Hornby P2 Chassis & Hornby Tornado ( Possible Modification Thoughts )

[508006]

Hi Everyone

I bought a P2 chassis off ebay which I lengthened an A4 body to fit and fitted Walschaerts valve gear from a V2 kit, all works very well.

I have been toying with trying to modify the rear pony truck under the cab end so that it could pivot like on 1990s hornby locos ( A1/3/4, Britannia etc ) so that I can use flanged wheels on it, the modifications are required because with the rear pony truck in its current format the flanged wheels short out the power.

I am also wanting to do this on my hornby tornado which I renumbered as 60164 as if it was another new build ( although purely fictional ) also has a rear pony truck that also shorts out the power if flanged wheels are fitted.

I am sure there is a way to do the modifications to both locos but I seriously need to ask for any ideas from anybody who is considering the same thing or has already done it.

All ideas welcome.

[ColinB]

I had this issue on my Duchess, but that was because I was using live frog points and a special switching system I devised. Normally there shouldn't be an issue, but if it is an issue just buy a smaller set of pony truck wheels that sit higher above the rails. I am sure you must be missing an insulator somewhere as normally the fixed pony truck wheels don't short out. As to the A4 there are two different types of bodies, the early loco driven ones and super detail ones have the rear mounting slot under the cab further forward than the later Railroad ones. You should find if you bought a recent Railroad A4 body it should fit without modification. Note the A4/A3 Railroad chassis are different to the Railroad Tornedo chassis. I don't know about the P2.

[508006]

Hi ColinB

From what I saw last night when I looked at the area where the wheel flanges would be, it looks like there is some metal that could be drilled out and filed on both locos.

Once it is drilled out and filed smooth, I think that flanged wheels will easily fit and hopefully not cause any further shorting out of the power.

As far as turnouts / points are concerned, they are all peco, the majority are insulfrog with only 1 electrofrog in the depot area with an insulating joiner on the frog rail and wires running from either side of the joiner to a switch allowing me to stable 2 coupled locos without them moving.