Thought Hornby may not have replacement motors there are after market motors available form a number of American companies. The question is are the models really worth the effort? I would suspect that current offerings of the same prototypes are a lot better detailed.
DCC beginner
Hello, having just joined MRF and posted on the introduction thread, I thought that I might follow up with a more technical note.
Starting from scratch I decided that DCC was the way to go. I bought Bachmanns diesel starter EZ-Command set plus a Central Trains DMU which I had chipped. Both run well. My layout is fitted permanently in a commandeered bedroom (with permission from "she who must be obeyed"), there is only 2.4 X 1.5 metres available with an extended corner which is on an upper level to create more track space, so multiple carriage trains are not really practical. I had considered N gauge but my old eyes and banana fingers can just manipulate 00 gauge stock.
I was very fortunate that a friend gave me three old (30 years plus) hornby train sets plus 25 metres of flexi track. Unfortunately I have not had a great deal of success in chipping the Flying scotsman or one of the 0-4-0 GWR locos. The wiring/soldering is not a problem, getting them to work smoothly is, I suspect the old 3 pole moters may have some bearing on this.
The EZ gets quite hot even with one loco running, I have plans to replace it with something more up market (Gaugemaster prodigy or wait to see what Hornby are bringing out)
Anyway thats enough of my problems for now, I am on holiday for the next two weeks but be warned, "I'll be back"
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Branchy
Starting from scratch I decided that DCC was the way to go. I bought Bachmanns diesel starter EZ-Command set plus a Central Trains DMU which I had chipped. Both run well. My layout is fitted permanently in a commandeered bedroom (with permission from "she who must be obeyed"), there is only 2.4 X 1.5 metres available with an extended corner which is on an upper level to create more track space, so multiple carriage trains are not really practical. I had considered N gauge but my old eyes and banana fingers can just manipulate 00 gauge stock.
I was very fortunate that a friend gave me three old (30 years plus) hornby train sets plus 25 metres of flexi track. Unfortunately I have not had a great deal of success in chipping the Flying scotsman or one of the 0-4-0 GWR locos. The wiring/soldering is not a problem, getting them to work smoothly is, I suspect the old 3 pole moters may have some bearing on this.
The EZ gets quite hot even with one loco running, I have plans to replace it with something more up market (Gaugemaster prodigy or wait to see what Hornby are bringing out)
Anyway thats enough of my problems for now, I am on holiday for the next two weeks but be warned, "I'll be back"
Branchy
