125 Inter City. Class 43. Ringfield motor.

[Puffed Out]

I have been trying to bring another one of these back to life, and avoid using it for spares.

Fitted new carbon brushes & springs, new traction tyres, resoldered one wire, and a good clean, with minimum lubrication.

It now runs, but quite slowly. The running lights are very bright.  Everything moves freely, and is very smooth and quiet,(more than likely because it's running slowly).!

Could the magnet or armature be the problem.?. Any other ideas as to why it would do this.?

The armature seems in good condion with no apparent damage or signs of any excessive wear.

[96RAF]

I would suggest a weak magnet. Either have it remagnetised or swap out the motor for a CD motor.

My CD motored HST runs fine but has other problems like a sticky bogie range of swivel causing derails over points.

[ColinB]

On my one, everyone said it was a weak magnet, I even bought a new one, but it wasn't. Mine would hardly pull the other diesel end let alone carriages. In the end I measured the resistance between the 3 armatures on the Ringfied motor, one was open circuit. Someone on this site suggested that quite often the fine wire breaks off the armature and if you look carefully you can see it and reattach it. That is exactly what was wrong with mine, I did do that, but in the end I bought a rewound armature from Lendons for £13.00, it now works like a dream. I don't know if your one has pickup on all wheels but Peters Spares were doing upgraded bogies that include this. My one runs like a dream now.

[Puffed Out]

After checking the wires to the comutator, which were fine, I compared the magnatism with the magnets from 3 others I have, but not very scientifically though.

Just hung a few precision screwdrivers from the magnets, and this one only managed 2,while the others almost managed 4.

So, it looks the magnet is the problem. So I gave this one some extra tender loving care, and now it runs just tiny bit faster, at pretty much the scale speed.

So, as long as it runs, it's safe from becoming a donor for the others, and possibly vice versa.

..

Thanks for your help and advise.

[Souty Train Guy]

I had one of the original Hornby R.069, which was originally a slow runner, despite efforts for over a year. A CD motor increased slow speed performance dramatically along with some LED lighting which I fitted...

CD Motor Tutorial:

LED Lighting Tutorial

I found the end result much more recognising and the performance a far cry from the original stop-start

Hmm... I don't remember clicking the quote button