Check your loco's!!!!!!!!!!!

[bulleidboy]

One of the members of my local club, said that he had Hornby Schools Class "Cheltenham" that was going in the scrap bin due to Mazak Rot (Zinc Pest). I knew I had this loco, bought new back in 2010, so thought it might be wise to check it out. Still on its mounting brackets, it virtually fell out of the box in pieces. I have three Merchant Navy Class loco's from the same era that are on the list, so will check them out - the main complaint with these, is that the front bogie rots away - but is replaceable with a new part. No new parts available for this loco
IMG_1970 by Barry Clayton, on Flickr
IMG_1971 by Barry Clayton, on Flickr

[Steve M]

That's horribly unfortunate. You do realise that the choice of mazak was cunning plan to get you to buy replacements? Or at least that's what the dates on RMWeb say.

[Walkingthedog]

What a shame and mint condition apart from the shape.

[bulleidboy]

I kept all of the screws and the motor - the rest was a bin job. It really wasn't salvageable - as you said Brian "it was in mint condition.

[508035]

Hi bulliedboy

Is it not possible to salvage the wheels and valve gear aswell so that you at least got some spares in case they are ever needed ?

I would guess that the front bogie was not recoverable due to the same issue. I once purchased the hornby railroad black 5 ( cabside number 5112 ) and the patriot loco ( cabside number 5532 ), both locomotive driven.

The locomotive section on both loco's was excellent, however, the problem with these 2 was the ex tender drive motor block.

I was running the black 5 once when it suddenly start stuttering and saw continuous arcing from the tender, I immediately removed the loco from the track and uncoupled the tender, retested the loco, it ran without fault.

I then returned the tender to the track, nothing but arcs. Opening up the tender rapidly revealed the issue that the motor block was badly swelling up around the pickups and wheels causing a straight short, same thing on the patriot loco.

I recovered everything from the ex motor blocks and fortunately had some from my tender drive loco's and luckily got them working again with pre loco drive tendet motor blocks.

Upon checking the parts removed from the 2 tenders, the 1st piece to break off was the centre piece where the bearing goes and that was with light handling and even though my hands are always at their strongest, I actually managed to physically break the remains of the railroad tender motor block in half.

If I had to guess, I would say that QC at hornby, particularly during the heating of thr metal to be used for the casting process is not being properly checked for impurities ( not starting any form of debate about production processes ) but clearly something is going wrong during production of these models.

[bulleidboy]

Hi 508035
I have kept everything that was salvageable - motor,wheels, valve gear and all nuts,bolts and screws.

[Mountain Goat]

Oh no! I hope you can find a way to get it fixed? As our locos are our special friends!
Would an older chassis from another make or model work?

Possibilities?

https://www.elaines-trains.co.uk/index.php?cat=52312

https://www.elaines-trains.co.uk/index.php?cat=48665

https://www.elaines-trains.co.uk/index.php?cat=48885


I had a brief look at things which could possibly be adapted, but are not ideal.

I will keep a look out.

[508035]

A chassis from a railroad schools loco perhaps, quite sure I have seen at least 1 on ebay using the search parameter hornby locomotive chassis.

[Mountain Goat]

A chassis from a railroad schools loco perhaps, quite sure I have seen at least 1 on ebay using the search parameter hornby locomotive chassis.

I just amended the links I put above as I found one that you just mentioned, though this one needs some work. Her Re it is in the link below.

https://www.elaines-trains.co.uk/index.php?cat=52312

Actually, looking at it, it is a nice looking model visually speaking. Needs fixing, but it looks good.

[Walkingthedog]

I had a loco in a similar state. Trying to repair the body is a waste of time. If you straighten it the metal just snaps and crumbles.