Class 86/87 chassis

[ColinB]

I have been upgrading some my older ringfield motor based loco chassis to the latest Hornby ones with different motors, mainly so I can fit TTS decoders and have more reliable pickups on all wheels. I suppose in the case of class 86 TTS is not really on, but the new motors seem to run better. Anyway on my early class 86 Phoenix it has a plastic chassis with a 3 pole motor, but on my R2414 86233 Alsom Heritage it has a diecast chassis and a 5 pole Ringfield motor with pickups on all wheels. The new chassis I received that takes the new motor is plastic. So any idea when they reverted back from diecast chassis to plastic? So in my my case it would be a retrograde step updating the R2414 to the new chassis ( I have already converted it to DCC), but with the class 86 Phoenix it is probably worth doing. Unfortunately, the Service Sheets do not identify if the chassis is plastic or diecast. 

I keep thinking about buying one of the new Hornby class 87s, so does that have a diecast chassis?

[Going Spare]

I shall stick my neck out once again and wait for the noose to be tightened around it but I was not aware that Hornby had ever used a metal underframe on the class 86, always plastic right through from the earliest Margate production to the most recent Chinese models.  As the new class 87 has adopted the central motor on a large chassis block, it will almost certainly be metal.

[ColinB]

Going Spare you are right the Alstrom is plastic, my mistake, must have been the lighting in the loft. It definitely looked like metal but I think that was probably because it looks like it has been painted. It definitely looks different from the one in the Phoenix.

I looked at the Service Sheet for what I assume is the new one and it doesn't have the central motor, but I may have found the wrong Service Sheet. I would have thought that seeing as the new one retails for about £170 it has the central motor, but that is why I was asking.

The other thing of interest, I was looking at Service Sheet 381 and it lists the part number for the gear pack as X9461, but when I do a search on that part number I get a front bogie for a N15. The same part for a Class 87 is X9641. I wondered if the Service sheet has mixed up the two middle numbers?

[Going Spare]

The service sheet for the new class 87 is 436.  As for the gear pack, I would go for X9641 as that has been used for other short-wheelbase 4-wheel ex-Lima drive bogies.  Transposition of numbers is not unknown: unfortunately, service sheet information occasionally is not totally accurate both in terms of part/pack numbers and the contents of packs when compared with the exploded view. 

[ColinB]

No wonder I couldn't find it. On the Hornby site they miss out 436, as do virtually all the other sites.

[Going Spare]

Type "Class 87" in the search box and all is revealed

[ColinB]

I bought all the parts to build my class 86 motor bogie, sadly you cannot get the complete item anymore, using class 86 and 87 parts. The thing that I couldn't understand I bought all the parts identified in the service sheet, but none of it came with the axles for X9641. I managed to make some out of 1.6 mm drill shanks, but where do you get them? I notice with the same item for class 47, X9671 that they come with axles.

[ColinB]

I finally bought the Hornby class 87 "Sir Winston Churchill" VIrgin trains loco. I was not disappointed, it is a wonderful model.

[atom3624]

They're fantastically powerful, smooth and fast where requested - love mine.

 

Some say the electronics aren't the easiest to work with.

 

Al.