Class 66 in OO Gauge - New Announcement

[ERIC ALLTORQUE]

21 minutes ago, TomScrut said:

 

The 68 is excellent but I think for the attention paid to the lighting etc. the 66 is still marginally better. I have more 68s than I have Hattons 66s though which says what I think of the 68!

Dapol still did better than the large headlight versions that need work and money  and time put in to fix, its what it is but at £265 sound fitted and you have to start repairing it,makes the upcoming stuff from Accurascale great value at £250 does it not,as Mr Kohler says,they are for keeps,not toys.

[newbryford]

5 hours ago, TomScrut said:

 

Yes, but that's because it probably wouldn't be viable to pay people in the UK to sort them out and sell at a reasonable price. £119 was probably the best compromise, a bargain for those willing to work on it themselves/roll the dice but better for Hattons than fixing them.

 

 

 

No need to roll the dice at £119 as they could still be returned if the loco wasn't satisfactory. (And later bought at £99.....)

 

 

[TomScrut]

1 hour ago, newbryford said:

 

No need to roll the dice at £119 as they could still be returned if the loco wasn't satisfactory. (And later bought at £99.....)

 

 

 

Yes I know. It was more whether it's worth the hassle. I got sick of sending mine back with dodgy lights.

[KDG]

6 hours ago, norfolkchinaclay said:

Latest versions are now lacking some of the detail pack parts that were previously included, and the mouldings of the internal equipment behind the grills haven’t been painted, bogie steps not painted etc. It seems that it’s slowly being downgraded to “Railroad” level without Hornby explaining or justifying why, ie is it to save the RRP going up even higher than it has to in order to keep up with the production costs or are Hornby just cutting corners because they can until a competitor delivers a better quality offering…

You simply cannot compare a Hornby class 60 with any of their Railroad deisels. Far superior in every aspect. The lima class 60 is Railroad specification - not the Hornby one.

[TomScrut]

1 hour ago, ERIC ALLTORQUE said:

Dapol still did better than the large headlight versions that need work and money  and time put in to fix, its what it is but at £265 sound fitted and you have to start repairing it,makes the upcoming stuff from Accurascale great value at £250 does it not,as Mr Kohler says,they are for keeps,not toys.

 

Did they? They paired the headlamps with the top markers and then had the bottom markers on their own function, that's a similar level of unrealisim to what happened with the bug eyes IMO.

 

[dj_crisp]

18 hours ago, ERIC ALLTORQUE said:

Since the release of this the bar has gone up a bit,and as it looks they have stepped back from there own branding,by there own admission these are not from the Heljan factory,and it was just a rush to market.

If they own the molds i would hope that they team up with Accurascale to sort out issues and make this what it should have been,So much hype and so much wrong once they arrived,they will still have made money but the send it back,were fixing nothing has done this no good,time will tell i guess.

 

A bit harsh on the shed.

 

Sort out the axle boxes by glueing them in and mine all run very well. I'm not sure what else I'd change on the chassis tbh. They're one of the easiest diesels I've converted to EM that run well pretty much first time and I've done 4. I say that after battling with a Bachmann 121 for most of today which is a bit sloppy.

 

Also I'm looking forward to Accurascales Loco efforts but until I get my hands on one I'll reserve judgement as to whether they could do a better job. So far my experience of them is rather plastic looking ARC PTAs, nice PFAs and rather light and a pain to convert PCAs. 

[martin_l_jones]

On 27/12/2021 at 10:14, rob D2 said:

I’d think the Hornby 60 is still up there, or is there detail on It that is lacking now ?

Hornby 60 is very good, but also has attached issues derailing the leading wagon. IMHO I think the Dapol 68 leads the way, but again came with livery issues on the first run...

[TomScrut]

4 hours ago, martin_l_jones said:

Hornby 60 is very good, but also has attached issues derailing the leading wagon. IMHO I think the Dapol 68 leads the way, but again came with livery issues on the first run...

 

TBH the coupling mechanisms on the Hornby 60, Hattons 66 and Dapol 68 all have issues in one way or another. The Hattons 66 is worse than the 60 for pulling stuff off track I think but the 68 has droopy couplers which can be problematic.

[Matt]

Agreed- some of my Hattons 66s suffer from droop too. The droop mod on the 68 is really easy but yet to find easy solution for 66. The droop issue is particularly problematic with kadees as leads to random uncoupling. On the whole I would say kinematic couplings

generally droop and require mods - this being true across all brands in my experience.

[atom3624]

I've a rake of Bachmann TEA bogie tankers on the rails at the moment.

The 66 and 68 can connect directly, with slight height variations as mentioned.

The 60 keeps derailing the front bogie, and I need to add another to avoid this.

Agreed, the weird coupling formats said to assist, can complicate.  My Hattons 66 never seems to give any problems - other than shedding AB's from time to time ...

Al.

[TomScrut]

10 hours ago, atom3624 said:

I've a rake of Bachmann TEA bogie tankers on the rails at the moment.

The 66 and 68 can connect directly, with slight height variations as mentioned.

The 60 keeps derailing the front bogie, and I need to add another to avoid this.

Agreed, the weird coupling formats said to assist, can complicate.  My Hattons 66 never seems to give any problems - other than shedding AB's from time to time ...

Al.

 

It's my AS PCAs the Hattons one pulls off the track. Bachmann is fine.

[Matt]

It was Bachmann TEAs that first showed up the Hornby coupling issue for me (pulling leading bogie off- common to 60 and 56 - caused as coupling mech struggles to cross from one side of mechanism to other - gets stuck). 
 

On the Hattons 66 the main issue I’ve encountered is running long rakes of TEAs or HHAs etc. - the coupling height seems ok between leading wagon and loco at static condition but under load the coupling on loco moves up or down and leads to uncoupling. This is with kadees I should say. It seems the kinematic coupling allows too much vertical movement (I’ve seen this on other kinematic couplings). Not found a fix yet but am thinking some shims of plastic behind the buffer beam to limit vertical movement may be enough (effectively what Dapol 68 needed).

 

TBH I generally find kinematic couplings bring more hassle than they’re worth and whilst others are not keen on Bachmann’s bogie mount couplings, I have rarely had issues with their setup.

 

For clarity many of these issues only show up on rakes of wagons exceeding 15 or 20 wagons- realise this is not everyone’s thing but these locos should be designed to manage this no issue. My Bach 70 was good straight from box to the limit of its haulage of around 20 HHA on slight gradient (its weak point…).

M

[atom3624]

This seems to be the thing doesn't it.

We have excellent replicas of modern traction, complete with their abilities to haul prototypical loads.

Once connected up, the couplings are moving excessively when 'taking the strain', causing derailments.

Al.

[Matt]

Yep - it’s why I’ve switched away from Kadees within fixed rakes and mostly moved to Hornby / roco bar coupler types which are less susceptible- however the outer wagon and locos are still kadee to allow interchangeable with other stock. I have used Hunt in some cases but these only work to a certain length then magnets aren’t strong enough. 
Despite what said above - on most part there isn’t too much vertical movement in most wagon couplings - the problem is mostly locos in my experience- but switching away from kadees within rakes has helped ensure never get rakes splitting on journey. The bar type couplers also keep the wagons more firmly coupled and prevent “hunting” (correct word?) within a long rake that can occur if couplers have any movement (tension locks or kadees).

 

[dj_crisp]

They're all a bit ropey tbh - In case it helps this is my kadee approach to the Hattons Shed

 

 

 

Basically drill a hole in the chassis and use a 10BA bolt and nut and some spacers from plasticard for the right height. Only trick is to make sure the bolt head doesn't foul the lightboard so sanded out a bit at the top. I've used quite a long kadee so this goes round quite tight curves but may change it for a shorter one if i ever bother!

 

The only tricky bit is cutting the hole in the full valance thing... but I prefer this approach than using the NEM ones. I've also done Hornby's 60 in pretty much the same way

 

Will  

[Sir TophamHatt]

On 27/12/2021 at 18:07, dj_crisp said:

Sort out the axle boxes by glueing them in and mine all run very well.

This is not a fix though.
It's a bodge, at best.
I bought this loco to have that feature...  I'm not about to get rid of it.

[Sir TophamHatt]

7 hours ago, Matt said:

... and mostly moved to Hornby / roco bar coupler types.

Do you have an example (link) where I can investigate these further?

I understand what they are (I guess, Bachmann Voyager has something similar, as does some contentential stock I have), but wonder how they'd fit into an NEM box.

Edited December 29, 2021 by Sir TophamHatt

[Graham108]

7 minutes ago, Sir TophamHatt said:

This is not a fix though.
It's a bodge, at best.
I bought this loco to have that feature...  I'm not about to get rid of it.

I glued any loose A/B's to the axle so they still go round

[Matt]

2 hours ago, Sir TophamHatt said:

Do you have an example (link) where I can investigate these further?

I understand what they are (I guess, Bachmann Voyager has something similar, as does some contentential stock I have), but wonder how they'd fit into an NEM box.

Try Googling R8220 and should come up - this might work 

https://www.diceanddecks.com/pocket-coupling-pack-10-p112805/s309293?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_term=Hornby-pocket-coupling-pack-10-r8220&utm_campaign=product%2Blisting%2Bads&cid=GBP&gclid=Cj0KCQiAq7COBhC2ARIsANsPATHce16tZQjGA3zUqQxFa9XIZ5qxeaq3RRU6NOIX9Bzat78CEjiQTY0aAgNaEALw_wcB

 

they have NEM tails and the Hornby  & Roco versions are same head so fully compatible but Roco has shorter shafts - I carry a stock of both and vary according to wagon or coach to get closest coupling that can also manage my curves

 

hope of use,

M

[dj_crisp]

15 hours ago, Sir TophamHatt said:

This is not a fix though.
It's a bodge, at best.
I bought this loco to have that feature...  I'm not about to get rid of it.

 

Pretty must describes all of my modelling!

 

 

I've filed this feature alongside working louvres and opening doors as something that sounds cool but hasn't been executed well. I much prefer a good running loco so have "fixed" that

 

 

 

 

[martin_l_jones]

On 28/12/2021 at 17:51, TomScrut said:

 

TBH the coupling mechanisms on the Hornby 60, Hattons 66 and Dapol 68 all have issues in one way or another. The Hattons 66 is worse than the 60 for pulling stuff off track I think but the 68 has droopy couplers which can be problematic.

I think I must have been lucky with my Hattons 66s and Dapol 68 as I’ve not had an issue with any of mine.

[Colin_McLeod]

On 27/12/2021 at 16:57, TomScrut said:

 

Yes I know. It was more whether it's worth the hassle. I got sick of sending mine back with dodgy lights.

 

I don't even know if mine has dodgy lights!  Layout not ready yet. 

[TomScrut]

2 hours ago, Colin_McLeod said:

 

I don't even know if mine has dodgy lights!  Layout not ready yet. 

 

From memory it was more dodgy op amp buffers (or badly fitted ones) IMO, when in 6 or less function mode driven by the decoders it was fine, it was when using the 10 functions, some wouldn't work and I am pretty certain it was only the last 4 features that needed this (night lights and cab lights IIRC). 

[ERIC ALLTORQUE]

23 hours ago, Colin_McLeod said:

 

I don't even know if mine has dodgy lights!  Layout not ready yet. 

Worth a spin on a rolling road to find out,i bought the DCC concepts one just to try out the likes of this stuff and run in etc.its a good diagnostic tool too to check pick up on each axle works.

Edited January 2, 2022 by ERIC ALLTORQUE

[ERIC ALLTORQUE]

New items are nearly down to two as only 5 of 66731 left now,other than a few pre owned another is out the way.