Hornby 90 Chassis / Bogie Frame Swap

[CullingworthGNR]

Hello all,

 

I'm looking into the possibility of remotoring some old Hornby Class 90s and 91s, and wondered if anyone else had done the same. I have already tried using other chassis parts, including Bachmann Warships and even Bullant motor bogies without success - I just couldn't get them to run smoothly and freely.

 

My plan is therefore to swap the old chassis for the new, skew wound, Class 90 version. This is easy for the Class 90 as it's just a body swap, but is obviously more complex for the 91.

 

I'm trying to work out whether the power bogie from the new Class 90 fits the old Class 90 bogie frame - has anyone got both and could have a look? I can then swap over the wheels for the 12mm versions found in the Class 73, giving me a suitable base for the 91 power bogie.

 

Any help much appreciated, thanks for your time.

[frobisher]

I'd suspect not as the "Limby" method of mounting is very different from the old Hornby Ringfield method.

 

However, spares for the Limbied class 91 should become available as soon as that's on sale (the Model Rail commision is the first..?).

 

If your 90's and 91's are pre-5 pole motor ones, then you could just pick up a pair of 5 pole ringfield bogies for each and double motor them as the performance difference between the 3 pole and 5 pole ringfield is night and day - and double motoring always a good brute force way of cracking the problem

[CullingworthGNR]

Thanks for your help - I ran them again last night and although the 5 pole motors are slightly louder than the skew wound ones, I'm not sure it's worth the hassle of hacking stuff about. With Hornby not doing a separate 91 I'd have to either buy the limited edition or split a pack, which could get very expensive....

 

I might give the remotoring another go at some point with a Heljan loco, but for now I'm better off staying out of it I think!