Motorising a Hornby APT Dummy NDM 

That's the sound my DCC booster makes when I turn the layout off. It's a sound I strongly associate with "finishing with the railway", so I found it an appropriate and slightly humorous thing to put at the end of the videos. Perhaps I need to re-think that...

Apparently the APT spare parts have been consistent sellers, so lots of people have had this idea. However, I haven't seen much noise in terms of people achieving the build -- so I suspect there are lots of them in drawers, with people having hit the same problem missing piece! In future I would like to add plug-and-socket connections along the articulated part of the rake, for both pickup continuity and lighting control from the decoder in the driving cab. This should allow the unsightly capacitors to be completely removed from the trailers.

@@DongitsModelRailway excellent - would make a great video. Why they didn’t motorise them in the first place is beyond me. It can barely handle the 7 cars without wheel slip as is.

@@DongitsModelRailway excellent - would make a great video. Why they didn’t motorise them in the first place is beyond me. It can barely handle the 7 cars without wheel slip as is.

@@DongitsModelRailway excellent - would make a great video. Why they didn’t motorise them in the first place is beyond me. It can barely handle the 7 cars without wheel slip as is.

@@FormallyknownasE100 It probably wouldn't have cost them much to ship two identical powered NDMs in the set anyway -- reducing the number of assembly options would likely have saved a significant amount of cost -- maybe enough to offset the cost of a motor, two driveshafts and some gears per dummy NDM.

They are the same address. While I have tuned the speed (I wanted a scale 155mph at maximum, and a linear throttle response), both decoders have identical settings -- there is no difference in tuning between the NDMs.

The coach lights are driven from track power through a physically large but electrically not very large capacitor, and only pick up from two axles each. They do go dark quite frequently as they have been shipped. I have plans for that to connect the pickups through the coaches to address that issue ... but that's a separate project. The lights are not different colours -- the interiors are different colours. They have been made in self-coloured plastic representing the seat colour. Painting the interiors with more detail would reduce this effect. I don't think two powered NDMs would struggle with a full 14 car set -- although I don't have enough cars to build that to demonstrate, this is the maximum length my layout will cope with. I would love to see a 2023 model single NDM tackle a 14 car set on a layout with a helix or similar curved ascent to mine. I'm not buying one just to test it though :D

I don't have a 2nd run APT (one was enough for me), so I can't confirm exactly what you'd need. However, the general principle should work. There are known differences in the models, so you may need some spare parts specific to the later release. I know the chassis design was modified to add more weight to it, and the electronics are different (it's a 21 pin model, not an 8 pin model).

I have not bought the revised APT, no.