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Hornby Announce Peckett W4 0-4-0ST


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Back to the wheels for a minute. For those who are prepared to mess about a bit there is a more accurate tyre available from Gibson (usual disclaimer) that can be had from the Class 42 diesel. It scales out at 3'2" or 12.6 mm. This will still involve access to a lathe to turn down the Hornby wheel but the tricky bit of forming the P4 flange and tread is done for you. Food for thought anyway....

 

Cheers,

 

David

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Hi

 

Nearly 60 years ago there was a Peckett 0-4-0st dumped in the yard to the east of Leyton Midland station on the Kentish Town-Barking line. According to a note made at the time the makers plate read " Thomas Peckett 1914  Works No. 2015".  Can anybody advise what it was and if it survived?

 

Regards

 

Roger

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Nearly 60 years ago there was a Peckett 0-4-0st dumped in the yard to the east of Leyton Midland station on the Kentish Town-Barking line. According to a note made at the time the makers plate read " Thomas Peckett 1914  Works No. 2015".  Can anybody advise what it was and if it survived?

 

It was apparently a 'Yorktown' with 2ft 0in driving wheels. It was supplied to the Royal Ordnance Factory at Hayes in 1941 an sent to H. & J.R.Saunders & Co. Ltd, Leyton Station in May 1956.

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  • 1 month later...

Very nice new locomotive from Hornby, I have all three on order already,  but I should add a couple of points, which I trust will not be taken as complaints, only passing comments.

 

The paint is, I trust, only a sample, but clearly has issues with a poor surface, usually called orange peel finish. It varies over the surfaces a bit, in all the officially issued pictures.

 

Recent Hornby products have add very high standards of finish, and I am assuming that the final product will have just as good a finish.

 

Secondly the dome is not seated home, but this is probably down to it being a sample.

 

And an observation on the shots, it looks in my opinion as an experienced photographer and user of Photoshop and other graphic programs, that the reflections on the top of the tank from the lighting have been over sprayed in Photoshop to to kill white light reflections.

 

This is perfectly acceptable, but it has altered the green tone on the top of the tank, leaving it a bit two tone.

 

This is purely comment, but I would have thought that Hornby would have used a better standard of photography to act as an advert for the Locomotive. It needed better soft lighting etc., and of course we do not know what equipment was used.

 

But it can only help Hornby further with sales if the items is presented in the best possible way.

 

The rest looks very nice indeed, and the wheels look fine, leaving me wondering about earlier comments on replacing them, except of course for P4/S4. Should be a very successful model, I hope left in production long enough to fill all customers needs, as they have a habit of removing products from production, leaving customers without the purchases that Hornby really do need at present.

 

Stephen.

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Times change. I know a few that work in marketing and they tell me that certain clients prefer to have their pre-production products shown off in non complimentary situations. Apparently, with the help of the internet, it helps develop a pre-launch hype that becomes self sustaining leading to higher launch sales. For certain products this looks to be the sales psychology of the last ten years or so. It certainly saves the initial expense of employing high end commercial photographers who's businesses seems to be rapidly disappearing.

 

I don't know if this is how it works with Hornby. What I do know is all of  the Peckets photographers details along with camera settings and software data is readable in the Exif data of the published images.

 

P

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The theory is that as its presented in an "artless"  manner on a blog, then its more real than a product photoshopped to within an inch of its life or blitzed under studio lighting. We also know that its part of the prototype sequence and that audience comments in places like RMWeb are a useful way to obtain feedback from a different perspective, we're not as close to the product as they are!  I've a feeling that although The Engine Shed is presented as being "a blog written by the Hornby developers themselves". its firmly under the control of Marketing.

 

Of course, poking at the exif data is lots of fun, and reveals that the images did pass through Photoshop, only if even to resize and crop for web use as a Canon EOS 7D MkII must produce stonkingly big source files! I think the "Origin" details are generated by Photoshop and a reminder that if you're going to publish images on the web its probably a good idea to pass the image through an exif data remover, or at least manually remove sensitive data!

 

Given the image sensivitivity, the exposure time and aperture, it also suggests that the camera was on a tripod and either in Manual or Aperture Priority mode so the images are not just a collection of quick snapshots.  Finally, although I don't know much about the Canon DSLR range (the only Canon camera I have is a G11 Powershot), I think the camera itself lies in the serious amature/semi-pro segment of their market.  Its not a cheap body!

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It never ceases to amaze me what tangents a photo of a model can cause a thread to shoot off on ;)

They have a camera that they use for all their catalogue shots so it makes sense to use it for all shots. It's purely a decoration sample and I'm sure they'll note the orange peel as a comment.

Maybe they didn't remove hidden data because they had nothing to hide and fuel conspiracy theories? It's a quick shot using their standard set up tidied up to show it in the best light to the casual viewer, tripods etc I would take for granted to get a sharp photo!

;)

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It never ceases to amaze me what tangents a photo of a model can cause a thread to shoot off on ;)

They have a camera that they use for all their catalogue shots so it makes sense to use it for all shots. It's purely a decoration sample and I'm sure they'll note the orange peel as a comment.

Maybe they didn't remove hidden data because they had nothing to hide and fuel conspiracy theories? It's a quick shot using their standard set up tidied up to show it in the best light to the casual viewer, tripods etc I would take for granted to get a sharp photo!

;)

Agreed. When taking photographs of models, the quality of the tripod is at least as important as that of the camera.

 

An entry-level DSLR mounted on a good tripod will normally outperform a professional body on a cheap one.

 

John

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That is a really attractive model.  I have one on order to be re-done as LMS 16043 (ex G&SWR) so I am hoping the dome will remain loosely attached to make the change easier, the wing plates will have to go too. I am puzzled by one thing; 16043 has the top of the buffer beams level with the footplate whereas the prototypes of the W4 Hornby has copied had the top of the beam about 4 to 6 inches higher.  The buffers on each appear to be in the same place on the beam, so where did that height difference get to assuming that the height of the buffer face centres is the standard 3'6"?

 

It would be really nice if the motion bracket could be thinner, but I suspect that's material tolerances.

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That is a really attractive model.  I have one on order to be re-done as LMS 16043 (ex G&SWR) so I am hoping the dome will remain loosely attached to make the change easier, the wing plates will have to go too. I am puzzled by one thing; 16043 has the top of the buffer beams level with the footplate whereas the prototypes of the W4 Hornby has copied had the top of the beam about 4 to 6 inches higher.  The buffers on each appear to be in the same place on the beam, so where did that height difference get to assuming that the height of the buffer face centres is the standard 3'6"?

 

It would be really nice if the motion bracket could be thinner, but I suspect that's material tolerances.

 

I think that Peckett's 'W4' was nowhere near as standard a design as we would like to believe, the builder would have upgraded their loco designs over the years.  Hornby's model is perhaps the most common version of a W4.

 

Assuming buffer height is standard, then there could be any number of reasons why footplate levels differ, frames could be deeper, perhaps the customer specified wheels a bit bigger than standard.  I have attached a link to Hornby's forum discussions that shows a W4 above a W5, there are clear similarities there, but but also several differences, notable the higher footplate level on the W5.

http://www.Hornby.com/us-en/forum/engine-shed-peckett/?p=7/

 

I am no expert on G&SWR engines, but perhaps the Ayr Harbour W4 is a late model W4 that incorporated parts of the W5 design?

 

I don't think there is going to be any easy way of raising the footplate on the Hornby model, because you would also have to rebuild the cab to maintain its proportions.  I think I would be tempted to just repaint it & ignore the lowered footplate.

 

Regards

 

Moxy

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The pictures were merely mention in passing, so they can't be raised later in retrospect. The pictures were viewed by three friends who all thought from the shots that the paint looked slightly bad, and that is obviously not a comment Hornby need at the present time!

 

Buffer height from a maker like Hornby must be governed by compatibility with all other stock, and will lead to compromises with the real footplate level etc. The wheels are not P4 standard, they are 00 and they are bound to adjust many dimensions to portray thin sheet metal in thicker plastic and die castings.

 

Often the outer surfaces can be modelled accurately, but the thicker materials foul the wheels etc.

 

The Peckett appears to be an excellent compromise in dimensions, and as offered, a superb piece of work. Hopefully the memory of the Polly will fade away now!!, and I hope other accurate Industrial and small shunters will be produced, there should be a huge market for them.

 

Stephen

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Certainly pretty enough to be a very successful livery horse for them. What's the most improbable livery it can carry: Jacob's Cracker Bicentennial Edition? Platinum plated QEII 70th Anniversary?

Don't give them ideas!!! they might take them seriously and go off the plot on delivery of the bread and butter product.

Stephen.

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 Hopefully the memory of the Polly will fade away now!!, 

 

 

 

This isn't intended as a Polly/Nellie replecement (certainly not at the prices being talked about - I won't be surprised if these are upwards of £100 by the time they actually hit the shops).

 

Polly/Nellie was intended as an entry-level model, primarily for the junior enthusiast on a low budget. This is most definitely not!

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