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New Hornby Rocket


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31 minutes ago, Butler Henderson said:

Wonder if there is  a suitable wooden barrel amongst these that could be adopted

https://www.cornwallmodelboats.co.uk/cgi-bin/sh000001.pl?WD=barrel&PN=caldercraft86012.html#SID=146

On crazy prices there is this lot whoever they may be seeking £249 for the standard release

https://www.railwaymodelstore.co.uk/Hornby-oo-gauge-train-packs-l-mr-stephensons-rocket-train-pack-era-1/

 

But they are solid turned barrels, if doing this all the chip/electronics would need moving to somewhere else, probably a coach.....if doing that may as well make a coach motorised, then the actual,Loco could be made more a scale model rather than a novelty model :help:          :lol:

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2 hours ago, gary_lner said:

Just had an email to say my Rocket is on its way. Happy days 

 

1 hour ago, Chrisr40 said:

Is that the limited edition version or normal one ?

 

1 hour ago, gary_lner said:

I went for the limited edition version. 

 

I read somewhere that Hornby would be releasing the "Commemoratives" mid-February, and that the "bog-standard" set would be released the end of February.  Sounds like the timetable is going to plan.  I ordered R3810 so I expect it might show up in the first week of March...

 

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Hi Folks,

 

Almost all wooden barrels are made exclusively from oak. Oak is an oily wood and as such does not take paint well which is why it is often left unpainted or should it receive a finish then it is likely an oiled finish. This may well explain why the barrels are generally shewn as bare wood rather than painted a painted finish.

 

Gibbo.

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1 hour ago, melmerby said:

This is a "supposedly" famous painting and shows a natural wood barrel:

JS99566354.jpg

 

Mmmmmmmmm.....

 

Quality Street!

 

 

I just thought, the red and purple dresses on the ladies to the right of Rocket are a bit anachronistic - I believe that such strong colours, at least in mass usage, came in with the invention of synthetic aniline dyes in 1856...

 

 

Edited by Hroth
A Thort!
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2 hours ago, boxbrownie said:

But they are solid turned barrels, if doing this all the chip/electronics would need moving to somewhere else, probably a coach.....if doing that may as well make a coach motorised, then the actual,Loco could be made more a scale model rather than a novelty model :help:          :lol:

But what are the electronics beyond a 6 pin socket?  - the socket could be sited under the barrel with a short 6 pin decoder plugged in that could be disguised by a coal load

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2 hours ago, Hroth said:

 

Mmmmmmmmm.....

 

Quality Street!

 

 

I just thought, the red and purple dresses on the ladies to the right of Rocket are a bit anachronistic - I believe that such strong colours, at least in mass usage, came in with the invention of synthetic aniline dyes in 1856...

 

 

 

The people wearing them are hardly 'the masses' though - they are the wealthy elite who travelled on the opening train.

 

Dyeing of cloth purple (for the elite) dates back to Biblical times.

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9 hours ago, Hroth said:

 

Mmmmmmmmm.....

 

Quality Street!

 

 

I just thought, the red and purple dresses on the ladies to the right of Rocket are a bit anachronistic - I believe that such strong colours, at least in mass usage, came in with the invention of synthetic aniline dyes in 1856...

 

 

 

While agreeing with the sentiment, the colours would have been possible before azo-dyes came about.

Purple - Tyrian purple - from molluscs but so horrendously expensive that it was considered a royal colour

Red - Madder red or Cinnabar red - the latter being highly toxic since it was a mercury compound.

 

So the colours would have been possible but rare and to see them together is rather, well.....

...as you say  Quality Street. 

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1 hour ago, Andy Hayter said:

 

While agreeing with the sentiment, the colours would have been possible before azo-dyes came about.

Purple - Tyrian purple - from molluscs but so horrendously expensive that it was considered a royal colour

Red - Madder red or Cinnabar red - the latter being highly toxic since it was a mercury compound.

 

So the colours would have been possible but rare and to see them together is rather, well.....

...as you say  Quality Street. 

But the artist obviously got the water barrel right . . . . . . . . right? :diablo_mini:

 

11 hours ago, melmerby said:

This is a "supposedly" famous painting and shows a natural wood barrel:

 

As the tender was supplied by the railway company it's pure conjecture as it didn't survive. When we can have arguments about what colour it is in a 1960's colour photo I think it's fairly safe to say no one will ever know with rocket. There is a letter from someone who rode on it on the day who says the paint was still wet on the tender but he doesn't say which bit was wet or the colour ;) 

Edited by PaulRhB
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Both of those pictures I posted are likely modern interpretations so probably not historically accurate..

Alan Fearnley (second picture) was born in 1942!

This, which shows Rocket after modifications, is also supposed to be in in 1830!

mc097a.jpg

 

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14 hours ago, Butler Henderson said:

But what are the electronics beyond a 6 pin socket?  - the socket could be sited under the barrel with a short 6 pin decoder plugged in that could be disguised by a coal load

Have a look on the Engine Shed site showing the installation of the chip, the barrel is chock full of socket and chip with wiring not sure it would be easily hidden elsewhere on the Loco/tender

 

 

.

Edited by boxbrownie
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On 08/01/2020 at 09:47, JSpencer said:

 

 

Edit 2: what will the couplings be? Some pics hint a form a of chain link.

 

Hopefully there is a coupling. In the original stamps released by Royal Mail in 1980, there is none between the loco and tender!

 

https://in.pinterest.com/pin/292382200808774297/

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On 09/01/2020 at 20:37, MarkSG said:

The other thing to bear in mind about Rocket is that it was the APT-E of its day. It was designed and built as a proof of concept in order to win the trials and earn Stephenson the contract to build the production run. Which it did, very successfully. But even before the L&M had opened, Stephenson had improved on Rocket's design and the production versions differed from it.

 

All the contemporary drawings of early L&M trains in service, as opposed to the trials, show horizontal-cylindered locos, and many of them have more modern-looking tenders. This print, for example, is dated from 1831, just a year after the L&M opened, and the loco, while clearly a Rocket class, already has significant differences from Rocket. But here, too, we have to take account of possible liberties being taken by the artist.

Coloured_View_on_the_Liverpool_and_Manchester_Railway,_1831.jpg

A Broad Gauge version?

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1 minute ago, kevinlms said:

A Broad Gauge version?

 

No, it's just that the Rocket class locos were, by contemporary standards, very small, so the track looks wider by comparison. Although the artist may possibly have been a bit free with the rendering as well.

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1 minute ago, MarkSG said:

 

No, it's just that the Rocket class locos were, by contemporary standards, very small, so the track looks wider by comparison. Although the artist may possibly have been a bit free with the rendering as well.

Comparing the track gauge to the people suggests a gauge far wider than std :)

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2 hours ago, boxbrownie said:

Have a look on the Engine Shed site showing the installation of the chip, the barrel is chock full of socket and chip with wiring not sure it would be easily hidden elsewhere on the Loco/tender.

For DCC any decent decoder normally means their is no need for anything more that the wires to the pick ups and motor. The only reason the barrel is chock full with chip and wiring is because Hornby only have their bog standard poor spec decoder cable wired to a 6 pin plug rather than like 95% of all 6 pin decoders that are a direct plug in and take up far less place. The design of the barrel has been bodged to suit Hornbys decoder rather than designing a model as accurate as it could be but requiring the use of a non Hornby decoder which most users will want to use as non Hornby 6 pin decoders are of a far better spec for the same price or less than the Hornby one.

Edited by Butler Henderson
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Well feel free to rewire your one and post pics of the upgrade :) 

I can see the advantage of some discs to replace the barrel ends so if someone offers those I’ll probably upgrade mine but apart from that there’s not anything that looks worth mucking about with to me. 

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4 hours ago, Butler Henderson said:

For DCC any decent decoder normally means their is no need for anything more that the wires to the pick ups and motor. The only reason the barrel is chock full with chip and wiring is because Hornby only have their bog standard poor spec decoder cable wired to a 6 pin plug rather than like 95% of all 6 pin decoders that are a direct plug in and take up far less place. The design of the barrel has been bodged to suit Hornbys decoder rather than designing a model as accurate as it could be but requiring the use of a non Hornby decoder which most users will want to use as non Hornby 6 pin decoders are of a far better spec for the same price or less than the Hornby one.

I am looking forward genuinely to your reworking and just how big that coal load is going to be :lol:

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I wonder how many people have got a pioneering layout to run the 'Rocket' on.  An alternative would be to run it on you existing layout in its preserved state.  At least we know what the 'Rocket' looks like now.  The 'Rocket' did visit the Bluebell Railway if anyone is modelling this line it would be authentic.  

 

The 'Rocket' has not visited the Swanage Railway yet but this is what it would look like if it did.  I have got a new one on order but I am not too hopeful of getting one.

P1090602.JPG

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2 hours ago, boxbrownie said:

I am looking forward genuinely to your reworking and just how big that coal load is going to be :lol:

Given 6 pin decoders are pretty thin (2.6mm in the case of the Zimo ZM617N) not very big at all. For some reason Coastal DCC web site is giving security errors on all browsers as their decoder selector properly has some thinner than that. The alternative that worked on the old model is to site a decoder on the underside of the tender floor - I fitted a TCS M1 their without it being readily visible.

Edited by Butler Henderson
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