Hornby X04 motor

Any motor smaller than the X04 outline can replace an X04, but ...

- The X04 had two pegs on the front bearing plate to align the front/shaft/worm.

- The X04 had a rear screw lug as part of the frame/pole piece.

- The X04 had an Imperial measurement shaft.

Mashimas of course are made to metric measuements and are not made to slot into the Tri-ang/Hornby mountings. Ditto all the other motors from Sagami, Buhler, Mabushi, etc.

It's possible to mount an old X04 front bearing plate on the front of many motors with a little basic kitchen table engineering, which takes care of the front mounting and the shaft height. Then you need an adaptor (brass tube) to bring the metric sized shaft to Tri-ang size. These should be available from Branchlines. Lastly comes fixing the rear of the motor to the Tri-ang/Hornby chassis which gets a bit complex if you think in terms of a brass strip adaptor. I started using bath calk silicon to both glue the motor in place and to provide sound deadening insulation. I did a few that way, some for customers, some for myself. AFAIK none ever let go. Removal is simply done by levering with a big screw-driver and replacement by careful cleaning and recalking.

Regards, Greg.P.

As a matter of interest, (daft) idea number 32, could you put a mashima motor inside an X04 ?

cheers, Simon

Given the armature diameter of an X04 I would imagine a 12mm diameter Sagami would fit. However, from memory the armature diameter of a Sagami 12xx is 7mm which is a major reduction from X04's 1/2"12.7mm. As a rough rule of thumb, the potential torque of a motor is the square of the armature diameter times the armature length. There are other factors, such as the airgap between rotor and pole piece, which in the Sagami is about half that of the X04/X05, winding resistance etc. Calculate those factors and you'll find the Sagami that will fit will have about half the torque and twice the RPM, which won't go well with the Hornby gears!

Anyway, don't think of it as a daft idea - I already tried it! =8^P

For my first real scratch-built loco (4-4-0) I used an X05 driving a Tri-ang worm+gear followed by 3:1 reduction gears. The speed range was excellent and slow speed running a revelation. In MkII I put the driving axles in their own block, pivotted around the worm gear axle so that I had equalization and much better current pickup. With MkIII I put in a smaller motor (Ks) and running degenerated from "superb" down to "abysmal".

The lesson I learned was "the larger diameter armature you can fit in the better", although it took me several more locos to learn that "K's motors were rubbish". I finally got rid of my K's motors by using parts of three to make one good(ish) one for a kit in which the owner wanted a K's motor fitted.

regards, Greg.P.

The Triang motors had a simple drop-in mounting.There was small tabs on the front plate, that slotted into the chassis, and a single screw at the rear.

This isn't the same as modern motors that have two screw holes in the face plate.

As others have suggested, try getting a junker from a show.

Southampton Model Centre have a couple on ebay for about a fiver.

Obviously I'm not guaranteeing anything!

But I think the OP was hoping for a 5 pole motor - otherwise its a nudge and go....

CHeers, Simon

thanks, will save this info for one day.

Cheers, Simon

That's usually dirty track and/or wheels.

Has anyone news of the trader who bought modelspares? When might business resume ?

Try

I have bought spares from them to repair friends' stuff (I'm in O scale these days). Even on the left side of the pond this stuff appears at shows and people buy it.

Whatever its limitations, some of it was pretty, like the GWR clerestories and the Dean single.

Ok am using long term memory here, but dont think thats a requirement. Perhaps you or someone else has more up to date info ?

Cheers, Simon