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.

I thought the lamps on the Turbomotive were to be removable/changeable similar to what’s been touted for the upcoming Black 5?

For the handrail, I used some ‘short’ handrail knobs I had in my spares box, cut the portion of the handrail which you would instead into a drilled hole and filed it flat so you are left with a flat surface to glue against the inside of the deflector. The very top of the handrail has to kink in ever so slightly to match the shape of the deflector, and careful positioning to get the knobs to line up with the ones on the suite of the deflector, but avoid their projection through to the inside surface. I’ll try and take some close ups if I can get clear enough images

Got my Prince of Wales a few weeks ago, and have spent some time detailing the model to bring it closer to how 2007 will appear when in operation. The work I’ve done consists of: Adding air brake pipes (leftovers from Heljan 26s/27s) and LNER style lamps to the front buffer beam Rear axle removed and swapped round so speedo drive is on the driver’s side. BR style speedo cable added also Handrail added to the inside of the smoke deflector. On the P2s this was only on one side, so replicated the same here Modern warning flashes added based on the positioning of those on Tornado Coal space weathered and real coal added Hornby details pack fitted Fox Transfers etched nameplates and cab side works plates

I’ve been waiting for someone to produce this loco for a long time! Thank you Rapido UK for taking on the challenge! Now I have challenge myself to be patient and wait to see if my loco of choice is one of the lucky preserved liveries to be announced when the time comes 😜😂

Hornby have previously commented in the Engine Shed blogs that the shape of the casing around the cylinders has had to be made an ‘idealised’ version since all of the streamlined locos had slightly different shaped casing. So it won’t be 100% accurate for each loco but as good as can be achieved without tooling 6 different casing shapes

S160 has been a long time coming in OO, very glad Rapido are doing it and I’m sure it’ll be amazing! I’m definitely getting at least one 😅 If 5820 is part of the announcement that will be the clincher for me!

I dare say this is a detail (amongst others) which isn’t possible to capture right now until the real loco is out on the mainline.

The latest edition of The Collector dropped through my letter box today with an update on the 2MTs. The first 2 models are in containers and due in the UK ant the end of August with the others following apparently 2-weeks after.

Can the 1-piece NEM ploughs still be fitted with a Kadee coupling? Or are they only designed to work with a NEM tension lock?

A few of the 2016 models became available as the models came into stock (presumably from cancelled orders) so I managed to I think secure one when the model was shows as “last few” on the Hornby website. Got my fingers crossed it should be fulfilled.