The only trouble was that a couple of the trains were not running very well or in one case not at all. So, what do you do when a train isn't running? What else but strip it down and play with it! Which is exactly what we did, stripping down a total of 5 trains, although two of them required nothing more than a quick clean up of the contacts and an oiling, before they were back to full health and running perfectly around the train track. Of the other three trains, two took a fair bit of work cleaning up the contacts and wheels, oiling up the various gears and cleaning out all the fluff and gunk that had accumulated over the last 25 0dd years.
BR Type 35, stripped for cleaning.
Two of the trains stripped down were BR Class 35, also known as HyMeks. We have 2 of them, one in blue and one in green, both BR liveried. These use to run very well and were two of the main trains, apart from the 125, that we were allowed to run without supervision. The third train that required a lot of work to get it running was the Class 52, named the Western Gladiator. This was one of the "new" trains that were weren't allowed to play with, unless dad was there to watch us. The other was a green BR diesel, possibly a class 37 or class 40 or even 42! There are so many trains that look the same!
The train repair yard, also know as my parents kitchen table.
Unfortunately, despite our beat efforts, we were unable to get all three trains running. The Class 52 went back in to service quite happily after some TLC and freeing off of the motor unit, which was quite "sticky" having been sat in one position for quite a while. The Blue HyMek took quite a bit of work to get it going. It would run, but only slowly when at full power on the track, when it should have been sprinting around the track. It also didn't like starting, often requiring a little push to get it moving. Eventually after much tinkering and playing, I got it moving nicely, although it still wasn't flying around the track, it was starting and stopping on its own and not throwing off a ton of sparks every time it was running.
The HyMek, taking a test run, minus body.
The other HyMek however seems to have had its days. It was refusing to run at all and there seemed to be no life in it at all. My father also doesn't own a multi-meter! So, I wasn't able to test all the various circuits but eventually we discovered that one of the solder joints had failed. I was able to rig it up to test it and we though we had solved the problem but then another joint failed and finally a third one fell to bits on inspection (prodding with a screw drive) and the decision was taken to call it a day on the repairs and box it back up, with a view to send away for a full repair. Unfortunately, the local man my day use to use for such things has semi-retired, so its very hit or miss as to whether he will take anything on and the shop nearby that also repairs trains has a 4 month freeze on jobs as they have so many trains waiting to be repaired that they are not taking any new ones. As it was sitting in the box, my father was out at a toy/train fair and came across a boxed HyMek, exactly the same as the broken one, going at a good price, so decided to just buy that one instead. So we are back up to two HyMeks, with a third in the knackers yard. Still, I think that next time were down, i'm going to have to grab out the soldering iron and have a play anyway, mostly as if I mess it up, it wont really matter!
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