Hornby Bulleid Pacifics - Loco to Tender Wiring

[cessna152towser]

I had planned to give my Hornby Manston a run on the layout today only to discover it was totally dead.   Removing the body showed that a wire had become detached at the point where four wires from the loco join with four wires from the tender.     I attempted to resolder it but unfortunately my soldering iron proved too large for such a delicate job and other wires became detached and the base for the wiring joints began to melt.   I tried various permutations of re-connecting the various pairs of wires but every attempt led to either no current passing or a short circuit.    I am obviously out of my depth with this and it really needs a professional repair.  Given that the models are nowadays asasembled in China would Hornby or a Hornby dealer be able to carry out such a repair?   With many other locos I would simply have sold them as non-runners but I particularly want to keep Manston as my wife and I have both done footplate experience on the full size loco on the Swanage Railway and the Hornby model was a special club edition, only about six years old.     Perhaps a replacement Hornby Bulleid might be the only solution, then swap the bodies over and sell the non-runner.   Any advice would be appreciated.

 

Edited July 31, 2021 by cessna152towser
typo

[MikeParkin65]

1 hour ago, cessna152towser said:

I had planned to give my Hornby Manston a run on the layout today only to discover it was totally dead.   Removing the body showed that a wire had become detached at the point where four wires from the loco join with four wires from the tender.     I attempted to resolder it but unfortunately my soldering iron proved too large for such a delicate job and other wires became detached and the base for the wiring joints began to melt.   I tried various permutations of re-connecting the various pairs of wires but every attempt led to either no current passing or a short circuit.    I am obviously out of my depth with this and it really needs a professional repair.  Given that the models are nowadays asasembled in China would Hornby or a Hornby dealer be able to carry out such a repair?   With many other locos I would simply have sold them as non-runners but I particularly want to keep Manston as my wife and I have both done footplate experience on the full size loco on the Swanage Railway and the Hornby model was a special club edition, only about six years old.     Perhaps a replacement Hornby Bulleid might be the only solution, then swap the bodies over and sell the non-runner.   Any advice would be appreciated.

 

A traditional model shop will be able to repair this. No connection at all but I know the highly respected Monk Bar model shop in York undertake repairs

[145 Squadron]

Replacement plugs with leads can be purchased from several suppliers, or there is an X6113 equivalent (£2.00 + post for a pair) from a supplier on the usual auction site (no connection) which is supplied with thicker wires. Two wires go to the pick ups, two to the motor and a simple 12V tester will tell you which is which. I cannot say for sure because Hornby swapped the polarities round on different editions of this loco as you will find if you try to swap tenders! Not a difficult repair and avoids risking your loco in the post. Hope this helps.

[RFS]

Had the same problem myself a couple of weeks ago with a Hornby King Arthur loco. Likewise only one wire had come out of the loco plug and I quickly come to the conclusion that it was not possible to fix it back in. I purchased a replacement X6113 and was able to use the 3 wires still in situ to work out where they all went on this loco. What I did need was some thin shrink wrap as the wires from the original plug were quite short and soldered to the internal wires and covered in shrink wrap. In the end it was relatively easy to do but still a very fiddly job. 

 

 

[daltonparva]

Generally, but with odd exceptions, both Hornby and Bachmann wire the 4 pin plugs with the outer pins to the wheels, inner pins to the motor. The wheels usually correspond with the same side pin, ie plug the plug into the tender socket then left wheels is left pin.

[Right Away]

Is this any help?

 

[MikeParkin65]

On 01/08/2021 at 16:29, Right Away said:

Is this any help?

 

Very helpful - thanks though as others have said it sadly isnt universal. I know the original Clan and later Britannia's aren't the same  - found this out from a potential tender swap. 

[Right Away]

 “Test and Trace” everytime - with a meter of course; take nothing for granted.