Rising Standards

Probably to take/send it back for replacement unfortunately, if there's no obvious cause for it not performing as it should. I know as modellers we don't like to admit defeat, but these things have a warranty for a reason.

I'm currently setting up an ESU LokSound V5 which I've fitted to my Erlestoke Manor, but it's my first ESU sound decoder in a steam loco and I'm having trouble getting the decoder set to control the motor smoothly. The guide I was following for setting up the decoder and eventually sorting out the chuff rate recommended the automatic calibration process that ESU list in their manual, but it actually ran more smoothly at low speed before I tried that! As the sound fitted models use the same decoder, would anyone with a factory fitted model be kind enough to read and post the values used for the following CVs please for me to try as a starting point? Motor: 9 51-56 116-119 Chuff rate: 57-58 The model itself is excellent - with the non-sound Zimo decoder I originally fitted it performs very smoothly, and it captures the look of the class superbly. I hadn't originally planned to fit a sound decoder though, as I was of the view that any decoder and speaker setup would struggle to do justice to a real manor's thunderous soundtrack, especially with nothing more than a pair of sugar cube speakers supplied. However, when I saw that Locoman had a manor project listed and Digitrains were selling a speaker upgrade kit, I came round to the idea. For anyone interested in the speaker change, the types used are sized at 22x13x6mm for the boiler and 30x17x4mm for the tender - Roads and Rails sell the same ones. Disassembly of the loco wasn't easy as the boiler has to come off the running plate, and there are various bits glued on down the right hand side of the boiler, but once the boiler is off the original speaker and circuit board are easily replaced in the same location (before you painstakingly rebuild the reverser assembly you knocked off). By contrast, all the tender needs is the original speaker tray removing, some tape applying to the bottom of the circuit board, and the speaker soldering to the same solder pads as are used for the connection socket; it then just rests on top of the decoder. I wouldn't say the completed speaker setup is especially loud, but it's good enough to give pleasing results with the sharp bark of the Locoman sound project. I especially like the hollow roar of the ejector function, and the slight squeal as the loco moves off - both very characteristic of the real thing.

Looks lovely. I'm also very pleased to see wiper pickups on the driving wheels on this, rather than the axle bearing pickup arrangement on the Hunslet.

The genuine Roco slightly grey ones. The longer Hornby ones would give a larger gap. In fairness the Roco ones might be OK on track, but it looked like under tension the coaches could pull apart slightly. I'm yet to try the bars provided, but my coaches live in their boxes so they're not a long term solution. I'm away until Sunday now but I'll try and get some photos then. I do the same on my GWR stock - I presumed my LMS ones would need the same, but they're not close coupled yet as that would involve fitting the extended corridor connections.

My 5-set arrived today, and a quick test with Roco close couplings on 2 of them resulted in a gap in corridor connections. I'm wondering whether a (very slightly) shorter coupling might be better. Has anyone got any suggestions or tried anything else on them yet?

When I phoned Rails about it last week in the wake of those extra photos being shown, rightly or wrongly I was told they were discussing it with Dapol. However, having previously been told to be grateful that my £200 should even get me a correctly assembled loco (often not guaranteed, true, but frankly irrelevant), I wasn't very inclined to mention it here again until you did. With regards to the number style on the olive model, I hadn't spotted that, but it's a further indication that the checks on the production samples ought to have been much more stringent before the factory got the nod for production.

I've just called Rails in the hope of getting some clarification on these issues with the BR model. The handrails were requested to be black, but are being produced polished as shown. Annoying but I could live with this. The backwards crest has been picked up and requested to be corrected, but they don't have confirmation that it's sorted. Like No Decorum said, this is something I would notice every time I looked at the loco, to the extent that I'm questioning whether to go ahead or change to the SR-style lettering version if possible. Yes, these things can be changed fairly readily, but on a £200 model (especially one where the more complicated printing carries a £10 premium) this shouldn't be necessary - as has been said before, it costs no more to produce correctly than to get it wrong.

@Oliver Rails - I notice the lined BR version still has polished handrails, whereas the other black models now have them painted as I'd expect (and prefer). Can you please confirm whether these are completely representative of how the production models will be?

Mine seems like it may have been one of these. I put it on the track and tried easing it forwards and got a tight spot at low speed/thump once properly on the move at the same point in each wheel rotation (but not when reversing, strangely). Turning it over and jiggling each driving wheelset, it was apparent that the rear left wheel could move up and down while the right couldn't, which suggested that the brass bush for that side of the axle had slid out of position along the axle. After removing the keeper plate to check this proved to be the case, and with the bush dropped back into its slot and the plate back on it now seems OK - running in is now in progress. This minor issue does my already low opinion of Hornby quality control no favours, but as a quick and easy fix with a fairly obvious cause and minimal risk involved it does at least mean I don't have to trouble Dan for a return. Any more significant issue would have seen it going back though. Remember folks, these things have a warranty for a reason, and by returning an unsatisfactory loco you increase the likelihood that issues will be reported back to the manufacturer, hopefully improving things for the next model.

On the whole this really looks the part, showing some clear improvements over the mogul, and I'd be plenty happy enough if it was the only game in town. The front of the smokebox doesn't look very manor-like though; the ratio of door diameter to width of ring around it seems slightly off, more like that of a mogul, grange or hall. To me the proportionally narrower ring is an important part of the manor's distinctive look compared to other GWR 4-6-0 classes, and the Accurascale model looks set to represent it well. I wonder what's causing it? Are the door and ring correctly sized but compromised in appearance by the lip allowing you to prise off the door for DCC fitment, or is at least one of them actually the wrong size?

Very interesting timing with this as the Manor could well be my favourite class and I was almost getting round to preordering a Dapol example, after finding myself pleased that their mogul lived up to my hopes rather than my concerns. I'm sure based on the mogul that will be a fine model when it arrives. Clearly however this is much further along and really looks the business, capturing the Manor's dainty proportions very nicely. Also, you're offering Erlestoke which I have a particular liking for, having had the benefit of the SVR being my local line until two years ago and experiencing some fantastic runs behind this loco. Personally I'd greatly prefer no white embellishments on the front though if that's being considered. The other big aspect of the Manor's appeal of course is that thunderous soundtrack, even by GWR loco standards. I usually fit sound myself but could be tempted by a factory fitted version, although have you decided on a source for the sound project yet? I feel like this is one Locoman would do justice to for instance! Regardless, I would consider a nice sharp bark, good spitty vacuum pump and the characteristic hollow roar of the ejector on its own function key to be important, along with a nice transition into a smooth two cylinder thrum at speed instead of every beat trying to stay too defined like on many sound projects. I notice the specification mentions current collection from the loco's driving wheels and the tender. On the loco will this be achieved using adjustable wipers as per most steam models, or through the axle bearings/bushes? Also, will the motor drive a single axle with drive transmitted through the coupling rods, or will multiple axles be driven through gearing? Not that I would be completely put off by the latter two options, but they both feature in the most troublesome loco chassis I have so I would be less confident preordering if they're the chosen route. Finally, and it seems mad to be asking this but I will as they're in the spec, are the headboards intended to be possible to carefully fit and remove from the lamp brackets, or would they be a 'glue on if required' job?

My early crest example arrived from Derails on Thursday and was put into action in the evening. It arrived intact and I fully agree with others that it looks fantastic and has a very impressive weight - with a quick, unscientific comparison it feels like the equivalent of about one and a half 8750s, and you get the sense that it should make a decent go of long coach rakes on ECS duties for instance. Performance on DC with my Gaugemaster Combi was good at all speeds with the coreless motor not seeming to make much difference from a more conventional one, though I'd be wanting to disable the firebox glow if I was leaving it like that! I use DCC though and straight after running in the loco received a Zimo MX618N18 that had been waiting for its arrival (now that Next18 decoders are no more expensive than for any other socket, I rather like not having to prat about tucking wires away). Bachmann loco design is generally very sensible and their familiar system from the 5700/8750 and other tank locos of popping off the couplings, then undoing one screw underneath at each end was very welcome to see on this after some other locos that have needed illogical looking combinations of screws removing to get the body off. The only slight snag is a literal one; the rear vacuum pipe is fixed to the body and tucks under the chassis, so it has to be gently eased back when removing or refitting the body. A quick test of the bare chassis after plugging in the decoder indicated some dissatisfaction from the motor with the default motor control CV values, with a bit more noise than usual and a slight but perceptible jitter when crawling along, so I changed them to those suggested for a small coreless motor in the Zimo small decoder manual (a more accurate name would be 'large manual for small decoders'): CV 9 - 51 CV 56 - 133 After doing this and setting my usual top speed of 150, midpoint of around half that and acceleration and deceleration to 20, it was time for another go. This made the loco's performance as good as anything else I've taken out of a blue box and fitted with a Zimo decoder. I have to say though that I do slightly begrudge this bit of extra attention in decoder setup that comes with a coreless motor when conventional 3 or 5 pole motors will usually let me get away with just setting the top speed and inertia. With the loco moving as expected and the body back on, I then set both firebox LEDs to flicker on function key 1, rather than giving a solid light and being switched separately by F1 and F2. I hadn't done this before and had to look it up, so to save anyone else wanting to do it the bother, the CVs and values you want are: CV 35 - 12 CV 127 - 8 CV 128 - 8 The red and yellow LEDs are side by side and the effect isn't that convincing, as they shine across each other onto their own sides of the cab. It's a nice feature to play with though nonetheless. All in all, an excellent loco as I would expect from Bachmann and well worth our long wait.

It's likely that the sound project has the top speed limited on the decoder, giving performance that will be realistic straight from the box as you say. A video from Dapol a few months back showed a sound fitted pre-production model running on Bredon (formerly at Pecorama), which is now owned by MrSoundguy who does Dapol's sound projects, so doubtless he'll have adjusted the decoder's motor control characteristics to suit the mechanism.

I haven't had a go at my Merchant Navy quite yet, but I have DCC fitted a West Country, Q1 and Black 5 that used the same system of sending current from one rail through the chassis block. In all cases I've now modified this arrangement for the sake of reliability so that the decoder or socket is wired directly to the pickups. Undo the connecting rods, take the keeper plates and pickup strips off the bottom of the chassis block, and drop the wheels out for ease of handling. You should find there's a little pin on the chassis block that fits into an eyelet on the keeper plate. Cut this pin off with a dremel or even a substantial set of side cutters - it needn't be tidy, it just needs to be cut short. Next, take the eyelet out of the keeper plate. You could drill this out if desired, but the plastic is soft and as I normally have the soldering iron ready anyway I irresponsibly melt it out quickly. As the other side's pickups have a proper wire connection, there's already a small hole that you can run a second wire down. Solder the new wire to the pickup strip, being careful to point the wire in the right direction to go up the hole and with a neat low profile joint so that the keeper plate won't be distorted when it's refitted. You may want a bit of kapton or insulation tape between the pickups and chassis block to be on the safe side. Now that you have 2 pickup wires at the top of the chassis, you can proceed pretty well as per any other hard wired installation, just being careful to ensure that each tender pickup contact is joined to the same side loco pickup before you connect them to the decoder.

I'd have thought those shiny handrails and smokebox door handles would be painted to match the smokebox/boiler from SR ownership onwards, and certainly on the black ones. Apologies if this is already on the change list! I can see these samples match the livery artwork that was available before pretty closely, and they were shown as polished on there too in fairness. I have the lined black loco on order with a view to representing it seeing out its final years in traffic on unglamorous stopping passenger work, whereas to my mind the sample for this loco in particular looks far more like it's been specially prepared for working an RCTS or SLS special.