idris Posted March 28, 2014 Share Posted March 28, 2014 I have a pile of these old point motors, all of which seem to work well enough. But I'm looking at replacing all my points with new ones and all the new Peco, Hornby and Bachmann points I've seen are designed for actuators that operate perpendicular to the the track, whereas the ones I have operate parallel to it. Is there any technical reason why I can't use these point motors and just mount them at 90o to the track? (Obviously it'll effectively reduce the cost of replacing the points by up to 50% if I can.) Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spitfire2865 Posted March 28, 2014 Share Posted March 28, 2014 Will the throw be enough? Too much or too little will probably give bad results. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold tomparryharry Posted March 28, 2014 RMweb Gold Share Posted March 28, 2014 Measure the throw, and check the throw of the point you plan to use. I think that's the Triang/Hornby super 4 motor, isn't it? Ian Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Theakerr Posted March 28, 2014 Share Posted March 28, 2014 Use them in conjunction with a model aircraft/car L arm, most of which have a number of holes so that the throw can be adjusted. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ruffnut Thorston Posted March 28, 2014 Share Posted March 28, 2014 Possibly the deal breaker would be "is the motor strong enough to throw a modern point with an over-centre spring?" These motors can sell quite well, as they fit Tri-ang Railways Super 4 and the earlier Hornby System 6 points, they are in demand from collectors and those setting up "vintage" layouts. Tri-ang Railways reference X.404 Point Motor. The number got changed later in Hornby days. So, it may be possible to cash these in towards newer stuff? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
idris Posted March 29, 2014 Author Share Posted March 29, 2014 The motor pictured is a Triang X404. These are plastic but I also have some similar motors with metal bodies. The throw seems to be about 1/2" so I think that should be plenty? Use them in conjunction with a model aircraft/car L arm, most of which have a number of holes so that the throw can be adjusted. Can you elaborate? What are L arms? (I can picture what they might look like, but ...) Can you buy them separately or do you need to scavenge them from other toys? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ruffnut Thorston Posted March 29, 2014 Share Posted March 29, 2014 The metal cased motors sound intersting, as Tri-ang didn't have metal cases.... The L arm is a plastic crank. "L" Shaped, with the pivot in the angle of the "L". They have a series of holes in each arm, enabling the connection of two items and varying the "throw" using the different holes. Basically the same thing is mounted on a Servo Motor, sometimes called the Servo Horn. By the way, I like the Dragon picture from Ivor The Engine. Cymru am Byth. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
idris Posted March 29, 2014 Author Share Posted March 29, 2014 Diolch. I envisaged something like servo horns, but smaller. Something that wouldn't look out of place to a OO scale signalman. It's a long time since I've played around with RC servos but I can't find anything that small online. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.