A pretty straightforward steam loco wheel improvement (Hornby Margate - 80's & 90's)

[plasticbasher]

Hi All,

 

Apologies if this has been realised and posted previously, but I made a discovery this evening that I felt was well worth sharing....

 

Tonight I was rooting through my scrap box looking for stuff to sell on eBay and discovered I had the parts to make about 90% of an alternative (better?) 1980's era Hornby Britannia - but with loco drive, not a Ringfield.  Which was nice!

 

Anyway, I was looking at the loco driving wheels I found - they probably came from a Black 5 originally and had been stripped of all paint, but at 24.5mm diameter they are perfect for a Britannia (even the balance weights are correct!  However the undersized centre wheels typical of Hornby products of the era really irked me.  So I decided to look at the cost of scale Britannia wheelsets.  I quickly retreated nursing my somewhat scared debit card...

 

I looked again at the 1980's Hornby wheels as they are not really that bad as these things go.  The right size for my needs, nicely cast spokes, reasonably fine flanges; a bit wide but not desperately so; and best of all free..!  Then I noticed one of the wheel rims was loose (a common problem) and suddenly realised that the undersized centre wheel casting was essentially the same as the casting for the the other wheels, necessary differences aside.  That the only thing stopping me making a full-size centre wheel was the cast flange on that wheel.  A quick look at a similar era A1 Flying Scotsman shows the same process (remove the flange and press on a full-size wheel tread) would work on a lot of other Hornby products of similar vintage.

 

So here's how I removed the cast flange and added a spare wheel rim; net result is 6 full-size driving wheels. 

 

Wheels as re-discovered

 

 

Here's one I did earlier, showing the wheel as fitted by Hornby on the right and as modified on the left.

 

 

And what you need for the modification - one centre wheel and a rim from one full-size wheel.

 

 

How I made a mandrel to hold the wheel as securely as possible in the drill (notice the sliver of cardboard as the screw was sloppy in the wheel rim...the cardboard was just about good enough to hold the wheel central on the "mandrel" to enable even filing:

 

 

 

 

 

Tightened securely and mounted in the minidrill.

 

 

My drill is a 12 volt one.  I had it running about half speed as I think the casting is alloy and I didn't want to heat it tool much when filing.

 

Next post will cover the rest of the process.

 

Plasticbasher

 

 

[plasticbasher]

Well the photo's aren't hugely impressive (guess I should have turned the flash off).

 

 

Ground down gently (took about 10 mins being very careful to grind only the flange off but not hack into the rest of the rim):

 

 

And then fitting the new rim:

 

 

Tapped in place with a hammer and then pressed in the vice to fit properly.

 

 

 

And a full set of wheels ready for cleaning, painting and fitting:

 

 

I am hoping they'll really help lift the finished model- when I actually get around to doing it..!!

 

 

Plasticbasher

 

 

[plasticbasher]

Correction: very first photo actually shows one modified centre wheel (the bottom one) and one unmodified centre wheel (the upper one)

[Ben Alder]

Good old fashined metal bashing - my sort of modelling... I did a good bit of cross matching of Hornby back in the day and you can still get results from this sort of thing. Please keep posting your work, and yes, turn off the flash...

[plasticbasher]

Good old fashined metal bashing - my sort of modelling... I did a good bit of cross matching of Hornby back in the day and you can still get results from this sort of thing. Please keep posting your work, and yes, turn off the flash...

 

Thanks Ben...!

[plasticbasher]

Sorry...one thing I forgot to mention.

 

The machine screw I used as a mandrel was specifically chosen as the head was small enough to sit flush on the boss of the wheel centre. The nut likewise. Hopefully the photo's make that clearer.

 

This meant the wheel casting ran true in the drill. But it also needed "shimming" with the sliver of cardboard to keep it central. One piece of cardboard did two wheels, but was pretty frayed by the time the second one was finished.

 

Plasticbasher

Edited September 6, 2017 by plasticbasher

[Horsetan]

Very useful. I seem to recall that something similar was done in the past by those when converting RTR wheels to run on EM gauge - the opportunity was taken to reduce the overall width of the tyres and the depth of the flange in order to make the wheel look more finescale.

[34theletterbetweenB&D]

...My drill is a 12 volt one.  I had it running about half speed as I think the casting is alloy and I didn't want to heat it tool much when filing...

The driving wheels on the tender drive 9F introduced circa 1975 were particularly nice for this sort of work. These were a one piece casting, in an alloy which cut really easily and cleanly (probably a cupro-nickel alloy) to produce a fine flange (and optional tyre narrowing) with minimal trouble. Undersize for the 9F's 5' tyre at 19mm, but a very useful cheap wheel for many six and eight coupled goods types; and also of course to produce a 19mm tyre flangeless replacement for the then Hornby 9F's horribly undersize flangeless driver.