Hornby APT (2020 tooling)

[Whopping Dingers]

 

Very exciting. They packaged it well also.

[stonojnr]

4 hours ago, ac1874 said:

Mine was supposed to be coming on Monday but DPD have decided they are bringing it this morning, how lovely of them.

 

Yes, I got the notification last night it would be Monday and knew full well it would end up being today as DPD seem to do that, not that im complaining.

 

but still not convinced Hornby know how to package boxes still, heres this oversized box we'll put a slight smaller box wrapped in one layer of bubble wrap, hmm, still it seems to have survived as everything is in those trays like the coaches were within the main box, though my ndm tray is split slightly, maybe they were more enthusiastic pushing the bits in as its surrounded in its own plastic protective cover,not just the wrap, with bits of polystyrene to protect the pantograph and roof details.

 

noticed theres an obvious moulding injection spigot on the the roof of one of the driving trailers,and a really tiny blemish on the nose of one, but not had chance for a more detailed look or pictures yet, sorry.

 

Edited January 22, 2022 by stonojnr

[97403_Ixion]

41 minutes ago, Whopping Dingers said:

 

Very exciting. They packaged it well also.

Thanks for posting the packaging photos - helps me work out how much space to allocate the boxes and I'm not joking!

Do you know if both NDM's are motorised?  I saw an earlier Hornby train formation image that suggested that one is a dummy but I can't believe that would be the case.  I know a separate motorised NDM was available for the yellow fronted APT set but not yet seen confirmation of the NDM in the black/yellow APT set.

Thanks in advance,

Ixion.

[StuAllen]

37 minutes ago, 97403_Ixion said:

Do you know if both NDM's are motorised? 

DPD Delivered mine ahead of schedule as well, can confirm there is 1 motorised NDM and one dummy NDM. 

[StuAllen]

5 hours ago, RedgateModels said:

Photo of the interior of the Dev coach please

not the best photo - but I was trying to balance phone and the power leads. (The partially built box file canal scene is the only tack I’ve got access to at moment). I like the detail

[RedgateModels]

2 minutes ago, StuAllen said:

not the best photo - but I was trying to balance phone and the power leads. (The partially built box file canal scene is the only tack I’ve got access to at moment). I like the detail

 

Cheers for that. Certainly not the second class seating that the coach started with before conversion

[kylegordon]

Will the 'singing' and squealing from the spring loaded wheel/power contacts eventually calm down? What's the best solution to quietening this pickup method?

[PaulRhB]

24 minutes ago, kylegordon said:

Will the 'singing' and squealing from the spring loaded wheel/power contacts eventually calm down? What's the best solution to quietening this pickup method?

Easing off the pressure by bending them in a bit or a tiny spot of PL64 Power lube from Peco might work, note I suggest that as it’s plastic friendly unlike some others. 

[E100]

29 minutes ago, kylegordon said:

Will the 'singing' and squealing from the spring loaded wheel/power contacts eventually calm down? What's the best solution to quietening this pickup method?

OO rail on youtube had a crack at this

[E100]

41 minutes ago, StuAllen said:

not the best photo - but I was trying to balance phone and the power leads. (The partially built box file canal scene is the only tack I’ve got access to at moment). I like the detail

 

I know we've said it to death but all that effort to go into moulding this coach's specific interior only to put that huge capacitor in is just farcical.

[BR(S)]

Don't know if this has already been noted above, but APTs are now starting to appear in stock at retailers:

 

https://www.modelrailwaysdirect.co.uk/locomotive-multiple-units/Hornby-r3874-br-class-370-advanced-passenger-train-set-370-001-and-370-002-7-car-pack-era-7/ 

[zoomer1979]

An absolute railroad of a model. No bearings on any of the coaches. The contacts create so much drag that even the seven car formation was struggling with one NDM. I'm going to have to fit pinpoint bearings and through wiring for my own sanity. Will be experimenting with different pickups too. Want to detail the interior since you can see it so well with the internal lights. There is light bleed, but is only at the doors on the TBF. Both types of pantograph are poor and flimsy, will be looking for better versions of both. Here it is at full bananas!

 

Neil.

https://youtu.be/_G0uyqcEA_s

[97403_Ixion]

1 hour ago, StuAllen said:

DPD Delivered mine ahead of schedule as well, can confirm there is 1 motorised NDM and one dummy NDM. 

Hmm... that's interesting.  The separate NDM (R3948) is motorised, so when added to the yellow fronted set (R3973 / 370003/004), you effectively get two motors.  I guess if I get the black fronted one, I could use R3948 to add a boost of power.  Thanks for replying.

[Bloodnok]

15 minutes ago, zoomer1979 said:

No bearings on any of the coaches. The contacts create so much drag that even the seven car formation was struggling with one NDM. I'm going to have to fit pinpoint bearings and through wiring for my own sanity. Will be experimenting with different pickups too.

Can you confirm what type of layout it's struggling with 7 cars on? I have a couple of places with a 2.2% climb on a radius 3 curve, and my plan was to run a 10 car formation with one powered NDM. Sounds like I'm going to need to do some serious surgery to make this thing run to an acceptable level :'(

[PaulRhB]

Getting the NDM top off is not particularly easy! 

Remove pantograph and two screws on the outer ends above the bogies as per the instructions. You will find the end bends alarmingly without popping out the clips and a screwdriver was going to damage the plastic. I ended up easing the end down to create a gap then using a flat exacto blade in where the arrow is to ease the top out and it popped off. You may find you need to do it on all four outer tabs   

 

I was swapping my powered extra NDM chassis with the dummy one in the seven car set to get them both powered. 
Clips inside the body. 

 

[zoomer1979]

1 hour ago, Bloodnok said:

Can you confirm what type of layout it's struggling with 7 cars on? I have a couple of places with a 2.2% climb on a radius 3 curve, and my plan was to run a 10 car formation with one powered NDM. Sounds like I'm going to need to do some serious surgery to make this thing run to an acceptable level :'(

My dad's layout is mostly level with two 2nd radius curves and two 3rds. It was wheel slipping at low speed coming off a reverse curve onto a slight rise.

[zoomer1979]

More pictures of inside the development coach.

 

Neil.

[RedgateModels]

Anyone want to offload their dev coach for a more reasonable sum than buying one from Hornby?

[stuclark]

My 7 car set turned up today as well. I've got to say that for a brand new model, it's not all that much more detailed than the 1980s original, and the huge capacitor clearly visible in each car is inexcusable.

 

But what's getting me most are the pantographs - one of the ones on the 7 car set was broken in delivery and I've had to glue back together, but neither of those, nor the one on my separate powered NDM will actually go up and stay up. They all feel like cheap cr*p, especially compared to the full metal version in the '80s original.

 

Is there a trick to getting these pantographs to work that I'm missing?

[andyman7]

1 hour ago, 97403_Ixion said:

Hmm... that's interesting.  The separate NDM (R3948) is motorised, so when added to the yellow fronted set (R3973 / 370003/004), you effectively get two motors.  I guess if I get the black fronted one, I could use R3948 to add a boost of power.  Thanks for replying.

This came up earlier in the thread. Apparently the Hornby logic was that more people would likely go for the full 14 coach set by extending a 5-coach set hence the additional powered NDM sold separately to add to the 5-coach unit, whilst the 7 coach set is ready supplied with one powered and one dummy NDM.

[StuAllen]

2 hours ago, 97403_Ixion said:

Hmm... that's interesting.  The separate NDM (R3948) is motorised, so when added to the yellow fronted set (R3973 / 370003/004), you effectively get two motors.  I guess if I get the black fronted one, I could use R3948 to add a boost of power.  Thanks for replying.

Don’t forget Hornby have announced a powered version of NDM 49002 as part of their 2022 range, see R30105. 

[PaulRhB]

1 hour ago, stuclark said:

I've got to say that for a brand new model, it's not all that much more detailed than the 1980s original,

Well that’s why the original has remained popular because it was a good model already as it’s a pretty smooth shell ,without lots of extra details parts sticking out, for streamlining and could also be bashed into a decent full set. It was only really the colour that was out. 
 

[PaulRhB]

2 hours ago, 97403_Ixion said:

Hmm... that's interesting.  The separate NDM (R3948) is motorised, so when added to the yellow fronted set (R3973 / 370003/004), you effectively get two motors.  I guess if I get the black fronted one, I could use R3948 to add a boost of power.  Thanks for replying.

Note the current separate NDM has the white cantrail stripe while the 7 car set ones have the orange stripe. That’s why I bought a separate NDM, (before they announced this years model), and swapped the bodies. 

[Bloodnok]

16 minutes ago, PaulRhB said:

Note the current separate NDM has the white cantrail stripe while the 7 car set ones have the orange stripe. That’s why I bought a separate NDM, (before they announced this years model), and swapped the bodies. 

Did the cantrail stripe change colour at the same time the black window surrounds were applied in real life? Or were these separately applied changes?

[boxbrownie]

21 minutes ago, PaulRhB said:

Well that’s why the original has remained popular because it was a good model already as it’s a pretty smooth shell ,without lots of extra details parts sticking out, for streamlining and could also be bashed into a decent full set. It was only really the colour that was out. 
 

Which is why I decided to just buy the new NDM and use my nice old original set and save myself several hundred pounds, thanks for making the original set such a good one Hornby