Duette Twin Controller

[Brew Man]

If anyone's interested there is one of these going for a tenner on Hattons

https://www.hattons.co.uk/1531031/hammant_morgan_duette_po20_duette_twin_supply_power_unit_pre_owned_fair_box/stockdetail

EDIT: Too late, it's been snapped up.

[ellocoloco]

Out if interest, BM. How much was it?

(Not that I have any intention of replacing my two.)

(EDIT: Sorry BM. Didn't read your post properly. Just looked at the link. Must be more careful!)

[Brew Man]

As in my post, a tenner. Looked immaculate too.

[ColinB]

If it is like my one I dumped, it contains asbestos, variable resistors to control the voltage are wound round it.

[Yelrow]

Well I have 5 of these and have never had a problem. Why would you wish to open it.

[ColinB]

You don't have to, the dust comes out of the cooling vents. The rheostat that controls the speed on mine was wound on an asbestos bandage, it used to be the thing when I first started in electronics. If you are happy with it then no issue, just pointing out the possible risk. My wife died of Mesothelioma, without having any known contact with asbestos, so I avoid anything with asbestos like the plague.

[Rana Temporia]

ColinB, having done a number of Asbestos awareness courses I fully agree with you. One case that was covered was when all the children in a family developed mesothelioma but the parent’s didn’t. Their father worked with asbestos and when he came home in his overalls his children sat on his knee and breathed in the dust from his clothes. It didn’t get high enough to affect him.

Lots of products contained asbestos until fairly recently as it has quite incredible properties, even though it had been known for a very long time just how dangerous the various types are.

I grew up in a damp house where the artex on the ceiling used to fall on me in bed. Artex is made from asbestos. Bakelite and some other early plastics used asbestos, it was used in various tars, cements, heat and electrical insulation products etc.

I was involved in one environmental incident where an industrial freezer was fed through a crusher and delivered to a site in open tipper trucks and tipped off while the children in the adjacent school watched and were covered in the dust. One of the teachers asked what the dust was and we were called in to seal off the area. The experts who turned up expected a bit of dust until they saw chunks of the stuff. It was all breathing apparatus and suits after that with the school closed for decontamination while the material and the top foot of soil went away in sealed skips for secure burial. I suspect it would all need to be bagged now.

[ColinB]

Thanks Rana for backing me up. I used to think like Yelrow until my wife caught it, I worked in the auto industry but had nothing to do with brakes so I just don't know where she got it. I just like to make people aware of the issues. To be honest unless you are running Wrenn locos, the unsmoothed voltages those give out could cause issues with locos that have leds as lights which a lot of modern locos have.

[What About The Bee]

Hello Colin

Permit me a moment to express my condolences regards the death of your wife.

While we may not have been aware of the dangers of asbestos long ago, we certainly are now.

Thank you very much indeed for the alert.

Bee

[Rallymatt]

Very sad to learn of this Colin, my condolences. asbestos once the wonder material is a thoroughly destructive material health wise. I sometimes wonder if there is a time bomb ticking away inside many of us, I used to scrape the dust up with my Tonka front loader from my elder brother’s asbestos soldering sheet!!!! 😳 alarmingly, the effects of exposure can sit dormant for decades before things go very wrong very quickly.

[Brew Man]

Very sad to learn of this Colin, my condolences. asbestos once the wonder material is a thoroughly destructive material health wise. I sometimes wonder if there is a time bomb ticking away inside many of us, I used to scrape the dust up with my Tonka front loader from my elder brother’s asbestos soldering sheet!!!! 😳 alarmingly, the effects of exposure can sit dormant for decades before things go very wrong very quickly.

Thanks for cheering us all up disappointed_relieved

 

 

[ColinB]

I was just pointing out that you have to be careful with this old stuff and as I said before you are better off with a more modern controller.

[threelink]

@CO

How sad to read of your loss. My condolences.

A friend of mine who never had any known contact with asbestos and did not work in an environment in which asbestos was handled nonetheless succumbed to asbestosis. It seems insidious and random in its depredations.

[Yelrow]

Naturally I am sorry to learn of the loss of loved ones. I did enquire from Hamment and Morgan , many years ago, and was assured that these controllers are totally safe. I have 13, in total, Duettes, and Clippers, and have never seen any dust. At 80 years old, I will continue to use them, as nothing controls 3 rail locos better. Each to their own, I suppose.

[508006]

I have 2 duette controllers and I have to say I have never regretted buying them, the power output is absolutely perfect 12 volts a 1 amp which makes them ideal for double heading or more ( 2 locos leading with 1 pushing for example ).

The example in brackets would be completely reliant on all the locos running at the same speed to prevent derailments but it can be done.

I was able to test that example recently with 2 hornby tender driven ( cd motor converted ) black 5s at 1 end of 8 Bachmann mk1s with another cd motored loco ( tender drive A3 ) at the other end. Although I can only run an end to end layout at the moment, the amount of track run available was sufficient to allow me to test that it could be done.

In my opinion these controllers are ( to me ) the best I have ever had for my layout, other opinions may vary ,however, but for me, I'll keep using h & m duette controllers even if the 2 current items have to be replaced, I will search for and purchase more.

[Yelrow]

508006, hi, i have had mine for 20 plus years. They even allow 3 rail Double heading, which i dont belive todays controllers will.

[TVR1707822112]

Hi all,

Interesting to hear that these controllers use Asbestos - didn't know that was a thing.

On that note - does anyone know which controllers also use asbestos?

Thanks

TVR

[What About The Bee]

Hello TVR

I looked this up and as such, is not my opinion, rather, it is a fact you may verify on your own

Asbestos was fully banned in the UK in November 1999. The ban made it illegal to buy, sell, import or export any asbestos containing materials.

Therefore, in my opinion, if your controller manufacture post dates 1999, then there is no need for any concern whatsoever regarding asbestos.

Bee

[ColinB]

I suspect my one was a lot older than that. That date fits in with when asbestos was no longer fitted to brake shoes. I think they had been slowly phasing it out before that date.

[JJ73]

I've had mine Duette since I was about 8 yrs old - never had any problems with mine - & it is still going strong!!! 😉🚂

[Going Spare]

Whether asbestos was used, I know not, but H & M production started in the 1950s and I suspect the vast majority if not all of their production of these types of unit preceded 1999.

[ntpntpntp]

The old H&M units were appropriate for contemporary model locos of the 50s/60s/70s but as an N gauge modeller from the 70s onward I found them too coarse for more modern mechanisms, even when kept to High Resistance and Full Wave settings. In the end I ripped out and safely disposed of the old resistance mats, and fitted Gaugemaster 100 panel mount controllers into the cases. In this form they remain my spare/backup units for exhibitions.

[81F]

Does anyone know what screw threads were used on the terminals or where I can get the knurled nuts from sadly I lost all four of mine.

[LTSR_NSE]

@81F - Two possibilities have previously been suggested in the following thread (on page 5):

https://uk.hornby.com/community/forum/power-to-3-rail-system-326473?ccm_paging_p=5&ccm_order_by=&ccm_order_by_direction=

p.s. I thought this question sounded familiar - you asked it & I gave same answer in this thread too:

https://uk.hornby.com/community/forum/hornby-dublo-3-rail-344464?ccm_paging_p=2&ccm_order_by=&ccm_order_by_direction=

(no criticism intended - dire search made locating it again tricky!)

[Rog RJ]

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/385399113674