I've been awaiting to buy a new pantograph for a Hornby Class 91, so trawling through eBay for a few weeks, one finally turned up. In went the bid and I ended up getting it for the cheap price of just £10 (with P&P) from Peters Spares, who has a dazzling amount of model rail parts including a lot that are no longer produced by Hornby. So today it turned up (just 48 hours after the winning bid) and I got to work on the loco below, Class 91 No.91004 'Red Arrows'....
Once I had unpacked all the small parts, I laid them out and decided which parts would be the most difficult to fit....there was a few suspects. I began by removing what was left of the old pantograph, I bought it like this many years ago with the best of intentions of fixing it up, alas its been in storage for far too long! Anyway, with the old panto remnants dispatched, I began by putting all of the panto together as shown below...
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The came the most difficult part. The holding clips sent with the new panto where too small so I had to commandeer the old ones, which although were a better fit, were still a nightmare to fit!
I continued battling with these bloody awkward clips until as if by magic, I managed to get the last one in place to end my battle of wits and declare myself the winner!
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Pantograph fitted and ready for action, now for a run out on the test track.
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UPDATED: Since I have quite a few Class 91's, I was slightly worried by Hornby's latest updates to their HST ranges. I took the initiative and contacted them direct to enquire whether or not they had plans for an overhaul of their 91 stock. I found out that they don't have any plans for a retooling of their Class 91, so I am left with a decision to make on whether to attempt a retooling myself, adding a much more realistic (and working) light set and adding (as shown below) the front couplings. The rectangular 'magnet' coupling is used during 'Blunt End' running to attach to Coach B or when hauled by 'Thunderbird' loco's during a breakdown or diversions with no OLE. I'll let you know how I get on.
Craig
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