Banbury Connections
Banbury Connections British 00 Scale Model Railway
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Hornby M7 returns to steam.

25/4/2020

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Following many months out of steam, major repairs have been made to the Hornby ex-SR M7's rear pony truck and electrical pickups. This has resulted in the locomotive returning to service on the Banbury Connections' Southern Region local train between Gosport and Winchester Chesil.  Return of the Hornby M7 is welcomed following a shortage of reliable Southern Region tank locomotives where the local service was down to two engines (the Hornby Dublo R1 and Bachmann E4). Projected work on the R1 should lead to further improvements in the near future. A photograph and video of the locomotive running round at Winchester Chesil is found below.

The random dialogue and overdone pommy accent represents the head ganger's attempt at humour by imitating modeller's that take their toy trains too seriously! It refers to the train led by a Class 33 which really does change locomotives twice on its way from Birkenhead.


Picture
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Hidden trouble, 38xx returns to steam!

5/4/2020

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Return of Banbury Connections Chief Mechanical Engineer has brought the 38xx back into service after months of sitting in the workshops waiting for attention. Following a major deterioration in motion consistency last year, the 2-8-0 was withdrawn from mainline service. Unfortunately, an incorrect diagnosis of the locomotive by our Head Ganger led to further initial damage to the locomotive's valve gear. 

While valve gear was the initial suspect of the locomotive's inconsistent running, further analysis revealed that both the valve gear and motor were running consistently. This led to the identification of a minor split in one of the locomotive's gears. Thankfully, a spare gear was obtained from Peter's Spares, as part of a syndicated order with one of our fellow enthusiasts experiencing problems with their J72 fleet. Insertion of the new gear resolved the issue in what turned out to be a rather complex diagnostic process. 

The 38xx has been pressed back into service, providing additional freight capacity to the Western Region. 
Picture
38xx back in mainline service on a Chester bound freight at Wolverhampton Low-Level.
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    BRED (Banbury Connections Rolling Stock and Engineering Department)

    The rolling stock update is produced by BRED and looks at changes and repairs of notable interest to the Banbury Connections fleet. Some past projects can be found under the resources section of the website. If you are curious about the performance of a particular locomotive feel free to contact us and I will endeavour to provide a fair assessment of any models we own. 

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