What makes you say this?
Hornby leaving model railroading would surprise me.
-Kevin
OK, that makes more sense. Thanks for the link.
I was not aware that Airfix was part of Hornby.
-Kevin
15 years now… a mere bagatelle.
I was making reference to Hornby USA, as it was hinted at in their reply email to me.
BTW I read a bit on Hornby (international), and it sounds as they they have had quite a few financial problems and ownership changes over the past several years. It didn’t make me feel as though I might get a proper response from them in my search for Allegheny parts??
At least try them and see.
I still can’t figure out how these pins fail rather than just sticking. Do they fail due to micro-arcing on the inside where we don’t see? I think a few minutes in solvent in the ultrasonic, working the plunger periodically, followed by drying and a little ‘conductive lube’ (not that it conducts electricity but that it facilitates good metal contact), ought to fix almost any issue with them, and burnishing the contact tip and the contact patch on the driver tyre perhaps anything else (?)
I mentioned my theory on one of the several other forum sites (can’t remember which one now?) where Mr. Railandsail is discussing these pins.
I believe that under certain conditions of higher current draw, perhaps aggrevated by not getting good continuity through the other current “collectors” that the full motor load is being carried through the internal spring only.
Imagine that spring glowing like an incandescent lamp filament inside the sleeve.
Once it has been heated beyond cherry-red the metal is now annealed beyond the point where it will have any termper to keep the plunger in contact with the inside of the wheel rim (tire).
I recall one of the members at an HO club I belonged to commenting that the “cheap” replacement Kadee coupler knuckle springs he was installing on his Athearn locomotives keep failing.
He brought the engines to the club and I looked at the coupler springs and they were blackened by excessive heat.
It didn’t take me long to realize that while he was running the engines back-to-back and the “hot” frames were of opposite polarity, one picking up the right rail and the other in concert with the left that a potential short was developing.
Enough resistance was passing through the couplers that eventually the springs would overheat and either vaporize, like a fuse, or distort with the excess heat.
Kadee’s plastic-shank couplers cured this conundrum.
Thank you, Ed
Regards, Ed