Hornby R4621

[Jon-350572]

Hi everyone.

can anyone point me in the right direction for Hornby railways MK1 coach bogies? For an example, one model of coach I have is the R4621 maroon coach. I’m looking for replacement bogies as I have a couple of coaches with a broken bogie, but I can’t find any spares.

thanks in advance.

[96RAF]

New modellers shop may have them.https://www.newmodellersshop.co.uk/hornby_spares_body_chassis.htm

[508006]

Another option is to change the bogies for bachmann commonwealth bogies ( some mk1 coaches including brake end coaches had them ).

Now you might be thinking, well how can these bogies be fitted to hormby mk1 coaches as they have no clips to attach them to the chassis, I will describe the process here.

1 ) Remove both of the current bogies.

2 ) Using the chassis as a guide, use a 1.5 mm drill to start drilling the seating unit, then repeat with a 2.0 mm and finally a 2.5 mm drill bit, this will allow the use of brass screws where the last 5 mm of the screw near the head are unthreaded to fit through the bogies and prevent movement of the coach body over the bogies.

3 ) Tighten the screws just enough to allow them to pivot for curved track and for gradients.

I have done this process on some of my hornby coaches and these bogies improve the look and running quality of the coaches.

I can provide pictures later if requested.

[Going Spare]

This coach appears to have bogie frames to take NEM couplings in which case the bogie frame part number is probably X6948 as per Service Sheet 403. I doubt whether you will find any at stockists as I believe that part has not been available for several years and is certainly not included on Hornby's latest master spares list as published on Lendon's website.

Contact Customer Services for any help they may be able to offer or go with 508006's suggestion - Bachmann have Mk1, Commonwealth and B4 bogies in stock.

[508006]

In reference to my suggestion posted yesterday, I forgot to take some pictures to show the fitting process for bachmann bogies to hornby coaches last night, I will get them done later if requested because a picture of the type of screw I used will be required so that you can see what I used to fit the bogies to the coaches.

[Jon-350572]

That’d be fab 508006. If you could send over some photos that’d be great. I’ve had a look at the links above and haven’t found anything.

[Going Spare]

There is a R4974 Mk1 RBR (Commonwealth bogies) on ebay at the moment, item 166313880764, current bid £9.99 with 1 day to go.

[508006]

The coach I used for this demonstration is an earlier version of the hornby mk1s but the process I described still applies.

The only difference between this coach is that the parcels end of the brake end coach needs the divider part removed to enable the bogie to be fitted at that end.

Pic 2 screw type and pic 3 mk1 bogie

[508006]

Process described in next entry

[508006]

The photos for the fitting of bachmann bogies to a hornby coach are awaiting approval.

Once they have appeared I will describe the process shown in them.

[508006]

Here I will now describe the process of fitting the Bachmann bogies to a hornby mk1 coach. Admittedly the bogies used are those typically found on mk1 coaches but the fitting process is the same for the commonwealth bogies.

As supplied they come with Bachmann coach wheels already included, it is ok to leave these in place if your layout has generous curved track radii but if using fixed radii ( 1st, 2nd radius etc ) then the wheels will catch on the chassis, a remedy for this would be to fit a washer between the bogies and chassis or the wheels could be swapped for the hornby coach wheels.

As mentioned the coach I used in pic 1 was an earlier version of a hornby mk1, the bogie is 1 of a pair ( aswell as having wheels, they also have couplings fitted ) and the screw type I used, from left to right are the 1.5, 2.0 & 2.5 mm drill bits required ( pic 2, 3 & 4 )

In pic 5, by this point the 1.5 & 2.0 mm drillings have been done and the final drilling with the 2 5 mm drill bit is done although you can skip using the 2.5 mm drill if you wish and tighten the screw in slowly to allow the screw to bite into the plastic of the seating unit ( for the parcels end of the R4621 coach, the vertical divider piece of plastic will need to be removed before the bogie can be be fitted at that end ).

Photos 6 & 7 show the pivot point of Bachmann coach bogies and then with the screw in place, after which in pic 8 the bogie can then be fitted to the coach.

I will admit here that this coach was fitted with Bachmann bogies a few years ago but it was no problem to take 1 of them off for the purposes of these entries to show how to fit them to hornby coaches.

2 points of note here are 1st, the drillings need to be in the centre of the fitting point where the original bogies would clip into and 2nd when drilling the seating unit at the parcels end, once the vertical divider has been removed, the base part will need to be held in place for drilling with yhe 1.5 mm bit then once that initial drilling is done, the chassis can be flipped over and the 2.0 mm and 2.5 mm drillings can be done as the points of the bits will self centre in the 1.t mm drilling

As previously mentioned, you can skio the 2.5 mm drilling if you wish but you might find the screw could go tight and difficult to turn, the choice is yours really over whether you use the 2.5 mm drill bit or not but it will be easier to fit the screw if you try to fit the bogie and screw after doing the 2.0 mm drilling.

A word of caution here, 2.5 mm is the biggest you can use for this because as I found out on a completely new project, if you go for 3.0 mm the screw will not bite at all and will just fall out and an alternative screw or a suitable nut and bolt would be required but thats another story entirely.

Anyway enough ramble from me for now but if anybody has any questions please don't hesitate to ask.

[Jon-350572]

Fab, thank you. I’ll look into this for sure.

[The Doc]

@508006

I believe the latest Bachmann Mk1 coach bogies do not come with couplings - these coaches have the kinematic type of coupling that are attached to coach underframe, so it might be more tricky to use them as replacements. The older ones that were previously made by Replica railways did have couplings attached to bogies.

[Going Spare]

Bachmann's Mk1 (36-005A) and Commonwealth (36-008A) bogies are illustrated on their website with narrow, presumably NEM, tension-lock couplings but the B4 (36-037) bogie is without.

[Going Spare]

Or 2 x Mk1 (36-005A) or Commonwealth (36-008A) complete from Lendons @ £15.49 including p&p.