14xx Chassis

[nickwood]

Can anyone tell me if the Hornby Chassis and the previous Dapol chassis and gearing are the same?

 

I have a old Dapol 14xx and want to put a replacement Ultrascale wheelset into it. I've contacted Ultrascale and they can't tell me if their replacements, which are listed as being for the Hornby version will be suitable.

 

Any help would be appreciated, thanks.

[Adrian Wintle]

The Airfix (I think including the Dapol version) and Hornby chassis are different, primarily because the Airfix one drives the lead axle and the Hornby one drives the trailing axle (the Airfix motor is significantly longer). The axles on both are 1/8", and the wheels are interchangeable. It is simple to put Romfords on either variant due to the axle diameter. I don't know if the gearing is the same, though - this might be an issue if the Ultrascale wheelsets include the drive gear.

 

Adrian

Edited April 25, 2012 by Adrian Wintle

[Silver Sidelines]

Hello, The Airfix , Dapol and Hornby wheels sets are identical. The Dapol and Hornby chassis are the same. As already noted above the only significant difference is that the Airfix drives on the front axle and the gear wheel is to a different design to the Hornby / Dapol version.

 

I have taken quite a few of these engines apart and recently used a combination of Airfix and Dapol wheels (and axles) with a Hornby chassis to make a model without traction tyres.

 

There is a picture here in my Blog:

 

http://www.rmweb.co....polhornby-14xx/

 

You may need to lock the rear springing to the trailing / carrying wheels if you want to stop the engine bobbing about to much.

 

Hope this is of use,

 

Regards Ray

 

PS Just remembered, there is a video of the finished engine, this time with a Hornby GWR body.

Edited April 25, 2012 by Silver Sidelines

[craigwelsh]

You'd be better off buying a High Level chassis too for it tbh if you want far better running though that would depend on your soldering skills.

[nickwood]

Thank you all, that is very useful and gives me the answer I needed. I won't be buying the High Level chassis though as my soldering skills are definitely not up to that.

[Sam Moss]

Mine runs on romfords and is a lovely runner. Original Hornby chassis

[hartleymartin]

What are the thoughts on the original Airfix chassis? I bought an original Airfix model quite cheap the other day. There are a couple of cosmetic issues with the model (one broken step and a missing handrail) but as they are mostly confined to one side of the locomotive, I'll just fix up one side real nice and keep that as the viewing side on my shelf layout. My plan is to dress it up as 1401 from "The Titfield Thunderbolt"

 

I would like to improve the running by getting rid of the traction-tyre wheelset. This is an Airfix model, from axle drive and middle axle traction tyres.

 

Also, any thoughts on fitting quad couplings to it? It has the original plug-in style tension lock couplers and the old NEM trick won't work it seems.

[John_Hughes]

I built the Comet one a while back, and it's a lovely build; but the fact is that unless you manage to pack every cubic mm with something really heavy - like depeleted uranium - then it's very hard to good adhesion out of a 4mm model. Compensation helps (as, of course, do the Airfix traction tyres), but that small boiler makes it difficult to get enough weight over the drivers.

 

It doesn't seem to have been a problem with the prototype (though the GWR did build a six-coupled version for the heavily graded Valley lines) but then they didn't usually load beyond a few wagons or a couple of coaches, though on the Saltash shuttle four coaches were common and seem not to have caused any problems.

 

Oh, and the Airfix pickups are a constant cause of trouble for some people, though they do work nicely if cleaned up.

[Silver Sidelines]

Hi Martin

 

I would have thought you have the answers to most of your questions in the thread above.

 

What are the thoughts on the original Airfix chassis? .

 

I would like to improve the running by getting rid of the traction-tyre wheelset. This is an Airfix model, from axle drive and middle axle traction tyres.

..

The old Airfix chassis with its plunger pickups could be very noisy and electrically unreliable.  The later Dapol / Hornby chassis was much improved. You can get rid of the traction tyres by swapping wheel sets but the engine will still probably bob about because of the springing over the rear truck.  I guess really smooth running would require a complete new soldered chassis.

 

Regards

 

Ray

[Bob O]

There is an article in an old Hornby Mag (date to follow) this in conjunction with Silver Sideliles post sorts this loco out. You can get a bit more weight in the 14xx too. A lead idisc in the smoke box plus a bit in the fire box top, Tny bits of "golf " tape in the boiler sides and on the  tank sides can add 15-20 grammes, Every 4g is an extra wagon and every 16g a coach! However a 14xx is a couple of coaches max load,

[hartleymartin]

My plan was to do this one up to represent the train in the Titfied Thunderbolt, so it will only haul a coach and two wagons anyway.

[hayfield]

Martin

 

The Comet Coaches chassis is superb and runs well as stated, also they hopefully will be available again from next week. The one draw back is the cost which I guess after taking the wheels motor and gearbox would be over £65. I have no idea of the running qualities of the Hornby version buy buying one of them may be more cost effective.

 

On the other hand, if you decided to super detail a model then the former would be well worth the cost and effort. But is the quality of your body up to it.

 

Another option might be to use the footplate of the damaged body (which is the correct length) and marry it up to a Keyser body using the bets parts of each. Usung heavy body sides, boiler etc may sort out the weight problems.

 

What was the class of the GWR 6 coupled version please, that also could make an interesting conversion

[Il Grifone]

omis

 

 

What was the class of the GWR 6 coupled version please, that also could make an interesting conversion

 

The nearest would be a 54xx, but this isn't really convertible from a 14xx. The GWR wasn't really into 0-6-0 side tanks.  (There was the '633' class, but they had all been withdrawn by the early thirties.)