Slippery Customer

The Dukedog is one of those mythical beasts for me.

There is only one, and I’ve never yet managed to see it, even through it spent the last couple of years on display in mid-Wales before its recent transfer to the Engine House on the SVR.

I was unable to resist the temptation to buy one of these Cambian icons to run on Minffordd, even though it is at the very edge of our 1960's period. 

I regret to say, however, that the performance of the Bachmann model is more than a little disappointing.

Oh yes. it runs very silkily, but don’t expect it to haul much.

On Minffordd where we have a sharp change in  gradient - a dip at the front of the scene to help with the illusion of the downhill plunge towards Portmadog - combined with curves which are on the radius 2 limit, leave it slipping to a stand with just two carriages!

Even the shortest of freight trains - and on the Cambrian there were some very short freight trains sometimes - it struggles because our brake vans have been fitted with retarding devices to help us shunt wagons on the gradient, thus causing a lot of drag.

So Himself is going to have a tinker to see what can be done.

A bit of search engine bothering has pulled up a couple of suggestions, one of which is to fit weaker spring between the front bogie and the frame, with a theory that if it is too strong it may lift the front driving wheels off the rail a little.

Another thing which has been tried before is to fit a spring above the drawbar to the tender to create a downward force on the back of the loco.

Himself will also be looking for places we’re some extra lead weight might be hidden, although the opportunities for that look to be limited on initial examination.

I shall, of course, report back in our findings.

If all else fails then expect a few light engine movements if you ever get to see Minffordd at an exhibition.