Hi All,
I have a Hornby "Harry Potter" Castle, it is an extremely poor runner at anything below "too fast". Is there any easy way to fit a better quality motor, i.e is there a drop in replacement available.
I have tried three different DCC decoders, a Lenz Le1000, an NCE D13SRJ (good decoder but quite large) and a Lenz silver, Runs crap with all of them.
I quite like the look of the loco in this livery pulling half a dozen Mk 1s so would like to keep it.
Suggestions would be appreciated.
Eddie.
"Eddie Bray" wrote
These are absolutely rubbish motors, and they must cause Hornby a fortune in warranty repairs. I'd be inclined to return it for replacement.
If you choose otherwise you should be able to get a replacement armature for the existing motor.
John.
Hi John,
I have opened the body, cut out the capacitors as the running was poorer with them left in, and removed the weight to fit the decoders. I could replace the weight, but not the capacitors as I do not know what I have done with them. So I suspect that I have invalidated the warranty, especially as this model is not classed by "Hornby as DCC ready".
I would prefer if it is possible to fit a better motor altogether if possible rather than repair the original.
Looking at the service sheets on the Hornby website it appears to be a special design pancake motor. You could probably replace it with a Mashima and conventional slimline gearbos such as one of those from Branchlines or High level but it will involve dismantling the rear axle to change the gear and filing out the slot in the chasssis to suit the gearbox. First job is to strip it down and see if enough width can be created in the chassis slot to fit a gearbox in. Could be an interesting excercise. Keith
Further to Keiths comments, is the motor in the tender on these or the engine. If the former I've heard of some folk modifying to fit tender drive and removing gears from the engine to make it freewheel. Perhpas 'mainly trains' can help with advise in this area?
"64Magnette" wrote
They are loco drive.
John.
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