NewSiding

I've been told by Dapol that the smoke unit is not controlled by the decoder. So the smoke unit is independent of decoder. So should be ok. I've seen my Dad's one in ARC livery. The quality and the paint finish / livery is superb. The pulling power and running are excellent too.

I know what you mean, they're outstanding aren't they! I was only going to get one and pre-ordered BR blue 008, and kept saying no, no, no I'm not getting another...... large logo now ordered - couldn't help it! A little tip in case anyone else has similar issue, mine was derailing on an outer wheelset. I found that it was because two halves of the bogie were not quite clipped together at one end, so the wheelset wasn't being held in firmly enough. Sorted no problem and it looks and runs superbly (DC). The powerbank on DC is very good and keeps the lights on for a short while after stopping.

yes that's correct, it was indeed the new 'piano' type. Good to hear you managed to reduce the noise a bit. Absolutely, I got a good hit on the search without too much effort. I was about to start a new thread in the Gaugemaster section asking if anyone else had noticed the humming and blow me, this thread came up in a search.

I recently bought a brand new Gaugemaster DS but returned it due to the excessive mains hum. Although the control of the locos is excellent, the humming noise from the DS was louder than I'm used to. I would say it was about 3 to 4 times louder than the humming noise from all of my old controllers ( H&M Duette, Minitrol, and very old Gaugemaster that stopped working). I could hear the humming from the new GM DS 14 feet away (in a quiet room). My old controllers the humming is only audible from about 3 feet away. The humming from the DS was louder than the locos when they were running up to about 1/3 speed but of course I'm sat right next to the controller and the loco is further away. I'm not saying the humming was very loud, but was not as quiet as my old controllers. I tried to put up with this humming but it was really irritating having the humming in my ears while having trains running. So I decided to return it for a refund. I didn't contact retailer or GM as it looks like the humming must be considered within acceptable parameters, but it's too loud for me. And why are the knobs so small these days? A larger size knob to get a good grip is better I find. The GM DCC Prodigy controllers have a nice good sized knob, so why not on the DC controllers? Back to the drawing board choosing a new controller! Perhaps I would be better getting a panel mounted GM and separate transformer. At least I can put the transformer behind a cupboard or something if the humming is too much! Does anyone have experience of the separate GM transformers? Are they quiet? I normally use a H&M Duette (on High Resistance, Full Wave settings only) which is very good, but it gets very warm to the touch so may be getting to end of life? I do have some old Compspeeds but they are feedback only and some motors make a little more noise (but not excessive) on slow speeds and I need new transformers for them anyway. I also have an old Minitrol which works well, but it's feedback so prefer not to use as like the Compspeeds some motors make a little more noise (but not excessive) on slow speeds.

I'm still deciding whether to purchase one of these or not. Just recently been given the old Hornby 59 which i've cleaned up and added weight to. Dapol 59 looks much better than the old Hornby one of course. Does anyone know what these 2 holes on the Dapol 59 are in picture below that I've circled in red (credit to previous poster for the great photo!) ?

I was looking at the Kernow images. I thought that was a production sample? If not, then that's good it will be even better when it arrives.

unfortuntately looks like it's not going to be anywhere near the finesse of the Hatton's 66. The Hatton's 66 oozes quality. The front air dam on the Dapol 59 looks particularly poor with the gap between the bottom piece. Even the Bachmann 66 which has the same separate piece doesn't have an obvious gap like that. Hopefully, this is not final production photo and it can be fitted closer than that. The side grills on the Dapol 59 look like they could be very good, though it's not possible to tell completely due to resolution of images. I see Hatton's website is now saying Due November for the ARC livery DCC ready, but all the others still say September. Perhaps they'll arrive by Christmas!

photo I took in 1991.....

Has there been a mistake at the factory in the final production with the raised piece on the bonnet? It is flush on the unpainted sample pictures on Hornby Engine Shed https://uk.Hornby.com/community/blog-and-news/engine-shed/marked-progress

It is a pity for Hornby because there are some positives about the 91. The motor is very smooth and quiet. The quality of the paint finish (ignoring the rubs from the packaging) and general build quality is very good. It's the pantograph and that bogie design that let it down to me. I've been trying to find another of my locos which has a similar terrible bogie design with those plastic clips and tabs that rub against the chassis and I don't seem to have another one like it! Why did Hornby design it like that.

no, unfortunately. But it was very minor on mine so it wasn't worth the hassle of returning it and I thought I would probably end up getting a replacement that was worse. About 1 to 1.5 mm under the cab at the blunt end, on one side. I managed to gently rub off the small bit of red that was on the white line and was able to touch up the small bit of red line that had rubbed off. I did send back 2 For the Fallen ones as it was bad on those and I just got a refund.

When I was checking the wheels out I noticed a residue of something building up on the underside of the chassis. It's difficult to take a picture of but hopefully can be seen below. It is in the shape of an arc and is where one of the plastic support pieces on the bogie protudes up and rubs on the underside of the chassis. The first picture shows the plastic piece - see white arrow. This seems a strange bogie design to me. Hopefully the residue is paint from the chassis and not the plastic support piece wearing away? Is it normal to expect this?

That's not very good from Hornby if it still has clunky running over points. Interesting that the've changed the bogies. I've not had derailing so seems my problem is not as bad as others, but for my 91002 I've had some clunky running over some points which is when the wheel drops into the dip (flangeway?) by the frog. It is worse on Peco points but does happen on Hornby points as well. The Hornby points look to have a higher raised flangeway than the Peco points so I think that is why. Perhaps Hornby have only tested it on Hornby track. I don't have this problem with Dapol 68 which is the only other modern made bo-bo I have. I don't have a caliper, but the 68 wheels have a larger diameter (14mm I think) than on the 91 (12mm I think). Also the tread is narrower on the 91 than on other locos I have. I think the combination of smaller diameter and narrower tread means that the wheel cannot bridge the rail gap between the frog nose and the rail starting again (as mentioned by an earlier poster https://www.rmweb.co.uk/topic/150520-Hornby-announce-a-re-tooled-class-91-for-2020/page/23/#comment-4820160 ) whereas the larger wheels on the 68 can. The Hornby 60 doesn't have the problem and has larger wheels, diameter 14mm I think and wider tread . Though being co-co helps there as well I expect. I've tried changing the back to back but that hasn't helped. I haven't any spare wheels to try so my fix for now is a thin piece of card (from a Peco track packing) cut into a V shape and placed into the flangeway around the frog. It's only needed on one point on my R3 oval anyway. I will probably contact Hornby about this. I've looked for new wheels online, but they only say the diameter and not the tread width which I think will be important to resolve this. I'm using code 100 track. Mixture of Hornby and Peco set track and streamline.

That's a shame about the paint smudge. Is that where the ice cube packaging sticks out to support the body? I returned my 91111 with the scratch under the front cab side window to my retailer for a refund. The scratch was where the packaging sticks out. Then I ordered 91111 direct from Hornby and that had a similar defect. Some of the finish damaged under the front cab side window. So I returned that for refund as well. Hornby and retailer very good about returning it. So now I've given up. I've decided I can't live with that fuzzy finish on the 91111 for £200+. At least the IC one has a nice normal livery finish.

thanks. yes I'm thinking that might be what's best to do - send it back. The retailer don't have anymore in stock though and Hornby can't help, eg. they don't have replacement bodies, so it would be return and purchase somewhere else.