John Cutler
An update.
I am still not happy with the slow-running performance of the Terrier.
It tends to stutter at certain places in the yard .
After exhaustive tests with other locos I found this was unique to the Terrier.
The cause seems to be my awful uneven trackwork.
Not helped by being laid on camping mat (as advised by the illustrious ex-president of a rival society!).
I think that often only 3 wheels are in contact with the track and picking up current due to the bumps and the lack of any slop (or springing or compensation) in the axles.
I tried filing the keeper plate to try to allow the centre axle to fall slightly (it is raised above the other two).
This seems to have failed; I suspect the mazak holding the bearings needs to be slightly filed away too but this scares me.
Has anyone managed to do this?
I guess another possibility is to introduce vertical slop on all the wheels.
Otherwise the Terrier is going to end up being restricted to the main line.
A Branchlines chassis (already built) allied to girt great lumps of lead is being contemplated.
My recommendation is not to bet on good pickup and slow running unless the track concerned is perfectly flat.
The reality is that this was not the case for many of the yards worked by Terriers in their later years!
I was thinking about acquiring a new Rails/Dapol Terrier with sprung centre axle but this has had a lot of bad reviews due to poor quality control. Has anyone tried to convert one of those?