Brighton Belle progress

I've wanted a Wrenn Brighton Belle for some time but in good condition, these fetch ridiculous sums of money.

I finally got my hands on a reasonable two car set about 18 months ago and attempted (and failed) at three railing it. Since then, and after an aborted DCC attempt, it's lived in several boxes completely in bits.

So today and with next weekend's run in mind, I decided to take another look, and make sure all the spares were accounted for.

One of the reasons why I wanted a Wrenn version was that i thought it would be an easy job to convert to 3 rail running... Not so.

After much head-scratching and trial & error, I realised that the only place that the 3rd rail pickup can be fitted is in the rear bogie, for which there isn't enough room.

Drastic measures were called for, so out with the reamer...

Not for the faint-hearted and no turning back. Yes it probably de-values the unit but it's mine and not for sale!

After much reaming of metal and with metal filings everywhere, there's enough space to mount a Marklin skate. This is where it gets fiddly as I've used the spare hole drilled in the bogie to bolt the skate in place. Trouble is once the skate is in place, you can't screw the bogie to the chassis.

So the bogie gets screwed into position first, then the skate gets bolted in and the live wire soldered to it. I had to ream out even deeper to mount the bogie securing screw so that it didn't interfere with the pickup skate, then I had to shorten the bogie securing screw and the fixing bush to accommodate for the new, shorter length. For extra neatness I drilled another small hole in the top of the bogie to feed the live wire through to the pickup. Should this require maintenance in future then it's going to be a pain as the pickup will need to be de-soldered, then unbolted before the bogie retaining screw can be removed.

The bogie could do with a quick coat of primer and black paint but for now and with another weekend run coming, this will do...

After doing all that it was finally time for a test run. That didn't go well.

I've read on numerous forms the difficulties with the Brighton Belle and the common problems associated with poor running. This one was no exception - judders, stutters and completely stopping on points & crossovers. I know the Marklin skate can cope with them as they work fine on my other stock. Of course this unit still had its 2 rail wheels, complete with isolated wheels for the original 2 rail live pickup.

Worse still, the motor bogie has two wheels fitted with tyres. After some more head-scratching I worked out that the best option was to replace the wheels with a set that I had left over from scrapping one of the spare Deltic chassis. The dimensions were the same, only major difference being that the original Wrenn wheels are silver, whereas the Deltic ones are painted black. Not a huge deal as once the side rails are installed, the wheels can hardly be seen!

After further testing, I still wasn't happy with the results - the unit, even running alone, was prone to slippage and derailments so I tried fitting the motor bogie with 4 tyred wheels for extra traction. This worked reasonably well but highlighted once again the issue with some of the replacement tyres I'd been using a while ago. Basically the tyres lift the wheels off the track, that reduces the amount of contact with the rails and causes the derailments. So another set of the small Marklin tyres have been ordered, these once stretched give great traction but due to their tiny size, more of the wheel will be in contact with the track.

Even in its current formation it runs reasonably well, current return is now via all 8 wheels. 

I'll leave fitting the side rails to the motor bogie until the tyres arrive.

I have to say that in all honestly, the Wrenn Brighton Belle is a big disappointment. I expected the build quality to be better and whilst I can't grumble about how hard this one was to convert to 3 rail operation (as it was never intended to be) I have to say that of all my stock, new and old, this is by far the noisiest piece of rolling stock! 

I've checked the bearings and given it a light oiling but still it seems incredibly loud compared to the rest of the fleet.

The plastic bar that the motor bogie screws to snapped as soon as I removed it, so I fabricated another one using a cross bar from one of the scrap Deltics, straightened it in the vice, then cut and drilled to size. Seems to have done the job and adds a bit of extra weight to aid traction!

I wonder if there's an alternative motor bogie that would fit...