cant get my 12v wren loco to work

[willy boy]

HI all , ive dug out my 00  trains after many years and want to see if i can get them working. ive been oiling them , until motor ,cogs and wheels turn smoothly  .I have cleaned the wheels to give good contact. Im pleased with myself but one wont work out of 6. it has been stored along with the others in boxes. It is a 12v unlike all the rest ,Its a wren engine number 48073. I would love to see the wheels go round under power, the worm is turning, along with motor and wheels by hand ,  i have taken out carbon looking brush rod and put back in cleaned. i have no transformer or track so just putting battery across wheels.  Please help. 

[Chrissaf]

Wait for a Wren knowledgeable member to reply. In the meantime, you might get some additional clues from the sticky thread located at the top of the 'General Discussion' forum, titled:

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FAQ - beginner Question - My loco/set is not working.

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TIP: As a newbie poster on the forum, just be aware that the 'Blue Button with the White Arrow' is not a 'Reply to this post' button. If you want to reply to any of the posts, scroll down and write your reply in the reply text box at the bottom of the page and click the Green 'Reply' button.

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See also – further TIPs on how to get the best user experience from this forum.

https://www.hornby.com/uk-en/forum/tips-on-using-the-forum/

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[Rana Temporia]

Your Wrenn loco will need a lot of power to move as it is an old type motor. A battery won't be able to supply the current to make it work. Most modern controllers will struggle too. Try using the power leads from your controller rather than the battery. 

[willy boy]

Your Wrenn loco will need a lot of power to move as it is an old type motor. A battery won't be able to supply the current to make it work. Most modern controllers will struggle too. Try using the power leads from your controller rather than the battery. 

thanks for your reply, I dont have controller. WHat about bigger battery .car 12v any good ? Thanks.

[Rog RJ]

Car batteries can be dangerous when used with model railways.  If you must use a car battery be sure to have a fuse in one of the leads to the loco, as near as possible to the battery.  I suggest a 1 or 2 amp fuse.

[Howbi]

Not advisable to use the car battery WB.........they output 15 volts, 85Ah.......if the motor or mechanism jammed the resulting short circuit would be like an electric fire in your hand.........15 x 85 = 1275 watts.........HB

[Rana Temporia]

Your car battery should be able to deliver sufficient power but is a bit extreme and I'm not sure if it can give you a shock if you are not careful. You might be able to use a lantern type battery that can deliver more amps than a simple 9v type. Your other option would be to use a redundant power unit for a printer, laptop or toy, many of us have them lying about and haven't taken to the tip yet. You'd need one that was 9 to 12v dc and at least half an amp, possibly 1 amp. Cut the plug for the laptop etc. Off the end, split the wire and cut the plastic insulation off the end. (Don't do this with anything you still need!) Touch one wire anywhere on the metal chassis and the other on the pick-up under the loco. If that doesn't work try applying the wires direct to the brush Tops. Don't open the mains plug up, there is a transformer in there and some capacitors that can give you a nasty shock even after the unit has been unplugged for quite a while. I speak from experience!

[ColinB]

Car batteries cannot give you shocks not the 12 volt type anyway. Their biggest issue is fire risk and of course the battery acid, if while you are testing your loco you accidentally touch the two leads together you can easily get 60 amps plus, which will probably melt the metal your Wrenn body is made of, or create a fire. Really old Wrenns do consume a lot of current but half the time it is because the magnet has lost its magnatism, I think mine when I last measured them were about 0.6 of an amp, if the magnet has gone, easily over an amp.

[ColinB]

Well I have just tested my City of Wells, I haven't run it for ages. Amazingly, it works with the cheapo power supply I got with my Pendoleno set. Normal running is about 300 milliamps ( 0.3 amps), the stall current is really high at 1.3 amps but the power supply didn't trip out. Really nice locos, shame I run DCC and I don't really want to hack it apart to fit DCC. The values seem a lot lower than I expected, that one must have a good magnet.

[LCDR]

Just a thought, does your model have a jump lead from the loco to tender (the three rail version at least has this) but I am not sure about the two rail one or the Wrenn one, as the three rail pick ups were on the tender. Has this come unplugged?

 

Is your battery good?

[81F]

 I think this is probably the Wrenn 8F judging by the number. Although I have no experience of this type of loco I belkieve it has the same motor a s theR1  0-6-0T and N2 0-6-2T which I do have and I am currently thrying to build one of these from a spare chassis...

 

Although they do take quite a bit of poer the motor should tun using a new 9V batery so I would suggest removing the body and connecting the 9V neattery directly across the two carbon brushes. If the motor works look for any loose wires.