Hornbys 08 Shunter R3484

[Westernway]

The Hornby R3484 shunter (or similar) how does yours run?

 

I have to say that mine is amazing and is by far and away the best 0-6-0 engine I have for noise levels, smoothness and in the way she copes with points as if they were not there! Her slow running is amazing and the detailing is superb.

 

Am I lucky or are the majority this good?

 

John

Edited December 22, 2017 by Westernway

[34theletterbetweenB&D]

They should all be that good. Good sized five pole motor, flywheel, 40:1 multistage reduction using plastic gears. Some of the early productions had slightly tight bearings on the flywheel shaft and screamed very loudly until they wore clearance, but they still ran smoothly while yelling away. If there's a problem it will be a component or assembly fault, the design is fully capable; long proven on RTR HO product over the last fifty years, for most of which time RTR OO was only provided with very inferior drive designs.

 

If you haven't sampled it yet, the same type of motor with flywheels driving plastic gear trains in the bogie towers produces the same result in twin bogie models, with the added security of greater pick up reliability through having the wheels spread a distance along the track in two subchassis for better conformance to any track inequities, and bridging of any dead spots or dirt. Good examples from all the manufacturers offering this style of product; Bachmann, Dapol, Heljan, Hornby.

[Westernway]

Thank you for the reply and explanation. 

 

I have some Heljan engines and they also run extremely well.

 

It is great having a shunting engine I can actually shunt with and not worry about her stalling on points.

 

John

[No Decorum]

The consensus is that the Hornby 08s are better than the Bachmanns but they are more expensive. I have two and five of the Bachmanns. I find the Bachmann ones excellent. DCC and sound are tricky in both because of lack of space. Some people have to remove the socket in order to fit a decoder. I tried the Hatton direct fit 8-pin decoder in the Bachmann ones and they fit easily without having to remove the socket. Performance is superb.

[Gilbert]

With the right decoder, speaker and stay-alive the newer Hornby version can easily have sound installed as long as you don't mind a small amount of soldering  - I rang Digitrains who provide the bits and methodology.

Chris

[No Decorum]

I have it in mind to cheat and get the new TTS version. My Bachy DB is lonely.