Compass House "Bulldog"
Compass House "Bulldog" |
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Reviewed By Paul Middleton
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A Quick Review of Compass House's 0-4-0 "Bulldog" Current price around £950 Check web page for details Buffers and batteries are extra. |
| Having bought our first Bulldog secondhand we have had to carry out a few modifications. First we have used standard car batteries. You are not supposed to use these but leisure batteries which are designed to cope better with the constant load. In our defence car batteries cost £30 each as against £85.Our batteries generally last around four hard working hours. |
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The second modifications were because it
came with a very simple control board and a double pole
switch for reversing. It wasn't long before this packed
up. We replaced it with a 4qd Ncc series control board
and hand held controller. Against many peoples recommendations we installed a deadmans switch on the side of the controller with an override key switch. This has saved many a run away train and something we would recommend especially if you have youngsters (or big brothers) driving. |
Electronic control with heat sink |
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Left - Showing the
underside of our first Bulldog. NB coupling rods have
been removed. After quite a bit of abuse we needed to re motor this one. The original motor mounts restricted the airflow through the motors (something which has been changed on the later designs). When replacing the motors we remove large lumps of the brackets to increases air flow. Power is provided by two 12 volt Fasco fan motors in parrallel running on voltages upto 24 volt. We have also welded a tie bar across the side frames as with excessive cornering at speed and the odd crash we saw the side frames start to part. The last modification was to weld a battery tray so the batteries can be lifted out as a pair. This saves the hassle of having to disconnect the link wire every time. As for charging we have just opted for two chargers - one for each battery. |
In all our two Bulldogs have been excellent runners. They are very robust with all metal body work (except front end grill) and are very well built. The biggest joy of an electric loco is the ease in which you can just jump on and go. It is not uncommon on one of our busy days for one of these loco's do well over 5 miles. The other great reason for buying a Bulldog is spare parts are readily available.
After our visit to Chingford -see pictures, we drove both our Bulldogs for 5 hours with hardly any breaks. We only managed to flatten the batteries in one loco with time beating us and not being able to flatten the second loco. On the open track they were fabulous with motors and contol boards keeping very cool. Pulling two people they felt very under worked.
Available from- Compass House - High Street, Rotherfield, E. Sussex . TN6 3LH. Tel 01892 852968 Fax 01892 853522
Paul
Middleton 30/5/01
