What a nice surprise when I saw this video! It never managed a full loop on my layout (and definitely not with the coaches!) so great to see it running, master skills once again Bill! Glad the mechanism was something a bit different for you to look at and wasn't overly frustrating. Keep up the great work! Toby
Fascinating. I have (at least) three of these: the original one, in green, with all-wheel drive; a blue one, like yours, which is rarer; and a four-wheel clockwork version, which is the rarest of all. I bought them to 'complete' my set of Western Region diesel hydraulic locos, as I couldn't afford a Dapol Class 22. These models bear more than a passing resemblance to the Class 22, which was also made by North British, although it's 5 foot shorter than the Class 21/29. Last time I tried them, the green one ran fine, and the blue one was really lumpy. Think I need to set to and follow your guidance to sort it out!
That model has had several different mechanisms. The early ones had a centrally mounted can motor with a shaft through the middle giving drive to both bogies. Thus in the sixties we had a model which was very basic but had all wheel drive far in advance of anything Hornby or Triang had at that time. If well serviced they run for years, I still have my first which is 55 years old and literally runs like a train and can easily pull twenty carriages!
I had one of the centrally mounted can models from Playcraft, in fact I probably still have it. My memory is that you had to be careful as its momentum would carry it on once the power was removed. Great fun, run at full whack kill the power and see how far it would go.
I had one too. I always thought the motor inertia was fun and i deluded myself it was prototypical. Bringing it to stop where you wanted took skill.....at least as a 10 year old boy i thought so.
@@ianjones4116 oops. They weren't the most robust models. The can motor had minute ball bearing armature guides secured by a flimsy cover plate. My cover plate detached....little balls everywhere !!!!
This is one model that won't require a sound chip!!!! Another interesting rescue of an older loco, well done Bill. By today's standards it's an ugly dinosaur but back in the 60's it was a different story. And its worth keeping.
It was my first ever diesel locomotive... bought in 63 or 64. At this time, Jouef had only a very small range of 12v DC engines (it had swapped from clockwork or 6v DC battery operated ones just 3 years before. They included a 0-4-0 shunter #708 (German inspired, with a green "western" variant sporting a red bullbar!) the SNCF North region 4-6-2 SuperPacific 231C60, the world record breaker electric BB9004 replaced in 61 with the more modern BB9201 and a little 0-4-0 diesel shunter inspired by industrial models. This diesel BoBo was then the first one available... and it was a BR one! At the same time, Jouef (manufacturing for Playcraft) had a very narrow range of rolling stock: a couple of brake vans, a postal coach (with a functional basket collector system (and provided with accessories: plastic mail nags and mailbag side track collector and perch), and 4 different marroon 1st and 2nd class passenger coaches. All in H0 scale.
Great to see the videos coming out regularly again. Whatever troubled you before, I hope all is well now. And next time it's all too much pressure, please let us know you're okay, would you?
My dad picked up this with a couple of Playcraft coaches. They were so out of scale compared to my Tri-ang locos. Quite liked the loco. It looked better with freight.
I have quite a few Jouef Ho locos - lots of variation in mechanisms though all noisy. The worst is a French electric with rubber band transmission a bit quieter but zero pulling power. My favourite is the Playcraft North British shunter which goes like a rocket! I must remag some of them as those wee magnets arent up to much.
Delighted to see you dealing with another H0 loco, and making it run so well again. There are plenty of us in the British 1:87 Society with one of these tucked away in a cupboard which we've given up on after opening it up and being terrified at what we see (probably now more terrified now we've seen how you've dealt with it) who would love for you to deal similarly with their Jouef Class 29 loco. How would you feel about that, Bill?
once again another interesting video. I enjoy watching you restore older locomotives in a logical manner which helps me fo the same to some of my older stcok
Get some WhiteOut (Twink or whatever). It dries very fast and can be used for marking polarities. Dab a dot on a wire and and a dot near the matching terminal. Interesting to see a different setup - makes a change fom Ringfields :-)
Fantastic; a scale speed of an APT! Very informative video, I acquired one of these as part of a box of spares/repairs. Very basic moulding, when I first looked at the bogies, I thought --- clockwork. Taking off the body, it has a central motor driving both bogies --- but with a flywheel. So it seems someone's 'upgraded' the propulsion? Cutting the power from full speed, the loco carries on for about 3/4 feet without any current running through it! like a car with drum brakes. Very enjoyable, video, thank you.
Hi Bill, well that was a surprise, something new again. Sometimes come across some really good designs that someone has thought about but then coupled with something really strange. The drive gear setup; two sets of 90’ Good to see the magic is always there. How long indeed has it been all together running around a layout as a set.. All best Marc
I recently bought some secondhand jouef coaches, they were Belgian pullman coaches and you had to take the whole body off and fit a lampshade to every single table lamp, thankfully the previous owner had already done it but it seemed like a task and a half 😉 😀 and fit the light bulb housing to the roof of the coaches. 😬
Hi Bill. Well done for getting this thing running, I was just reading about Playcraft/Joueff. The model is of a class 21 but by the time it was repainted in blue it had been rebuilt into a class 29 with headcode boxes and different side panels. There are many mechanical variations of this model including an all-wheel drive version and one with just 4 wheels!
I always disliked these locos, they are such poor representations of the real thing. Hornby models if the time weren't brilliant, but were much better. That mechanism 😮
Interesting video, this is the version with the tough, but noisy 3-pole open frame motor. The sprung brush holders are a good design. Jouef eventually made a 5-pole version of this motor, much quieter and wirh excellent torque at low speed.
There is an early version of these with a central can motor driving all wheels. The motor is a very interesting design in that it has an internal flywheel effect. If people are getting the Jouef Class 29 look and the bogies and opt for the one with the all wheel drive.
Many years ago i purchased a class 31 and three matching blue and grey coaches. I later found out they were HO. It runs but have been in a box ever since. Another great service Bill
Hi Bill. Wow, what an excellent job you've done on getting her running again and boy, does she run. In all honesty, she doesn't really look like my Hornby Class 29 but I suppose, for a child, which is what they were intended for, that's good enough. The only problem with HO scale coaches is exactly that, the scale. The difference between HO and OO coaches is noticable when you link them together so it's best to keep them separate. P.S. How are you getting on with your search for a J52 for under £40? It's possible that Scotland will win a major football tournament first. 😁 Good luck pal.
£31.00p......? Are you sure? Ahhhh, the penny's just dropped, it's got no motor, body only, and you've already got a spare chassis and motor that will fit in it. That's cheating Bill you naughty boy tut tut! Can't wait to see an upload of it both before and after its motor & chassis is inserted. 😁
Another well known repairer uses white grease and oil - but he pre-mixes it off the loco and then applies it with a suitable instrument like a small bladed screwdriver (toothpick would probably work as well).
Interesting someone else has found mixing oil and grease works well. I do plan to premix and bottle my "gear lube" but I have another idea for that and how to apply it.
@@oobill I tend to use the grease as is on Lima mechanisms in the hope that the grease will have a bit of a damping effect on the gears and reduce the Lima "scream" a little.
What controller are you using? Is it only the one loco that does that? If the loco runs on the track then it's probably a combination of poor loco performance causing excessive current draw when on the rolling road. Unless the rolling road is very high quality it's not going to mirror track running performance. Some controllers like the R985 cut out when a loco is pulling too much current.
An old Scotsman with a X04 versus a train set controller on a rolling road. Again if the loco runs on the track then I suspect it's pulling too much current and is probably causing the controller to cut out. You need to try another controller or just don't bother with the rolling road. A test track is much more relevant as it tests the loco actually moving. i don't have a rolling road and don't see me ever getting one.
« When you said I’m expecting something unusual… ». I thought « you’ll certainly not be disappointed then » Never look a gift horse in the mouth as they say, but Jouef mechanisms of this period are universally awful. Ask me how I know😂 I’ve never seen one that works. This will no doubt be a first knowing you👍 They always seem to have found the most complicated solutions possible, gear trains, rubber band drive, six coupled locos where every wheel is driven by a gear train when you can just drive one axle and use the coupling rods. Compared with Triang Hornby stuff there’s no comparison. Édit: this is indeed the first time I’ve seen one run « properly ». Is it OO or HO ?
Allow me to disagree. I have an extensive collection of Jouef models (some bought in the early 60s, including my first H0 train set my parents bought for Xmas in 1961 as a replacement to my Hornby 0 tin plate train). All of them are still working perfectly. The first electric models with the central "sausage" motor and full traction on both bogies with a cascade of straight and 90° cogs and wheels are the best: very smooth riders, perfect current captation and their traction power can be easily improved with some added weight (there's always 1mple room inside). Things became tricky in the late 60s-early 70s when models became more detailed but the transmission chain used non reversible wormscrews or (worse) rubber bands instead of cogs and wheels. But it didn't last and quite soon 5 poles or even brushless motors with flywheel and electronic control resulted in performance equivalent to those of rival manufacturers like Roco or Fleischmann (and certainly way better than even many contemporary Bachmann or Hornby ones. As for your last question: like all the Jouef-Playcraft range, all those models are in H0 (1/87) scale.
@@jeanbonnefoy1377 Visiblement vous êtes de bonne foi 🤣 I’m sure you’re right now you mention it the only Jouef models I have experience of are 60’s and early 70’s, mainly childhood trains belonging to French friends the same age as me. So that fits with what you say. I’ve got a 140C (?) somewhere which is a really nice looking model but has rubber band drive so I’ve never seen it run.
What a nice surprise when I saw this video! It never managed a full loop on my layout (and definitely not with the coaches!) so great to see it running, master skills once again Bill! Glad the mechanism was something a bit different for you to look at and wasn't overly frustrating. Keep up the great work! Toby
Sorry it took so long to get around to! Thanks again for both locos.
Fascinating. I have (at least) three of these: the original one, in green, with all-wheel drive; a blue one, like yours, which is rarer; and a four-wheel clockwork version, which is the rarest of all. I bought them to 'complete' my set of Western Region diesel hydraulic locos, as I couldn't afford a Dapol Class 22. These models bear more than a passing resemblance to the Class 22, which was also made by North British, although it's 5 foot shorter than the Class 21/29.
Last time I tried them, the green one ran fine, and the blue one was really lumpy. Think I need to set to and follow your guidance to sort it out!
Wonderful
Strange I have 3 of those but they all have a centre mounted can motor with drive to both bogies.
That model has had several different mechanisms. The early ones had a centrally mounted can motor with a shaft through the middle giving drive to both bogies. Thus in the sixties we had a model which was very basic but had all wheel drive far in advance of anything Hornby or Triang had at that time. If well serviced they run for years, I still have my first which is 55 years old and literally runs like a train and can easily pull twenty carriages!
I had one of the centrally mounted can models from Playcraft, in fact I probably still have it. My memory is that you had to be careful as its momentum would carry it on once the power was removed. Great fun, run at full whack kill the power and see how far it would go.
I had one too. I always thought the motor inertia was fun and i deluded myself it was prototypical. Bringing it to stop where you wanted took skill.....at least as a 10 year old boy i thought so.
@@stillstanding123 me too. Until I took it apart and broke it 😡😡 spent years keeping it hidden from my dad . 😁
@@ianjones4116 oops. They weren't the most robust models. The can motor had minute ball bearing armature guides secured by a flimsy cover plate.
My cover plate detached....little balls everywhere !!!!
The can motor is nicknamed "saucisson", sausage, it's one of the best motors, lots of torque, great momentum and it draws very few Amps.
This is one model that won't require a sound chip!!!! Another interesting rescue of an older loco, well done Bill. By today's standards it's an ugly dinosaur but back in the 60's it was a different story. And its worth keeping.
Not the most attractive model , but clearly you enjoy a challenge! Nice to see an old loco restored to use
Some of the DCC modellers would pay a lot of money to make that amount of noise. 🤠
It was my first ever diesel locomotive... bought in 63 or 64. At this time, Jouef had only a very small range of 12v DC engines (it had swapped from clockwork or 6v DC battery operated ones just 3 years before. They included a 0-4-0 shunter #708 (German inspired, with a green "western" variant sporting a red bullbar!) the SNCF North region 4-6-2 SuperPacific 231C60, the world record breaker electric BB9004 replaced in 61 with the more modern BB9201 and a little 0-4-0 diesel shunter inspired by industrial models. This diesel BoBo was then the first one available... and it was a BR one! At the same time, Jouef (manufacturing for Playcraft) had a very narrow range of rolling stock: a couple of brake vans, a postal coach (with a functional basket collector system (and provided with accessories: plastic mail nags and mailbag side track collector and perch), and 4 different marroon 1st and 2nd class passenger coaches. All in H0 scale.
Thank you for your excellent videos, bless you and your loved ones ❤ Rodge David kidderminster uk 🇬🇧 ❤
Great to see the videos coming out regularly again. Whatever troubled you before, I hope all is well now. And next time it's all too much pressure, please let us know you're okay, would you?
Wow thatcould give smokey joe a run for its money. It's a shame the real ones couldn't be made to work that easily!
Nice troubleshooting!
My dad picked up this with a couple of Playcraft coaches. They were so out of scale compared to my Tri-ang locos. Quite liked the loco. It looked better with freight.
I have quite a few Jouef Ho locos - lots of variation in mechanisms though all noisy. The worst is a French electric with rubber band transmission a bit quieter but zero pulling power. My favourite is the Playcraft North British shunter which goes like a rocket! I must remag some of them as those wee magnets arent up to much.
Delighted to see you dealing with another H0 loco, and making it run so well again. There are plenty of us in the British 1:87 Society with one of these tucked away in a cupboard which we've given up on after opening it up and being terrified at what we see (probably now more terrified now we've seen how you've dealt with it) who would love for you to deal similarly with their Jouef Class 29 loco. How would you feel about that, Bill?
I'd take them on! :)
@@oobill I'll put it on our Forum tomorrow!
once again another interesting video. I enjoy watching you restore older locomotives in a logical manner which helps me fo the same to some of my older stcok
Still have a old Joeuf class 40 good strong locomotive with working headlights.
Motor was direct to a gear on the axle
Get some WhiteOut (Twink or whatever). It dries very fast and can be used for marking polarities. Dab a dot on a wire and and a dot near the matching terminal. Interesting to see a different setup - makes a change fom Ringfields :-)
So nice to have you back, Bill!
Fantastic; a scale speed of an APT! Very informative video, I acquired one of these as part of a box of spares/repairs.
Very basic moulding, when I first looked at the bogies, I thought --- clockwork. Taking off the body, it has a central motor driving both bogies --- but with a flywheel. So it seems someone's 'upgraded' the propulsion?
Cutting the power from full speed, the loco carries on for about 3/4 feet without any current running through it! like a car with drum brakes.
Very enjoyable, video, thank you.
Hi Bill, well that was a surprise, something new again. Sometimes come across some really good designs that someone has thought about but then coupled with something really strange. The drive gear setup; two sets of 90’
Good to see the magic is always there. How long indeed has it been all together running around a layout as a set.. All best Marc
I recently bought some secondhand jouef coaches, they were Belgian pullman coaches and you had to take the whole body off and fit a lampshade to every single table lamp, thankfully the previous owner had already done it but it seemed like a task and a half 😉 😀 and fit the light bulb housing to the roof of the coaches. 😬
Super. 💙 T.E.N.
Noisy, but what a beast - pulled those coaches like nothing. amazing repair/
Well that was a bit different.
Hi Bill. Well done for getting this thing running, I was just reading about Playcraft/Joueff. The model is of a class 21 but by the time it was repainted in blue it had been rebuilt into a class 29 with headcode boxes and different side panels. There are many mechanical variations of this model including an all-wheel drive version and one with just 4 wheels!
Love it. Nice one, man. :)
I always disliked these locos, they are such poor representations of the real thing. Hornby models if the time weren't brilliant, but were much better. That mechanism 😮
Interesting video, this is the version with the tough, but noisy 3-pole open frame motor. The sprung brush holders are a good design. Jouef eventually made a 5-pole version of this motor, much quieter and wirh excellent torque at low speed.
👍😃
I had a playcraft version in green. That looks like someone has substitued a Hornby motor in place of the bulky cylindrical jouef one.
Excellent video. Amazing how you resurected a loco that's over half a centry old!
The first model from Jouef I've ever seen that looks worse than its Hornby counterpart!
There is an early version of these with a central can motor driving all wheels. The motor is a very interesting design in that it has an internal flywheel effect. If people are getting the Jouef Class 29 look and the bogies and opt for the one with the all wheel drive.
Many years ago i purchased a class 31 and three matching blue and grey coaches.
I later found out they were HO. It runs but have been in a box ever since.
Another great service Bill
Are you sure it was not a Lima class 33? I don't think anyone made a HO class 31
You are probably cirrect👍
Can you fix a 4-6-0 royal act that has broken rods
Talk about a rat up a drainpipe!!
Hi Bill.
Wow, what an excellent job you've done on getting her running again and boy, does she run. In all honesty, she doesn't really look like my Hornby Class 29 but I suppose, for a child, which is what they were intended for, that's good enough. The only problem with HO scale coaches is exactly that, the scale. The difference between HO and OO coaches is noticable when you link them together so it's best to keep them separate.
P.S. How are you getting on with your search for a J52 for under £40? It's possible that Scotland will win a major football tournament first. 😁 Good luck pal.
£31. On it's way. Read it and weep....
£31.00p......? Are you sure? Ahhhh, the penny's just dropped, it's got no motor, body only, and you've already got a spare chassis and motor that will fit in it. That's cheating Bill you naughty boy tut tut! Can't wait to see an upload of it both before and after its motor & chassis is inserted. 😁
It is a Class 29. D6100 = the first Class 29 numbering. Love you videos of the repair/reqorking of models. thank you!
I would argue it's a Class 21. Class 29s were re-engined Class 21s, and numbered D6300+
Listed here as a Class 29. Doesn't matter though. I think this model is a Playcraft one after looking at this site.
Another well known repairer uses white grease and oil - but he pre-mixes it off the loco and then applies it with a suitable instrument like a small bladed screwdriver (toothpick would probably work as well).
Interesting someone else has found mixing oil and grease works well. I do plan to premix and bottle my "gear lube" but I have another idea for that and how to apply it.
@@oobill I tend to use the grease as is on Lima mechanisms in the hope that the grease will have a bit of a damping effect on the gears and reduce the Lima "scream" a little.
Any advice on what to do with a engine that short circuits the controller during rolling road testing?
What controller are you using? Is it only the one loco that does that? If the loco runs on the track then it's probably a combination of poor loco performance causing excessive current draw when on the rolling road. Unless the rolling road is very high quality it's not going to mirror track running performance. Some controllers like the R985 cut out when a loco is pulling too much current.
@@oobill I use a Hornby rolling road and a Hornby train set controller plus the engine is a flying Scotsman with a X.04 motor
An old Scotsman with a X04 versus a train set controller on a rolling road. Again if the loco runs on the track then I suspect it's pulling too much current and is probably causing the controller to cut out. You need to try another controller or just don't bother with the rolling road. A test track is much more relevant as it tests the loco actually moving. i don't have a rolling road and don't see me ever getting one.
@@oobill Plus it hasn't run for a very long time
« When you said I’m expecting something unusual… ». I thought « you’ll certainly not be disappointed then »
Never look a gift horse in the mouth as they say, but Jouef mechanisms of this period are universally awful. Ask me how I know😂 I’ve never seen one that works. This will no doubt be a first knowing you👍
They always seem to have found the most complicated solutions possible, gear trains, rubber band drive, six coupled locos where every wheel is driven by a gear train when you can just drive one axle and use the coupling rods. Compared with Triang Hornby stuff there’s no comparison.
Édit: this is indeed the first time I’ve seen one run « properly ».
Is it OO or HO ?
Allow me to disagree. I have an extensive collection of Jouef models (some bought in the early 60s, including my first H0 train set my parents bought for Xmas in 1961 as a replacement to my Hornby 0 tin plate train). All of them are still working perfectly. The first electric models with the central "sausage" motor and full traction on both bogies with a cascade of straight and 90° cogs and wheels are the best: very smooth riders, perfect current captation and their traction power can be easily improved with some added weight (there's always 1mple room inside). Things became tricky in the late 60s-early 70s when models became more detailed but the transmission chain used non reversible wormscrews or (worse) rubber bands instead of cogs and wheels. But it didn't last and quite soon 5 poles or even brushless motors with flywheel and electronic control resulted in performance equivalent to those of rival manufacturers like Roco or Fleischmann (and certainly way better than even many contemporary Bachmann or Hornby ones.
As for your last question: like all the Jouef-Playcraft range, all those models are in H0 (1/87) scale.
@@jeanbonnefoy1377
Visiblement vous êtes de bonne foi 🤣
I’m sure you’re right now you mention it the only Jouef models I have experience of are 60’s and early 70’s, mainly childhood trains belonging to French friends the same age as me. So that fits with what you say. I’ve got a 140C (?) somewhere which is a really nice looking model but has rubber band drive so I’ve never seen it run.