Bigeddie

Well I received my class 91 durham cathedral just over a week ago, looks great but sadly derails on my 2nd and 3rd radius curves with inclines and at some points . I checked a number of my other locos and they are all fine. Yes, some show a slight wobble but nothing horrific and no other derailments, on close examination i am convinced its the fore/aft inflexible bogie issue mentioned earlier , but I suspect exacerbated hugely by the weight of this unit. i also have a couple of 2020 apt power cars which are not very forgiving ( indeed i tweaked my layout to accommodate them) both these locos have bogies which pivot fore aft when not pressed onto the main body, but move very little if anything when pressed ( held toward the body) my other similarly bogied locos ( modern Bachmann , older Hornby or very old triang) all retain some significant forward / aft movement when pressed) of course the vast majority of them have much of the weight ( the motor) directly on a bogie and not pressing the body down onto the bogie. My APT power car handles the curves etc ok, but the class91 will not, the class 91 is a little shorter ( but surely that should if anything help) The only other difference is weight, the class 91 at c600g is 50% heavier than the apt at c400g. Both have most of the weight in the body so its borne by the bogie/ body joint.I suspect this “locks” the bogie more firmly and making the loco very sensitive to imperfect track laying, in particular tighter (2nd radius) curves on incline changes and points. so, sadly i will have to send it back tomorrow ( internet purchase direct from Hornby arrived 11 days ago) interestingly one of the people i spoke to at Hornby mentioned its known to have trouble with 2nd radius curves, pity it does not say that in the advert, on the box, or the instructions. So i think i put this one down to what some consultants at work used to call “suboptimal” design. Although I’ll never know if my tracklaying was perfect, would it have coped!

Hey i had alot of trouble getting on the site this morning, still can only get in via a link on twitter. Anyone else having trouble ( i get a server error message)

Hey Darius looks pretty good to me, which panto arm did you use?

Hi Paul Thanks for the APT expansion kit, it looks a really great kit, now I just need to find the time to get to work on it! i was thinking when I saw the post about the chop shop dav4 trailer ( which looks good) given that one of those at 00 would allow people with the 80’s set to run the apt-q , might there be a call for them if you produced it? I would certainly be interested.

Hey JS try emailing them and explaining, my 7 car set clearly had a gear /driveshaft issue ( sounded like a bag of nails and stiltingly moved) i explained the rest seemed fine, And they were ok for me to send back just the ndm, albeit i had the packaging from the extra ndm ( which seems ok so far) but the key piece of pack8ng is the plastic (albeit ugly) so you could use that and well pack it.

There are two screws accessed from above , the pantograph stands on two pillars and they are screwed at the bottom on each side. Try shining a light to see where they are , or look at one of the youtube videos of people like 00rail dismantling theirs. The screws are the same as the two under the body. the panto screws are either side of the panto rather than at the ends

Would they still work with a shim wide enough to fix the length between the couplers?

Hey Paul, get well soon, best regards

Well, fair enough, and you’ll be happy i am sure with your other investments, the only thing to keep in mind is, how happy will you be if they really do sell out and, next year your only route to one is to pay whatever the e bayers are baying for…….

Be interesting to see if the hunt couplings are each the equivalent dimensions to the Hornby counterpart. it is a bit weird that Hornby fail to mention the different coupling sizes, given it is not obvious until you look for it, how many frustrated owners who aren’t on this forum will there be? And how many unnecessary returns will that generate, all they needed to do was mention it on the service sheet

Hey try giving them i call, they answered promptly and were helpful when i called recently, i think they are just a small outfit and can get swamped.

Hey Paul how big is the shed empire?

Omg gutting, damage report?

Not had this problem myself but 1 ) is it run in yet? 2) does it happen both directions and with the car placed both ways round? 3) 2nd or 3rd rad curves?