RFS

One daft one here ffrom TMC. £727.98 for a Britannia Models 4-CEP unit that looks decidedly inferior to the Bachmann model, which at least has door handles etc and can be had new for little more than half the price. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/266217819364

Well good luck with that!

This was a problem with early releases of the N and Bachmann revised the design to cure this. I have two N class locos with the revised tender coupling and never had a problem with either.

Here's a photo of 34103 which shows the nameplate to be red. Might not have been red all its life though!

Yes it will work either way round. The loco does not have lights.

There are a lot more available direct from Bachmann spares.

I have a number of Tortoise motors and they are extremely reliable. However, I have had the same problem as you with one motor, and the cause was due to a failure of the internal switch I was using for frog polarity. Simple fix was to use the other switch on this motor as luckily I only needed one to be working. I've seen that Circuitron say this can happen if, for example, some ballast has fallen into the motor and I'm assuming this might be the case with my failure.

Same relays as I have. Their input must be DC which is why I fitted diodes. Check the output of your CDU as I suspect its output might be AC.

Can you not wire the relay direct to the power source and only the point motor via the CDU? What type of relay did you purchase, in particular what switching voltage? Mine are Hongfa HDF2 which are rated at 30V DC 3A for switching power. I use them with Lenz LS150s whose output is 16V AC at 3A, with diodes to convert the input to DC. Have been using them for years with no problem. Not now with points but with colour light signals.

Silver Fox Models do a kit for the class 74 which has the same buffers. Wonder if they might have a set of buffers as a spare part? Another thought - are the class 73 buffers the same as used on the 71? Dapol might be able to supply spares.

What Lenz command station do you have? You can't upgrade the LZV100 to V4 but Lenz do offer the option to replace your LZV100 with LZV200 at a discounted price. Although you can then do upgrades at home via the computer, these upgrades are chargeable and involve Lenz sending you an update stick (similar to a USB flash drive). One of the reasons I switched to Z21 where upgrades are free and can be simply downloaded.

The seller has used a RM tracking method used by business sellers that only records when the item is delivered. Is the tracking number something like 320124833300550A5BACD rather than the full tracking service AB123456789GB?

I actually did this many years ago now and it's just a straight body swap as both clip on in the same way. Just sold the two I upgraded models on Ebay a couple of months ago and replaced with a couple of new Dapols. One issue with the Hornby ones is their haulage power though. Nevertheless they were smooth runners.

A while ago now I did use a lot of Peco point motors and used some relays as you are thinking of. I now use Tortoise motors with their built-in switches and the relays have been reused to work colour-light signals. I used them mainly where I had two points forming a crossover as one relay was equivalent to two Peco switches. Cost about £2.50 in components at the time - relay, a piece of board, diodes and terminals. The diodes were needed as they were being operated by Lenz LS150 decoders which were supplyin AC current. LS150 input at the top, two sets of switch terminals at the bottom.

The body for the Dapol 73s is attached to the chassis by 4 screws whereas the the Lima/Hornby 73s are just a clip fit, so this would be a major issue.

Gaugemaster have a ready-made relay switch designed for this purpose - see here. Being DPDT one switch will handle the frogs of two points forming a crossover, for example.

Have you tried speaking to Hornby? They sometimes have some spares available. A while ago I did contact them about missing buffers on one of my Pullmans and they sent me a couple in the post free of charge. I've also recently used a couple of Bachmann sprung buffers to replace lost central buffers in two of my 2-EPBs - they do seem to fall out all too easily. Bachmann do the round buffers in various sizes, so perhaps one will be a good match.