Garden Railway Forum

2 Questions but to save making to posts for them,

1, Hilda my Merlin Maestro, Is poorley, shes not running too bad in forward but in reverse she runs like a bag of spanners. I think the timing has slipped out. Shes about 26 years old now and has the same walscharts valve gear as Keiths Midas "Joy", does anyone know how to reset the timing by any chance? Really would like to get her back into running order again.

2, I have a Steamlines "Rheidol" Bagnall locomotive that is powerd by an osmotor, at the moment she is being rebuilt by one of my friends. However one of the Banjo bolts has made a water feature of its self and sprays water out where it connects into the osmotor. Does anyone have any idea what size thread the bolt would be and where I can get replacement fittings and flat copper washers for it? If its any help the bore size of the copper washers is 3/16ths.

Steve

I have timing details here for Merlins. Bit big to attach here tho'. email me at tag@atlanticpublishers.com and I will send you the full details.

My dad has now found the full set of timings as per the instructions that came with the loco. If anyone wants a copy please let me know. Now to get a new boiler built.......

Hello all,

I'm resurrecting this post from a long time ago.
A few days ago I bought a used Merlin Maestro. As described in the article above, it runs better forwards than backwards, i.e. backwards actually not at all.
I have some knowledge of setting controls on model locomotives. But somehow I can't get it right. The circular slide has an internal inflow.
The article mentions that there are documents in pdf. form gives the timing details to Merlin locomotives there.

Since this post is from 2010 and many years have passed, does anyone know if I can still contact members GardenRail/Gorton or DVT Dweller with a personal message here in the forum or in the case of Gorton, by email?
Or does anyone else have information on setting up the controls on a Merlin Maestro?

Thank you in advance for your replies
Gerald from Austria

Gerald,
DVT Dweller last signed in here in 2016 and Tag Gorton in 2017, so I think it highly unlikely that either would see a PM, I'm afraid, although it's worth a try in case they look at the forum without signing in.
Tag retired as editor of Garden Rail some years ago as well, so probably not much point in trying there either, but there is always the possibilty that a current member may still be touch.

Hi Steve,

This is interesting since I am “restoring” a Tom Cooper Steamlines Rheidol also.

I am not sure if you have undertaken a google search using the keywords steamlines Rheidol, as this turns up some interesting photos and videos of similar restoration work by Rob Golding of Bayfields Light Railway.

Both Rob and myself have chosen to do a full restoration/reconstruction. I think Rob acquired a full loco whereas mine had been “extensively modified” with the osmotor, gas tank and steam fittings removed and replaced by an electric motor.

As part of the reconstruction, I have needed to find suitable banjo bolts etc for the boiler. I have just determined that the size seems to be 2BA. The threads are definitely not 40ME or 32ME or metric as I have tried ME fittings, screws and taps (taking care not to damage the existing thread).

The steamlines Rheidol threads appear to be different to those on Merlin locos. I have a couple of those that I am restoring too (I am a glutton for punishment). The Merlin threads appear to be metric – mainly M5 and M6.

Both Rob and I have abandoned the Osmotor. I couldn’t make one that I acquired run as the crank was binding on the Osmotor frame plates. I think Rob may have experienced the same. As a result, we are both using Binnie steam motors. I have positioned mine in a slightly different location driving the rear wheel set rather than the front. The Rheidol loco is a little front heavy and the centre axle is right on a fulcrum point so it needs the weight biased towards the rear

For info, if you want to follow a similar route to Rob and myself, the frame plates and coupling rods are available from model engineers laser.

I hope this manages to cure your leaking steam connection.

Kind regards

Stuart

Any chance your Merlin has just worn out? It happens, seen several.

Been a while since I signed in so only just saw this, the info for timing Merlin’s was published in 16mm today issues 79 and 82. If you are a member of the 16mm Association I believe the back issues should be available to read online, cheers Rob

Hello Taliesin,
thanks for pointing out both 16mm Today issues 79 and 82.
I checked out the 16mm Association web site. Since I am not a member and membership is not practical for me for 2 reasons.

1. Applying for an annual membership for only 2 Articles from the archiv of the 16mm Today issues seems a bit too expensive to me.

2. Please don't get me wrong, the 16mm Association is certainly a very interesting institution with a lot of information on the subject of garden railways and everything that goes with it, but unfortunately my knowledge of English is far from sufficient to fully exploit the scope of information that an annual membership brings . I have to admit that, to my linguistic shame.

So once again my request, could a member of the Gardenrailway forum who is also a member of the 16mm Association copy these two items 79/82 from the magazine or online content or create a PDF? and send it to me by email, post or other means. Of course, I will take over all costs for postage or other costs incurred as a result


I'll manage to translate the content in German of the articles somehow.

Thanks in advance for efforts of individual members

Greetings from Austria, Gerald

I too am looking for help timing my Merlin. Then I realized I had purchased some files from 16mm something or other. Turns out I had #79. Which I have attached here.

I too am looking for a bit of help regarding this.

Turns out way back when i purchased some of the 16mm archives. I happened to have #79. Unfortunately I can’t seem to find #80. I will continue to look.

Had to shorten the pdf from the whole magazine to just the article. The magazine pdf was too big @36mb. Funny how that doesn’t seem so big by today’s standards. I remember my first computer and we put in a whopping 16k!

I hope the file helps.