Rewinding Hornby Motors
By Philip Worsfold.
I made my Hornby AcHo 060DB work again!
I read with much interest the article on the Hornby AcHp 060DB in the article ‘Modelling in the 20th Century’. The bogie with the motor is effectively a motor bogie; since its carcass supports the longitudinal axis of the motor as well as the axles. That reminded me of the conception of toys in the 1930’s. My experience of the 060DB made me think that there were good locos and less good ones. That of a friend of mine gave off a disturbing smoke and would only pull six light coaches. Fortunately the motor did not burn out. Mine, on the other hand gave me every satisfaction hauling heavy trains. I inherited the model from my god-father. It seemed to me to be O.K. On the other hand, that of another friend had burnt out. After some hesitation I decided to rewind the armature. The most difficult part was to count the number of turns of wire, when taking off the burnt out wire. It could be that I miscounted but I found some big variations in the number of turns on each of the three windings.
So, in for a penny, I wound 115 turns of 0.2mm enamelled wire on each of the poles. I attached each winding to the commutator at one end and soldered the other three loose ends. By a miracle it turned! I recommend that you should keep the annular permanent magnet in position. I’m not sure if this is essential. In principle there was a paint mark on the frame (I think this indicates the positive pole. My own experience is that it is very important not to move the permanent magnet - translator). Rewinding this type of motor isn’t very difficult and if this information allows quite a few modellers to get their 060DB’s working again, I’ll be delighted.
The process here, while it applies to the old original Hornby-Dublo motor, is equally applicable to any early permanent magnet motor.
By Philip Worsfold.
I made my Hornby AcHo 060DB work again!
I read with much interest the article on the Hornby AcHp 060DB in the article ‘Modelling in the 20th Century’. The bogie with the motor is effectively a motor bogie; since its carcass supports the longitudinal axis of the motor as well as the axles. That reminded me of the conception of toys in the 1930’s. My experience of the 060DB made me think that there were good locos and less good ones. That of a friend of mine gave off a disturbing smoke and would only pull six light coaches. Fortunately the motor did not burn out. Mine, on the other hand gave me every satisfaction hauling heavy trains. I inherited the model from my god-father. It seemed to me to be O.K. On the other hand, that of another friend had burnt out. After some hesitation I decided to rewind the armature. The most difficult part was to count the number of turns of wire, when taking off the burnt out wire. It could be that I miscounted but I found some big variations in the number of turns on each of the three windings.
So, in for a penny, I wound 115 turns of 0.2mm enamelled wire on each of the poles. I attached each winding to the commutator at one end and soldered the other three loose ends. By a miracle it turned! I recommend that you should keep the annular permanent magnet in position. I’m not sure if this is essential. In principle there was a paint mark on the frame (I think this indicates the positive pole. My own experience is that it is very important not to move the permanent magnet - translator). Rewinding this type of motor isn’t very difficult and if this information allows quite a few modellers to get their 060DB’s working again, I’ll be delighted.
The process here, while it applies to the old original Hornby-Dublo motor, is equally applicable to any early permanent magnet motor.