Model Railway Forum

Hi,

I bought a Hornby 'Gordon'a while back on a visit to Thomas Land for my 2 yr old,now started, layout that I'm building him for Xmas. It had a quick run when I first bought it, but didn't have a proper check over until last night when I noticed that the bolts holding the connecting rods to the centre drive wheels were loose. The one on the left tightened up ok, but the one on the right kept trying to turn the little arm (sorry for my lack of technical terms ) as I tighten it. It also looked as thought that pin was longer than the other, but it turns out that someone forgot to machine the 2 flats at the end of the pin when they made it to the 'little arm' has no where to locate.

I've emailed Hornby to ask them, but don't hold out too much hold now that the Thomas range has been discontinued and I'll be damned if I can remember where I put the reciept.

I don't suppose anyone has got any idea where I can buy just the pin or even has a spare lying unloved in a drawer. If anyone has there'll be a handful of beer vouchers with your name on! I've tried looking on various spares sites, but 'Gordon' isn't listed on most of them, and I don't even know it 'crank pin' is the correct term. If I knew what loco Gordon was based on it would help, but google throws up a handful of different opinions so I'm getting more confused by the hour.

Are all hornby crank pins likely to be the same so I could just buy any old set of wheels from Ebay and swap it?

I've tried adding a picture to show what my ramblings translate to, but it keeps saying 'file too large' however much I shrink it.

Any help will be a great help to Gordon and to my sanity!

Gareth

Oh and another thing about Gordon.

As hes tender driven he has 2 traction tyres. On the ringfield driven locos I has when I was a kid, the tyres were both on the same side, but on this the tyres are one each side. His tender always sounds as tho it's partially derailed when going around curves, and I'm wondering if this is the cause.

Peters Spares often have small bits for locos, worth a look.
https://www.petersspares.com/hornby-x64 ... ds-pins.ir
may be what you're looking for, or not.

Or it may be this: https://www.petersspares.com/hornby-x85 ... ar-rods.ir

(I'm not up to date on the Thomas Range so don't know what type 'Gordon' is. )

Is it a new Gordon. Not sure the traction tyres should be on both sides. Do both wheels that have the tyres have grooves for them?

Thanks for the replies.

I've tried again to upload pictures and I think its worked this time.

Its the pin itself thats missing the flats. I tried giving it a push and it does seem to come out of the wheel fairly easily so should be easy to chnage.
Herers a pic of the tender wheels. The tyres are on the top left and the bottom right.
Heres a full picture if it helps identify him!

From a comparison of photos with the Hornby LNER A3 I suggest you might be able to search Petersspares for that part. This pic I found shows the head, although partially obscured. IIRC all the Thomas range uses older pattern chassis manufactured by Hornby.

Success!!

My first bit of successful miniature engineering (my attempts when I last had a train set when I was 13 never ended well!!). I popped the pins out of the wheels last night and took them to work today and managed to file the 2 flats onto the crank with a tiny file I borrowed from one of the lads there. I've just finished putting Gordon back today and all seems well.

While I was at it I googled some images of tender drive locos and they all seems to have the traction tyres on the same side as each other so I flipped one of Gordons axle around .

Now all I need to so is finish the base board and relay all the track and I'll be in business!

Did both wheels on the axle you flipped have a cog moulded on the back?

It's a bit wierd.

I assumed it would be a ringfield motor roughly the same as the motor in my Intercity 225 20 years ago with, as you say, a gear on the back of one wheel so they can only be fitted one way. But this motor had the gear mounted at the centre of the axle so axle could be flipped over so I've got no idea what type of motor it is.

Actually, I wonder if it says on the service sheet in the box, I'll be back in a mo................

I'm back.

The service sheet is a bit rubbish. All it says is that the motor is a seal motor and requires no maintenance and the only picture of it is this one showing where the DCC chip would mount.