I purchased a couple of Maroon Mk1 hornby railroad coaches and must say while they look acceptable (Compared to the detailed coaches) they are terrible runners, not free rolling at all. Looking at the bogies one set of wheels makes contact with the underside of the coach floor resulting in a lot of drag. Some modification might be required. Anyone else experianced this problem?
Dear Andrew, a suitably sized washer between the bogie and the under frame should fix that. You may also need to countersink the axle bearing holes to allow for brass bearings to be glued in, Regards, Echidna
If they are plastic wheeled stock I'd suggest replacing with metal wheelsets, preferably as Echidna says with brass bearings. If the bogies are riveted to the coach chassis , you'll need to remove the rivets and replace with a small screw and nut, which will mean dismantling the coaches, so it's a useful opportunity (assuming you are using DCC control) to add lighting and passengers. You'll find I've done a 'How-to' on coach lighting if you search the archives, hopefully it'll be of help. Keith.
You can swap the plastic wheels with Hornby metal ones. No bearings required. Just clip them in and they will be very free running. Are the coaches new?
Thanks for the replies. The coaches are new. The washer idea was what I was thinking about. I intend to replace any plastic wheels on any stock I have. Can't believe how much drag the wheels cause, if I had a fish weighing hook I recon it would register several grams.
Plastic wheels should be renamed dirt magnets. Horrid things. In my OO days the only time wheels contacted the underside was if they were not located properly.
All 4 bogies are the same, will have a look when I get time...... Like the Buccaneer picture, one of the best low level aircraft ever.
