Locomotive maintenance

Well, I suppose winter is the traditional (garden) railway time for carrying out maintenance. We seem to have a few locomotives needing attention. First off, the on board batteries in Corpet Louvet (no. 5) weren't holding a charge. Reluctantly I had to take it apart, where we found extensive corrosion. The battery pack has been recycled, therefore. Tags Model Shop in Doncaster let us down badly over a replacement pack - I rang them and e-mailed them a number of times before finally, some 5 weeks later, they admitted they couldn't make the requested pack. So I installed the battery pack once intended for the U Class 298.56, which will now run off track power with the option of a battery van.

The motors in 2095.11, suspected of being less than perfect (well, it must be well over 20 years old and still had original motors, pickups (what was left of them!) and wheels), have finally croaked. Both will be replaced in the very near future.

U Class 298.56 will, if I can get at the wiring neat enough, be converted to allow operation via a battery pack or track power - like the Brunig rack loco - giving us versatility going forwards.