Hornby announce the ex SECR / SR / BR(s) Wainwright H Class 0-4-4 tank as part of their 2017 range

[roythebus]

My SECR H class arrived this morning from Hatton's. It looks delightful in the box, I don't model the SECR but just love the livery. Just got to finish painting the back of a Routemaster (full size) then test run the H. 

[peterstgermain]

My SECR H class arrived this morning from Hatton's. It looks delightful in the box, I don't model the SECR but just love the livery. Just got to finish painting the back of a Routemaster (full size) then test run the H. 

Mine arrived too this morning, a cracker, as we used to say. Now Bachmann..Where are my Birdcage coaches?

[roythebus]

Routemaster back now painted. Time to test the H class. It runs perfectly, backwards and forwards, it done  few circuits each way, then I added the Kadee couplings and an 8 car test train of assorted Hornby Maunsells, a Triang Utility van conversion, a push-pull set and a few suburban coaches. Remarkably it pulled them with no problem! 

 

I used an old H&M Duette controller, the loco responds well at all speeds. the only problem I find is that the front end is a bit light as someone else has pointed out, and on a couple of slight dips tends to derail. There were a couple of loose items in transit, one of the sandboxes and a bit of pipe detail, but nothing a pair of tweezers and super glue wouldn't fix.

 

I'm amazed at how fine the wheels are, back-to backs seem to be 14.5, well done Hornby on such a fine loco.

 

Video to follow....

[stonetown]

Talking about QC issues, the broken bit of the smokebox door was flying around in the box.

 

For anybody who has already tried to disassemble it: The smokebox door appears to be a separate fitted part, but is it also easy to exchange for a new one in case my retailer or Hornby could get my a spare part (which in itself is unlikely, but you never know)?

 

Also the handrail on the left side tank is bend and slightly broken. 

 

Running so far seems to be fine, apart from a loud scraping noise, but haven´t run it in properly yet...

 

Here the broken linkage of the smokebox door:

 

Edited November 7, 2017 by stonetown

[JSpencer]

Mine too arrived today. What a work of art. Between this, the Merchant Navy and Sir William Stanier, it will be a tough choice to chose steam loco of the year, but my heart is for the H.

 

Anyway No QC issues to report but the gearbox feels to be a fine tooth tight design watching her run, listening to her sound and seeing there is hardly any play in it. She has only done a few loops at this time.

Rather like Merchant Navy and Stanier class, she leans back, meaning the weight is to the rear of the loco. Going up slight inclines, this can cause the front pair of drivers to lift off a little. I will have to think carefully about adding crew and DCC at one point. That said, no derailments to report.

Also like the two pacifics, she has an opening roof vent.

 

Over to the pics, first two images with a set of birdcages, this will have to do until the SECR ones arrive.

 

 

 

Next is a comparison with those two other southern 0-4-4s. The H class is bigger than the LSWR O2, but smaller than M7.

 

 

Finally, as others have done, her she is with all my other 'green' SECR locos:

 

[roythebus]

Here's my H class with 8 coaches doing a few rounds. It runs remarkably well for straight from the box.

[Skinnylinny]

I must say, I'm amazed at this loco now that I have it - took it down to the club tonight, and managed to get it running so slowly I had to get someone to look at the wheel spokes where they meet the rails. I took a short video here. Apologies for the background chatter.

[Pre Grouping fan]

I must say, I'm amazed at this loco now that I have it - took it down to the club tonight, and managed to get it running so slowly I had to get someone to look at the wheel spokes where they meet the rails. I took a short video here. Apologies for the background chatter.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CNwP2-rnzwo

Thats quite impressive. Matches my Hornby 08 that can do 0.5RPM on a good day

[SRman]

At risk of doing another "me too" post, my H arrived from Rails today. It has duly had over an hour of running on the rolling road on analogue power, followed by the fitting of a decoder. There's not a lot of room for a wired decoder, so I decided that a direct plug-in type would be better. The only one I had left is a Hattons Mini Direct, a type which seems to be quite good for motor control.

A session on the programming track showed that I needed to up the starting voltage on the decoder (CV2) which now has a value of 11 in it. This is higher than I usually have to put in, but may be because the mechanism is still a little tight. Some proper, continuous track running may improve things further. It will crawl along smoothly at low speed on step 1 of the controller (NCE Power Pro), but not (at this time) as slowly as Skinnylinny's one in his video above.

[mezzoman253]

Just had an email from Hornby re https://www.Hornby.com/uk-en/news/the-engine-shed/warley-2017-huge-announcement?utm_campaign=1954159_Hornby%20-%20Engine%20Shed%20Warley%20Announcement%20-%202017&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Hornby%20PLC&_%24ja=tsid%3A71284&dm_i=2DJZ,15VU7,71RWQR,3M44E,1

 

Apologies if this is old news.

 

Rob

Edited November 8, 2017 by mezzoman253

[alfsboy]

My daughter has bought me this for Christmas .I got  it from the Bure Valley Railway shop .A quick  inspection and run revealed no glitches so back in the box until the 25th .My run was through code 83 track and insulfrog on my US layout .It ran perfectly and really is  a work  of art  in it own right .

[Pre Grouping fan]

Just had an email from Hornby re https://www.Hornby.com/uk-en/news/the-engine-shed/warley-2017-huge-announcement?utm_campaign=1954159_Hornby%20-%20Engine%20Shed%20Warley%20Announcement%20-%202017&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Hornby%20PLC&_%24ja=tsid%3A71284&dm_i=2DJZ,15VU7,71RWQR,3M44E,1

 

Apologies if this is old news.

 

Rob

No need to apologise, its only just been announced. Doesn't it look good though

[John M Upton]

Lots of angles of the Q dragging 263 out of the shed. Is anyone else thinking what I am thinking?

[£1.38]

Hornby may have caught on to a great way of making model liveries more prototypical there - paint the real thing the same as the model ;)

[daftbovine]

I think it's a great bit of marketing by Hornby despite the fact that the real loco will create a demand for the model in the same livery and they are sold out. Unless they've got a stash hidden somewhere.

[Wickham Green]

Hornby may have caught on to a great way of making model liveries more prototypical there - paint the real thing the same as the model ;)

er .... I understand it WASN'T done by tampo ....................

[Forester]

Feeling deflated my Huge H15 turned into a huge shop window.

 

Oh well. Back to the 2017 Poll wishlist

 

Wait......

[GreenGiraffe22]

I think it's a great bit of marketing by Hornby despite the fact that the real loco will create a demand for the model in the same livery and they are sold out. Unless they've got a stash hidden somewhere.

 

I presume they're taking the real H to accompany their announcement of the club model version?

[SRman]

Lots of angles of the Q dragging 263 out of the shed. Is anyone else thinking what I am thinking?

 

With so much focus on the Q, could Hornby be quietly gearing up for a model of that?

[Tim Dubya]

With so much focus on the Q, could Hornby be quietly gearing up for a model of that?

Yeah!

[Jack P]

With so much focus on the Q, could Hornby be quietly gearing up for a model of that?

 

That would be so well received. Surely there's an 0-6-0 chassis that would fit properly, and I think they already have the 6 wheeled tender? (available on one of the KA's?). That being said - with the popularity of the Bachmann C and The H in their pre-grouping liveries, someone might take the hint and look at options for other 4-4-0's, E's D's etc... 

 

But back on topic, i'm really hoping that one of the retailers has some extra stock of the Olive green H class as hattons seemed to with the SECR version. And even though it stayed in that livery until later on, I need one, to repaint black 

[daftbovine]

Hornby magazine has done the first magazine review of the H and interestingly not the SECR version but the push pull BR late crest one. I get the digital version of the magazine which includes a short video clip showing the loco. It looks very good in the BR livery. There is also a separate article about the history of the class.

[Black 5 Bear]

Both the Q and the Lord Nelson classes are big gaps in the current market.

Either or ideally both would be very welcome additions.

[Wickham Green]

That would be so well received. Surely there's an 0-6-0 chassis that would fit properly, and I think they already have the 6 wheeled tender? (available on one of the KA's?). That being said - with the popularity of the Bachmann C and The H in their pre-grouping liveries, someone might take the hint and look at options for other 4-4-0's, E's D's etc... 

 

 

The six-wheel Arthur tender would need a few tweaks for a Q ( buffers, brake handle & tool boxes ) but isn't far off. The Q1 chassis would provide a starting point for the drive train at least - NOT the cosmetics ! ............... then once the Q's been done, they've almost got boiler and cab for the L1 ......................... which could spawn an L .................................................

[Jack P]

Both the Q and the Lord Nelson classes are big gaps in the current market.

Either or ideally both would be very welcome additions.

 

The current lord nelson really needs a lot of work to bring it up to date, doesn't it? it's almost like a gap filler between the older Hornby tender drive schools class and the current run of china produced models. Would be awesome if the re-tooled it (I mean at least we have one).

 

The six-wheel Arthur tender would need a few tweaks for a Q ( buffers, brake handle & tool boxes ) but isn't far off. The Q1 chassis would provide a starting point for the drive train at least - NOT the cosmetics ! ............... then once the Q's been done, they've almost got boiler and cab for the L1 ......................... which could spawn an L .................................................

 

I mean I guess if they're going to do one of those fancy 3d scans on a Q, they should do whatever else is kicking around?  (O1, U)

 

Having said that, am happy that we have been very well catered for recently, and still have a few things to look forward to, it's excellent seeing the samples for the P class tank and (finally) the B4.

Edited November 9, 2017 by Jack P