Quick and Dirty X04 magnet fix

[AdamsRadial]

I have an old Hornby E2 tank in southern livery with a very weak magnet. It will belt around around the track with my Clipper controller turned up full, but it won't run slowly, and is very warm to the touch after a few minutes. It really does need re-magnetising, but I can't get to where I've stowed the old solenoid coils or the large capacitors, and I really do like seeing it wander round and round.

 

In the bits box I had a couple of Neodymium disks that came out of one of these fancy boxes that electronic gadgets come in, the things that close the flaps, some mobile phone covers also seem to have them. So in the spirit of "What have I got to lose?" I parked one of them on the back of the magnet in the motor. Interestingly, it would stick on either way round, which puzzled me for a while, so like a true empiricist I stuck the chassis on the track and turned up the knob.

 

One way round the motor stuck and buzzed, but flipping the disk over, I got the chassis running beautifully at a slow speed using only 50% of the controller setting, far better than I had been able to achieve before. And, there's no overheating. It's run now for a couple of hours and is just perceptibly warm.

 

The disk is 15mm diameter and 1mm thick, and sits on the back of the X04 magnet without fouling any of the bodywork. It is also not so strong that it sucks track pins out of the layout as the engine goes around. Best of all, there's no dismantling of the chassis needed, just pop it on, and if it needs turning the other way round, prise it off.