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Piko's BR80
Sow's Ear or Silk Purse?
Starter sets
generally attract attention since they are pitched at a price to tempt newcomers
to the hobby. In addition, the sets' locomotives tend to belong to two camps:
either a rather nicely detailed loco which is being priced at little or no
profit to get newcomers "on board"; or a "toy" which has no pretensions to
realism, but which can provide useful bits and pieces for another
model.
The purpose of this article is to introduce Piko's BR80 0-6-0T
steam loco. At the time of writing (Jan 2009) it's only available
in a starter set. I'll identify its virtues and vices as I see them and suggest
some simple activities which will improve the model. The contents of the
remainder of this article are:
- What you get
- Ensuring smooth running
- Improving the engine's
appearance
- Improving haulage capability (adding
weight)
- Adding a DCC chip and other electrical
work
- Conclusions
Most users will probably want to do items 2 and 3 .
The rest is up to your personal preferences and willingness to take the engine
apart (disassembly is not
required until section
4),
but this is not a
masterclass in modelling. The only tools you'll need are two screwdrivers and
two paintbrushes. A soldering iron is not required unless you choose a
particularly difficult DCC chip or start adding lights.
Please
note that I am not going to make comparisons with other manufacturer's models
since this seems to create more heat than light. If you're a Madder, you can
probably do this yourself. If you can't, you are welcome to send a message to
my ID (whatlep).
One more thing before we plunge in. As
with most models, there are some "tricks" with this model's disassembly. In
particular, read the DCC/ electrical section before trying to change the
bufferbeams or tinker with the lights.
1.
What You Get
Fresh out of
the box, a BR80 is pictured above. As supplied it has standard gauge style
bufferbeams as per the prototype. Narrow gauge centre buffer alternates are
supplied with the model. Two headlights are provided, not three as per the
prototype, fitted with Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs) rather than
conventional bulbs. A driver is also supplied within the cab, but it is Piko's
universal driver who is in clothes more suitable for a diesel desk. There is no
cab light. Neither cab doors nor the smokebox door open.
Neither smoke
unit nor sound system is provided with the basic model, though both will
be available as add-ons from Piko (or other manufacturers). An
excellent set of exploded diagrams is included with the starter set, showing all
parts and their numbers should spares be needed. The imitation coal load can
easily be removed if required, as described in section 4.
The
wheels are all metal, flanged and chemically blackened. No traction tyres are
fitted. The centre wheelset is very free to float, permitting the locomotive to
round radius 1 curves with ease. Pickup is via the outer driving wheels, plus
skates, giving three pickups on each side. No isolation switch is provided on
the model, so analogue users will not be able to 'park' the model unless they
have an isolating section.
Mouldings are all sharp and lettering is to an
excellent standard, but all pipework is moulded on, rather than separate parts.
Colours are not too bright and certainly the red is not 'toy-like'. LGB style
hook and loop couplers are supplied, with a hook pre-attached for both ends.
I had not attached the front one when
the picture was taken. The coupler
heights match LGB stock perfectly, though the BR80's buffer height, irrespective
of buffer style used, is significantly higher than LGB's.
All screws
and other joiners are hidden, which would normally lead to a straightforward
conclusion that the locomotive is a decent starter set job, were it not for the
catastrophically ugly valve gear. Only the main piston rod, its slide and the
connecting rod are moving parts. The remainder of the valve gear and its
hangers are three solid mouldings. The whole is in undistinguished grey
plastic. It is quite simply horrid!
Principal dimensions and
weight:
Length - 335mm
Height - 155mm
Width - 104mm
Weight - 1700
grams (approx)
The loco looks fine alongside G scale narrow
gauge stock and blends in very well with, for example, the LGB Harz 2-6-2T or
black Mallets.
Cost (Jan 2009) for the starter set is
around GBP190. Depending on how much of the rest of the set is sold off or
used, the loco's cost would work out at around GBP100.
Now, having had a
tour round the loco, let's see what we can do to make things
better!
Return
to start of article
2. Ensuring Smooth
Running
Out of the
box, my BR80 ran smoothly, quietly and slowly on plain track. The demo runs are
on YouTube here: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=kN8z_2BwsD8
Unhappily,
pointwork proved a major problem. See this clip on YouTube: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=xX66edsU-Zo
The problems and their resolution are fortunately
fairly straightforward. The blackened wheels do not provide sufficiently
reliable electrical conductivity. Piko recommend that the loco is run in for at
least 30 minutes in each direction, but doing this did not cure my loco's poor
performance. Rather than wasting time, I recommend propping the loco upside
down (a third hand is, as always, useful), supplying power through
the skates and applying something abrasive to the outer wheels (the
centre set have no pickups). My preferred abrasive is an LGB track
rubber. I avoid sandpaper, no matter how fine, but that's just my own
superstition...
Unfortunately, the first batch of BR80s seem to have
had far too much grease applied to their gearboxes. You can see traces on the
pickups and all axles in the photo above. All the excess needs to be carefully
removed, taking care not to bend the pickups out of alignment. To access the
wheels, simply undo the covering plate's six screws and lift it off. Take care
not to jog the wheels from their gears or otherwise disturb the quartering.
Adding extra pickups to the centre axle is a non-starter for me, due to
the large amount of play on it. More adventurous souls may be able to conceive
a workable solution.
With average luck, these simple actions should have
cured any pickup problems. If not, then the next steps are either adding an
auxiliary connection to obtain power from a trailing vehicle or providing a DCC
chip with a 'power buffer'. Both are covered in section 5.
Return to start of article
3. Improving the Engine's
Appearance
That valve gear really is horrible, isn't it?
However, with a little ingenuity, some paint and a felt tip pen, you can create
this:
Not
perfect, but visually miles better. The materials required are: one pot of
paint (I used Tamiya flat red acrylic); number 0 and 2 paint
brushes and a dark red felt tip pen. Do ensure the pen is
waterproof!
The only disassembly require is to pull out the retaining
'nut' on the rear axle. DO NOT use any tools - you will break or deform the
plastic lug. A firm tug on the nut and piston rod should free the nut from its
wheel. You should now have enough access to paint the rods and their hangers
without undue contortion.
Start by using the felt tip pen to ink in the
circles in the slide (immediately left of the cylinder), the
narrow trough in the expansion link (the arc of metal either side of the
horizontal red bar in the photo) and lastly the roughly triangular area
to the left of the expansion link. The whole effect should be to create an
illusion of depth.
Now paint the hangers - the horizontal and vertical
parts between the leading wheels. The larger brush is handy for the vertical
hanger, but this is the only time you will use it. As always, work slowly and
methodically, getting every surface and reaching in to the loco's frames. Very
little paint will be needed to achieve a good result, so do not daub it on. You
can always put more paint on if needed.
Finally, using the number 0
brush, paint the fluted areas of the piston rod, connecting rod and slide bar
and all the horizontal hangar, including the small protrusion at the hangar's
rear upper end. Don't forget the top and bottom surfaces! Any excess paint on
the rods can be quickly removed with a fine-pointed screwdriver (or an
abrasive material if you see it later!).
Your loco should now look
like mine - or better! Find the nut you removed right at the beginning and use
the moulding burr on top to align it with the others (there are two valid
positions). Push it through the piston and connecting rods into the
wheel and push hard until it clicks audibly into place. Some force is required,
but do check the alignment before going into lumphammer mode.
Now repeat
all of the above on the other side!
Now is the time to consider what you
want to do with the bufferbeams. If you want to replace them with the centre
buffer, narrow gauge style, I recommend you wait a while and read section 5. It is considerably
easier to change the bufferbeams while the loco is disassembled, due to the very
tight fit of the LEDs in the imitation lanterns and lack of 'wriggle room'
within the bufferbeams themselves.
On the other hand, if standard gauge
buffing gear is your thing, how about adding some brake hoses now? Assuming you
can find some LGB hoses, it is then merely a question of carefully drilling some
3mm holes in the beam and pushing the hoses into place. Do make sure you avoid
drilling the wiring hidden in the bufferbeam!
Once in place, the front
end starts to look rather more businesslike. Mmmm,
nice!
Return
to start of article
4. Improving Haulage Capability (adding
weight)
Let me say up
front that the BR80's haulage capacity on level ground is perfectly adequate.
Mine hauled seven LGB hopper wagons without any problems. However, on
gradients the absence of a traction tyre can become an issue. See these YouTube
videos for sample runs:
On the flat - http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=MOXilU6fOLU
On a slope - http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=ztBfmo3ydsI
OK, my 1 in
20 (5%) incline is a tad extreme, but adding weight generally
helps. More importantly, it gives us a reason to take the engine to
bits!
Lie the engine on its left side and begin by (1)
pulling the air pump off the engine - it is just a push fit. Now
(2) unscrew the twin screws holding on the side tank. Pull the
side tank forward and very slightly upward to remove it. Finally
(3) very gently pull the red plastic piece below the cab away from
the running plate and forward. It should slide out from under the cab. In
front of you, you should have three parts, plus two screws safely in a
container. You did bring a container for the screws, didn't
you?
Turn the loco over
and repeat steps 2/3 for the other side. Magically, you have now exposed six
screws which secure the loco's cab. Unscrew them all and the cab will simply
lift out. You will see that the coal load is simple to push out, should you
wish to replace it with the real stuff.
Loads of space to play with in
the tanks and cab! What type of weight you use and how much is up to you, but I
prefer to use self-adhesive lead strip. I obtain this from Romney Miniatures
(just Google them) who supply the strip in 1 meter rolls of
varying widths. For this engine, I used 16mm width, which has a weight of 84
grams per linear metre.
The important thing
is to get weight solidly over the driving wheels and evenly distributed. For
the BR80, I loaded each side tank with two rolls of 16mm lead strip, cut into
100mm lengths. In other words168 grams in each tank. Note that I have avoided
the frontmost part of the tank which would put weight ahead of the front wheel,
possibly unbalancing the loco. Since the strip is self-adhesive, it is simple
to create multiple layers in this way and then just stick the lot into the
desired space.
To complete the load and balance the wight distribution,
more weight was added to the cab sides below the main windows as shown below.
Each side is twenty-five 40mm lengths of 16mm lead strip, or another 84 grams
per side. Cutting that number of strips is tedious, but it's the end result
that counts. BY the way, note the coal load in the right centre of the picture,
just waiting to be popped out.
If you copy my
example, you will now have several bits of BR80 which collectively weigh a
smidgen over 2200 grams. To my entire satisfaction, mine now pulls those seven
LGB hoppers up the 1 in 20 gradient with no problems at all. A thoroughly good
hour's work! Either test it out for yourself, or move on to section 5 and
start tinkering with the electricals. Do remember where you put the ten screws
you took out, won't you?
5. Adding A DCC Chip and other Electrical
Work
If you are
running analogue and are satisfied with your loco's performance and the standard
gauge buffers, you can skip this section and go straight to the conclusions. All others, read on. For your
ease, this section has subsections as follows:
IMPORTANT - do not disconnect any
wires until you've read through the relevant
subsection!
If you
followed the disassembly in section 4, you should now
have something which looks like this:
The next steps
for every activity are:
- Unscrew and remove the couplings, to avoid
damaging them
- Unscrew the front bufferbeam (2 small
screws) and pull it down carefully to separate it from the loco chassis
- Unscrew the boiler's retaining screws: 2 on the
footplate; 1 behind the front bufferbeam
- Push gently with a screwdriver into the
hole left by the bufferbeam screw and pull the boiler upwards. It should
separate cleanly.
You should now see the internals of the
loco with all the wiring neatly coiled and taped on top of the weight assembly,
as in the photo on the right. Most of the visible wiring is for the headlights.
The motor wires disappear into the oblong cutout visible at the top of the
obvious speaker grille. Piko have provided a plastic base on top of the weight
for chip installation.
This is the entirety of the loco's wiring. No
switches, voltage regulation circuits or anything else expensive to buy in or
assemble. Good!
Changing The
Bufferbeams
The essence
of this activity is to change one bufferbeam at a time and feed the four wires
to each bufferbeam through all spacers and holes one at a time. The rationale
is simple. The LEDs are polarity sensitive - they will not work if you connect
them the wrong way round. Secondly, each wire has a 'lump' on it in the form of
either a resistor or a diode. Trying to pull all four wires through at once
WILL result in unhappiness!
TECHNICAL NOTE - LEDs are magical things.
They use about 40% of the power of an equivalent conventional bulb, work for
many hours more and give a consistent output. However, they are very sensitive
to both polarity and to input voltage. Piko provide 5mm white LEDs cleverly
packaged with both the necessary resistor and a protecting diode. This is nice
engineering. You will not damage the LED or the loco if light wiring is
misconnected, though you won't get any light either! For reference, note that
the black lead is the positive
connection, yellow is negative.
If you've followed the sequence so far,
the front bufferbeam is unscrewed, so we'll start with that.
- Trace the wires from the front lights to
their connections in the loco.
- Label both sides of both yellow wires'
connections (plug and socket) so you know which connection is
yellow and which is black.
- Gently manoeuvre each wire in turn through
from the loco to the outside world.
- Push the lanterns backwards to release
them, together with the LED, from the bufferbeam.
- Pull the wires through so that you are left
with the lanterns, complete with LEDs and their wiring, free of the bufferbeam
which can now be stored out of use.
- Go through steps 1-5 in reverse order,
taking care to tuck all the wiring neatly out of sight in the new bufferbeam's
recess.
- Temporarily screw the buffer beam back in
place (you'll need to remove it again to screw the boiler back in at the
front)
- If you will be using analogue power,
reconnect the LEDs' wiring, using the labvels from step 2 to guide you. If you
are about to install a DCC chip, don't bother.
Now repeat the process with the rear bufferbeam. If
this sounds complicated, don't panic: it really is straightforward.
Honest.
Adding Analogue
Connections
This is
remarkably easy. As factory-wired, the BR80 has a pair of spare sockets ready
for use in the wiring loom. Your only problem may be finding a plug which fits
into the sockets, so cutting into the wire to create a bare end may be
necessary.
Presumably the spare pair are provided by Piko for the smoke
and sound unit additions, but there is nothing to stop you using them for any
other purpose, provided you remember that they are always live at track voltage.
The rest, I leave to your imagination.
Installing A DCC
ChipIf you are considering going
DCC, you are probably a grown up who can work out wiring quite happily. However,
there are a couple of "tricks" which even an expert like yourself may find
helpful, so here are my suggestions for getting DCCed painlessly.
Having
done whatever you want with the bufferbeams, now completely disassemble the
wiring loom. This is wonderfully simple. You should end up with two of each of
these looms:
We won't be using the left hand "Y" pair, so
store them away safely for future use.
Take one of the 5 way splitters in
the right hand photo and take it to pieces by cutting as close to the plug as
possible. Our aim is to have 4 wires with sockets on them which are as long as
possible. The fifth and the plug are redundant.
Next, cable up the basic
motor and track connections of your chosen chip on your workdesk, so you end up
with a module such as that shown below, ready to install in the locomotive. I
have a bad habit of using bell wire and large connectors as they suit my large
paws and I dislike soldering. The black stripe indicates the positive wire, by
the way.
My chosen chip is an ESU Lokdecoder XL V3.0. Selected as it
has a 'power buffer' which keeps current flowing if track supply is momentarily
interrupted. Similar equipment is available from other manufacturers, but
usually requires the decoder to have its analogue mode switched
off.
IMPORTANT - on the BR80, the
track connections are the outer pins in the gearbox. This is the reverse of the
LGB standard.
Assuming your loco is now running sweetly, we move forward to
cabling up the LEDs. Remember that these are polarity dependent. My solution
is:
- Retrieve the remaining 5-way cable
- Connect the plug end to the positive function connection (invariably
the common pole) on the decoder, either directly or, as I have done, via
auxiliary cables and another connector block.
- Plug all 4 LED positive (black) wires into sockets and tape
over the fifth, spare socket to prevent shorts
- Take the remaining LED wires to the relevant front and rear connections on
the decoder. I chose to use an auxiliary connector block as the ESU decoder's
screw connections are very small and I did not wish to cut off Piko's plugs.
If you do trim the wires, be careful not to trim too much and remove either the
installed resistor and diode.
The
photo below shows the principles involved with just the front LEDs' wires
connected to a connector block. This was then connected to the lighting
connections on the decoder.
You should now
be the proud owner of a DCC-fitted BR80.
Congratulations!
6.
Conclusions
The more I've
inspected and peeked into this loco, the greater my admiration for Piko's
designers and their production engineering. There is no extravagance on the
engine - you can see where someone has worked out how to minimise the assembly
steps required and speed the sequence of activities. The loco has undoubtedly
been built down to a price, most notably in the valve gear, but with relatively
little effort it can make a rather attractive model.
My BR80 is now a
match for any other locomotive on my layout in terms of haulage. It looks
perfectly acceptable at normal viewing distances and performs smoothly. Total
cost of the add-ons, excluding the DCC decoder, works out as follows (all
figures in UK currency as at Jan 2009):
Paint
1.20
Paintbrush 2.00
Felt tip pen 0.50
Brake hoses
3.00
Lead weight 14.10 (*)
TOTAL:
20.80
(*) - only really needed on heavily graded
lines
So, about GBP121 for a distinctive analogue 0-6-0 shunter which
has been fun to tinker with. Not an Aster work of art, but a good, honest loco
which I look forward to enjoying for many years to come. Definitely more silk
puirse than sow's ear.
Go out and buy a BR80 - today!
Return
to start of article
Peter Whatley
January 2009
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