A4 Silver Link up and running in

[Brightstar]

Hi,

The a4 Silver Link arrived yesterday, and is currently being run in by resting the tender on a power rail and the loco body resting on s box so that the driving wheels are off the board, saves the cost of a rolling road.

The loco was

stiff and reluctant to start and i had to prode the driving wheels a couple of times with the screwdriver to get it moving.

The whistle makes a rude noise instead a whistle.

It is now on it's 4th refil of water, and is losing oil from the pistons

as it is run in. It is still a bit stiff after a refill and tends to be a bit slow starting

Otherwise all seems to be well.

[barmalmh]

Brightstar said:Hi,The a4 Silver Link arrived yesterday, and is currently being run in by resting the tender on a power rail and the loco body resting on s box so that the driving wheels are off the board, saves the cost of a rolling road.The loco was


stiff and reluctant to start and i had to prode the driving wheels a couple of times with the screwdriver to get it moving.The whistle makes a rude noise instead a whistle.It is now on it's 4th refil of water, and is losing oil from the pistons
as it is

run in. It is still a bit stiff after a refill and tends to be a bit slow startingOtherwise all seems to be well.

Hello brightstar,

What you need to remember (and I am not being facious just trying to help), we have all used set ups such as yours

at some time when we do not have the correct kit. But live steam is a uniique bit of kit which I think we all sometimes forget, with not having the wheels resting on something like the rolloing road the weight of the working parts is nit distributed, combined

with the heat generated in live steam and the expansion and contraction of the working parts and body work it may give you some false operating results. The live steam locomotives are as real as they come and each one although built the same are individual

and will have their own little quirks. Take your time run it in as if it is a new car and once run in you will be amazed at what these locomotives can do, this combined with your own improvements in use of the controls (which is all part of operting live steam)

will make you wonder why you want to bother even with dcc, live steam is great and gets better each time you use it, just like the real thing, or as near as we mere mortals are likely to get to!

[Brightstar]

Hi barmaimh,

This loco was built in week 24/2004 andd I would ecpectit to be stiff after lying for 7 years in a box. However, this set up gives me a chance to gain experieence in controling thr regulator without the loco derailing. I am on the look

out for a rolling road and I think I my have tracked one down. I can now slow it right down without it stoping completely. Also run in reverse. It still has the tendancy to start at full speed, even when I move the regulator one flick at a time. Still as it

loosens up I expect it will improve. I now need to run in the other 2 x A4s and the A3, to get the fleet mobilised.

The only problem with Live Steam is that you can only run one at a time on each track, no block working of mutiple trains on a circuit.

Still, I am sure I can think of a solution, in time.

[rgmichel]

Wonderful that you have Silver Link going. I don't like the rolling road. As I mentioned in another post, I bought a used Mallard that had obviously been damaged by being used a lot on a rolling road. I have one, and it is no more convenient to run an

engine on there than it is on a circle of track. If you put your track on the floor, then it does no damage to the engine, even if it does fly off the track. Moreover, the driving experience on the track is much more realistic, and you learn how to operate

very quickly. I would say about two to three steamings will do it. Have you tried a bit of oil on the moving parts of the Silver Link. The instructions for that are in the manual, using a paperclip to place the oil.