Dear all I am going through all my locos adjusting the back to backs using the (Gibson?) gauge I got from mainly trains. For those of you who are unfamiliar it is a "L" shaped piece of metal. So far so good, noted improvement over points using DCC. However, just been messing with a Hornby WC 4-6-2 and although the boogies and truck adjust nicely, the driving wheels don't want to know, they just pop back to where they were. I don't want to force it, so can anyone explain the best way of doing this? Thank you Rob
I undertook an extensive investigation for Hornby to regauge the WC
4-6-2. The WC was one of the last 'new' Hornby models to be produced at the 16.3 B2B. Hornby advised me that all new locos from the Black 5 onwards are all going to to be made with 16.5mm B2B. With regards the WC, the tender and front bogie wheels are all easy to pull out to 16.5mm (they are supplied as 16.3mm). However, when you do this, you will need to place washers on the axles to reduce the side play. The pony truck under the cab is a bit of a problem because the axle is retained via a force-pressed stubb which needs drilling off to get the keeper plate off. Once this is done, the keeper plate will not fit back and you will need to drill a hole and use a self-tapper to screw it back on. The driving wheels are tricky. You need to remove them and pull the wheels off the ends of the axles. Do NOT twist them as the plastic wheel centres do have splines which you will ruin if you twist the wheels on the axles and then your quartering will not hold. The driving wheels really MUST have washers placed on the axles otherwise too much side-play results. Remember that when you pull out the gauge, the brake rigging will no long fit along the outside of the driving wheels. To get it to fit, you will need to resort to the time-tested methods of brass chassis kit builders and use a 'stretcher' threaded through the brake rigging hangers.
I hope this helps,
Graham Plowman
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