Dapol ex Mainline Dean Goods tender drive motor

[Ken Shabby]

My Dapol /Mainline Dean Goods had it's motor dismantled for a service a while back, and some of the parts have gone missing.
This means I'm on the look out for a complete tender drive uniy.
Does anyone know if the tender drive motor in the Dapol LMS 2P is the same as the one in the Dean Goods ?.

Thanks, Ken

[Mountain]

Why not try either Elaines Trains as she has loads of spare tenders, or maybe Triangman or another secondhand model railway dealer? They often buy things that they can't sell as complete locos so they end up with things going spare.

[Bigmet]

Why not go after a Hornby Dean goods tender, or the mechanism from it; as that's based on the Airfix GMR / Mainline tooling? What's more it will be newer! I'd suggest taking a squint through Hornby's random filing system for the Dean goods diagram to see what that looks like.
https://support.hornby.com/hc/en-gb/sec ... 1#articles

What you are proposing is likely problematic is my feeling: the Dean goods was an Airfix GMR origin tooling, which only appeared under the Mainline brand after Airfix GMR ceased trading, while the Dapol 2P is - I believe - Mainline tooling which never appeared under that name but went to Dapol who then marketed it. Two different design shops for two different items.

Even if the wheelbase is a decent match and the motor height is suitable, you'll be on your own adapting the mechanism to fit into a tender it wasn't intended for. Now, it might be a 'snap', but the odds are against it...

[Ken Shabby]

I've spent a couple of days searching through all my spares, and all the missing parts for the Dean Goods turned up apart from one cog.
It's the same as the one pictured above. It sits behind a brass stud and drives one of the axles.
I never throw anything away, so I'll keep searching..

A couple of days after I last posted I remembered the 2P uses the same drive unit as a Airfix 4F. I have a 4F and checked and found the tender drive unit has a different wheel spacing to the Dean Goods.
It's not all bad news , lots of handy bits and pieces turned up while I was searching.

Ken

[Ken Shabby]

That missing cog never turned up, and at first I had no luck in purchasing a replacement part..
I was then discovered the same cog is used in the Airfix Castle motor, and I managed to buy a replacement for £1.95. . Reassembling the tender needed to be done carefully because it's quite delicate.

Ken

[Ken Shabby]

A quick update, this didn't work out as I'd hoped.
All seems fine at first, but problems soon emerged.
The tender would derail on points ( small radius Streamline), and when hauling a train the loco would struggle and it sounded like the gears weren't meshing properly. Over the past couple of days I've tried everything. The tender has been disassembled so many times I was becoming concerned about screwing into the delicate plastic chassis. To make matters worse, the very thin tabs at the back of the tender body, which hold the back of the tender body on, snapped off.
About ten minutes ago, the tender got thrown down the loft stairs., afterwards the majority if it went in the bin.
My other Airfix, Mainline tender drive locos have been as good as gold, but the Dean Goods pushed me too far.
I think that's enough model railways for today.

Ken

[Bigmet]

A quick update, this didn't work out as I'd hoped. All seems fine at first, but problems soon emerged...

'Age and decay, in all about I see'... I will admit to being unsentimental about RTR model railway products, and have reached that 'end of the line' point with almost everything in RTR OO made before Bachmann started their Blue Riband range in about 1997.

Regarding loco mechanisms, just one exception, the Airfix GMR origin mechanism for the N2, sold by Mainline, Dapol and now Hornby in turn. That's a hardy survivor, and despite an unusual construction and internal layout has never yet failed, and looks likely to outlive me; what's more it is the most numerous loco on my layout as it was the standard suburban service power, always on view in the locations I model, until steam was scrapped.

[Mountain]

Back to the drawing board?

The wheel back to back measurement can cause de-railments at turnouts if this is out.

Gears mashing could be a number of things. A split gear or a gear touching the bodywork. Not so easy to see. Think we have all been there when frustrated! Tomorrows another fresh new day so don't give up. Just learn new ways to tackle similar issues.

I have worked in and out of the bicycle trade and on bicycles in general since I was a child. Had to eventually give up after mental burnouts/breakdowns which also lead to an autism diagnoses later in life, but what I want to say is that most issues with bicycles are due to inxeperience in knowing how to get round the various issues. Young new staff today are given certificates declaring themselves "Qualified" bike mechanics after a day or a two week course and they have rarely begun and are seriously in the deep end. I never had a qualification but we were not allowed to call ourselves bike mechanics unless we had spent a couple of years in the trade learning all aspects from fitting helicoil inserts, cutting doen fork steerers to the right length, rolling threads onto spokes to building and trueing wheels. Only then when we finally conquored wheelbuilding could we finally call ourselves "Proper" bike mechanics! Until then we were still in training, so if we went to another employer and had not built wheels we would ask to take the position as a trainee rather than a skilled bike mechanic. (Why in the trade in job interviews, proper bike shops who may not have the time to ask one to build a wheel, but would ask one to demonstrate on a particularly bad wheel how to true it up. It is a real differentiator between those who had been on a crash course, and those who really knew what they were doing through long term experience in the job. Unfortunately todays bije shop managers themselves rarely know what to even look for if trying this in a job interview but that is another story of how things are going today as in the past only time served bicydle mechanics would eventually reach those positions).

But what I am saying is the difference between success and failure is very little. With bikes I often said it was the ability to correctify ones mistakes which is the differnce between a beginner and an experienced bike mechanic.Is NOT that the experienced mechanic avoids mistakes, but it is more that when those little mistakes are made, they know what to do about them through their experience.

The same is said with model railways... And one has to start somewhere so DO NOT GIVE UP. TRY ANOTHER POSSIBLE SOLUTION. Come at things from a different angle at a future time when one is ready to tackle it again. Do not be too downhearted! Is only a small setback. (We all get them at times, even experienced people get the occasional thing they can't fix something and need to find a replacement because of one reason or another... BUT DONT GIVE UP. JUST PUT THINGS ON HOLD UNTIL A NEW IDEA COMES UP ON HOW TO DEAL WITH IT!)

As an 0-16.5 modeller, we often have loco bodies that need to find a mechanism, so we do tend to keep our eyes open for possible donor mechanisms that will fit that were not origionally designed to fit our loco bodies.
Other machanisms may suit ones model. If I come across a cheap motorized chassis, even as a 00 modeller I would be tempted for future use or for potential spares. The odd pair of wheels or con-rods. The odd gear or motor... Even things like wheel pickups can come in useful.