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New Hornby steam loco - £384.99 rrp


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1 hour ago, No Decorum said:

It’s a double engine, so halve the discounted price. Not that I’ll be buying.

 

You even could lop a bit more off for it being 1:87... and US loading gauge, too.

 

;)

 

I'll get my coat.

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I don't think the Rivarossi Big Boy was ever exactly a budget loco. I wouldn't be at all surprised if an inflation compensating calculation shows it was roughly equivalently priced back in the 70s.

 

I'm intrigued that Rails can't find, somewhere in that colossal loco, enough space for a speaker though.

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Amused by this in the description - "PLEASE NOTE THAT DUE TO SPACE LIMITATIONS WE DO NOT OFFER SOUND FITTING FOR THIS ITEM". 

 

The biggest ever steam loco built and there's not enough room inside for sound?

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In fairness, it's a lovely-looking piece of kit. Doubtless it will appeal to those who have layouts to which they can run one in its  'authentic' settings. Somehow, running one on a 4' shunting plank is a bit fraught, though......

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2 minutes ago, RFS said:

Amused by this in the description - "PLEASE NOTE THAT DUE TO SPACE LIMITATIONS WE DO NOT OFFER SOUND FITTING FOR THIS ITEM". 

 

The biggest ever steam loco built and there's not enough room inside for sound?

 

I'm not sure there's no room for sound. It's more the case that there is no room at Rails to take the bu**er apart.....

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Continental Locos were selling for this sort of price back in the early 90s. It isn't inexpensive but it isn't a lot for this particular level of detail. How much was Heljan's Garratt?

Can't find a picture of one at Seaton Junction...……………………...

P

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15 minutes ago, RFS said:

 

The biggest ever steam loco built and there's not enough room inside for sound?

 

Not the biggest or most powerful in its day though ;) NP Yellowstone or the Virginian Triplex. 

 

To be honest although it’s been tweaked and got a lovely paint job it’s still a very old model. The Athearn Genesis ones are better and I got mine for slightly less in good secondhand condition earlier this year with sound fitted :) 

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The one advantage of it being HO rather than OO is the reduction in "size", at 3.5mm:ft there may be a chance to get it around OO layout clearances, imagine the size of the bu@@er if it were at 4mm:ft...

 

It would be nice to own, but at even a discounted rate it would be far too expensive for a Rule 1 model!

 

And if you wanted a big 2-6-0+0-6-2 for UK use, then the Hattons/Heljan Beyer-Garrat would have been more sensible :jester:

 

Anyhow, I've the Revell plastic kit in a box somewhere, If I could get around to building it, I could see if the Rivarossi would fit...

 

Just thought, perhaps Rails are hedging their bets re: fitting sound, they've not had a new one to open yet to see what space is available and any older s/h examples that have passed through their hands in the past may have been quite different internally.

 

 

Edited by Hroth
thought on sound fitting
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Probably not unless you have generous platform clearances, the cylinders are big and the boiler overhang is large even when the model is articulated like a meyer, or most diesels, rather than a mallet ;) 

Here’s the Athearn version (before renumbering)

CF8E2EA7-C2B3-44B1-A1C7-31269F8E59AA.jpeg.be3bf7b46fb9195597c5d943e5c215ac.jpeg

 

4A824BFA-9897-4655-802E-C8F0919C65A3.jpeg.00cda75d026eb2fc607edb23c365f9db.jpeg

Edited by PaulRhB
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How does one rail the beast....well obviously with difficulty.....but really how ? Apart from reliability issues,that’s an issue which rules out Hattons BG. 

 

        One for NMRA I think.Or someone with enough cash to “display “ rather than play

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7 minutes ago, Ian Hargrave said:

How does one rail the beast....well obviously with difficulty.....but really how ? Apart from reliability issues,that’s an issue which rules out Hattons BG. 

 

        One for NMRA I think.Or someone with enough cash to “display “ rather than play

Same as any diesel, then pop on the trucks or buy a plastic railer and slide it on. The centipede tender is easy you just put on one side then drop the other down ;) 

 

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7 hours ago, PatB said:

I don't think the Rivarossi Big Boy was ever exactly a budget loco. I wouldn't be at all surprised if an inflation compensating calculation shows it was roughly equivalently priced back in the 70s...

Spot on. Cannot remember what I paid for my Rivarossi Big Boy at Victors back then, (complete with motor visible in cab), I think the price was about half what one then paid  a year or two after for the new and exciting OM1 compact SLR .

 

Unlike the long gone OM1, the Big Boy still runs as well as ever, with the motor now in the firebox. (Rivarossi couldn't find enough space in that immense boiler to get the motor out of sight!) The shaft drive to both powered trucks however was a level of mechanism sophistication unknown to contemporary RTR OO steam , which was still stuck at open frame motor driving directly on an axle, grindy wow noises and all. Has to run on the fast line with no platform faces or other nearby fixed structure, and must not pass anything longer than five inches on adjacent curves. But it can of course take the entire evening's fitted freight departures from KX, so worth a special line possession...

 

It also had good traction tyres. Translucent, so effectively invisible, only on one wheel on each truck so no tendency to cause derailments, non-dirting and still as originally supplied, well over forty years old and still good. Well, that wasn't worth investigating was it Hornby, when this product range fell into your lap?

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Saw one this morning, looks really impressive. There’s one driven wheel that has traction tyres, though there is a spare wheel with no tyre. 
 

DCC is a 21 pin job inside the loco body. There’s 2 wires going from the loco to the tender, presumably for additional pickups. If I were installing sound then I’d connect the two wires in the loco to the speaker output on the decoder, and disconnect the wires in the tender from the pickups and connect a speaker. From the Instructions there’s plenty of room in the tender. That way there’s no extra wiring needed, and the loco can easily be put back to how it left the factory.

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On 14/08/2019 at 18:40, Ron Ron Ron said:

OK it's a Hornby Rivarossi H0 model.

 

Steam loco - only DCC ready - no decoder, no sound.      £384.99 rrp

.

 

Athearn announced in late June their version of 4014 with a non-sound list price of $679.98, which based on an online currency convertor comes to £562.38, add in some VAT and you get £675.

 

The Athearn model is in their Genesis line (so highly detailed) and will be much newer tooling.

 

14 hours ago, Bulleidboy100 said:

Already sold-out at Hornby.

 

Not a surprise - Hornby's US competition didn't announce their version until June 28th with delivery not until June 2020, so a lower price and likely earlier delivery would have made the Hornby offering attractive.

 

http://www.athearn.com/newsletter/062819/01_GEN_4-8-8-4_BigBoy_062819.pdf

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Apologies if this has been noted above, but:

 

Just looked at Hattons listing and they say

 

"DCC Sound ready"

and

"Minimum radius, First Radius" (eeek!)

 

https://www.hattons.co.uk/StockDetail.aspx?SID=456742

 

 

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20 minutes ago, Hroth said:

Apologies if this has been noted above, but:

 

Just looked at Hattons listing and they say

 

"DCC Sound ready"

and

"Minimum radius, First Radius" (eeek!)

 

https://www.hattons.co.uk/StockDetail.aspx?SID=456742

 

 

 

Probably a person who thought 'first radius' is the nearest radius, I.E, 4th radius.....

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It's no just radius that's an issue with any model 'Big Boy, it's tunnels. Layout builders tend to like hiding their sharpest curves in tunnels. It's quite alarming to see the front chassis of the loco taking the curve OK but the boiler heading for the cliff face beside the tunnel mouth!

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When I worked on a Saturday at Platform Two, 118 Wimbledon Broadway in the early 1970's the shop had a large layout and we used to run a Big Boy on the layout. It would not get round the first radius curves but second radius were never a problem. Looked great with twenty Hornby Mk1's and never appeared to notice as the number of coaches was increased, second hand stock was often removed from the shelves to assist in increasing the length of the train. 

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