Points

Since people took to building layouts out of machine sawn timber H and M point motors have been excessive in operation. OTOH they seem ideal for my garden railway points so I buy up all the second-hand ones that come my way cheaply. I've got second-hand (H&M) motors that were second-hand when I bought them 40 years ago and the only failures have been with motors that have been altered by drunk blacksmiths early Monday mornings. I could do with some extra add-on switches but I've still got a few in my H&M box so I haven't worried about making new ones.

Greg.P.

I have found them to be very useful where long distance wire & tube operation is needed. There also provide helpful thunking noises to verify their operation in unseen places.

Regards

It certainly Is. would save having to reach over to nudge a stalled loco.

I have this vision of firing ball bearings at said stalled engine....

I'll get me coat.

Cheers Richard

"Jane Sullivan" wrote

Hmm, I wonder just how much they would cost these days?

John.

John Turner said the following on 10/12/2007 12:11:

Made in UK - about £50. Made in China - about tuppence-ha'penny :-)

They would have to be of better quality to make it worth someone's while. I can remember installing about a dozen H&M motors on my N scale layout in the early seventies and I didn't have to buy one. I just went round fellow modellers and picked up all their dud H&Ms and rebuilt working ones from all the parts. There was no shortage of dud ones :-)

Jim.

Sorry but what's so special about Hammant and Morgan style point motors ?

They were very much more robust than the other offerings at the time, contrary to other posts here I never had a dud (about 20 on the layout), and never burned one out (I used a "wand" touching studs in those days

- Peco and the other make around then, up to 1979, would not stand such treatment for long - capacitor discharge units cost to much!). I would buy them now, if they were available and still built in such a "solid" way.

Cheers Richard

I suspect its mostly nostalgia.

Like Jim G, I also recall rebuilding various duds from the local model railway club. When first installed they would often work for a bit, then fail. Those which survived 6 months usually lasted indefinitely. The contact switch was the worst for failing.

Somewhat clunky in operation, one needed matching clunky track to withstand the bangs as they shot things over into place. I can see their uses if strong throw action is required (so Jane's outdoor might be a good case).

I've got a few 'duds'. What are you willing to pay? I have no need for more motors on my current layout. These motors (the duds) were originally on my WCML layout twenty odd years ago. I suspect there isn't much wrong with them that a soldering iron couldn't fix.

pm me at : snipped-for-privacy@btinternet.com

"Paul Boyd" wrote

Yes, but you'd have to buy them in lots of c. 25,000 to get them made in China.

John.

"Dragon Heart" wrote

Nothing in my estimation - they were large, cumbersome, and not desperately reliable. Clearly however some people think differently.

John.

Make me an offer (no cooked ones though!)....

Cheers Richard

John Turner said the following on 10/12/2007 16:54:

Well, that's a few layout's worth, at any rate :-)

Nigel,

From what I remember, a lot of users operated them using wafer switches where the internal changeover switch was used to break the feed to the appropriate coil when the machine was operated. When this switch became unreliable, the motor stopped working. Depending on the fault on the switch - open circuit or closed circuit - you could also get a cooked coil. So if you got a handful of dud motors, a repair of the switch was normally required, and replacing a burned out coil could be a possibility.

Another thing that was worth doing was making sure the armature moved easily. It was a fairly agricultural fit even when new, but accumulated muck and dust could cause it to jam = more burned out coils. You could lubricate it, but that could encourage the formation of thick oily muck and you were back to a stuck armature again :-) This problem was probably more apparent in clubrooms. The club I was in at the time was situated in an old hay loft in the attic of a garage premises, so muck and dust was a constant problem.

Jim.

Robust and reliable.

I assume the unreliable ones either got fixed or dumped very quickly. It was a relatively clever design for the time because everything was robust and worked as intended. The inbuilt accessory switch might well have suffered from the contacts oxidising, but with reasonably regular use they were self cleaning. More modern contact materials would help there.

Greg.P.