Triang X03 and X04 motors. What's the difference.

[cypherman]

Hi all,

Can any one tell me what the difference is between these 2 motors. If there is any ?

[sandwich station]

X04 has a brass 2 start worm drive. X03 has a single start plastic worm drive

[Ruffnut Thorston]

Tri-ang Railways, Tri-ang Hornby, and Hornby Railways open frame motors.
 

The X.01 motor would be the original Rovex motor, used in the Princess loco, originally bought in from Zenith.

Lines Bros, Tri-ang, later bought out Zenith.

This motor had a built in gearbox, and used a vertical disk commutator. The motor cannot be removed without taking the frames apart.

 

 

The X.02 was the first Tri-ang Railways motor. It was also trapped between the frames, but used a horizontal drum commutator.

 

 

The original X.03 was the first easily removed motor, and started the familiar design of being slotted into the frames at the front or worm end, and held in by a screw through a hole in the rear of the bottom pole piece into the chassis.

 

These motors evolved, earlier versions had no oil pads, and a plain rear bearing formed as part of the brass back plate between the armature and magnet. The front bearing arrangement also varied. Some having the plate around the front bearing fixed vertically, later the fixing lugs became standardised to be horizontal, access to the bearing for lubrication then being easier from above.

 

Later original X.03 motors gained an oil pad around the front bearing.

 

Still later versions gained a separate bearing of oil retaining bronze fitted into the motor back plate, finally also being fitted with an oil pad around both bearings.

 

The X.04 motor used, I think, a different type of magnet from the late original X.03 motors.

 

Otherwise, the first X.04 motors carried on from the last X.03 motors.

 

 

The X.04 motors do have a few versions.

 

 

A motor with different mounting points on the pole pieces, and a single start worm was used in the MK1 R.45 Turntable.

 

No.010 Turntable Set R45.pdf

 

 

The original R.55 T.C Series Diesel motor bogie also used a version of the X.04 motor, with a shorter shaft, fitted with a driving gear to drive the twin worm lay shaft used in the motor bogie.

 

 

Later motor bogies had the motors built into the bogies, and are not covered here.

 

 

The first real difference in X.04 loco motors was the use of a shorter armature shaft. This enabled the use of the same armatures in both the X.04 and the Scalextric RX Series  motors.

000W581 RX Motor.PDF

 

 

 

The shorter length shaft made it necessary to fit the brass worm onto the X.04 backwards, as the tapered hole wouldn’t grip properly onto the shorter shaft.

This doesn’t affect the operation of the motor.

 

The last X.04 motors also lost the oil pads around both bearings.

 

 

 

The X.05 Motor was the OO version, used in the Lord of The Isles and Caledonian 123 locos, of the XT.60 motor, also known, confusingly, as the Mk1 TT motor when it was really the Mk2 TT motor. 
This was originally designed for the later Tri-ang  TT gauge locos, like the Merchant Navy Class, and Britannia BR Class 7MT locos.

 

The difference being the use of a different worm. TT using a single start worm, OO using a two start worm.

 

 

No.021 Mark 1 Motor - T.T. Gauge.pdf

 

The earlier TT motors were fitted into the frames, similar to the very first Tri-ang X.02 motors.

 

No.015 Chassis and Bogie T91.pdf

 

The X.05 motor was also used in the R.405 Mk2 Turntable, which also used the same driving gears as fitted to loco axles. Later turntables also having black plastic driving gears instead of brass gears.

 

 

The X.500 motor was the small motor used in the Rocket loco, and a version with different a brush holder was also used in some Minic Motorway vehicles.

 

 

All the above motors used brass worms.

 

The driving gear on the axles were also brass at first. Black plastic driving gears being introduced in, I think, the later 1960s. 

 

The X.03 reference was reused by Hornby Railways.

 

 

 

The Hornby, new type, X.03 motor used the short shaft and had no oil pads, the same as the last X.04 motors. The worm was, however, now a black plastic single start worm.

 

This required a new driving gear for the axle.

 

To differentiate these from the X.04 type black plastic driving gear, these new type gears were originally made from a silver grey plastic. Other colours were also used, and some were even made in black plastic, confusing the issue!

 

Black plastic worms and silver grey drive gears were also used on the last of the Lord Of The Isles and Caledonian 123 locos, before the new China made locos, which use a different chassis and motor.

The R.411 electric conversion kit for the R.410 Mk 3 hand operated Turntable also used an X.03 motor, and silver grey driving gear.

 

R410 Turntable and R411 Motorisiing Unit.pdf

 

 

 

Edited October 10, 2021 by Ruffnut Thorston
Tidying… images added

[Il Grifone]

They are basically the same motor with different worms.

The plastic single start worm is preferable IHMO (despite my dislike of plastic gears) as it gives a higher reduction ration - 28:1. It's still not quite enough to tame a motor with a 20,000 r.p.m off load speed without the aid of vari-wave rectification etc., but a great improvement. Most Tri-ang locomotives will hit a scale 150mph!

[cypherman]

Hi all,

Thank both for this information. It has been very informative. Just what i wanted to know.