Trash to Track. Episode 37. Hornby Dublo AL1 Electric loco. 

Hi Dan same as every. Loverit. Carry on great.

Dan. Thanks for sharing your strategy to restore a classic from Meccano. In fact the AL1 was the last loco to come out of Binns Road around the time of the Triang takeover in 1964. Purists will no doubt pull a face at the removal of the original wiring but inadvertently you've bypassed another issue. Ordinarily the two bogies are electrically isolated by means of a fibre shouldered bush and washer on the non-powered bogie. Probably why the previous owner had swapped the axle on the powered bogie. After 50 years ... who knows. Don't suppose you kept the old wiring and TV supressor plate plus components ?

Of course, it was the last new locomotive ever released by Hornby Dublo. Triang-Hornby used it as the basis for their model of the Class 81. Dublo of course never released and Catenary for this loco, so at the time Dublo released it, the only Catenary bailable was Triang, Trix, and Marklin ( Marklin OHLE would have worked with this loco as long as it was supplied with DC current)

Another superb well presented video. Great work.

Nice looking loco, but I can't believe it's only two wheel drive. Looks as though Hornby's development budget was wearing extremely thin for that to have made production. Do you check the armature winding resistance when you do a rebuild?

Thanks for sharing. Stay safe.

Wow! What a miracle worker! Thank you so much, Dan. I don’t know who exactly attempted to repair the loco before but he was a friend of my then Boss who was well connected with one of the London Underground rolling stock maintenance teams. However, as it had never ever run well I’m wondering if the axle issue was an original fault. As for the excessive build up of dirt, this might be an homage to the model shop owner where I suspect my Dad bought the loco - Mr Ash in Gloucester.

good vid thanks lee

The annoyingly repetitive music adds nothing to the video. But good work on the loco.