Hornby - Thompson O1

[Stevelewis]

Can any one  advise please  does  the  Hornby  01  have  tender  pickups?

 

Thanks in anticipation

 

Steve

[RedgateModels]

Yes Steve

[Stevelewis]

Yes Steve

Many  thanks  for   your  quick response

[Stevelewis]

Should  any one be  looking  for  the BR  Weathered  version on the Hornby 01 (DCC ready)  Tim at Arcadiarail (01706 882900)  has  stock @ £109.00+postage

Edited April 17, 2013 by Stevelewis

[Stevelewis]

Recvd  Hornby  01  from Arcadia today  Must  say  i am  very impressed (for  once)  I have not bought any Hornby locos  for a while now due to disatisfaction with previous purchases, but this  one is good.

 

I have fitted a decoder (Lenz)  and after adjusting some  CVs the loco will crawl  almost imperceptably  ( 6' travelled in 3 minutes)  The Max volts CV5  is now set  to 95 which gives the loco an approx scale  speed of just 45MPH.

 

I am almost tempted to buy another!!

[7013]

When I bought mine Steve the only one in stock at my local shop was DCC on board, so I bought it fully intending to replace the R8249 with a Lenz standard or silver. However I have been pleasantly surprised by the control afforded by the Hornby decoder. The crawl is truly superb like your loco, the only thing I have to change is the top speed, so I will try your setting

[Stevelewis]

When I bought mine Steve the only one in stock at my local shop was DCC on board, so I bought it fully intending to replace the R8249 with a Lenz standard or silver. However I have been pleasantly surprised by the control afforded by the Hornby decoder. The crawl is truly superb like your loco, the only thing I have to change is the top speed, so I will try your setting

I think it may depend on which decoder  is fitted,  some factory  fitted Hornby decoders do work well in my experience  whilst some don't! 

[Theakerr]

I would suggest that some of the slow speed excellence has to be due to the Hornby Mechanism.  I dont know what they have done but without doubt my 01 was the best runner i have ever had straight out of the box.  This includes crawling using DC

[MikeParkin65]

I think it may depend on which decoder  is fitted,  some factory  fitted Hornby decoders do work well in my experience  whilst some don't! 

My experience is that Hornby factory fitted chips provide very smooth running but are prone to sudden failure. Most of my loco's have Lenz chips - as soon will my Hornby Dcc fitted Rebuilt Patriot that went 'pop' tonight!

[Stevelewis]

I would suggest that some of the slow speed excellence has to be due to the Hornby Mechanism.  I dont know what they have done but without doubt my 01 was the best runner i have ever had straight out of the box.  This includes crawling using DC

Yes  I totally  agree with  you  initial testing of this loco  confirmed that it was an excellent performer, I would go so far as to say that  in many years of buying RTR locos  from  the Tri-ang days it is  amongst the  best, it is such a pity  that due to some disappointing Hornby locos  their products have been 'avoided'  by myself and a few  freinds recently. 

 

Perhaps this  performance experience  bodes  well  for the  forthcoming  P2  and 71000, both of which 'may' be purchased although  they   would have absolutely no place on the current 00  layout in progress which  is  Southern  EMU based,  but then  neither  does the 01 have a place on it, but  it  looks  great.

 

Well Done Hornby!!

[7013]

Hornby have fitted the O1with a 5 pole motor with the addition of a flywheel which has certainly made this loco a superb runner. When they pull the stops out Hornby can produce exquisite models as this mechanism demonstrates.

[Stevelewis]

Hornby have fitted the O1with a 5 pole motor with the addition of a flywheel which has certainly made this loco a superb runner. When they pull the stops out Hornby can produce exquisite models as this mechanism demonstrates.

I am not  sure if the  flywheel in this instance makes a lot of difference, it does obviously have a minor effect, but I was always taught that for a flywheel to have the most effect its diameter needs to exceed that of the  motor's armature, The  01's flywheel  has quite a small diameter

 

Many locos with flywheels to have large diameter flywheels  and their  effect can be quite notable  by the, 'run on' of a loco  when it is running at a reasonably high speed and the power is suddenly cut,

Edited April 20, 2013 by Stevelewis

[34theletterbetweenB&D]

Indeed so. One of the first things to come off my O1 was the flywheel to make space for the weight which the loco lacks; no perceptible difference to the good performance on DC, and once decoder equipped it does all one could expect of a loco mechanism in terms of running refinement.

[Stevelewis]

I am  not  so  sure  that  the 01  lacks  weight,  I ran  mine on a friends largish layout  and  we  found  it  would  easily  haul 25   4 wheel wagons  up a 1 in 48 incline on a 48" radius  curve,  as  a  comparison  a  Hornby  8f latest  (weathered) release  stalled  with  17  on.

 

My concern with removing the  flywheel and adding  extra weight is  how  much nett gain in weight  is  achieved  when the  weight of the  flywheel is considered?

[7013]

TBH my O1 feels heavy enough and has managed 30 wagons with home made coal loads without breaking sweat, the Hornby 2-8-0T my friend has struggles with half that, whatever Hornby have done to make the O1 such a good runner obviously was not carried over.

Agree about the flywheel comments but it does give a little extra weight and momentum.

[Stevelewis]

Just  a little  more  info re the  01's haulage power:

 

It is  worth checking the tender pickups,  I do favour  as many pickups as possible on locos but  sometimes non powered wheels  with pickups  can act as  brakes!

 

(Older N  gauge users may remember some of the tender pickup fitted Graham Farish  locos)

 

Anyway we tested 2 01 locos yesterday the owner of one reckoned his  lacked haulage power and it  did  only 15 wagons up the gradient mentioned in an earler post that my 01 hauled 25 wagons up..

 

We  fitted my o1's tender to his  loco  and it immediately  improved haulage capacity  increasing by   around 50%.

 

We found the  tender pickups on his loco to be exerting more presure on the wheel  backs, than those on my loco , so  after  slightly reducing the 'bend' of the  pickups and re attaching  it to his loco the loco 's pulling power  increased. in line with my loco

 

Obviously tinkering with the tender pickups has to be done  carefully    to get a balance between them  actually picking up power  and not actng as  brakes.

Edited April 22, 2013 by Stevelewis

[34theletterbetweenB&D]

I require a guaranteed start unseen with the whole train on a 1 in 80 with a 60 wagon train load. They are all free rolling but the set can include ABS and other whitemetal wagons, so the train weight for an 8F is standardised at 2kg. That needs about 50g force at the drawbar for an 'everytime' start, which requires about 400g on the coupled wheels (on n/s rail) so I make 8Fs up to 450g.

 

Hornby tender wiper pick ups are brakes. If they run freely when new they don't after the first year of operation. I take them all out of contact. Split axle and pinpoint collection is the way to go if unpowered wheel pick up is desied

[Stevelewis]

I suppose  its  lucky  then  that  not  many of  us  have  the  space to run 60 wagon trains  

Edited April 22, 2013 by Stevelewis

[7013]

I certainly do not at home Steve, but on our club running track it would be no problem.

[Markeg]

Hi, I wish to add dcc sound to my Hornby 01.  What is the best option here?  I should say that I wish to buy a ready to buy, off the shelf decoder and speaker unit.  I don't wish to tackle anything technical.  So please do not suggest buy this decoder,speaker and download soundfiles, etc, etc.  I just don't have the time or skills. 

 

I have checked youtube for suggestions, also have contacted Rails of Sheffield, Howes and looked at Olivias trains which have them listed and was referred to by the youtuber.

 

Thanks for the help in advance.

 

Mark in OZ

[7013]

Mark I believe the sound decoder for the L1 is a viable alternative. I am no expert but saw a video of one of these decoders installed in the O1 which the owner said was as near as makes no difference. Both Thompson locos with the same cylinder arrangement I believe. Unfortunately I cannot remember where I saw it, it could be on this thread or just google O1 sound using an L1 decoder. Hope this helps.

Edited October 7, 2013 by 7013

[Markeg]

Thanks 7013,

It was a couple of pages back.  I will look into it.  I think someone also used an 04 decoder. 

 

Mark in OZ

[RedgateModels]

I used the Paul Chetter L1 Zimo decoder from Digitrains with a maplin paper cone speaker which turned out cheaper than buying the same ABS speaker from Digitrains....

 

I'll post some pics tomorrow

[RedgateModels]

As promised a sequence of photos showing the sound decoder fitting process. All in the tender, the only work needed was to file a small amount away from the weight just to make sure it did not short out the speaker.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sound is fairly quiet and the speaker can't handle anywhere the full volume of the decoder. a complete rebuild of the tender with an ABS-230-RC would sound better, but for this install I wanted to use the mountings etc as intended by Hornby.

 

The Maplin order code for the speaker is N97FU and is an ABS-221-RC - the same as Digitrains et al sell for £5.50, so if you have a local Maplins you can save a couple of quid

 

Hope that helps

[Markeg]

Thank you everyone who gave some advice and posted photos.

 

I have decided having received an email response from Jeremy from Digitrains about parts they put together and added sound file of a B1.  So will go ahead with that. Even if it doesn't suit the 01, it will go in my Hornby B1.  so no waist. and a good price at that.

 

Mark.