Electric Overhead

So our test run worked - finally. In the shot is our Tri-ang R257, capable of running powered from the track or from catenary - the posh name for overhead wires!


Its a great model - but frankly a bit unlikely. One of my discoveries in coming back to train sets is the great divide - between modellers who strive for exact replication of real life, as against most of the kids I know (old pretend kids as well as real kids) for whom the toy's the thing. This model was based on an Australian diesel engine, but Tri-ang added the "pantographs" - the roof top collectors - to make it work with overhead power supplies. 


A couple of weeks ago we took this model to a local train fair. I had finally given up trying to get it to run. There we met Dr John the Train Doctor - very clever at fixing model trains. A friend of his told me that this model was altered by Tri-ang to try and break into the American market, where overhead power was considered essential. He said the Americans didn't take to this model and surplus stock was brought back to the UK. Meanwhile Dr John was checking out the inner workings of the model. The problem, it turned out, was simple - inside the motor there is a wire spring, one side of which is sheathed. The sheath prevents a short circuit - but I hadn't spotted that the sheath had worked itself back so the spring was shorting out the  two sides of the motor. Easily fixed - if you know how. (I plan to come back to the inner workings of the R257 in another posting).


But our problems didn't just end with the train itself. We had enormous problems with setting up the catenary. The wires have to sit above the centre line of the track. That's easy when the track is straight, but on a curve you have to bend the wire by hand to match the radius of the curve. As the train moves around a bend, the pantographs move away from the centre line. If the wire is too close to one side or the other, the pantographs slip past the wire and then - CRASH - the pantographs hit the next catenary mast. I seem to have spent days bending and re-bending the wires to get the curve just right. And now - it works - and its a marvel!


The Tri-ang R257, with "Tri-ang Railway" markings is said to be very rare these days. Catenary sets from Tri-ang are also a bit difficult to track down - ebay had a couple in the last three or four days, but both were incomplete sets. I have always loved this train - and there is something special about seeing it powered from above. My son and daughter have loved working with me to get the whole setup running - and there is something special about that as well!