Swapping loco wheelsets

[DanInHisDen]

I saw on youtube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Kds1I2CDSY) you can swap the wheelsets between a Hornby pug and a Hornby w4. How is this done?

 

[Chas Levin]

Hello Dan, this isn't really my area of expertise but as no-one's come to your aid I thought I'd try and help. Basically you'll need to work out how to take both locos to pieces. All the Service Sheets for Hornby locos are available from their site - this is the entry page for the database: http://www.hornbyguide.com/service_sheet_menu.asp but I've got to be honest and say iu've always found it difficult to navigate around so don't be put off if you do too!

 

Once you find the service sheets for the two locos, you'll find they'll have exploded diagrams and/or directions for dismantling

 

As to whether the wheelsets of the two locos you're dealing with can actually be swapped, I'm afraid I can't advise there... But hope this helps, if only a bit! 🙂

[Robin Verth]

Out of curiosity I watched the video, I quite liked his interpretation of Percy,  in the commentary he says he changed the wheels but not the axels, I have a set of pug wheels in my spares box and looked at their construction with a suitable gear puller it is quite simple to remove the wheel from the axel, I do not have any  spare Peckett W4 wheels/axels to check the axel diameter, the video inferred that they fitted with no problems.

The video gave me inspiration as I have an ARC kit to build of a Barclay 12in 0-4-0ST which uses the Hornby Pug chassis, this will become "Crossness" one of the locomotives of the Horton Light Railway, now to track down some Hornby W4 wheels for the project, now can the cylinders from the W4 be made to fit the Pug chassis?

 

[Chas Levin]

Apologies, I shoudl have watched it too - I took 'wheelsets' to mean wheels plus axles! Swapping wheels without also swapping axles is a much easier task, to be sure and as Robin says, a gear puller will do the trick.