Hornby Maunsell Coaches

[Brian Pearce]

Advice needed on removal of bogies, brake gear etc to enable fitting of P4 wheels. It all looks rather fragile! All clues very welcome.

Thanks BKP

[nberrington]

Hello Brian

There is an article on conversion to EM, which does give some insight into addressing the issues you raise in doing it to P4.
See: J Douglas Smith: "Converting Hornby Maunsell Coaches" in EMGS 4.2.3 (2) from April 2009. The article is in the EMGS Manual - which is on a CD.

Good luck. Mine still wait!

Neil B
Winnipeg.

[grovenor-2685]

Assuming that Hornby have used a similar construction to the Stanier bogie then this may help.
http://www.norgrove.me.uk/lms-bogie.htm
So far as getting the bogie off goes the Stanier ones just plug into a hole in the floor in the usual RTR fashion, so just getting a small screwdriver between bogie and floor and levering gently near the pivot should bring them off.
Regards
Keith

[Captain Kernow]

Brian,

I have the EMGS digest sheets and can let you have a copy of the relevant article.

Tim

[Brian Pearce]

Thanks to all for your responses and offers. Will be happy to see the sheets you have Tim - see you at our next Drag group meeting.

[Steve Carter]

Hi Brian

How are you getting on with converting your Maunsells?

I have recently acquired 3 of these nice coaches and I would welcome any tips/advice to help convert them to P4.

Are you just doing a straight wheel swap or fitting compensation or springing?

Any pitfalls to avoid etc?

Many thanks

See you at Scaleforum.

Steve

[Philip Hall]

Steve,

I've got quite a few of these and all I've done is remove the bogies and put in Ultrascale wheelsets after squeezing the brake hangers to move the brakes shoes out a bit. Douglas Smith's method in the EMGS sheet is a trifle more elegant than mine, but both work. As long as the wheels are true they just glide around with no troubles.

I do, however, differ from a lot of folk in using the Hornby close coupling mechanism (which originates from Rowa/Roco on the Continent). After the gangway covers are removed and the ends of the gangways smoothed, it is possible, after shortening the coupling mounting slightly, to have the rigid gangways butting up to one another ever so slightly but still able to negotiate ludicrously tight reverse curves (18in radius, should you need to, and I'm not joking). The only drawback is the look of them between the carriages, but this can be disguised with some heating and vac pipes. I also have an idea to mount the coupler heads upside down so you can't see them, but that's for another time.

Obviously there are odd improvements that can be made to the interior, like the height of the windows in the corridor wall, painting in the cream panelling etc., but also it seems that they're a trifle too high on the bogies. I haven't looked at that yet; it's not too obvious and I have yet to sort that out.

Have fun.

Philip

[Steve Carter]

Thanks for the helpful advice Philip.

I have got Douglas Smith's EMGS sheet and I do intend to follow your suggestion and just change the wheels. I have some KM coach wheels that hopefully will do the trick.

The Maunsell coaches we run on St Merryn (built from Roxey Mouldings kits before the Hornby ones came out) have Keen corridor connections and bar couplings between the intermediate vehicles. I like the Keen corridor connections so will look to go with them but I am considering using the Bassmasters lost wax Buckeye type couplings. These are advertised to provide a simple means to couple connecting vehicles, and include vacuum and steam hoses as well as a representation of the couplings themselves.

I’ve added some to my Scaleforum shopping list!

My coaches are to remain in BR Crimson & Cream livery.



All the best.

Steve

[Brian Pearce]

Hi Steve,
Apologies for delay. Coaches successfully converted . Will bring to Scaleforum and we can confer then. Used EM sheet method and changed wheels to P4.
Fitted Keen corridor connections and modified Branchline AJ fittings. See you on St. Merryn.

Brian

[Steve Carter]

Great, thank you Brian.

I have brought the Keen corridor conections and their close-coupled buckeyes which I have been advised fit straight onto the Horby mechanisims. We shall see!

I'll look forward to seeing you on St Merryn. I am "in control" of the fiddle yard for our first session Saturday.

All the best.

Steve

[John Lewis]

So your recommendation is that it is not necessary to do anything about the trussing or the battery boxes etc. I managed to break one of the truss rods on one of mine!