Baguley Testing

After having done some work on the modules' track and experimenting with deteriorating sleepers I have dusted off the Baguley-Drewry diesel locomotive I aquired in the beginning of 2021. As the loco needs a complete strip down for rebuilding into battery and RC-control and the upper body needs some rebuilding and detailing, I had to begin by taking the locomotive apart.

To my surprise a test run on the layout showed that the Baguley-Drewry could negotiate the sharp curve to the loading ramp. Not that such a large locomotive's use on track with a radius/gradient like this would be particularly realistic.

Once I had taken a good look on the model and examined it for damages or missing parts, I began to find out how to take the locomotive apart. With two quite hard to reach screws undscrewed, I could remove the locomotive's body. The body was set aside and I unscrewed the 6 power pick-up units. A quick job and after unsoldering the feed wires to the motor, all track power parts could be carefully removed.

With the frames clear of unwanted parts I tested the motor and transmission. My loco is 32 mm gauge and a few of the raised grub screws holding the wheel discs solidly in place on the axles, would regularly hit parts of the metal frame. With a small file I took off just enough af the metal frame to avoid conflict with the wheel parts. I also tightened the screws holding the lid to the gear box on the central axle. That almost completly removed the growling sound from the gears. With a tiny drop of oil in each of the eight main axle bearings the mechanism worked effortlessly after running-in. I avoided extra oil in the rods' bearings as the complete chassis assembly is going to be degreased and repainted.

First thing I did after taking off the body was to remove the electrical pick-ups. I will run the loco with battery power and RC.

Testing the Baguley-Drewry with a simple 9 V battery. With a few adjustments with a small file and tightening of screws as well as some running in, the loco began to behave nicely on my rudimentary test bed.

I haven't yet quite figured out what type and size of battery will be needed to power the loco. With a tiny layout the Baguley-Drewry will not be asked to perform challenging tasks and a tiny battery will probably be sufficient. Currently there is a global shortage of RC receivers and consequently controlling the locomotive will probably be handled with a LocoRemote Wifi unit and mobile phone.

On the body I'm getting ready to tackle the loose and detached windows in the cab as well as preparing the many other tasks planned to transform the loco to the loco Nystrup Gravel apparently bought from the Danish sugar beet railways.