Reviving the Haig

 The Haig is in a bit of a sorry state. The body looks tatty, and appears to have had the cab rear fixed after a break, I'm sure this can be tidied up in due course. 

It looked a little nose-down to me too, an extra piece of plastic packing under the smokebox sorted that. Of course then the bolt which holds the chassis to the body - which was barely making a couple of turns into the nut anyway - was now too short. Fortunately I found another of the same thread (well it fitted the captive nut), but too long - so that had to be cut down with the dremel.

The plastic body was very light, although it did have a piece of lead under the read half of the boiler. I fitted a "Swiss roll" of roofing lead into the smokebox, and managed to slot pieces into the side tanks, the left side tank had only small gap at the bottom which I opened out slightly and "posted" in slices of lead wiped with contact adhesive. 

I fixed the motor to the brass mount with contact adhesive, which holds it securely enough, and wired it to the chassis frames. The brass motor mount is held in place by the bolt at the front, and a wire "finger" that slots below a lip on the right chassis next to the worm gear - this stops the motor rising up, at least in theory. 

So, does it work? Yes, but... it's a bit jerky, and the worm must be climbing the gear and pushing the motor up as it really grinds going forwards (smoother backwards). Sometimes it even stops and spins the motor. So much for that wire finger, I wonder if the brass can twist? It may not help that the drive is a little crude and has a fair amount of friction, even after a little lubrication, although there is no binding. I need to rethink that motor mount...