[tacfoley]

Mornin', All - forgive the slightly OT-ness of this post, but I had to share this new-found tidbit with all you Asterites/Asteroids out there.

Now that my little track is done, and I'm beginning to run stuff again, I am going through my roster carrying out essential pre-running checks, like we all do, I guess. I found that the axle-spring hanger castings on each side of the pilot truck of my Aster/LGB White Pass loco were each missing a retaining screw.

Apart from asking two very supportive gentlemen intimately concerned with Aster products for a couple of spares, I meanwhile had a look around my possibles boxes, and found that the thread, and almost the size of the missing Aster screw, was identical to that used by Aristo-Craft to hold their flexi-track to the ties. Moreover, they have a small but useful built-in washer-type cross-head.

I'm sure that many of us who use Aristo-Craft flexi track have gazillions of these little screws, and wonder what the heck to do with them after taking them out to bend the track.

Now you can use them to replace missing Aster screws, where it doesn't show, of course, colouring them in with a dab of black paint to hide the shinyness.

tac
www.ovgrs.org

 

[Charles]

Tac
Good "make due" solution forwhen problems occur....if only I knew to have save all those screws from yester-year.

 

[tacfoley]

Posted By Charles on 01/16/2009 5:34 AM
Tac
Good "make due" solution forwhen problems occur....if only I knew to have save all those screws from yester-year.



No problemo - I have about two hundred or so - I can spare a slack handful....

tac
http://www.ovgrs.org/

 

[Steve S.]

Hello Terry. It's amazing what you can find that "sometimes" works. If anyone needs any, I too have a ga-zillion of those little screws stuck away in a plastic cup in my train room.

 

[Mark Scrivener]

Thanks Tac! I happened to come across a bin of those screws just the other day - almost pitched them as I no longer have any Aristo track....good thing I didn't. Never occurred to me they might be a common metric thread.

 

[AsterUK]

Sorry Terry for the lack of service with your enquiry but we have been entertaining Mr Fujii and Miss Yamamoto for the last few days. Requests for parts have been taking a back seat. I will send you some correct Aster screws for your White Pass loco since the thought of OEM screws in your beautiful Aster does not thrill me!

Andrew

 

[tacfoley]

Posted By AsterUK on 01/17/2009 2:38 AM
Sorry Terry for the lack of service with your enquiry but we have been entertaining Mr Fujii and Miss Yamamoto for the last few days. Requests for parts have been taking a back seat. I will send you some correct Aster screws for your White Pass loco since the thought of OEM screws in your beautiful Aster does not thrill me!

Andrew




Thanks, Andrew, not bother, and please pass on my best wishes to Fujii-san Jnr and Yamamoto-san. I hope to be able to meet them sometime when I am back over in Japan with the Kochijoji live-steam group.

Whinemeal, the screws I have temporarily installed are holding up pretty well, but then I don't exactly throw my Aster locos around the yard.

As an aside, I have already had a couple of live-steam friends on the other side of the Great Water asking me about a grey 'Tornado', although I know we talked about it a while back...I have to note that the real thing is made just like an Aster model!

Best wishes

tac
www.ovgrs.org