Hornby Mallard Strange Problem

[Brigadier5]

Hi ... I have an 00 gauge Hornby A4 Mallard ... it used to belong to my father who would have used it until the early 1990's but no later. It has been in storage ever since and kept indoors in a dry environment. I have been trying to get it going and have almost, but not quite been successful. I have opened up the tender and given all that a good clean out. Apply power to the tender and the motor runs nicely in both directions. So far so good. The loco body is fine and in good condition, and the mechanism and wheels are moving freely and easily. All is well until I put the two together. The loco and tender try to move. The tender wheels spin on the track but it barely moves the loco. Traction tyres seem to be in good condition. I connected the tender to a Hornby King Class loco and it runs just fine.... very nicley in fact. I then connected the tender from the King Class loco to the Mallard loco, and that also runs fine. At the moment I conclude that both the Mallard tender and the loco are good until I put them together, but thus far I cant see what the problem might be. It is as if the first pair (nearest the loco body) of tender wheels are a little high but that doesnt happen when its connected to the King class loco. I wondered if anyone has had a similar problem or might have a thought as to what the issue could be. Many thanks in advance.

[Ruffnut Thorston]

It sounds like the tender is not seating properly on the loco to tender drawbar.

 

The drawbar isn't upside down, with the brass fingers on top is it?

 

Something is causing the front of the tender to be raised...

 

Unless it is just the motor, not properly inserted into the plastic chassis frame at the front end?

 

The front of the motor casting should be put in first, and then the back end pushed down and clipped into position.

 

Just some thoughts... 😀

[ColinB]

I have been playing around with an old Seagull A4 and several A3s (all Ringfield) for the last couple of days converting them to DCC ready and adding 5 pole motors. Sarahagain is right perhaps the motor is not clipped in properly to the frame. The other thing I had issues with were the centre wheels of the motor (the axle between the two driving wheels) not lifting up properly. The other thing is the pin between loco and tender, sometimes there is a lip at the top, some pony trucks have the moulded bar at the top, some have a screw on drawbar at the bottom. It may be your father put the wrong pony truck on. You could try swapping pony trucks between the Scotsman and the Mallard and see if that cures it. The other thing I had issues with, was the wheels turned perfectly when I spun them, put when on the track the valve gear got stuck every so often. Make sure that there is a washer underneath the front bogie screw, that seems to make a real big difference, my A3 kept getting stuck until I put the washer in (it is 8 BA).

It is not that strange a problem, I have spent hours trying to get my locos not to slide along when the tender pushes it.

[Brigadier5]

 Thank you guys ... really appreciate your thoughts ... going to have another crack at it over the next couple of days  

[ColinB]

I have just had an issue with my tender powered Flying Scotsman, just couldn't figure why it kept slipping. Changed the traction tyres, still no difference. Anyway by changing tenders and locos about I found it was the loco, check that the wheels on the loco are buckled or slipping on the insulators in the centre of the wheels. That is what was wrong with mine. Because I have changed to 5 pole motor in the tender it has more power to push it along when something is wrong, with a 3 pole motor it would do exactly what yours is doing.