Class 43 - RC?

[Buelligan]

Hi all, has anyone here fitted a class 43 HST and coaches with the relevant electronics to make it radio controlled?

If we do ever manage to move house I’d like my own layout, instead of using my sons. There’s no room inside the house for a layout, and the garden isn’t big to enough to dedicate a shed to it. So I’m hoping to build a couple of loops in the garden, with a yard inside a garden shed. As a way of keeping the track clean on the outdoor section I was thinking of trying to convert a class 43 to run on batteries via a radio control. And then convert 1 of the coaches and maybe the dummy car to clean the track as it goes round.

Has anyone here done anything similar?

[Bigmet]

Let's take a step back. I have operated OO outdoors, DC, and it was great fun.

Major lesson, traction tyres are useless outdoors, and single motor bogies (and tender drives) are as a result not even worth considering. Two motor bogies on metal tyres in a single body work better for traction when given sufficient added weight, but impose more load on the batteries, because there are two motors. The more recently available centre motor design driving both bogies is the winner, one efficient motor and both bogies for traction, and plenty of weight. (You may have to take a saw to the cast block to make space for batteries and RC.)

Big problem with RC, no established standard for model railway use, and it borrows from aeromodelling so is a clunkfest of 'binding' loco receiver to controller. What we want for model railway is an open broadcast system, by which the transmitter can address all receivers at all times, sending addressed packets to instruct the required loco to move, exactly as DCC does with a rail borne signal.

Personally I would use DCC. In small scale the rails have to be inspected and cleaned before the operating session, one bird dropping, snail, fallen leaf, feather, or whatever will cause derailments. A piece of hardboard rough side down attached at an angle to a broomstick which you push round before you start operating does the railhead cleaning quickly and easily as you do the walk around inspection. (You alternate direction every time you clean, so that the rails aren't pushed in one direction all the time.)

[Buelligan]

Thanks for the reply. Unfortunately DCC isn't an option, I can't afford to retro-fit chips to all my locos, plus my kids will want to use it too, and their stuff is all DC. I know this will make it harder and mean the track needs to be kept cleaner. I plan on running a cleaning coach around on every train. My Dad used to have a wagon that had a pad that sat underneath and dragged on the rails, and you had to fill a tray inside with some sort of cleaning fluid, it would then soak into the pad and cleaned the rails as it went round.

With regards to the RC class 43, I'll have to look up the single motor bogies etc not sure what that is, or which era of models each is fitted to. I was hoping to pick up a cheap second hand model off eBay, though it has to be the right livery, and that is proving difficult to find.
I've boxes of spares from model boats, and was planning to utilise some of this. As a simple plan, I was thinking I should be able to fit a small speed controller, and a receiver into the body of the engine, then have the batteries housed in the coaches/dummy car (depending on how many coaches either 2 6v packs wired to give me 12v, or 4 3v or 4 6v packs wired accordingly to give the 12v. Only running 1 train at a time from the transmitter wouldn't be an issue as it would be used purely for cleaning and checking the track prior to running other engines. Though having said that, if I was to use an old 40Mhz or similar transmitter I should be able to run up to 4 engines from the 1 transmitter.

Reason for the choice of a class 43 HST, quite simply a bit of nostalgia, diesels hold little interest to me, but it was the class 43 that I always used to see leaving Temple Meads when on the park and ride with my Dad.

[Bufferstop]

One thing you can do, is wire your track the way that's recommended for DCC. A pair of busbars, some blue and brown 2.5mm stripped from cooker cable with a dropper from every length of rail. Keep the bus as close to the track as possible then you can safely use short lengths of thinner more flexible wire for the droppers. Then pile on the ballast to hide it. Fishplates are hopeless for conduction when used outside.

[Bigmet]

...With regards to the RC class 43, I'll have to look up the single motor bogies etc not sure what that is, or which era of models each is fitted to...

Which I now see is the HST and not the weird hydraulic blob. Simple enough, Hornby and Lima HSTs have single motor bogies, dependent on traction tyres EXCEPT for the current Hornby main range model which has the modern centre motor drive to both bogies. As a fixed formation train, the HST is ideal for R/C and battery power as there is ample space for the gear.

[Buelligan]

One thing you can do, is wire your track the way that's recommended for DCC. A pair of busbars, some blue and brown 2.5mm stripped from cooker cable with a dropper from every length of rail. Keep the bus as close to the track as possible then you can safely use short lengths of thinner more flexible wire for the droppers. Then pile on the ballast to hide it. Fishplates are hopeless for conduction when used outside.

Thanks, I thought I'd read that was the best way to do it, but my soldering skills aren't good. I can manage to solder wires together on my motorbikes, but I can't seem to get the wires to stay soldered to other things! I know the fishplates aren't any good for conducting from 1 track to another, but would something like this be any better? https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/PECO-POWER-F ... SwdwlcsauW

Construction of the track is undecided as yet as we still need to actually move! Then I can measure the garden and see if I can fit what I want in the space. Initial thoughts are to use marine ply as a baseboard, covered in a grey roof resin. Unsure on if I'd be ballasting the outdoor section.

...With regards to the RC class 43, I'll have to look up the single motor bogies etc not sure what that is, or which era of models each is fitted to...

Which I now see is the HST and not the weird hydraulic blob. Simple enough, Hornby and Lima HSTs have single motor bogies, dependent on traction tyres EXCEPT for the current Hornby main range model which has the modern centre motor drive to both bogies. As a fixed formation train, the HST is ideal for R/C and battery power as there is ample space for the gear.

Ah yes, my mistake, I only realised a couple of days ago that there was a class 43 that wasn't the HST. My budget won't stretch anywhere near a new set, so I'm currently looking for a set of at least motor unit, 1 coach and 1 dummy car, but at the moment I can't see any in the colour scheme I want. I've found photos on google of the real thing in the correct colours, but can't seem to find any models.


I have found a site selling railway specific radio control gear, so if I manage to find an affordable HST in the right colours I'll get in touch with them and see what they can do. Here's the link if anyone else is interested: http://www.micronradiocontrol.co.uk