Leader is a re-built and enhanced design based on the previous ‘Excelsior’, without the bunker. It has the larger half inch cylinders used on other Accucraft standard engines, giving it good pulling power and controllability.
The loco is fitted with the balloon stack chimney, with the standard straight chimney supplied loose in the box for customers who want to change the appearance of their model.
A water gauge glass is fitted to this loco.
Leader is a dual gauge prototypical scale model. It comes set to 45mm gauge and is supplied with a 32mm gauge pony truck in the accessory pack for easy customer gauge conversion.
Length over coupling faces: 315mm
Length over buffer beams: 255mm
Extreme width (over cylinders): 113mm
Extreme Height (over chimney): 157mm
Weight: 3.2Kg
Paint matching information: Humbrol No 14 is a match for the Whipsnade Blue.
The Light Green is a very close match to photographs of the Sittingbourne & Kemsley locos taken in the 1960's.
Please note as supplied by Accucraft UK Leader is designed for manual control and is not 'R/C ready'. Our R/C fitting prices reflect the extra work involved, the single channel option has a servo on the linkage to the reversing valve (as fitted to Ragleth etc), whilst the twin channel option has servos on both the regulator and reverser.
Accucraft Leader 0-4-2ST Live Steam Locomotive Radio Control Operating Instructions
The on/off switch for the radio receiver in the locomotive is on the underside of the left hand bunker. The switch is orientated with ‘off’ as towards the rear of the locomotive, and ‘on’ towards the front.
When steaming up, once the loco is lit, switch on the Transmitter FIRST, then the receiver. The servos will ‘kick’ forwards for a second or two, then reset to the neutral position – this is just as the transmitter and receiver ‘bind’ together. (This is why you should switch on before there is any steam pressure!).
You do not need to worry about any other radio control equipment being used on the same frequency, your controls are digitally ‘bound’ together, and will not be interfered with by, or interfere with, any other r/c equipment. The initial set-up to ‘bind’ the transmitter and receiver together has already been done for you.
The left stick of the transmitter controls the regulator, fully down being closed and up to open. The sideways movement of this stick has no function in this installation. The right hand stick controls the reverser.
The loco has been steam tested prior to shipping, and proved satisfactory. The receiver batteries have also been fully charged before dispatch. Please note that the transmitter does NOT have rechargeable batteries on it, but you may install these if you so wish.
Battery Charging
The locomotive receiver batteries are of the NiMH re-chargeable type and will hold a charge for long periods of time, (over 6 months), unlike NiCads. The receiver and batteries are located in the ashpan underneath the trailing bogie, and are tucked in with a strip of foam rubber. You need not disturb them in normal use. The short (approx 3cm) grey wire poking out of the receiver is the aerial – take care not to damage it.
The charging lead is a tucked in the cab. To charge, plug in the charger lead to this connector, ensuring the polarity is correct, and plug the charger into a mains socket. The red LED will glow while charging, and the green LED will glow when charging is complete and reduced to a trickle charge. It is advisable NOT to leave the charger connected any longer. From flat, a full charge will take approximately an hour.
The transmitter uses 4 ‘AA’ cells, these are NOT of the re-chargeable type. These should be replaced when the voltage on the transmitter LCD display drops to 4.4v. Experience has shown these may provide in the region of 24 hours use.