HST R069 CD Motor and DCC Conversion

[Skier]

Hi All

I have recently converted my aged Hornby HST (R069) to a new CD can motor, fitting DCC and upgrading the lights.

All went well and the loco runs - OK'ish.

I've noticed that the lights on the front will cease working on certain points of the layout and that by gently rocking the front bogie to one side will make them come back on. I've cleaned the track and dismantled the front bogie to fully clean the wheels, axles and the metal frame that clips into the plastic housing.

Despite the above cleaning the problem persists - there are points on the layout that in essence the loco becomes dead due to the front bogie not picking current up from the track properly.

Has anyone else come across this and if so can you advise on a remedy.

Many thanks

[96RAF]

Someone posted that a similar loco (Pendo or CL395) ran fine without its body but with the body on the chassis frame was stiffer and wheel contact not so good.

The normal suggestion is add a bit of weight over the bogie(s) to keep the wheels firmly on the road.

[ColinB]

The thing is does your HST pick up power from both bogies, some of the early ones use one bogie for one side of the supply and the other bogie for the other side. What you can do is buy a class 90 pickup (which you will need to trim) or a later HST one (if you can get it) so that the front non powered bogie picks up both sides of the supply. The only issue is that you have to be careful that the extra pickup doesn't cause too much drag.

[Skier]

Hi All

Thanks for your input - this is very helpful.

Unfortunately the loco has now died completely. Motor not running, lights not functioning - nothing. I've checked all the wiring - no breaks to be seen. I've also swapped out the decoder and tried another one and still nothing. Power and control from the Elite to the track is fine as I have other locos that are running perfectly on the layout.

May have to revert to a repair shop to sort this one out - I've no idea what the issue is here. I can see nothing wrong at all.

[96RAF]

It could be that the motor was a low voltage version. Some of these DVD motors can ne as low as 3 volt, most are 6 volt and few are 12/24 volt. Often it is necessary to fit a diode pack to lower the operating voltage especially when the decoder (like R8249 or TTS) do not support limiting V-max top voltage (CV5).

Disconnect both wires to the motor brushes and test with a low voltage supply - e.g. AA batteries in series.

[Skier]

Hi

Thanks for the continued input.

If the motor has failed would this cause the directional lights to also not work? I did adjust CV’s 2, 5 and 6 as per the instructions but I guess there is a possibility that the motor is dead.

Regards

[Hipwell]

No lights says to me that it's a power issue and not a knackered motor issue.

My old DCC and cd motor converted hst runs absolutely fine on the original pickups, although I have considered upgrading the pickups to the newer 91 version just to give that extra if I go over some dirty track.

Check the plugs which clip onto each bogie, mine were very loose and needed nipping up to get a good contact

[Skier]

Hi

Problem solved - I put a DCC blanking plate back in, put the loco on an analogue circuit and jigged the wires a bit and hey presto it worked. Looks to have been a faulty wire to the front bogie frame. Purchased a replacement which I soldered in at the weekend and all is now good. Just needs a bit of decent track time for the motor to bed in now.

Regards