Hornby APT Upgrade

[Dixie Dean]

My APT upgrade, which was on hold whilst the DJM initiative was active, has been revived and I've nearly finished working on the last jobs, mainly the power car.

 

I've re-engined it with an Heljan 26/7/33 motor and bogies and now just need to decide what to do about mounting a pantograph.  For the moment I have a spare Bachmann Class 350 pantograph.  I have attached a photo which shows that the Heljan bogie has a plastic sort of clamp which mounts on the tower and has a hole in the end of it.  Placing it the wrong way round to which it would be normally, it is in exactly the centre of the pantograph hole in the original Hornby body, although it does move off centre when the bogie turns.

 

So my question is, should I try to attach the pantograph to this point, by some sort of bolt and platform, so keeping to the spirit of the original loco.  (something like a very narrow bolt, e.g. 1 mm or less shank with a plasticard platform above) on Is the fact that it will turn, particularly on points, too much of a problem?  Or should I just fill the hole in and mount the pantograph direct in the centre?

 

Your views would be much appreciated.

[MGR Hooper!]

18 minutes ago, Dixie Dean said:

My APT upgrade, which was on hold whilst the DJM initiative was active, has been revived and I've nearly finished working on the last jobs, mainly the power car.

 

I've re-engined it with an Heljan 26/7/33 motor and bogies and now just need to decide what to do about mounting a pantograph.  For the moment I have a spare Bachmann Class 350 pantograph.  I have attached a photo which shows that the Heljan bogie has a plastic sort of clamp which mounts on the tower and has a hole in the end of it.  Placing it the wrong way round to which it would be normally, it is in exactly the centre of the pantograph hole in the original Hornby body, although it does move off centre when the bogie turns.

 

So my question is, should I try to attach the pantograph to this point, by some sort of bolt and platform, so keeping to the spirit of the original loco.  (something like a very narrow bolt, e.g. 1 mm or less shank with a plasticard platform above) on Is the fact that it will turn, particularly on points, too much of a problem?  Or should I just fill the hole in and mount the pantograph direct in the centre?

 

Your views would be much appreciated.

Personally I'd say fill the hole and mount the pantograph on top of that.

 

HTH?

 

Cheers!

[Dixie Dean]

Mmm, had another thought, though.  The original APT pantograph was bogie mounted through the 2 black rebates which were holes in the body and sat on a platform on the top of 4 uprights.  I guess I could do something similar by cutting out the black rebates and building a platform and mounting the pantograph on that.  It would still turn when the bogie turned, but would be exactly centred over the mid point of the bogie.  That would avoid the pantograph leaning when the APT tilts!

Edited September 23, 2019 by Dixie Dean

[BernardTPM]

The real APT had quite a complex mounting that counteracted the tilting so unless you model that you've got to compromise one way (incorrectly revolving with the bogie) or another (incorrectly leaning with the body). I'd say the first of those would be less noticeable.

[Dixie Dean]

Cheers guys. I think I'm minded to go with connecting it with the bogie, so need to decide whether to use the existing hole in the body or build a frame like the original power car had.

[Markwj]

How did you fit the class 33 motor parts inside the narrow body of the apt power car?

[Dixie Dean]

1 hour ago, Markwj said:

How did you fit the class 33 motor parts inside the narrow body of the apt power car?

 

Hi Mark. 

 

Quite a long answer to do it justice. But as briefly as I can, I cut the centre out of the APT bogies and glued in the Heljan bogies. I mounted a rectangular speaker outlet side down in the centre of the bottom half of the body. On this I glued a u shaped aluminium cradle into which I fixed the Heljan motor. I extended the driveshafts using copper tube.  The top of the inner lugs on the original bogies are too tall and were cut off and lower lugs were fabricated from thin brass.  The picture may assist.  I used contact adhesive to stick the original outer bogie frames to the new bogie towers. I fashioned an additional platform from aluminium to carry the DCC chip.  The cradle is stuck on top of the speaker using several layers of double sided tape. The chip platform is glued with superglue.

 

If you need to know more please PM me and I'll do my best to assist.

Edited September 23, 2019 by Dixie Dean

[Markwj]

6 minutes ago, Dixie Dean said:

 

Hi Mark. 

 

Quite a long answer to do it justice. But as briefly as I can, I cut the centre out of the APT bogies and glued in the Heljan bogies. I mounted a rectangular speaker outlet side down in the centre of the bottom half of the body. On this I glued a u shaped aluminium cradle into which I fixed the Heljan motor. I extended the driveshafts using copper tube.  The top of the inner lugs on the original bogies are too tall and were cut off and lower lugs were fabricated from thin brass.  The picture may assist.  I used contact adhesive to stick the original outer bogie frames to the new bogie towers. I fashioned an additional platform from aluminium to carry the DCC chip.  The cradle is stuck on top of the speaker using several layers of double sided tape. The chip platform is glued with superglue.

 

If you need to know more please PM me and I'll do my best to assist.

Thank you that's brilliant

cheers

mark