Mainline LNER J72, repairs carried out, and its first run on the kitchen table layout.

Описание: I purchased this little engine a few years ago from a well known online auction site. It was advertised as almost mint, but motor jammed.
I thought it might be an easy fix, but it turned out that both pins which hold the gears in place had broken, and they had jammed the motor.
I set about cutting new pins from thick piano wire I had in my spares drawer, drilling the casting and then bonding the pins in place with epoxy resin.
I had just about got the motor and gears working correctly when I decided to test fit the wheels. Unfortunately, the wheels and axles fell apart in my hands when I put them into the chassis. I lost heart, and I put the model and all its components in a box to sort out later.
Fast forward four years and I finally get round to ordering new axles from Peter's Spares. The axles arrived really quickly, and after few hours of fettling the motor, gears and wheels, the model was finally running.
Looking at the condition of the model, I don't believe it had ever run. The box has a shop label marked "£8.50 Spares", so I assume the engine was returned to the store, and rather than sending it back to the manufacturer, the shop owner decided to sell it.
That was a very long time ago, so the model must have sat on various shelves for decades waiting to be fixed.
I know that it isn't the best model in the world, it is noisy, it wobbles, and the motor takes up all of the cab, but I am very pleased to have finally given it some life.

A few notes on the layout. All the track is temporarily laid out on MDF sheets on the kitchen table.
All building are Superquick.
The second engine is a Lima J50, owned by my son, and is pulling a rake of Lima wagons and a Playcraft car transporter.

Thank you for watching, and taking the time to read this!

Gordon