JhornG201

I note from the specs that the lighting is directional. I’m assuming therefore that this is a straight re-run and no changes are being made so head and tail lights are independently controlled?

Question for those who’ve had their models delivered: the front frame extensions with the visible mould circles, are they separate pieces? Want to know if it appears feasible to remove them so the circles can be filled and sanded flat

D34s were also a 6ft driving wheel variant of the D30 (6ft 6 driving wheels) with boilers being interchangeable between the two classes, as well as same cab designs, tenders, bogie wheels, and even overall wheelbase, etc so there would be common tooling. Since Accurascale have done a “family” of locos before (GWR pannier tanks) so would make sense that if the D34 is ever tackled by them, one could hit two birds with one stone with the tooling suite

The lack of steam is very clear and visible. No new announced steam tooling for 2/3 years now which does beg the question if Bachmann has any interest in it any more. Caley 439 class tank is a great candidate to go with the Bachmann/Rails 828 models, and a Southern Railway U class would I’m sure sell brilliantly too. There’s viable steam locomotives Bachmann could be going out and claiming, but they seem to be choosing not to

My £250 box arrived today and very pleased with the Mink, and the selection of other wagons and goodies too. Also got a standard Titfield pack in the box as well … shame I already have one but that’s the nature of the mystery box I guess 😂

Some new photos of 5200 in today’s Engine shed blog: https://uk.Hornby.com/community/blog-and-news/engine-shed/locomotion-no-1-motion Lamps don’t look too bad in black (as is correct for LMS I believe) but the mould circles on the frame extensions at the front don’t look good

World of Railways here reports that the normal (I.e. non smoke generator) Black 5s are due around May https://www.world-of-railways.co.uk/News/Hornby-releases-update-on-2023-announcements

Clearly a year of catch-up for Hornby but good to see the trout wagons making a return. 61306 is a nice surprise. One slight thing I’ve noticed, the tables of updates on existing items, there’s one table that’s missing anticipated release months (the one including the majority of the black 5s).

How/where did you manage to fit the stay alive? I’m considering using a Zen decoder and stay alive in mine so any insight into your process would be great

Building on this, is there space for a stay alive? I’m planning on using a DCC Concepts Zen Blue 6pin decoder with a small stay alive for mine

I’m glad they’re listening to feedback here, but time will tell if the final models we get on our layouts have a solution implemented by then

Safe for now, but if Accurascale announce a GNSR ochre liveried exclusive I’ll absolutely be having one!

It was mentioned in the Q&A section at the end of the stream that they were working on the lights. Myself and another asked the same question. Q&A starts about 39mins into the video

Black 5 first decoration samples were shown on Hornby’s YouTube live stream today, looking pretty good from what could be seen. Apparently the lamp arrangement is being worked on this week so hopefully we’ll see changeable lamp codes on the production models

That’s unfortunate to hear, and something I sort of expected when the Turbomotive appeared with fixed position lamps which was supposed to have the same lighting arrangement. I’m not sure about others, but I’d prefer no lamps fitted as standard so you can have your own lamp code without having to cut and remove the lights and fit new lamp irons, especially considering the Black 5 is a mixed traffic loco. The feature is not quite the step forward it was originally made out to be.