Hercules

One of the things I enjoy doing in my spare time is driving miniature trains. This I do at Roker Park in Sunderland, where I am a member ( and also Chairman ) of the City of Sunderland Model Engineering Society.

The club has several loco's, both steam and electric in both 5" and 7 1/4" gauges.

Click here to visit Sunderland Model Engineers

My own loco is called Hercules. It was built from a kit supplied by Ride on Railways. Apart from occasionally stripping its delrin gears, ( due to the many miles it does ), it has given good service for about 15 years.

UPDATE. After about 12 years it was beginning to look a bit 'tatty', so I decided that it was time for a bit of tlc.

I started by stripping down and rebuilding the bogies as they had started to make a few noises that I didn't like. Good job I did!

I had to replace 3 delrin gears and sort out the lack of adhesion between wheels and axles which was the cause of the gears failing.

Having done the 'mechanicals' I set to and stripped all the paintwork down to bare metal. I used Hammerite primer and gave it 2 brushed on coats on the chassis. A quick rub down - of the paint, not me - and I sprayed on the top coat. Now, I don't know whether it was a reaction between the paint types, or just the cold weather stopping the paint from drying out properly, but the result was terrible. Eventually I got it sorted, but it took a lot more time than I expected. When I did the cab, I made sure the primer was totally dried out by bringing the cab into the house and keeping its temperature up. It seemed to fare better than the chassis and I managed to finish the job without any further problems.

This is what it looks like with its new coat on!

Most weekends - if the weather permits - see us running trains on our track in Roker Park

We also run for special events, such as the Sunderland International Airshow and Sunderland Illuminations and we are also available for weddings, celebrations etc.