Fitting a Hornby class 110 DMU with Replica Railways power underframe

[Topogarden]

Hi Guys

 

I am new to this forum. I have a Hornby 110 Dmu that is a poor runner and have purchased a replica railways powered chassis. I have got the template for cutting the base. I am fast doubting my initial impression that this would be straight forward. I wonder if anyone has done this modification before and could offer any tips. Cheers Mike

[Waveydavey]

I haven’t done this with the Hornby 110 but have done it with a Lima 101. I didn’t use the Replica chassis surround and just gently cut the Lima chassis until it fitted snugly from below. Wasn’t too much of a job but I did need to space the frame down to get the buffer height in the right position.

 

I think Clive Mortimore might have looked at doing a 110 conversion as I remember it being discussed a few years back.

[Topogarden]

Can I ask where you get these motors and how difficult a job conversion is for a novice

[JDW]

Hi,

 

It's maybe not a very useful suggestion at this stage, but I have a 110 that rarely sees much use (it's way out of my era but I like them) and I replaced the old style Hornby wheelw with a pack of new ones (12mm discs I think) and the improvement was vast.  A pack of 10 axles will do both trailers for smoother running and the unpowered bogie on the motorised car, which in itself made a huge difference to the smooth running.  The old wheels are awful plated things, I found just getting rid of them made pick up much better.  

 

Would be good to see your conversion when it's finished though.

[crompton 33]

I've got some CD/DVD  motors from Finland off Ebay . They where £4.00 each with postage.

[Topogarden]

Well I have now got the replica railway powered chassis fitted. I modified the Hornby underframe rather than use the one supplied because I didn’t see how I could remove the engine detail between the wheel sets. It runs really well. One problem that I should have foreseen but didn’t was that the detailed interior won’t fit because the replica unit sits high in the body. Will have thinks on that one?

 

Still to fit the bogie sideframes. Will look into CD drives for my next conversion!

[Topogarden]

Are the motors on the chassis in the way of the interior detail.

 

No it’s not the motors the whole casting in which the motors sit comes to just below window level. That would nominally make the floor at window level but the interior is wider than the windows back to back as it’s designed to sit below the glazing mouldings. In hindsight the dvd motor drive might have been more suitable for this dmu. But I am learning!

[SRman]

With regard to my 4 & 5 car units, I fitted the motor into 1 of the middle coaches to give it even weight either side, ok its not even weight on the 4 car with 1 coach in front and 2 behind whereas the 5 car the motored coach has coaches either side of it.

 

I found that the main necessity of this is adding a bit more weight into the coaches either side of the motored coach to prevent the risk of them being thrown off the rails if running at high speed

 

I have done the same with several 4-car Southern units built from Bratchell (classes 455/8, 455/9 and 319) and DC Kits (BR 4 EPB) kits; I agree that the trailer cars all require some ballast weight, particularly the coaches adjacent to the powered car. The number of these Replica chassis that I have used (with one more still to go) demonstrates my satisfaction with them, in spite of the compromises needed with seating units.