Wind up motor runs out way too fast

Classic Toy Trains Forum
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Hi All, I’m new to clockwork trains and brand new to this forum. I have a Hornby locomotive that seems to “dump” all it’s kinetic energy as soon as the spring begins to unwind, the run time is just 1-2 seconds.

I’m guessing (after reading James Pekarek’s book) that it’s the governor, but before I start opening up the mechanism, I wanted to see if my guess sounds correct.

Thanks in advance!

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[#welcome] aboard!

Yeah, that shouldn’t happen! There’s no tranfer of the stored energy to the gears. I have one postwar Hornby Meccano set:

And a few prewar coaches:

It doesn’t run for long but I get at least a few laps out of it.

Becky