Hornby Princess Coronation Class (Duchess)

[Silver Sidelines]

Hello Derails

 

I have a habit of being pedantic but these nameplates look very plastic (like Duke of Gloucester's).  Can you confirm whether they are etched metal plates or simply printed plastic?

 

 

 

I can attach this picture of the plates included:

Thanks

 

Ray

[Francis deWeck]

They have said that the Streamlined Princess will have another Bogie will correct sized wheels. Supplied with the underscale wheels fitted so that it can traverse trainset curves straight from the box.

Sounds a bit like the Dapol A4 design, if I understand that correctly. Pity that idea wasn't applied to the Ivatt Coronations.

[Brocp]

7P Patriot also on Hornby website. New tooling (?) ...........but lame 'ol Tender with valance!

 

Hornby have really had a huge swing and a miss here. They've got the correct tender chassis now, why not just retool the body to fit it? So the Duchess is right but the Pats/Scots/8Fs/5s aren't? For all their talk of fantastic details this is still the biggest visual problem on their LMS locos.

 

Also regarding the Streamliners, it's implied they aren't tooling up the cut down streamlined tenders they ran with until they lost it after the war. Again a strange choice if true.

[sandwich station]

Also regarding the Streamliners, it's implied they aren't tooling up the cut down streamlined tenders they ran with until they lost it after the war. Again a strange choice if true.

Where does it say that?

[robmcg]

The panels and speedo detail, along with the overall shape Hornby have captured DOES look very good. Is it just me or do the bogie wheels appear to have been reduced to allow them to pivot below the streamlining?

 

 BUT, you can detail a bathtub, but it is still a bathtub. Stanier was right! I'm still aiming for a fleet of 3 conventional preserved examples.

 

And on that note, my City of Birmingham is now paid for, and thank you to the retailer for honouring the original (very competitive) price offered... cheaper than any available for ordering now.

Makes the hit of the useless (for me) TTS decoder easier to swallow!

Hopefully here in time for some running over the Bank Holiday weekend. Here's hoping the chassis problems have been sorted on this batch...

 

I look forward to reactions to the rendition of BR green, now that the crests are supplied separately.  I wonder also if any retailers will offer this model without the TTS chip?

 

Another issue will be how many are ordered by retailers, under the new Hornby marketing strategy (if you can call under-supply and drip-feeding a strategy)

[cctransuk]

Hello Derails

 

I have a habit of being pedantic but these nameplates look very plastic (like Duke of Gloucester's).  Can you confirm whether they are etched metal plates or simply printed plastic?

 

 

 

 

Thanks

 

Ray

 

From their appearance; almost certainly printed plastic.

 

Regards,

John Isherwood.

[robmcg]

Here is my enlargement Hornby's own image, and having had to send back a Sir William because the slidebar wasn't assembled correctly and paint defects and body lug broken etc I see that although the Hornby 46235 green colour looks promising, in enlarging the Hornby pic, unbelievably, the slidebar is not assembled correctly.! !  Drivers are nearly off the track too or out-of-gauge.

 

Maybe it's a pre-production model, but it wouldn't run well, or at all,  like that.

 

At £190-ish I wouldn't take the risk, well I would, but in full expectation of errors and faults.

 

Pre-production studio photo... ?  

 

 

Nice paint though.

 

 

[robmcg]

Here is the other side of this lovely model.

 

Why am I getting a feeling that even though this is Hornby's own photo there is something lacking in the presentation?  Like taking care over the photos they provide to advertise their quite expensive wares?

 

 

I notice also with a wry grin that usually when buying a Hornby model engine with walschearts valve gear, the eccentric on the middle driver is wrong on one side and right on the other, and sometimes if you are very very lucky it's right on both sides, as per a s/h Black 5 I bought last week.... ..but on this occasion, yes, you've guessed it, with 46235 they have got it wrong on both sides.    Amazing!  Still, they're only toys eh? 

 

 

Pity it's not a Bulleid Pacific. 

 

 

[sandwich station]

Pity it's not a Bulleid Pacific. 

Bloody spam can.

[robmcg]

Well at least Hornby get the valve gear eccentric correctly-oriented on them, on one side, usually. 

 

Here are all three of my renditions of the Hornby production photos   yes I know it's not a production model  but...

 

it does look good and I can't wait for Hattons and Rails and Kernow and others to photograph their production versions for comparison before I buy.

 

 

 

 

please be aware I wish Hornby all the best with this model it looks stunning and I hope my slight editing of their pictures will be ok.

 

edit; it does unnerve me a bit that the engine is barely on the track though...  and the crosshead on the driver's side not assembled correctly.    

Edited March 24, 2018 by robmcg

[Brocp]

Where does it say that?

"This is not forgetting the streamlined tenders, both with and without shroud too"

 

This is from the Engine Shed post. Even the mock ups in the catalogue back that up, that at the front of the tender top will be bother shrouded and the normal type. I've also spoken to someone at Hornby who has said that at the time of talking to them (just after the announcement) that they didn't have plans to do the cut down tender side variant for the Streamliners.

[G-BOAF]

Any more pics of the model in the flesh? Mine still has not been dispatched. I would imagine a few recieved a parcel on saturday morning? Or picked one up from Alexandra Palace...?

[robmcg]

Any more pics of the model in the flesh? Mine still has not been dispatched. I would imagine a few recieved a parcel on saturday morning? Or picked one up from Alexandra Palace...?

 

I am waiting with baited breath for Rails, Hattons and Kernows to photograph their new model Duchess in the usual manner, where-from I usually make a judgement call about the actual colours and quite often the number of assembly compromises (errors, mistakes, broken or misaligned bits) in the models. It's a bank holiday is it not so I doubt there will be much action before tues-wednesday.

 

I notice that on Hornby's own web page they have a pic of 46256 Sir William in the section about BRM awards where the faults of the review engine by Andy Y are unchanged; broken body lug, body sitting too high over front of chassis as a result, so I have to say I not over-hopeful about the quality of paint, assembly and quailty control of 46235.

 

For all the changes in the management structure and personnel at Hornby I haven't read anything positive about q c nor of factory production management. The Engine shed was pretty keen to show us the work going into the early Duchess 'streamliners', but there has been nothing about the other recent Duchess models and any changes or efforts in regard to the R3509TTS 46235  that I have read anyway. 

 

I would buy a model from Kernow out of sheer curiosity if it wasn't for the relatively high cost of purchase and the 6-10 day delivery to NZ., best part of £200 to satisfy curiosity. FWIW Kernow have been brilliant retailers fast and professional, so are Hattons and Rails, in my experience.

 

If anything this R3509TTS Duchess says everything about Hornby's confusion over the market for high detail, high cost models and toys, the TTS chip being utterly toy-like, and after glimmers of hope with Sir William and the excellent colours on that model courtesy talented people like Coachmann/Larry Goddard, we still don't know if the Brunswick green on 46235 is deeper or darker than recently, as it ought to be in my opinion.

 

Still, at £200 give-or-take what do you expect? A few photos of a pre-production model, so far.   Clearly I am too impatient!

[cctransuk]

 It's a bank holiday is it not ..

 

Nope - that'll be next weekend.

 

Regards,

John Isherwood.

[robmcg]

Nope - that'll be next weekend.

 

Regards,

John Isherwood.

 

Ah, thanks, I just ordered a R3509TTS from Hattons who generally deliver to here in NZ about 4-6 days so if nobody else buys one and shows photos I should be able to assuage curiosity, OTOH Easter weekend might delay things.  

 

For what it's worth I think the £199 price is ok (given I get VAT removed thus £167 and air post added) for such a good model if the thing is assembled correctly in the factory, which it usually is. Derails have it at £176 but don't appear on their web page at least to accommodate the VAT-off export airmail thing. On my browser the page only offers 'pick up' after I enter my NZ address, and I don't know what they would charge for airmail etc. Could have e-mailed them for a sale but that might take a day or two...    what a lazy impatient person I am!

 

I was just looking at videos of 46256 Sir William blighted though it was by Q C issues and thought that we don't know how widespread the faults in that model were; 20%, 50% ???  And all the big retailers who post to NZ are very obliging about replacing or refunding in the rare ?  cases on unfixable faults. My own was faulty with body lug broken and cylinder crosshead fell out/bent connecting rod, and paint defects, and I got a full refund and bought another, but the second didn't run quite as well as the first.

 

So to me it's not just a purchase of a good model, it's a gamble and an adventure!

 

edit; I have an NRM Hamilton 46229 and had a Rails black version, and also have a 6231 Atholl and they have all been good, but as I have opined elsewhere none are quite as smooth as my older Duchesses from 2004-2011 are, my quietest smoothest DC model is weathered blue Princess !

Edited March 25, 2018 by robmcg

[ianwales]

Hi all

 

Moving away from City of Birmingham for a moment, I've been looking at Duchess of Atholl in LMS Red, does anyone know did any of the duchesses survive to 1947 in LMS Red without smoke deflectors please?

 

Ian

[Paul_sterling]

Hi all

 

Moving away from City of Birmingham for a moment, I've been looking at Duchess of Atholl in LMS Red, does anyone know did any of the duchesses survive to 1947 in LMS Red without smoke deflectors please?

 

Ian

 

I think it might have been mentioned in an earlier post in this thread, sorry i've not attempted to look it up, just a little short of time, but thought i'd try and point you in the right direction at least. 

 

Paul. 

[sirwilliamfrs]

Hi all

 

Moving away from City of Birmingham for a moment, I've been looking at Duchess of Atholl in LMS Red, does anyone know did any of the duchesses survive to 1947 in LMS Red without smoke deflectors please?

 

Ian

As far as is known, 6232 carried LMS Crimson Lake livery with deflectors from Feb 1945 - May 1948. 6233 was the only other, from Aug 1946 - Oct 1947. Information from "LMS Locomotive Profiles", published by Wild Swan, 2008.

[Derails Models]

Hello Derails

 

I have a habit of being pedantic but these nameplates look very plastic (like Duke of Gloucester's).  Can you confirm whether they are etched metal plates or simply printed plastic?

 

 

 

 

Thanks

 

Ray

 

They are indeed printed plastic plates Ray. HTH

[Silver Sidelines]

Thank you Derails  for getting back to me

 

They are indeed printed plastic plates Ray. HTH

 

I think it is perhaps a case of a ha'p'orth of tar.  Proper etched metal plates would have helped to lift the engine from being an expensive toy to something on a higher level (dare I say like Bachmann top of the range models).

 

Ray

 

Ray.

[JSpencer]

Strangely even the NRM re-construction looks to be the wrong shape compared with photo's of the originals.

 

Now if others agree, maybe it is not Hornby per-se but the real things were perhaps not exactly built to original plans. I can imagine the fabrication shop looking at some parts of the shape and thinking "how the hell and I supposed to cut and roll that?" and then making something that is close enough.

[ikks]

Not sure what happened to my post but,,,,,,,,,

If a supplier removes the TTS..........I'm in for one.

 

Mike

Edited March 26, 2018 by ikks

[G-BOAF]

Can I be so bold as to suggest this needs splitting into two threads, one for the streamlined and one for the unstreamlined/destreamlined models?

[ikks]

Can I be so bold as to suggest this needs splitting into two threads, one for the streamlined and one for the unstreamlined/destreamlined models?

Good idea

 

Mike

[MGR Hooper!]

Can I be so bold as to suggest this needs splitting into two threads, one for the streamlined and one for the unstreamlined/destreamlined models?

I started a new thread for that very reason when the announcement was made. It's so much easier to focus on the two variants in their respective threads. However it was reported and closed down with a link directed to this thread. http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/129900-Hornby-announce-streamlined-princess-coronation/

 

Personally didn't see the sense in that. I get the whole point about shared chassis. But with developments of the streamlined one coming in alongside the released of the TTS version and announcements of the SWS re-run, this thread is just time-consuming to sit and sort through.

Edited March 26, 2018 by MGR Hooper!