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inter city 125


Baimor
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I'm planning on running an intercity 125 on my railway but want it to be around 8-10 carriages long. If I replace the dummy unit at the rear with a power car can anyone forsee any problems I might have? Has anyone tried this before? I've no gradients to overcome I just thought power at both ends would ensure smoother running. Thanks. Mark

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Hi, you will need to ensure that the motors are equally matched, or as near as damn it, and you really need the slower one on the rear of the formation as in my experience the tension lock couplings do not like being propelled (pushed). If it's on the rear then the couplings will always be under tension.

You could fit "Kadee" couplings which would be a vast improvement, and make propelling a simple and easy operation.

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Baimor said:

:lol::lol::lol::lol::lol::lol: either that or get a flying drone with a camera! :lol::lol::lol::lol::lol::lol:

Hey, does anybody have one of these or ever used one? Bet they'd take some excellent layout footage.

On the subject of the HST, I remember having some problems with the thing derailing whenever I tried running with the power car pushing from the rear. That might have been something to do with certain sections of my old layout not being level but it was always ever run with the power car leading after that. I guess the large couplings on the Hornby MK3s don't help either - perhaps some modifications there would alleviate the problem? Haven't been able to run the HST since those early days - no layout yet you see :oops:

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  • 3 months later...
Baimor said:

I'm planning on running an intercity 125 on my railway but want it to be around 8-10 carriages long. If I replace the dummy unit at the rear with a power car can anyone forsee any problems I might have? Has anyone tried this before? I've no gradients to overcome I just thought power at both ends would ensure smoother running. Thanks. Mark

Bit late on this one. Sorry.

I have a Hornby 125. The power car is great. Both bogies are powered, its heavy and has loads of tractive effort. I don't think you'll have any problem running a long 125 with one powered car.

I recently added an 225 to my railway. Class 91 plus 9 coaches plus DVT. The 91 only has one powered bogie and is much lighter than my 125 power car, but brand new it can pull the full train. There can be wheelslip if apply the power two quickly.

I have experimented with Top and Tailing. I have a Northern Belle rake, 9 coaches and a Class 47 on each end. Generally this works OK, but if the front loco finds a dead piece of track and stutters or stops, then the rear loco can ram it and derailments can happen.

I enjoy driving a top-n-tailed train, but only when I have clean wheels and good pickups.

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Thanks Chris. I've tried it and failed!! :lol::lol: I was having lots of derailments regardless of which way round I did it so it's back to one leading power car and a trailing dummy unit. Incidently I have a 225 as well and it seems to run and pull so much better than the 125. Could be the use of a different motor or the fact that my 125 is getting "tired"! :lol::lol:

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chris said:

Bit late on this one. Sorry.

I have a Hornby 125. The power car is great. Both bogies are powered, its heavy and has loads of tractive effort. I don't think you'll have any problem running a long 125 with one powered car.

Just to make sure we are not comparing apples with pears, the latest HST 125 power car from Hornby, introduced in 2008, is a completely different beast to the one that came out in 1978, and of which hundreds of examples must still exist. The latest one has a centrally mounted 5-pole skew-wound motor connected to both bogies but the early ones just had the notorious pancake motor on one bogie. There was a similar Lima model which I found marginally better in most examples.

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Riddles said:

Just to make sure we are not comparing apples with pears, the latest HST 125 power car from Hornby, introduced in 2008, is a completely different beast to the one that came out in 1978, and of which hundreds of examples must still exist. The latest one has a centrally mounted 5-pole skew-wound motor connected to both bogies but the early ones just had the notorious pancake motor on one bogie. There was a similar Lima model which I found marginally better in most examples.

Good point. I actually have both, one being from my first train-set. That one struggles to pull three coaches and a trailer power car. I had assumed that it was the current model, thus my reference to both bogies being powered.

 

 

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  • 1 year later...
On 11/01/2016 at 4:52 AM, Baimor said:

I'm planning on running an intercity 125 on my railway but want it to be around 8-10 carriages long. If I replace the dummy unit at the rear with a power car can anyone forsee any problems I might have? Has anyone tried this before? I've no gradients to overcome I just thought power at both ends would ensure smoother running. Thanks. Mark

Hi Mark I bought second hand from Hattons two power cars which are the latest ones from Hornby with the idea of having two powered power cars and 8 trailer cars. They were in black and silver grand central livery and it looks hideous. The two I bought new are in Intercity Swallow Livery and they look awesome. I've found with DCC sound that in it's original one power car and one dummy car that the sound from the power car had more depth to it than the dummy car. Apparently that's due to one having a motor and the other just a circuit board. I've now fitted the dummy Intercity car body with the power car chassis from the Grand Central power car and both sound outputs are the same with the same sound intensity. I should say that the latest HST power cars from Hornby do weigh a significant amount will easily haul or propel 8-10 trailer cars. However if you do have significant ( I love that word it makes one appreciate the significance of significant). Where was I oh yes if you do have steep "significant" gradients then two powered power cars would make a significant difference in hauling or pushing the 8-10 trailer cars.  

Edited by cleanerg6e
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