Hornby L6360 Blue Pacer ?

The early Hornby class 142 models are not DCC ready so you would have to hard wire a decoder. I think that the earlyer 142s ( pre china ) are easyer for chipping but they are not as good with the pickups, they have 3 pick ups per car, the china ones have 4 per car but getting around the wiring is a bit harder ( not much harder though ). the latest 142s that have been made are dcc ready ( R2700 ) Try this page on the Hornby web site it may be helpfull for chipping

Thanks for that .... it will help a great deal.

The only problem is this model has TWO motors, one in each car, and I understand quite rare ( that's probably both good & bad news ).

As one Hornby DCC chip will be unable two motors I will either have to install two chips set to one code ( and reverse the wires on one ) or simply disconnect one motor but the motors are the ones used in 0-6-0 loco's.

Again thanks for your help.

Chris

Hi again. If you were to remove a motor from one of the Vehicles the remaining motorised unit may need a little extra weight adding to it near the motor / cab end, because driving with one axel isnt that good and wheel slip could happen. I think someone else who knows mor about DCC will be able to advise you more on running two motors and decoders / chips on one address, you may be better removing a motor than spending money on two chips, but someone who knows more will be best to advise you Kindest Regards Misc

Would it not be possible to use a different make of DCC decoder, one with a higher rating?

That would be the correct approach...

...that would be the wrong approach - Hornby didn't fit two motors for no good reason, IIRC the very early Pacers couldn't pull themselves along (away from flat track) never mind the skin of a rice pudding!

Yes ! that thought did cross my mind .... they don't 'over engineer' anything these days.

I assume the main problem is the lack of driving wheels.

Anyone got any ideas on the max. power drain for these type of motors ? The newer Hornby decoders might manage to take two of these but can they cope with the variations in the motors ?

Could I replace the normal wheels with the rubber type as there is still power pick up from the other wheels ?

This looks like a little project for the Winter .......

Chris

"Dragon Heart" wrote

All of the early Pacers had both cars motorised.

I can't see why you can't control both motors with one single decoder. I can't believe either will draw much more than 1/10th amp, and all decoders should handle double that with ease.

John.

II will give it a go John.

As the units are mirror images of each other I don't need to reverse the wire do I ?

Chris

Depends if you want them to go in the same direction...

Well it would help :-)

My thoughts at the moment are to use the existing wiring to the 'following' unit, isolate the pick ups in that unit and use the wire to connect from the decoder to the 2nd motor.

Yes ! I know that MAY cause problems with pick up but any additional wiring may cause problems at the coupling.

Chris

"Dragon Heart" wrote

I think you're making a rod for your own back; you'll need all-wheel (or as close to that as possible) pick-up on this unit if you want anything near to decent running.

You're only talking about four wires between the two cars to get best possible performance - assuming of course that you're not planning on fitting directional lighting.

John.

Attached is the spares diagram for the Hornby pacer.

I have done several of these conversions for people who wish to remove one of the motors. Later units and the DCC ready versions now only have one motor fitted.

Use part X8448 to allow pick up from second unit via the coupling (X8447 is optional if you wish to renew or replace the existing pick ups) and wire the decoder in the normal way. You should be able to get the required parts from your local Hornby Repairer (not necessarily your local stockist!) or I can supply them for you they are under £5.00.

The main problem is not the requirement of extra weight in the unit from which you take the motor, but on the remaining powered unit. This needs addtional weight to stop the wheels from skidding. I use stick on wheel weights which are available from most tyre fitters stuck under the chassis to avoid having to hack out the seating unit / floor.

Hope this is useful,

Pete.

Oh, FFS! Grow up!

MBQ

That's strange you abuse excuse for a human being. Iit came up on reader. Why don't you ask your father (if you know who it is ) if you can borrow one of his razor blades and go sit on the railway and play with it.

Rightly or wrongly I am basing my experience on the tender driven Mallard I converted to Zero1 many years ago. The decoder was too big to fit in the tender so they used to suggest putting the wires through an opening you made in the firebox and had the decoder in the loco body. The additional stiffness of the wiring used to cause problems with derailments. With the Pacer being so light I thought this would increase the problem.

So after some thought I am going with your option John.

I already have some old tyre balancing weights from the local garage which I have used in my home made track cleaner so I can add these if the weight problem of the Pacer is am issue.

No I am not planning on fitting directional lighting, unless his nibs asks for some, but they will have to wait.

Thanks one and all

Chris

"Dragon Heart" wrote

You need to used soft thin wire - end of stiffness problem. Look at the wires fitted to the decoders themselves and look for something similar.

John.

There's extermely pliable cable available for use with flexible PCB's (or that's what we used it for) - admittedly only in pink! Farnell used to do it (some yearss ago though!). Quite expensive back then.

Cheers Richard

If that's what you want, why didn't you say. The Dignitas clinic in Zurich is that way --->

MBQ