No.5 Corpet Louvet arrived on the H&DLR in September 2001, and was soon equipped with a battery pack which was renewed in 2008. There's been some evidence that the pack may have contained a failed cell in recent years, as the top speed has been lower than it used to be. This was not, per se, a bad thing as the top speed delivered by the 19.2v battery pack was palpably too much. Anyway, last year, for understandable reasons, the H&DLR did not carry out its usual winterisation procedure of checking and charging all the battery fleet. This year, the chargers don't seem keen on charging, and neither does the battery pack in No.5, which was as flat as a pancake.
I'd been thinking of converting No.5 to "dual fuel", capable of running on track power or battery power, a little like my 2092 shunter. I'm sure that in theory I could do it, but when I opened her up, I lost confidence and decided to go - for now at least - back to straight on track operation. Once I'd got the quartering right, made up a replacement lead weight to replace the battery (the original weights are probably in 399.03) and corrected the short circuit I accidentally created re-assembling the chassis, all was well.
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