Replacement X03 and X04 Motors by Peter's Spares 

Thanks Bill for your Thumbs Up motor review! We had never tested the motors in replacement for the Type 7 in 2-6-4 Tanks. Glad to know they work well in those too. As you and we mention the motors have to fit all models the open frame older and solid block models are the best straight in fit but with a tiny bend needed to get the perfect fit in locos such as B12 / A3 / Coronation / Hall / Sir Dinadan / Ivatt / 08 Shunter Using S4307 / X518 / X963 Blocks A Small bend is needed in the bottom frame to get it to fit and also not to press too much on the worm wheel. For soldering the top Positive motor terminal this is marked by the red dot. It's best to solder the inside of the motor terminals as there is more room away from the metal bracket. Thanks Peter

I have 3 M7s , a 4P and a Jinty which have growly old motors so I will be very happy indeed to get them converted with these units. Thanks for showing these motors in action and thanks to Peter's Spares for making such a great product.

Well said re. Hornby, Bill. How can a family that's going through hard times afford a new Hornby set for their children? You're doing great work restoring old locos and showing that the Hobby can be within the reach of most enthusiasts.

Thanks bill my husband was inpressed will be getting some from peters spares always good service from him very true better second hand trains always seem more cost effective than new trains

Your summary was 100% accurate. These motors - along with the Horns & Whistles examples - are filling a large gap in the market.

Very nice conversions. It makes such a difference to get them running so quietly and having that slow speed controlability. Very nice.

thanks for the video. I need some to upgrade my fleet for DCC.

Looks good . Didn’t know about these replacement motors . Many thanks. Hornby not interested in selling motors for old models . They want you to buy their latest £200+ models . They also don’t want to keep a stock holding of spares .

Hi Bill. Thank you for this tutorial. Just ordered X04 replacement motor. Thanks to your instructions I should be able to fit it even with my 1brain cell. Thanks buddy. DELPH JUNCTION (Pete)

These really are superb motors. Fitted one into my R.374 Spitfire this afternoon and it now runs beautifully. Brilliant work Peter, and thank you Bill for the fitting tips. Having this guide video was invaluable!

Keep the great videos coming Bill, great to see solutions to keep old Locomotive going.

A great review - balanced and informative. Have a few locos that could do with an upgrade!

Now all we need is replacement motor bogie armatures, and wheel sets 🧥😀. I’m sure I’ll be buying a few, great video.

Fantastic, regarding the frame fit, washers as spaces underneath would be a tidy solution for gaps, a file could be employed to remove excess material from the chassis. Great episode, well done.

Brilliant! Revival of my 1970's railway after 40 plus years in various lofts and boxes is now imminent, so to know that replacement motors of good quality are available is an excellent piece of news. I completely agree with your analysis regarding the potential for refurbishment of older locos. With the unwarranted and exploitative prices now being charged for new loco's, (not to mention the fact that so much is manufactured and imported from the PRC) particularly by Hornby, it is genuinely hard to justify a new purchase, even if the modern quality and detail are remarkably high. Take the Hornby 9F for instance, It is a superb model. But, for a retail price of £240 plus, I could buy a new motor for every single loco I currently own! Much of the model hobby relies on the use of a fertile imagination. I see little point in spending out vast sums of cash, particularly in current times when the cost of every is sky high, when I can refurbish and use what I already have, for a fraction of the cost. Add a little imagination and all is well and good! I have 2 well-used Hornby B12's just waiting to have a second lease of life. If you do decide to replace the motor in your own model, I doubt that I will be the only one who would be most interested to see how it is done and what the end result is like! Thank you for the excellent content you continue to provide for us all. Always enjoyable and well produced. Good luck with the progress of your new layout. :-)

I like it, another solution for keeping older locos alive😂

Hi Bill, Thanks for the video on replacing the x03/4 motors. Finally I can get my crop of 70's & 80's Hornby loco's DCC fitted. The Hornby Black 5 (13 June 23 video) is running better that it ever did. Thanks again for your time and help.

Very interesting review. They certainly appear to work very well. We don't know the longevity, so it's probably worth hanging on to the X04 you remove, in case replacement motors aren't available in the future! I have several dozen X04-motored locomotives, so converting them all is as prohibitively expensive as going DCC, but I can think of a few favourites that might well get upgraded in due course. Hornby's approach to spares is frustrating and both surprising and not. Clearly they are only interested in selling us new locos and they believe that supplying spares to keep old locos going would reduce their margin. Maybe it would, but how many modellers, such as me, avoid China-built Hornby locos because we know the spares will not be available should our £100-£200 investment stop working? Surely there is profit in selling replacement chassis for older models -- they don't even have to be for Hornby products. What about for Mainline split-chassis locos, surely a huge untapped market?

Great video as ever and I could not agree more with the Hornby comment. I e-mailed them about FIVE loco's I have recently bought needing service/repair. My impression was 'not interested buy new'. To put you in the picture I'm an old fart retired from work and wanted a project for winter and beyond so I have scooped up some old models. I'm a fan of use and repair. Unfortunately my dexterity is not what it was and I don't want to destroy or damage the engines so I'm looking for help. Having said that, watching your video's has inspire me to have a go at servicing at least one of them. lol Cheers for the videos and wish me luck.

Hey Bill! Great channel, fab videos, I've only found you this morning but I've already picked up a lot of useful tips. You have a new subscriber.

What a good idea. Thank you for a good demonstration.

Thanks, an excellent feature, I have been looking at possible X04 replacements and I really haven't been impressed, prefering to purchase loco's cheap and, where I can, get their motors running. This looks ideal, I think I will be purchasing a few!

OMD 😮 A Game Changer fer Sure - Ab Fab M8 - Gr8 News Bill 🙌🏻💫🙌🏻✨

A good source of replacement motors

Very nice conversions

Excellent video Bill thank you very much. Bending the bottom plate on the 4P does not look as if it has moved the rear alignment of the motor, did you also bend the rear angle plate slightly to reduce the 90degree angle to get the motor down a little bit? It certainly looked a better runner. Slow speed is much more important than top speed, these are steam locos after all. Brilliant stuff, Peter will be inundated for these!

What a great video Bill

Great informative video 00Bill 👍🏻

Another great video. Thank you.

You've definitely found your niche!

Nice and quiet. Old Tri-ang locomotives run best with old Tri-ang Controllers like the P5A. This upgrade would negate the need for this however. What is the life expectancy of these upgrade motors Bill? The current Hornby motors have a 100 hour running life expectancy whereas the X.03 and X.04 motor will run for significantly longer with the right care and maintenance. My 1950's and 1960's Tri-ang locos still run fine on my Series 3 layout for instance. Your layout looks great by the way. Happy Modelling. Mon

They look fantastic but the cost is too extravagant for wanting to purchase from Australia. Peter's Spares used to be my favourite eBay shop for spares, but the postage costs have made it out of my range. The cost would be approximately AUD$60.00 then add another $80.00 for postage through that Global Shipping. I have a loot of X04 and X03 motors I would love to replace, but I'll just have to put up with the old ones.

It's a nice simple swap over unit but the price is a bit much. I've used a Chinese 5 pole can motor before which cost me about 2 quid. I bought 5 for about 10 pounds delivered, so I have spares :) I had to swap the worm drive and make a mount, so far more work, but still. Nice slow crawl and very little noise.

Wow, that current draw!

Totally with you on that, they could partner with Petersspares as there is surely a market on production of newer motors on older locos but i guarantee the revenues and margins are so poor thats why they arent bothered. Personally would love to see chassis replacements, especially for things like the class 31s and other mazac prone models from the 2000s. Anyway i imagine these replacements might sell like hotcakes so as i dont run often enough ill grab a few once all you real modellers have got yours sorted 😂

As you say, would be an option if you went to DCC, but you're still putting a new motor in a basic 40+ year chassis with all its limitations, and at 30 pounds a time + a decoder, would probably work out cheaper and easier to just buy a newer loco.

Great work ,would you know is theres a motor to replace a Hornby upright motor as fitted to an EDL 2 6 4 tank engine made in 1959.

Yes Hornby ought to be making/re-making the X03 and X04 type motors.

Hi Bill, which ones would you say are better quality? Pete Spares or hornswhistlesworkshop

Hi Bill where can you purchase these motors Ken Sydney Australia

Ive not seen anything like this in Australia and with postage this would cost me over $100

This could be a path forward for DCC applications also

Hi! I was wondering how you soldered the motor onto the Class 08 Shunter. Im about to start and am a little confused how to wire this thing up

Hi Bill. Very interesting video. Although I am all DCC, I have a couple of old Hornby Dublo locos from my childhood which for nostalgic reasons I wan to run on my layout. They were 3 rail locos converted to 2 rail and have the motor that looks like the X03. Do you (or anyone else) happen to know if the Peters Spares conversion will fit? Ta!

Bill, I've got an old 08 (the one before the one with the auto-uncoupler) that's a little noisy without the body on, but when I put the body on it gets VERY loud. The body acts as a sort of 'sound box', amplifying the noise! I've tried different motors, a neodymium magnet and new brushes but nothing seems to make any difference. Do you think one of these replacement motors will help?

They look just the job. Whilst I don't actually mind the sound of an X03/4 in a diesel I don't like it in a steam loco. I've got an old Ivatt Class 2 with an X04 so I might eventually fit one of these to that loco although ATM I've got enough on my plate building my Gauge 1 live steam loco.

hi b ill got a x04 motor from peter spares dont live far away, am fitting it into a triang princess elizabeth the motor fits flush on chassy ,but wont push any further up so the back fixing screw hole is missing the chassy hole by a fraction. i could move the hole down a bit with a file or drill bit ,also its not resting on worm drive will have to bend like you say what you think richie

These look good & perform well, but is any maintenance required (or possible)? Can brushes be replaced?

Hi Bill , please can you let me know the make of your ammeter and how it is wired up. Thanks , Nigel

Hi Bill, thanks for an interesting video. I ordered X03 and X04 from Peters Spares. I wanted to fit one in Sir Dinadan loco but I cannot get either to fit. They seem to hit the grooves cut into the chassis near the gear. I have tried every angle to slide it in and have bent the bottom plate on the motor but to no avail. Have you experience a similar problem? Appreciate any help.

It's not just Hornby who neglect the second-hand market! These days it's all manufacturers and all scales! I have a very large (200+) of N-gauge continental models , all over 20 years old which are now starting to suffer from Mazak-rot in the weights and chassis. It is impossible to obtain replacements. Very frustrating when the locos themselves are in perfect condition apart from the weights.

i can understand a replacement for the type 7 as they are shit tbh, but x.04 and x.03 are decent motors and can be overhauled

Hi Bill. Would you be able to share a link in where you got your dual polarity ammeters from? I'm finding it quite difficult to find them. Think they are a great idea !!

This is nothing new on using these motors. I've been producing 3d mounts for these for years and worms are standard hornby type 7 worms. Quarter of the price too!! Will happily send you one. There are also two types of motor one can have a flywheel fitted.

Sadly these motors are way too fast (14K rpm!) for such application. For direct worm drive - with no gearing down - some 6000 to 9000 rpm will deliver more realistic speed ...

I can’t believe you mixed a metal worm onto a plastic gear. No wonder it chewed the gear up. Basic stuff