The Lemon King

QUOTE (neil_s_wood @ 5 Jun 2007, 00:40) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>So what I was wondering was, has anyone every bought a model rail product e.g. loco or train pack, which really sucked? Something so abysmally poor you really felt cheated?

Oh Yes!

Several come to mind.I have had the same feeling of dissapointment and let down.

Firstly.The special edition Bachmann LT Pannier from the LT Museum at a premium price,desirable item bought with great expectations only to find it waddles like a duck even after run in.I understand that this LT Museum ordered version was the last production using the old pannier molds,chassis and assemblies.
I think there is a new verion but no idea how it runs etc.

Next a Lima Class 73 Royal Alex Pullman livery,again great expectations only to find it also waddles! For a limited run model I expected a lot more.

Then there was the special edition Bachmann Jinty in Midland Maroon.It has very poor starting from stop due in part to the 3 pole motor [I beleive] that Bachmann persists in using when today everybody else is using 5 pole motors.
Maybe they over bought a factories entire production run of 3 poles very cheaply and have to use them up.Who knows
Had quite a tirade going on with Bachmann at one time over the Jinty.
They implied that my controllers were at fault,true they are old but they could not satisfactorily explain why all the new 5 poled Hornby,European and Japanese models run like a charm from stop.
It was quite refreshing to see my new Hornby M7 tank run.Right out of the box.Smooth and steady and excelent slow running from stop with my old trusty controllers.How things should be.

The Hornby Eurostar ain't so hot either.

I could go on and on but......

I have been very impressed with the running of european makers Roco et al hence my conversion and interest.
The same goes my ancient and modern Japanese items that run very well.

But I digress,

Regards,
Bryan.

This had to a Hornby GWR 2-8-0. Originally bought for the display case this was the Ultimate lemon. Slow running with the tender drive was impossible, the wheels of the loco constantly jammed and just got pushed along at high speed by the tender drive unit in it's jammed condition. Finally the smoke unit located in the body incinerated the boiler and destroyed the body. Relief for everyone !

The Lima J50 would be my contender, even as a cheap s/h purchase. Cab full of motor despite plenty of space within the seriously under detailed and questionably proportioned body. Sounded like a coffee grinder and looked worse when running with the centre wheel set not actually connected to the rods, and a poor electrical pick-up arrangement which would very readily come out of alignment with the wheels, leading to unreliable running. Very quickly the boss on the large plastic gear was cut away by the steel retainer. After several fixes and repairs in rapid succession to overcome its' deficiencies, it was clear that it was not worth wasting any more time on this piece of junk. The best thing about it was the large block of lead ballast, which has been promoted to use in other, better, models.

Concerning the Mainline steam models with split chassis mentioned by Thumper, the first thing to do with these was to araldite the insulating muffs to the wheels. That way the wheels would not fall off before the motor clapped out! Generally the Mainline steam models were in the category 'good body moulding, shame about the supplied mechanism'.

QUOTE (dbclass50 @ 14 Jun 2007, 08:17) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>I'm not familier with the mechanism used by H, but I we have had similar problems with (Bachmann) Liliput rolling stock - the solution we have found (after checking for burrs in the mouldings, springs correct ect) is to apply a touch of silicon lubricant to the mechanism. So far it's done the trick.
(If you have not got any actual silicone lubricant many household spray polishes have enough silicone content to do the trick.)

Hope this helps.

Thanks for the tip, I'll give that a go. I had heard that graphite could be used as a lubricant so I ground up a little 4B pencil lead and tried that to no avail so I really hope this works.