Hornby service sheets

[GWR_fan]

As information on Hornby locomotives is hard to come by, the service sheets provide a good reference source. Alas, if a locomotive has a tender drive heritage then often the service sheet shows both a loco chassis with can motor drive and tender chassis with ringfield drive on the same reference sheet. How is one to know what is used for what? Does a set type loco still have tender drive ringfield or loco drive three-pole can or five-pole can motor? Any help appreciated.

Tim

[Bigmet]

Deep in the minefield there Tim. All you can reliably go on are the 'Rxxxx' numbers that go with the diagram.

Apart from the Dean Goods, do Hornby have any more sometime tender drive locos in the range that they haven't updated to loco drive? Unless there is some stash of tender drive antiques sitting in Margate, I would think that any loco other than a Dean Goods in a currently produced set is going to be a loco drive unit. As for three pole or five pole can, that too is known to Hornby alone, I am not entirely clear what is in the L1 2-6-4T for example, but it runs sweetly enough...

[GWR_fan]

There is the crux of the problem. Hornby is celebrating around fifty years of production and there are service sheets for most production items and yet what actually is 'under the bonnet' is a factory secret. If not current factory production then it seems it does not exist. It would be nice if there was a definitive site to browse.

Tim

[Essex2Visuvesi]

yes but that would make life easy lol

[Bigmet]

The guy most likely to create anything like such a 'one stop' site is probably Pat Hammond, who compiles a collector's guide distributed only in print form, http://www.amazon.co.uk/Ramsays-British ... 0955619483 and also runs the MREmag site. http://www.mremag.com/ His emphasis though is on collecting. Which as we all know is firstly about the box, a long way second what's inside but never been handled, and no interest at all in the mechanism. I have never looked at the book so cannot tell you if it contains anything of practical use...

[trooper]

As information on Hornby locomotives is hard to come by, the service sheets provide a good reference source. Alas, if a locomotive has a tender drive heritage then often the service sheet shows both a loco chassis with can motor drive and tender chassis with ringfield drive on the same reference sheet. How is one to know what is used for what? Does a set type loco still have tender drive ringfield or loco drive three-pole can or five-pole can motor? Any help appreciated.

Tim

Try logging on to the Hornby web site look for downloads and hey presto the is one for Service Sheets http://www.hornby.com/downloads/service-sheets/

[GWR_fan]

Trooper,
thankyou, but if you read my posting I stated that yes, service sheets are available, but on tender driven heritage lines the sheets show both a loco driven chassis and a tender driven chassis on the same service sheet. How is one supposed to know what is what when looking at a set type new loco or an individually packaged type? Once an item is no longer current production it falls off the end of the earth as regards information from Hornby.

Tim

[trooper]

Trooper,
thankyou, but if you read my posting I stated that yes, service sheets are available, but on tender driven heritage lines the sheets show both a loco driven chassis and a tender driven chassis on the same service sheet. How is one supposed to know what is what when looking at a set type new loco or an individually packaged type? Once an item is no longer current production it falls off the end of the earth as regards information from Hornby.

Tim

Not true you can obtain from a number of sources copies of the service sheets and EACH TIME an alteration is made a new service sheet is issued, It will have the same number but have a suffix letter ie 201A 201B. Also on the service sheet the catalogue no ie R number is always stated and if as you say the the locos are new in their boxes them the R number will be there . A quick look on Ebay will probably throw a CD rom with service sheets on.

One further point tender drive models never had can motors. The most common motors are the XO4/XO3 as used in most of the steam locos, A double worm motor used in DMUS and on the Class 31/35 and 37. The XO4/XO3 motor was replaced briefley in some of the 0-6-0 tanks locos by a form of can motor before the motor used today was introduced. When tender drive was introduced a ringfield motor was introduced with it . There have been three types of this motor . The motor bogie was also used in diesel and electric motors from a later date.

[Bigmet]

And here's your one stop shop Tim, 'Trooper' knows EVERYTHING!

[trainlover23]

And here's your one stop shop Tim, 'Trooper' knows EVERYTHING!

Actually what he says is basically true.

[trainlover23]

And here's your one stop shop Tim, 'Trooper' knows EVERYTHING!

Actually what he says is basically true re the service sheets. I don`t think he knows EVERYTHING plenty of poeple on here think they do and get too BIG for their boots.

[GWR_fan]

I get back to my original question, how does one know what is under a model? OK, I have an 'RXXXX' number for a relatively recent 47 class Railroad range locomotive. I look up the Hornby service sheets, as I have done many times and lo and behold, the quoted 'R' numbers are earlier versions and this is their current spec sheet. Now my enquiry was whether the more recent 47 class Hornby-derived items were fitted with a 'can' motor bogie drive (as other Railroad range locomotives have been) or still retained their heritage ringfield drives to current day? I am aware the Lima derived 47 class was retrofitted with a can motor bogie drive. I am only looking at the Railroad loco as a source of potential spare parts, so not interested in "buy a ViTrains' or a Bachmann or Heljan model", responses. One can purchase a complete loco for basically the cost of a replacement drive bogie.

Also, I have rebuilt enough tender drive chassis to know that a can motor was never fitted to a tender drive model (I never mentioned that any tender drive model ever had a can motor). It seems the real answer is to buy a loco and pull it apart to see what is there, regardless of all the service sheets available. The sheets are useless if not upgraded. If current sheets are available then where does one source them? Buying a service sheet CD is only good enough if one wants previous models, otherwise one has to constantly purchase a newer release CD to get the latest information.

Tim