The Classic Machinery Network

Hi, I volunteer at the Golden Valley Light Railway on my weekends, in the workshops - I have been tasked with restoring/recommissioning this BEV WR5 loco that came from Wheal Jane in Cornwall in the early 90s when it closed.





It is missing its contactor block assembly, (I have tried to show it in the second pictures) does anyone on here know anything about this type of controller, I am told it is like some Lansing Bagnal trucks ?

Hi Andy, I don't know who owns Lansing Bagnal these days but there must be a parts distributor for them, possibly a local forklift truck specialist, they may be able to help you.

Jeremy

... i think it is part of Linde now, we have some Linde equipment at work - I will chase up 'the heavy gang' as they are known (one of the lift trucks is 40t) to try and get a chat with a rep or something. I have found out quite a bit more - not all the locos were the same, a 'yard shunter' did not have the switcher like ours - it had a 'Pulse-o-matic' Mk10 controller, an 'electronic' controller made by Cableform in the 1970s - another option ? - the wiring diagram for that shows how the six wire motor, 2 Armature A &AA , 2 field coils Y1 & Y2 and Y3 & Y4 are configured for that type of controller

.... go back 2 years and I broke a Cushman Titan 48v Truck (and of course squirrelled away all the guts) which has a Curtis controller, a yank version of the Pulse-o-matic ? - more wiring diagram searching !

Andy

I should think a good competent forklift truck fitter/sparky would be able to put you in the right direction, sadly I'm crap at electrics short of a broken wire corroded terminal or blown fuse.

Jeremy

I have spoken with three very helpful people, but one has came up trumps - he knew of a modern equivalent to the unobtainable Sevcon switch elements, that are produced by Schaltbau, - not identical, so not a straight swap, which means you would have to modify the carrier, but as we don't have a carrier its no problem, I will just make one to fit.

I looked into getting some and they are quite expensive to by new from a UK supplier, then he told me last night of a source in the USA where I have just bought 4 from that with tax and shipping are less than 1 in the UK !

- here is an initial CAD design I have done

Looking good best of luck with it let us know how you get on.

Jeremy