointy things it probably wouldn't hurt either, but I think loosening up the frame to pop the wheels in might be less work.

[Steven.T]

Had a reply from Roundhouse today saying the points on the axles were supposed to be took off at the factory, and just to snip them off.

So, they are now snipped off and filed down, quite a tight fit, but they do go in. Loco re-gauged easily enough, just undo the 4 grub screws on each axle, simple really!

Also got a new gas adapter from chuffed 2 bits, for use on the cans with a round nozzle, as on camping stove ones, seems to work well, but can't be fixed onto the can so is prone to dropping off, but its not really a big issue...

Hopefully will have having a little run with it tomorrow, depends if the snow comes

Cheers,
Steven

[KjellAn]

Hopefully will have having a little run with it tomorrow, depends if the snow comes  :?

The snow isn't a problem. It only gives your engine a nice run on your gardenrailway.

[Steven.T]

Didn't get round to running today, far too cold, much easier playing with my Grandads electric locos, and you can do it from inside

Maybe tomorrow if it stops snowing

[Steven.T]

Well I have just heard back from a member at the engineering club and his son has spoke to the guys at Roundhouse, and I am to send the tender back so they can look into the problems with the low buffer, and possibly fit some larger wheelsets to see if this solves the problem. Personally I think the easiest way is to make a new bufferbeam and just put a new buffer with a bolt on!

Debating whether or not to send it back this week or next week, as there is a steam up a week today I was hoping to take the engine to!

[TonyW]

... and possibly fit some larger wheelsets to see if this solves the problem.

Doing that would make the bottom of the tender body higher than the loco's footplate, so spoiling the horizontal line that they form and make the whole loco look a bit odd. Or is the bottom of the tender body already lower than the loco footplate?

Have you got a picture of this low buffer? I've built three George tender kits and I cannot imagine how this could have happened, other than the buffer beam itself being faulty.