Chipping old loco's

The Hornby R8215 decoder should not be used with Triang locomotives as Triang motors draw more power than the rating of the Hornby decoder.

Hornby state this:-

QUOTE The Hornby decoder is rated at a 500mA continuous current and 1 Amp for a short period. Should this be exceeded then the decoder will overload and cut out.This action protects not only damage to the decoder but also the locomotive

All recent Hornby locos will work fine with the Hornby decoder.

Generally decoders with higher ratings are bigger to help with heat dispersal. In producing a small budget decoder (the smallest around?) Hornby are constrained in the rating that it can be given as there are heat dispersal considerations. However it has a sufficient rating for all Hornby locos in their current catalogues as modern motors are very efficient. With the restricted space in several small tank locos the Hornby decoder is ideally suited to this situation.

The new Hornby Saphire decoder will have a 1 Amp continuous rating, will have a higher specification, will be be offered at a higher price and will inevitably be bigger and decoders with a 1 Amp continous rating should be fine with Triang locomotives.

The wiring for Triang locos is no different to any other loco where a decoder has to be hard wired in. I have encountered many old Triang locos with Zero 1 decoders fitted and their previous owners had hard wired these without too much difficulty. Make sure though that you clean the carbon out of the armature and clean the pick ups and wheels as you want to keep brush sparking to a minimum.

Now what I have noted is that the Triang locos with Zero 1 decoders fitted had the capacitors retained within the circuit. You will probably need to cut this out of the circuit if a modern decoder is to be fitted.

If you cannot wait for the Hornby Saphire decoder to appear in terms of actual decoders with a 1 Amp continuous rating do Lenz currently do anything?

The other issue is back EMF and I am not too sure that a decoder with this feature would be suitable for a Triang loco as it could cause the motor to overheat. I have noted that DC controllers with back EMF do make Triang motors run hotter. So avoid back EMF decoders with Triang locos to be on the safe side however I am not 100% on this so somebody else could offer guidence here please.

Happy modelling
Gary

Thanks for clearing that up for me Gary.

Will probably wait for the hornby chip if i can't get anything else.

Bri

QUOTE (Bri @ 14 May 2007, 16:59) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>Thanks for clearing that up for me Gary.

Will probably wait for the hornby chip if i can't get anything else.

Bri

Bri:

I hate to say this , but the old Triang motor bogie is awful,and won't pull the skin off a rice pudding, the bogies are wrong for the loco (they came off the old 31), the detail's limited. Its a 40+ year old model and it shows. The proportions of the bodyshell are good, but there the good news stops

I've got one in the cupboard , and I propose digging out a spare Athearn PA 1 chassis , and some replacement sideframes , detailing up the body, respraying , and turning out a model; as a scrapbox project (Not sure you can still find Athearn PA1 chassis these days and they are awkward DCC conversions).

I'm afraid the most satisfactory result will be to give them honourable retirement and splash out on a new one, or two. Either the Vi-Trains 37 or the very imminent Bachmann Mk3 cl 37 will be light years better

I'm not normally one for "throw away and buy new", and I'm quite happy to detail up old models but this one's just too far beyond the pale unless you want a really big diesel reworking project