OO Gauge Class 25 "Rat" Problems

[The Birmingham train spotter]

On the topic of fixing locomotives I need some assistance

I traded my OO Gauge Class 25 " Rat " a couple of weeks ago and after being scammed I got it back yet a issue has occurred when I checked it over the shell of the engine will not go on properly and it's wonkey plus the bogies don't stay in place and the main motor comes undone.I'm attending a train show with my model railway club this Saturday and I wanted to run my class 25 but it look terrible like this!.Any help on how to fix this is much appreciated!

[cteno4]

If no one pipes in here I’d still take it along to the club show and see if anyone there has ideas. Usually the best way to learn these things is find a mentor who fiddles with stuff like this and learn “live” as it can be uber hard to describe in just words in both problem and repair! 
 

jeff

[Kamome]

What a shame. I’m certainly not well versed in old Hornby but what happened to it? Scammed on a trade?

 

As @cteno4 said, i’m sure there are a few members of the railway club that could assist you with it.  Are there missing screws or have things broken off. 

[The Birmingham train spotter]

Yes he ordered me a deltic (class 55) and when I opened it the motor was gone and when I confronted him he said I broke it and blamed it on me!,I'll take your advice jeff on bringing it to the show!thank you very much!!

[cteno4]

It sounds like the pivot point(s) the truck may rest in and the clip system to hold the truck in place in the chassis are not aligning up right. I’ve only ever tinkered on a handful of OH engines and they are different from N ones significantly, but similar issues happen with N engines when the truck is not properly fitting into place in the chassis. Some times it’s just getting the alignment right for everything to pop into place correctly and other times it’s one of the clips is broken or a pivot point messed up or a contact strip gets bent into interfering with the truck mounting area.
 

Bummer the bloke did this to you. Hopefully someone in the club will take a look at it! Good thing is those that are good at tinkering on this sort of stuff are usually pretty receptive to helping out and also teaching if you ask to learn how. It’s great skill to get going on as once you learn the basics you can proceed on by yourself easily, usually it’s just the basic how it goes together, the usually issues, and loosing the fear to dig into it!
 

jeff

[The Birmingham train spotter]

Thank you jeff it's greatly appreciated! Indeed being scammed made me worried about trading and I'm still not sure about trading

[cteno4]

may be best to do trading at a club event where you both can test stuff and look over carefully and answer questions. always a bit of a risk with used stuff, but also can be great opportunities.

 

with this one maybe its a hidden good thing to get you learning working on engines some! best of luck with it.

 

cheers

 

jeff

[Welshbloke]

If you type "Hornby [item number] service sheet" in as a search you should find exploded diagrams showing how it fits together.

 

My suspicion would be that a few tabs/pegs haven't dropped into their holes, so it isn't quite clipped together properly. I've had models where the motor bogie wasn't clipped into the plastic frame properly, it only fits one way around and will push the plastic out of shape if rammed in without checking that the clips have all engaged. If someone does that and then tries to force the bogie into the loco it can bend the retaining clip.

 

It looks as though the inner end clip has been bent inwards, the one at the outer end is supposed to hook into the mainframe while the inner end clips in. Check that the motor bogie block is properly fitted to the frame (the service sheet will show whether it's facing the right way, there are clips either end of the bogie block which should fit into holes in the frame and the baseplate should be flush in its groove when you turn it upside down). Then try bending the clip back out. The frame plastic is pretty forgiving so you should be able to straighten it without breaking bits off.

 

Cab interiors, glazing and wiring can all stop a body fitting squarely, check that they're where they should be. I had the devil of a job with an old Hornby D1000 Western last year, persuading the cab interiors and ballast weight to sit in the right places and let the shell clip on.