Any modern version of the H&M Point Motor?

[Underbank Junction]

Just wondering if there are any modern versions of the H&M Point Motor?  I've tried using SEEP, and both styles of Peco (standard and side mounted) and just keep coming back to buying old second hand H&M ones from Ebay, which is fine, but they're getting rarer and I've had quite a few that are faulty (unsurprising since they're now so old).  Very few "new" H&M point motors now appear on Ebay and they seem very popular when they do!

 

Peco and SEEP are fine if you've got a fixed layout plan and can therefore fit them at the same time as the point, drilling holes/cut-outs in the baseboard as you go, but that doesn't allow for easy layout changes, and I keep damaging the points when I try to line up the pin through the board into the hole in the point (not easy when you're on your own and I'm getting a bit long in the tooth for constantly climbing in and out from under the boards.  Peco side mounted ones are a compromise because they look obtrusive and I've found they lack power and a few have weakened to the extent that they can't flip the point!

 

That's why I keep coming back to H&M.  I can use wire & tube to site the point motor a fair distance from the point (i.e. under a building or hill), and they're a lot easier to fit under the board with the crank shaft as you don't have to be quite so accurate with placing as the omega loop/wire & tube is flexible enough to allow for it being sited.  They're also really quick to install and remove if you decide to change your layout plan, damage to points is very unlikely.

 

So, my question, is whether there's anything else on the market that's similar in that it has rotary motion (for a crank) as well as side/side motion, and the ease and flexibility of siting above or below the board?  

 

I know that H&M motors have their "issues" in terms of them probably being too power hungry and too strong, having been designed for a different era of point quality/construction, but I would have thought that there'd be a manufacturer who could have taken the H&M style of design and maybe reduced it's power for the modern layouts.

 

Anyone know of anything that I don't?  I've looked at the tortoise motors but they're a different market altogether (more finescale I would have thought) due to pricing and the realism of the switch, and not really aimed at larger layouts like mine where I have dozens of points.

 

 

 

[Pacific231G]

I can't help thinking this might be a business opportunity for someone. I suspect though that most of us would be fairly horrified by the price of a newly manufactured version as there's probably a lot more assembly work involved in one of these than any modern product and I've no idea what sort of DCC module would be needed to drive it if you were going down that route. I wonder who if anyone still owns the rights to the design.

 

I suppose the modern equivalent in terms of build quality would be the Tortoise and I think they do a crank output unit as an add on. They're designed to fit under deep American benchwork though so a bit tall for typical British baseboard construction.

 

[maunsel]

There are a number of servo motors out there now, a random example being:-

 

http://www.heathcote-electronics.co.uk/servo.html.

 

Servos are tried and tested in the model aviation field - since they keep a fair few quid of model aircraft airborne. Tortoises tend to be expensive, but Fast Tracks do the Bullfrog:-

 

http://www.handlaidtrack.com/BullFrog-Manual-Turnout-Control-Unassembled-p/bf-0002.htm 

 

which maybe worth exploring.

 

Or there are the manual systems such as Mercontrol:-

 

http://www.lytchettmanor.co.uk/mercontrol.html

 

Good luck!

 

Eric