[Kovacjr]

All Locos are in and shipping. First batch went today.

Being there has been no formal Black images here is its debut. its been a typical wait for production and as usual I am pleased with the outcome.

I have just a few open orders of both the Green and Black and they are sold out on the Accucraft site. Don't wait till they're gone.

 

[Garratt]

Jason, do you know if there will be any Fairymead parts available from Accucraft?
I need a big stack just like that.

Andrew

 

[Kovacjr]

I am expecting a short batch of parts exclusive to me, 12 stacks and headlamps. No other spare parts produced as hey are all unique to the loco where those are easily interchangeable. Will know more on final pricing in the upcoming week.

 

[Nick Jr]

I called Accucraft and they gave me a tracking number, I should expect a visit from the brown truck on Monday.

 

[rwjenkins]

Lisa got a visit from the Mead Fairy this afternoon. Green, #8 of 75. Some minor assembly was required - the stack, exhaust tube, and headlight (plus the usual steam dome details) are packed separately to prevent damage in shipping. This was well worth the extra effort though, as the model arrived with no visible defects apart from the bell coming loose from its hanger. Everything went together without difficulty, and the model looks amazing. We most likely won't have a chance to run her until this weekend, when we will be running on the New Hampshire Garden Railway Society's live steam layout at the Hooksett, NH train show on Sunday. I'll be sure to get some pics at the show.

 

[Phippsburg Eric]

I missed the OOPS driver today, I was playing with full scale trains. I hope he comes again tomorrow!!!

 

[llynrice]

My black Fairymead turned up yesterday. Today, I'll assemble it and try a brief test run before starting work on installing radio control and Kadee couplers.

 

[Shay Gear Head]

My black one came yesterday also - #119.

Anyone know how to take those foreign couplers off?

 

[Nick Jr]

I ordered a Black one and a Green one arrived, awaiting Jason's decision on how he wants to handle the situation.
Llyn, are you going to to both throttle and direction?? please keep us updated on your progress.
Bruce, what kind of couplers were you planning to adapt??? thank you both.

 

[Shay Gear Head]

It's narrow gauge industrial - so L&P's!

 

[llynrice]

Bruce,

The couplers come off with difficulty. The main piece of the coupler is attached with a screw inserted from its back side. The screws appeared to have been installed with some sort of adhesive (Locktite?) and my only recourse was to drill them out. The lugs beneath the couplers appear to have been soldered in place and the only answer is to cut them off. At any rate, this leaves a good flat surface to attach Kadee #905 couplers.

To get at the screws which held the couplers, I removed the rear plate and front pilot beam. The rear plate is held in place with four 3mm hex head screws and two 2mm hex head screws. The pilot beam is held in place with four screws from the back side which have 3mm hex heads. They are a real pain to get at, but a good dose of ingenuity will prevail.

 

[Kovacjr]

Guys just so you are aware these have Link and Pin couplers. The tabs on the coupler are for the supplied pins in the parts bag.

Shortly I will have instructions available for download/email/mail as they were not ready when the loco were ready to ship.

Also when you do install the stack and light you need to remove the insulation and brass heat deflector and reinstall after they are on. Then install the chuff pipe or the Summerlands Chuffer that I had Chris design just for this loco.

 

[Dwight Ennis]

Picked mine up at Accucraft last Friday. Cute little devil...

I haven't fired or run her yet. So far, my only complaint is that the front leg of the roof hinge rod goes right smack over the fuel filler valve when the roof is opened. I had to bend a slight "V" in mine so I could get a fuel stem onto the filler valve. The roof operates fairly stiff now, but it works.

 

[livesteam53]

I will get mine from Cliff at Staver's this weekend in Portland.

 

[Phippsburg Eric]

Mine did arrive yesterday as I was raking around the line.

I spent an hour or so setting her up, installing the smokestack and headlight and other small details.

She runs very well and looks great doing it! she is a bit top heavy so keep the speeds down especially on rough and raised track

 

[Phippsburg Eric]

here is a video of my first runs:

 

[Dwight Ennis]

She sounds terrific Eric!! Do you have one of Jason's chuffers in there? Any problems with her tipping over? How well do the drain cocks work?

 

[Phippsburg Eric]

Dwight--
I did install a Summerlands Chuffer from Jason. It does have a nice sound...not too loud or pearcing.

The engine is a bit top heavy and I have turned it over on my rough Maine woods track. The stack is tall and provides a lot of leverage to do damage...try not to flip your engine as I did I replaced the copper tubing spacer with a heavier brass one that pinches more of the smoke box shell for added strength.

 

[rwjenkins]

Here are a few pics from the first run of Lisa's Fairymead on Sunday. http://forums.mylargescale.com/members/1979-rwjenkins-albums-fairymead-first-run.html

The engine ran very smoothly right out of the box. We were careful to keep the speed down due to the "top heaviness" that Eric described. The springs are very soft, much more so than any other Accucraft locomotive I have seen. Even at low speeds, she did tend to lean a bit on the curves, but fortunately we didn't have any derailments. The slow speed performance was excellent. Although the full Stephenson's valve gear theoretically allows you to run in the "company notch", there are still only three notches (forward, neutral, reverse) on the quadrant to choose from. There is R/C in this engine's future, so it should be interesting to see how she performs with the valve gear notched up. I also plan to install stiffer springs.

I didn't time the run, but the fuel lasted a surprisingly long time - long enough to need to pump water into the boiler several times during the run, and refill the water tank once before the fuel ran out. The sight glass was generally unreliable while running, but when I started pumping water the bubbles would settle out and I could usually get a good reading.

All in all, she's a really great little engine that runs well and looks amazing. Well, actually not so little. As I pointed out to Lisa, she now has a larger scale engine than me, and I have a 3 1/2" gauge (3/4" scale) ride-on engine!

 

[Kovacjr]

One has to realize that the weight of the loco is 12lbs, a similar 20.3 Forney is about 7lbs. Being a inside frame also makes them less stable, its why the 2' prototypes were mostly outside frame as it was more stable on the small track.

As to being able to notch back, it has to run in full gear, due to the restricted space for the valve gear on the model you really don't get smooth cutoff due to the short links.

I'm working on some spring options if you want to make changes. Once I am set I will list what was used.