Kit motors

They're actually excellent motors if you don't mind an old-fashioned open frame one.

The X04 motors were high quality, including (or especially) the worm and pinion gears. Stick in a 5 pole armature and IMHO they run adequately even today. Their gears, while excellent quality, are a poor choice of ratio.

I wouldn't put a 5 pole X04 into a loco I was building, but I wouldn't change one in an existing loco if it ran ok. The 5 pole armature and better gearing do give far better starting and low speed operation. 30:1 is probably best.

Greg.P.

They were Pendon's motor of choice before Portescaps.

Way back before Portescapes etc I tried Romfords and K's as "improvements" on X04s. The "Terrier" seemed ok but I could never get any more after the first one. The bigger Romfords seemed to me to be made by incompetent blacksmiths and I never found any prototype to suit their motor bogie. The K's would fit into smaller prototypes but I kept a chocolate box of duds - as everything about them was likely to be badly made or would fail I could usually find enough bits to repair about half the ones that came my way. I did like the MW range! Since I found the Sagami and Machima ranges I only bother with the old motors for repairs - those X04s just keep spinning though.

Greg.P.

But where to get a cheap 5 pole motor ?

Cheers, Simon

Plus like the smell of Ozone - are we helping with the layer ?

Last person who asked me that got my remaining collection of MW5 armatures.

Well, the southern hemisphere ozone hole no longer stretches from the South Pole to New Zealand every summer, but it's pretty thin. It would be a help if you posted me all your locos so I could run them a couple of hours each day to put more ozone into the atmosphere.

I'll send you my modest but growing collection of K's ones - but not the 5 pole.

They actually have to be able to run, otherwise they are just junk box fillers.