Hornby Class 43 HST: Repair Request 

Thank you so much bill for the repair seeing it running again at last means everything to me, Even my wife celebrated watching the video of her running on your layout, she is now a running model with the rest of my late fathers fleet in my hands and will be cherished. Many thanks god bless from Carl & Margaret Deakin

Just re-watching some videos as its a dark dismal afternoon. So this was released earliest 1995 through to 2005. It is a China made model. When Hornby production was moved to China the factory re-engineered some of the models, adding improvements as they went. One of the improvements they introduced as the wiper pick-ups as you found that vastly improved running.

Hi Bill ,, I have only just recently bought a second hand set exactly the same as this but just the trains and no track or transformer in the box and got it at what I would call quite cheap price too. I only paid $100 aus dollars so roughly £55 in uk money. The guy i got it from told me it runs but the engine needs a good cleaning and he was right. It was as slow as tortoise so I pulled it apart and it is exactly the same as yours ie had wires going all over the place and looks like it had never been opened ever before. When i opend it up I thought wow this one will test me so I took a heap of close up pics on my phone with the magnifier app on my phone and im so glad I did as it would have been a challenge to remember where all the wiring goes. I got it all down to pulling the springs out of it and the brushes wouldn't come out so ai took the outer casing off and there was that much oil and grease in there the brushes were stuck to the commutator ,, they werent glued to it but they remained on the commutator until i remove them with my bent needle pliers. I give it a good clean and a continuity test and put it all back togther and it went like a clock. I thought oh well I'll oil up the wheels on the whole train and i noticed the dummy wheels werent spinning too good and i could hewr a slight rubbingmnoise and tne dummy car had wipers on the wheel's too just like the engine, I thought what goin on with this and found out when i pulled it apart that had directional lights on it too ,, no tail lights on either end , but one direction headlights. I think the advantage of the pickups on all of the wheels would be the more pickups or rail to wheel contact the better the continuity and have less hesitation especially on the short and or long curved points or diamond crossings etc. Where the steel flanges would contact to the rail on the flanged part of the wheel I think its is a good idea to have no dropouts ocurring when crossing curved points and diamonds crossings with tjem old triang llcos witht tjem dark green and the blue D5572 loco's where they put extra pickup on the leading 4 of the 6 wheels in the bogie. Any hoo they are a good looking train but mine needs at least another 3 or 4 cars to make at least 5 or 6 passenger cars long. Cheers from John in Australia.

The pickups will work with traction tyres, the wheel flanges rub on the track

Hi Bill. Can’t believe how critical some people can be in the comments. Does it really matter the locos running fine. All the best. Mick.

Another interesting one. You mention having a 'one way resistor' in the wire to the lights. I think that would be a diode. Well... diodes only allow current to flow in one direction (and don't add significant resistance in the direction they allow); resistors allow current to flow in both directions, with a specified resistance. So a diode would cause the light to come on only when the loco was going in one direction (presumably forwards, if it was in the right way).

Great video, I have 2 HSTs one in virgin like yours & a Midland ML blue with the same pickups but I believe hornby no longer manufacture traction tyers for this version unless you know other wise. Many thanks

its a well deserved reputation by the way hope you keep these videos coming as they are really helpful

Great work there. I like these videos as they are helpful for when I fix my model trains myself :).

Great fun! And yes you are getting a reputation for great knowledge and excellent repairs. As someone else said it is a diode not a resistor.

Amazing vid as always and thank you for passing your knowledge on

Wow. You made that soo simple. Brilliant. Definitely inspiring me to service some of my older stock. Thanks. 👍🍺

Others have already mentioned that the traction-tyred wheels will still pickup from the flanges, especially on curves, so it doesn't harm to have them fitted. Another thought though, having pickups on both sides will apply the same pressure to both wheels, so they will be more likely to remain centred relative to the chassis. Pickups on one side will be inclined to push the chassis to the other side of the loco. (Just a general thought, not a criticism.)

Great video, thank you, I've got to bite the bullet soon with some in my collection that need some attention 😀

Nice one Bill, it’s Hornby service sheet 205B.

Most of the Hornby made in china diesel and electric locomotives have the extra pickups fitted so have the all insulated wheels. hope this helps. great repair

The first thing I noticed was that the front bogie is (was) on back to front!

The hornby class 25s and 29s that were made in the late 1990s to early 2000s also have pickups on all wheels

Well done bill I have the same loco the made China models have the pickups on the traction tyre side 👍

Good one, thanks Bill!👍🇨🇦

Hi Bill, It looks a lot like a Lima chassis not a Hornby one. So it could have come from old stock when Hornby took over Lima.

Yet another interesting and informative video Bill always look forward to your uploads, hope you ignore the keyboard critics what really matters at the end of the day no matter how you do the repair it always works and that is all that matters.

OOBill doesn't make mistakes. One way resistor is the Scottish dialect for a semi-conducting diode.😊

The hornby class 22 and hymek made in china are the same , all wheel pick ups, they do pick up on the motor bogie only if you lift the opposite end off the track.

Class video as always Bill

complete nonsense is my native language good video keep them coming

Just a little thought, are the traction tyres made from conductive rubber?

Just a couple of pointers. How did you not notice the front bogie was, and still is, in backwards? The bogie steps should line up with the can door! That is probably why it didn’t run in the 1st place and the confusion to the wiring. Also, it is considered bad practice to bend the brush retainers like that. ALWAYS unscrew them. The metal is easily snapped by bending them. The metal is not the best. Keep up the good work.

The Front bogie is the WRONG way round, The steps NEED to line up with the Driver's door,

The heat shrink looks like it was done with a lighter? I find an electric heat gun with a wrap around nozzle works better. And cuts down on potential damage.

So I have an engine like this that runs poorly. And how would I fix it?

Very neat job. 👍

Great video bill

I had the set and the pick ups just fell of very flimy put togeather

Well done another problem solved

The spring and brush retainers should have been unscrewed. Not bent back like that.