Hornby Railroad P2

[drmditch]

Sorry if this is question is answered elsewhere, but a haven't found it in search.

I have seen a Railroad P2 available locally for under £100, and was considering purchasing one for a future conversion into one of the Walschaerts/Gresley geared bugatti-nosed engines.

Is the Railroad mechanism a good option?

(I'm not sure if I've seen references to inadequate driving wheel bearings somewhere.)

[Atlantic 3279]

I'm not sure of the long term adequacy of the bearings. My Hornby models have seen only occasional use up to now, but it is "so far, so good". Some owners don't find the three pole motor with flywheel satisfactory, others haven't found it a problem. I'm in the latter group so far. There's at least one You Tube vide showing how to fit a better Hornby motor if necessary.

If everything else will just stop getting in the way I'll have some resin Bugatti fronts available within months.....

[earlswood nob]

Afternoon all

Presumably you will be making the Bugatti nose as fitted to 2001-4, and not 2005 (single chimney) or 2006 (combustion chamber).

With South Eastern Finecast re-releasing the NuCast range the O2 (and P2) valve gear etch would be a perfect fit.

The Comet V2 valve gear is pretty close with the correctly shaped motion bracket.

LIke DRM, I'm wondering if I need the original 2001, as it's at a good price.

Earlswood nob

PS.......the 2006 firebox is not part of the nose.

[teaky]

When you say "under £100", do you mean well under?

I suggest you shop around. Rails, for example, have at least one under £60.
https://railsofsheffield.com/lner-2-8-2 ... 21237.aspx

[mick b]

I'm not sure of the long term adequacy of the bearings. My Hornby models have seen only occasional use up to now, but it is "so far, so good". Some owners don't find the three pole motor with flywheel satisfactory, others haven't found it a problem. I'm in the latter group so far. There's at least one You Tube vide showing how to fit a better Hornby motor if necessary.

If everything else will just stop getting in the way I'll have some resin Bugatti fronts available within months.....

Graeme,

Any suggestions re valve gear for a Bugatti version ?

[Mersey507003]

Would I be right in saying that the crankpins on the 2nd coupled axle would have to be removed so that the correct P2 valve gear could be fitted if modelling 2001 - 2006 after all were fitted with bugatti noses and walschaerts valve gear. The reason I ask is because I have a set of kit built V2 valve gear at home which I believe is the same as that for a P2, the only problem is that the boss on the connecting rod looks way too small to fit over the Hornby crankpins or would it just be easier to completely replace the wheels, rods and cylinders to create a walschaerts valce geared loco.

[S.A.C. Martin]

If everything else will just stop getting in the way I'll have some resin Bugatti fronts available within months.....

Typical, I'm nearly done with my conversion near copying your method!

Looking forward to when those become available. It has reminded me that I have an order to email you that I plum forgot to make in the haste of this year's work in the run up to the end of the financial year.

The Railroad P2 chassis is a good chassis, I feel. I'm not 100% sold on the lack of brass bearings either but I can say for definite that it is much better engineered than Duke of Gloucester - we LNER fans got lucky I feel with our releases...

[S.A.C. Martin]

For anyone interested, I just used Bachmann V2 valve gear on mine. Crude, but effective. They look the part when it's running.

[Mersey507003]

How did you make the chassis. Was it from a kit with the addition of Bachmann parts or a Bachmann V2 chassis with an extension added to allow the 4th axle to be fitted in place aswell as supporting the cab.

Any information would be useful for when I can finally get to build 1 myself.

[S.A.C. Martin]

It is the Hornby P2 chassis completely unmodified except for substituting, as Graeme did, the cylinder block with a Bachmann V2 derived cylinder block instead, and the driving wheels painted black.

[drmditch]

Thank you everybody for responding.
I was going to ignore this model, as being only occasionally required on my railway, but I've weakened and ordered one!
(Thank you Teaky for the sensible advice.)

When Atlantic 3279 produces the parts, I'll join the queue!

[davidwest]

That looks good Simon.
As a digression can anyone recommend a source for A3 super detail body?

[Atlantic 3279]

Valve gear same as Thompson A2/2, achievable with Morgan's conversion etch & a bit of thought/work, but you have to solder a drop link onto the CotN crosshead or swap to another suitable crosshead. No rocket science involved

[Atlantic 3279]

a source for A3 super detail body?

Cold blooded murder of one of the usual eBay profiteers?

[S.A.C. Martin]

I do think there's an alternative to the whole super detail body issue and that's taking the Railroad model body shell and doing some modelling. I am loving my budget conversions, they've been a lot of fun to do and it has meant I can have pretty much any loco name/livery combination I want because I do it all myself. Easiest is wartime black though

No.502 Flying Scotsman