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Class 58


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Guest teacupteacup

Hi All

 

Im all for resurrecting and upgrading older models and my attention has been caught by the Hornby Class 58

 

I know it runs like a pig, but how accurate is it shape wise?

 

 

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Don't know about accuracy, but the motor may be underpowered if you have the space and want to haul long trains but compared to the ringfield motors of the day its low gearing and with a decent controller it was smooth at low speed running.

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I always thought the shape looked about right. I don't know if it actually was or not.

It can be improved though. The real one had plating over most of its sideframes. The Hornby one does not.

The driver's door grab handles are wrong too. On the Hornby one, they remain close to the body like on most locos. The early ones had the handle stick out to be level with the one on the back of the cab. The later ones had a plate between the door entrance & rest of the solebar. This could be corrected with a little work.

As for running, would adding a 2nd motor help haulage power? The narrow body may limit the amount of extra weight you could add.

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Hornby's offering has a "resonable" shape, but as stated, shows its age a little and mechanism isn't that powerful.  You could possibly add to adhesion by increasing the weight, but I think as well you need to get that to transfer to the powered bogie better, so it pushes onto the motor bogie, rather than being a dead weight to haul.

 

I don't think the lkes of a Dyna-drive chassis were made for a Class 58, and anything "bashed" may be hard to add because of the Class 58's "Bone" shaped body.

 

The other idea is to replace with an Heljan model, available from a certain Liverpool retailer for between £96 and £99 (although original Railfreight I believe has sold out).  The shape is better, although not faultless, and I believe you also get both bogie types included!   Powerwise - I find that they are pretty good too.  

 

Regards,

 

C.

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The Hornby 58 was a model of its time. In its day it was an excellent looking model let down by an anaemic motor that meant its pulling power was weak. However with work it scrubs up well and options like twin motors and weighing it down address the power issue. A good candidate for some modelling.

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I reaf that the errors of the 58 were down to itbeing released before the real ones came out hence the unplated sides and odd square exhaust. The model shape wise is good, but needs alot of work to get it up to standard. I never liked the whine of the motor when it was hauling something heavy or at higher speeds. Branchlines might be worth contacting for a replacement motor and associated parts if youre thinking of replacing the motor

 

NL

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I've got a twin motored Hornby one with a huge lump of weight filling the centre of the body. 
It's the single most powerful loco I own, will shift dead Heljan 58s with ease!

 

It also hauled 140+ HAAs around Ravensclyffe, nothing else has been able to match it

 

Andi

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As stated earlier the model was developed before the real locos were finished.

I recall in what would have been the 81 or 82 catalogue there was a picture of one in large logo blue, did any actually make it to the shelves in this?

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As stated earlier the model was developed before the real locos were finished.

I recall in what would have been the 81 or 82 catalogue there was a picture of one in large logo blue, did any actually make it to the shelves in this?

 

No, there were none.  The very first release however did feature incorrectly sized numbers and also absent was the Railfreight logo from opposite cabsides. I remember because I had one...

 

https://bit.ly/2NhpoPs

 

I believe the second release was corrected, which I believe was 58001.

Edited by YesTor
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Guest teacupteacup

Thanks for the replies folks

 

Seems a good candidate for picking up cheaply and doing some proper modelling on it.

 

Haulage isnt an issue as the loco would only be hauling 6 or 7 wagons.  I have a motor and gearbox of questionable parentage that I think I could butcher to fit the Hornby motor bogie moulding and vice-versa.  Im aware the Heljan model is available but still has its issues (decent drive though) but I'd rather tickle a Hornby one

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You can get the Heljan bogie bits as spares on a sprue from howes of oxford, but not the bogie side frames. The side frames may be available from olivas. Using these and bits from a mazac rot class 47, can give you the smoother drive train needed.

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My old one had worm gears from a Bachmann engine, twin drive bogies and shortened shafts from the same Bachmann donor. The biggest problem I found was the rigid bogie set up, if the centre wheels hit a high spot in the track, it would lift the 2 drive axles off the track

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Allegedly the class 58 dimensions are pretty much the same as many EM1 / 10001, as the group proposing to new build a 10000 bought a real class 58 for its frames..

 

So maybe a cheap Dapol or Bachmann 10001 motor / mechanism ?

 

I know I used a Hornby class 58 under a silver fox class 89 years ago, again quite a good fit.

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  • 5 years later...
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8 minutes ago, Mainlinefreighter58 said:

Has anyone got any images of the driveline with twin motors ? thanks 

I havent got a picture to show, but its just two motor bogies, instead of one powered and one unpowered. Split the pickup wires so they fed each motor… i used to do the same with 142s and get the motors in sync instead of fighting.

 

x9019.jpg

picture from..

https://www.newmodellersshop.co.uk/images/hornby_spares/x9019.jpg

 

Edited by adb968008
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21 hours ago, Chrisr40 said:

The 58 would be a good candidate for the Railroad range now.

The problem is that tooling for it may be long gone. I remember reading that most of the old-said tooling was scrapped during one period of reorganisation within Hornby. 

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