sticking valve gear

[bobclifford1953]

hi has anyone had a problem with valve gear locking up on the hornby flying scotsman and if so how did you cure it mine lock up sometimes and i am having a problem with trying to cure it any help would be most welcome regards bob

[bulleidboy]

If it suddenly locks up, it sounds as though it may be slightly out of alignment. I recall having this problem on an old FS some years ago. With a flat-headed screwdriver, very carefully ease the valve gear. If you can run the loco upside down you may be able to see which part of the gear is sticking. Whatever you do - do it very carefully.

Have a look under the Hornby heading - someone having similar issues with a Hornby 9F.

[Mountain Goat]

I used to have the issue with tender drive King classes by Hornby and Lima. They were free running but still had their moments! I was later told that adding extra weight can help. Actually if they had put traction tyres onto the non driven drive wheels it would not have been an issue.
The king classes did not have external walschaerts valve gear so they "Should" have been free'er runners but they still had issues.
Never was a fan of tender drives, and my chief complaint back in those days was that I would spend half the year to a year saving up for my next new loco and then order it to find it was tender drive, as it was a bit "Hit and miss"... As even with the same manufacturer, be it Dapol or Hornby etc; as some locos were tender drive and others were loco drive -and it was rare to see any information (Even in the catalogues) to inform customers which was which.
Today it is rare to see a new tender drive loco which to me is a good thing, though I do admit that most tender drive mechanisms were easier to work on and they did pull well as my kings were the strongest pulling locos I had back then!