It was April 2019, almost five years ago to today’s date that I purchased a set of Hornby’s ex LMS non-corridor coaches.  They were finished in BR Maroon livery, Hornby numbers R4689/90/91/91A.  I like the detail, some nice wire handrails, individual roof ventilators and various steps.  They have occasionally come out and trundled around the layout, often in the company of a Bachmann 2-6-4T or ex LMS Crab.  They ran smoothly if somewhat noisily.

Hornby ex LMS non-corridor coaches in BR maroon in company with Bachmann Fairburn Tank.

Fast forward to 2024 and I have purchased a second set of ex LMS non-corridor coaches.  This time they are finished in BR Crimson livery, Hornby numbers R4799/800/801/801A.  I have included the Hornby coach numbers because my cameras (and on line advertisements) often mix up the crimson and maroon colours.  I would say that ‘maroon’ is the muddy looking red.

Hornby ex LMS non-corridor coaches, crimson to the front, maroon to the back.

Now what else might provide suitable motive power?  I have two Bachmann 4Fs, one with an Early Emblem and the other with a Late Crest.  I thought they would be ideal for the crimson and maroon rakes respectively.  I coupled the coaches up and set the two trains off, one behind the other around the layout.

Bachmann 4F with Late Crest on Hornby Maroon coaches

Bachmann 4F with Early Emblem on Hornby Crimson coaches

It was immediately obvious that the 4F with the late crest was struggling to haul its maroon coaches up one of my little inclines.  Not only that but the crimson rake headed by the other 4F with the Early Emblem was running at almost twice the speed and was fast catching up with the maroon rake.

My first reaction was to service the 4Fs.  A question for Bachmann, why do you have to disassemble the tender brake rodding to remove the four pin connector to uncouple the engine and remove the bodyshell – all to put a spot of oil on the motor bearing?  Job done and just for good measure I swapped the engines around on the different rakes.  No change, the train with the maroon coaches was still slowest.  Manhandling the coaches to uncouple the engines hinted at the problem.  The maroon coaches just did not run freely.  My normal approach would be to use a ‘Truck Tuner’ to clean out the axle boxes.  However the design of the Hornby bogies doesn’t provide enough space for inserting the tuner.  I would have to use a different approach.

A comparison and the swap over of a wheel set from the newer crimson coaches to the maroon coaches had no effect.  Whilst the wheels from the new crimson coaches had four holes compared to only two holes on the maroon coaches, this was not regarded as being relevant.

 
Studying the underside of the bogies suggested a problem with the ‘dummy’ brake shoes.

Upside down

I removed one wheel set at a time.  Then using a small ‘snap off’ blade craft knife I gently pared some of the plastic from the inner face of the ‘dummy’ brake shoes.  I attempted some before and after pictures but sadly my images of black plastic all look the same under artificial lighting.

Wheel set out showing offending brake shoes prior to fettling.

The result was immediate and very satisfying.  I have attempted to demonstrate the problem and the solution in a YouTube video.

The brake shoes were obviously rubbing, just like a real life situation where the locomotive was struggling to maintain the appropriate vacuum in the brake pipe.

The Hornby coaches are delicate and I took as much as half an hour per coach to free up all the wheel sets.  I couldn’t decide whether it was the inner or outer brake shoes that were the problem.  Obviously one or more tolerances are too tight.  For good measure I inspected the latest crimson coaches and ended up fettling two wheel sets on two different coaches.

Individual coaches are joined with Hornby R8330 couplers whilst the ends of the rakes are fitted with Bachmann short straight couplers (36-061).

Hornby ex LMS non-corridor in Maroon Livery Hornby numbers R4689/90/91/91A

Hornby ex LMS non-corridor in Crimson Livery Hornby numbers R4799/800/801/801A

I think Hornby have some great coaches in their range and I have put together another video showing the two trains whilst they were chasing each other around the layout.
The Bachmann engines also perform much better with a little bit of tender and loving care (lubrication).