Patriot R2396 "Illustrious" Drawbar

[rogiefalls]

I have just bought a DCC ready R2396 Patriot Class “Illustrious” No5532. Although the Patriot was bought on eBay it looks and runs (on DC) as if new. When I removed the loco body both (black) wires on the drawbar assembly came away, at this point I must have lost my presence of mind because I neglected to see just where the wires had come from.

 

I can see that one of the wires was soldered to the top of the drawbar but there are no signs of another mark where the second wire went. Hornby service sheet HSS 386 clearly shows the drawbar assembly (No7 X6532 on the left hand side model) and if enlarged it shows where the top wire solders but you cannot see where the other wire goes as it looks to go underneath and I have no marks there to help me. Idiot that I am I also do not know which wire went to top or bottom. One of the wires goes to the rear end of the DCC blanking plate and the other to the front of the blanking plate (front of the engine)

 

I have attached a photo of the Drawbar Assembly, I hope.

 

Is there anyone who has this model who could have a look at theirs and help me please? Any help would be very gratefully received.

 

 

[Phil S]

If you have a multimeter (and ifnot, why not?)  ... you can 'trace back' the 2 leads to the pickups for either side of the tender wheels.

 

In earlier designs ('pre-china') Hornby only picked on one side in the tender, and the oher side of the loco - so only 1 conductor was required  to pass between the lcoo and tender - this was the metal of the drawbar itself.and it 'connected' by being sprung against the vertical pn below the tender.

 

With the additional pickup from collecting from 'all wheels' on the tender and loco, a second conductor was required - this was achieved by using the OTHER SIDE of the bar as a separate conductor: by using a piece of printed circuit board or 2 strips of metal.- with a wire soldered to each side (top/bottom), and a 2nd set of contacrs for the tender pin - which now had a conductive metal area around its base - from more pcb.

 

There is a risk of short circuit here if one of these 2 new sprung contacts touches the central pin instead of the 2nd contact area.- they can get bent quite easily!

 

Also, and one reason I can't say whether upper or lower is connected to which rail, apparently the factory in china was a bit viariable - requiring tenders and locos to be 'matched' when QC'd in the UK.   A side effect of always using black wires, and batch production.?

 

For dcc requirements, with 4 wires involved, the change was made to a miniautre 'JST' plug and socket ... allowing all axle pickup in loco and tender, and also the decoder to be located in the tender for easier access.

[RAF96]

Consider looking at service sheets for various Hornby 4-6-2 early/late versions of locos.

 

Some will show where you can ditch the bad drawbar and fit the fixed drawbar and fettle in the 4 pin plug/socket available as a Hornby spare.

 

This allows you to pick up power from the tender and also feed a speaker if required.

 

When reattaching the wires to the drawbar you have check by connecting the loco and tender that loco left hand wheels have continuity with tender left hand wheels and ditto right hand sides.

[tarifa]

The wires connect to the pin 2 and 8 on the 8 pin socket, make sure the polarity is correct.