Model Railway Forum

Hi Everyone

I seriously need some advice on a project I am working on but having some issues with, I offer my thanks and appreciation in advance for any replies given.

I recently purchased a hornby X9634M/1 ( class 101 / 121 ) motor bogie from Peter's Spares to fit in my class 110 hybrid dmu, a few alterations were required to the chassis of the powered coach in order to fit the motor bogie, however, this is were my problems begin.

The chassis is from the older 1980s / 1990s class 110 which takes a ringfield motor but since I have no X942 class 110 / HST motor bogies left I decided to purchase the much upgraded motor to make the unit run smoother and quieter and the modifications were going well up until last night.

The primary issue is that the aperture where the old ringfield motor fits is much longer than the new motor bogie and consequently the motor can move substantially more than I think it should do in the direction of travel when running forwards or backwards to the point where the motor bogie itself is practically doing wheelies and 1 axle is completely off the rails causing constant derailments.

In order to attempt to rectify the issue, I attempted to make some pieces out 80 thou plasticard which would have the same internal curve / guide as the original aperture to try an close the space up so that the motor bogie cannot do wheelies and here is the 2nd issue, I have a feeling that I did not make the pieces long enough to significantly reduce the amount of free movement of the motor bogie.

I say that because when I tested the motor coach on its own and in formations of 3, 4 and 5 coaches, no matter whether the motor was in 1 of the driving coaches or in 1 of the centre coaches ( my general preference as it gives roughly even weight at both ends ) the motor bogie was still able to do wheelies and derail itself aswell as the neighbouring coaches.

I don't have any photos at this point but I will get some done and post them either tonight or tomorrow so that everyone can see what the problem is and hopefully help me sort it out.

In reference to this subject, can I ask please if anybody knows whether hornby has the updated version of the chassis for the class 110 as produced for the new 2 & 3 coach models of the 110 that are shown in this years catalogue ( my apologies I don't know the R numbers for the models ), all I do know is that the 2 coach unit is in Blue and Grey livery and the 3 coach is in BR Green.

I have looked on the New Modellers Shop website and they do not have the class 110 chassis for the updated model and consequently I am not sure where to look next.

Any help and / or advice gratefully received and appreciated and thank you for taking a look.

This may be of no use but have you looked here.

https://www.lendonsmodelshop.co.uk

Many thanks for that link, I never knew of the shop until I visited the website, they have most spares although still a few missing from the range but still a good place if you're looking for anything at a good price too.

I will certainly be visiting the site again and fully recommend it.

They also have loads of service sheets you can download. Or at least they did.

Hi Everyone

As promised yesterday, here are the pictures of the Class 121 / 101 motor I fitted into a 1980s / 1990s Class 110 powered coach. Although it works, the end result just to get it to this stage has been a complete pain in the rear to achieve, it turns out that the plastic chassis don't like being glued whether it's to repair a chassis or as in this case to build the tower piece ( not sure what its actually called ) but suffice to say there were several instances of getting superglue on my fingers ( luckily not stuck together ), also there was the additional problem of getting the pieceto which the motor is connected to sit level but also to stop the tower pulling itself apart hence the piece of 1 mm brass wire bent at both ends to hold it together, however, this prevents the original windows from being fitted to the body.



I'm not sure if the gaps between the motor and chassis can be seen in this photo but they roughly measure about 6 - 7 mm either side of the motor which I think is what allows the motor bogie to do the wheelies I mentioned in the opening post.



Here I tried to show the gaps either side of the motor from the underside of the chassis and without wires in the way.



The motor tower was built using 80 thou plasticard, the pain I find here is that these newer motors whilst they are superior in both performance and noise reduction than the older 3 or 5 pole ringfield motors, they don't clip into the chassis the way the original bogie mouldings do hence the need for these motor towers.

I would like to add at this point that whilst a lot of members on here are familiar with these newer motors, there will be some members who are new to the hobby and may only have worked on XO3, XO4 and Ringfield motors and might not have had experience with these updated motor bogies yet.

This is why I have worded my explanations the way I have and as a result I must state for the record that they are in no way meant as a form of saying that nobody knows what they're talking about as I am well aware that there is a massive wealth of information and experience on all forums.

Hi Everyone

Thought I would give an update on my class 110 fictional hybrid unit as it has been a few days since I opened the thread up to explain what was happening.

After a few days of head scratching I decided to give something a try and see if it would be a successful idea, as it turned out, it was successful and here it is.



The pieces at both ends of the motor are made from 80 thou plasticard and I found that 2 pieces stacked together were sufficient to fill in the gaps at both ends.

The resulting experiment was good because now the motor no longer does wheelies and finally means that I have a workable unit again, wish I had known about this option months ago as it would have been back in servmuch sooner had I known that this conversion was possible but at last its done, now if I can only decide which livery to do.

All suggestions considered.

Well done, some would have heaved it into the bin.

I can imagine, but for me this was the most cost effective way to revive the unit as paying nearly £140 or £150 just for a 2 coach blue / grey unit is nowhere near viable at this time.

I agree. Very therapeutic getting something to work properly.

Since my last post about my Hornby Class 110, I have been looking at the potential possibility of purchasing a Bachmann class 108 powered chassis and using that to repower the 110 but for nowat least, that option is just awaiting funds to purchase 1 or possibly 2 powered chassis depending on the length of unit I decide to create.

Currently, the current class 101 / 121 motor bogie has had a modification after 1 of the excessively thin traction tyres went awol, I decided to use some of the older 1980s / 1990s hst wheels which were also used on the class 110 with a small modification of the tyred wheels by removal of the gear from the back of them and Bachmann gears ( with the correct teeth spacing to mesh properly with the motor gears ).

After the modifications to the older hst wheels and installation of the Bachmann gears on the axles, the motor coach was tested and after some tweaking of the pickups now works better than with the thin tyres the motor bogie had when purchased.