Hornby W1 Hush Hush

[zr2498]

4 hours ago, Tony Wright said:

In correspondence with Simon Kohler this morning, I'm informed that the steps will be supplied as separate items for the customer to fit (or not) on future W1 releases. 

 

The reason for their being 'outboard' so to speak is because of tight clearances between their rear faces and the motion. 

 

A case of 'you're damned if you do and you're damned if you don't'! 

Tony

Thanks for update. Good news about separate fitting of the steps. It may be possible to get them to fit and give the required clearances if some fettling is done? At least with the SEF they can be unsoldered and adjusted if need be. The key 'width' and clearance dimensions from Simon might be helpful.

Dave

[Jonathan Severin]

On 17/12/2021 at 12:40, Jonathan Severin said:

Not the best first post! My W1 didn't work, sent back to Hornby. Returned with broken smoke deflector!!!!!

It's going back again!

Jonathan.

Hello Everyone,

 

It has arrived back from Hornby, with no issues thankfully.

 

Happy Christmas to all.

 

Jonathan.

[melmerby]

My W1 is now fully run in.

To aid it's haulage I have put some lead inside the "sausage", there is plenty of room.

Using 2mm roofing lead I cut a piece 50mmx 50mm and bent it to the shape of the inside just in front of the motor. I squeezed it together enough to get it inside then opened it out again.

It fits nicely and a smidgen of adhesive keeps it in place.

 

Hush Hush will now easily haul 10 free running coaches* up my inclines with quite modest current draw whilst doing it

Flat out it is about 200mA when climbing and 40mA when descending. Much less at lower speeds.

 

(6 various Siphons & 4 Hornby Collets)

[atom3624]

Good to read some success stories, not just the failures.

Al.

[Coldgunner]

My loco went back to the retailer who still has my money, been waiting for them to speak to Hornby about replacement. Funny time of year to deal with returns, don't expect much till new year. Retailer has offered to refund but id rather have a model if I have to wait a few weeks.

[PaulRhB]

I took mine over to the fathers shed when we were running his present and gave it a spin as his track is a bit bumpy in places. It ran beautifully on 6 initially and then 8 without any mods. It suggests that the basic design is fine although the issues may be exacerbated by our gradients and the transitions. The radius varies from 2ft in the yard to 3ft on scenic bit. 
 

 

 

[WD1995]

I've had to send my one back to Hornby for repairs as it was making a horrible noise, when e-mailed I was told it was a particular model the QC team wanted to look at so it must be a somewhat common issue. Bit of a shame for Christmas but will hopefully be rectified. 

 

Lovely looking model though, shame about the trailing pony though, bald wheels and no movement just doesn't look right. I've noticed it on a few newer locos now, strange they did it on the new Merchant Navy when the old one had a pivoting pony. 

 

Hope everyone had a great Christmas and have a even better New Year 

[Coldgunner]

Gave in and took a refund as everything is up in the air. Feel very let down by Hornby on what should be a flagship product.

Edited December 29, 2021 by Coldgunner

[Grovenor]

On 22/12/2021 at 23:05, melmerby said:

Definitely not prototypical.

As I posted a few days ago some of the front end is way too wide. Often the case with 4mm locos to clear the valve gear etc.

With the steps vertical the dimension over the treads is around 44mm, that is 11 feet, The cylinders are 39mm, which is 9' 9"

The GNR/LNER loading gauge was 9' 3" wide (by 13' 9" high)

EDIT

The drawing shows the widest part is the front platform at 9' 0" everything else is within that. So it is a full 8mm too wide over the steps.

And the whole idea of 16.5 gauge and 4mm scale was to avoid this sort of thing. This is worse than the Heljan class 47.

[zr2498]

Had the refund today, and also a request to give a rating

 

Rather torn, as I did manage to get a good one eventually. So 4/5 star on the good one and something less for the returned one with the broken deflector.

Hopefully, as the steps will be a customer fit on the next runs, and possibly the packaging and distribution will be improved, then Hornby should have far fewer returns. No doubt some corrective action will be forthcoming as it does not make sense to do otherwise.

 

Edited December 29, 2021 by zr2498

[E100]

Out of interest has anyone tried fitting one or both of the flanged wheels with/without modification?

[melmerby]

3 hours ago, E100 said:

Out of interest has anyone tried fitting one or both of the flanged wheels with/without modification?

Yes. But they wont turn as the keeper plate clamps them in place.

If you remove a slight bit from the protusions that stop rotation they will turn, however they are held above the track anyway, so they need the clamp to be left loose for contact.

You will get away with the front pair if your track has gentle curves, I reckon 3'6" or better. The rear pair is much more of a challenge due to the overhang on curves being much greater.

[peteskitchen]

 This modern approach to the trailing pony arrangement being fixed and baldy wheels seems to be okay with some models but other that have a large rear overhang it seems to create too many issues. With this loco being unique having 4 wheels in the pony and a very large overhang I think Hornby could have tried a different approach. Thinking about the recent Heljan/Rails 18000 gas turbine, the bogies on that had a double movement by having a sub bogie free to move inside the visible bogie which had very limited movement. Ignoring the fact that that model struggled with anything less than 4th radius I think that if Hornby had mounted the 4 trailing pony wheels on a free floating sub bogie and then allowed the outside frames to have a limited movement too, that might have had a better outcome? 

[peteskitchen]

On 23/12/2021 at 09:09, melmerby said:

Well, Hermes don't fare very well in surveys, not the worst but almost so.

The latest Which survey (Nov 21) put them just above Yodel, this was from 4002 replies

Other surveys have returned similar results, they are usually near the bottom and have been for some years.

 

 

 The trick with Hermes is to make sure the parcel has lots and lots packaging inside to protect the product. This is not usually an issue because Hermes dimensions are very generous. Get it stuffed full of news paper etc in a large box. This bit of information seems to have been totally lost on Hornby who thought air would suffice......

Edited December 30, 2021 by peteskitchen
placing

[micklner]

1 hour ago, peteskitchen said:

 This modern approach to the trailing pony arrangement being fixed and baldy wheels seems to be okay with some models but other that have a large rear overhang it seems to create too many issues. With this loco being unique having 4 wheels in the pony and a very large overhang I think Hornby could have tried a different approach. Thinking about the recent Heljan/Rails 18000 gas turbine, the bogies on that had a double movement by having a sub bogie free to move inside the visible bogie which had very limited movement. Ignoring the fact that that model struggled with anything less than 4th radius I think that if Hornby had mounted the 4 trailing pony wheels on a free floating sub bogie and then allowed the outside frames to have a limited movement too, that might have had a better outcome? 

 

See here re Bogies halfway down and on the next page or two for the Finecast version.

 

 

 

https://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/150513-Hornby-w1-hush-hush/page/37/

 

[peteskitchen]

2 hours ago, micklner said:

 

See here re Bogies halfway down and on the next page or two for the Finecast version.

 

 

 

https://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/150513-Hornby-w1-hush-hush/page/37/

 

 Are the trailing bogie frames fixed on that? I've a feeling that with them fixed there's no way it would negotiate 2nd radius which is an unfortunate requirement. I might have a bash at making mine like the finecast one as I don't have any sharp curves.

 

[SamThomas]

4 hours ago, peteskitchen said:

 This modern approach to the trailing pony arrangement being fixed and baldy wheels seems

IMHO the word "approach" should be "bodge". after all Finecast, who are probably a lot smaller than Hornby seem to have overcome any diffeculty in this area.

 

It seems to be a bit of a "UK thing" - I thought flangeless wheels were a thing of the past. I don't know of any US or European outline steam locomotive models that have a "flangeless & floating wheel" arrangement.

[Woodcock29]

Mine arrived safely here in South Australia today from Kernow with no damage.

The loco to tender coupling was the wrong way around as others have noted.

 

The steps over the slidebars appear to have sufficient clearance from the valvegear that I can move them in a bit, otherwise they do hit my platforms

 

However, I have a bi-directional centre track between the two platform tracks so no problem being able to run it.

 

Andrew

[micklner]

9 hours ago, peteskitchen said:

 Are the trailing bogie frames fixed on that? I've a feeling that with them fixed there's no way it would negotiate 2nd radius which is an unfortunate requirement. I might have a bash at making mine like the finecast one as I don't have any sharp curves.

 

What is that ?

My model and the Finecast version both have fixed frames.

[No Decorum]

23 hours ago, melmerby said:

Yes. But they wont turn as the keeper plate clamps them in place.

If you remove a slight bit from the protusions that stop rotation they will turn, however they are held above the track anyway, so they need the clamp to be left loose for contact.

You will get away with the front pair if your track has gentle curves, I reckon 3'6" or better. The rear pair is much more of a challenge due to the overhang on curves being much greater.

The trouble is that the rear pair is much more visible than the front pair.

[melmerby]

18 hours ago, peteskitchen said:

 The trick with Hermes is to make sure the parcel has lots and lots packaging inside to protect the product. This is not usually an issue because Hermes dimensions are very generous. Get it stuffed full of news paper etc in a large box. This bit of information seems to have been totally lost on Hornby who thought air would suffice......

Still doesn't stop certain companies from losing them, delivering to wrong address, leaving in unsuitable locations on delivery, poor customer service etc. etc.

 

[Ian Hargrave]

41 minutes ago, melmerby said:

Still doesn't stop certain companies from losing them, delivering to wrong address, leaving in unsuitable locations on delivery, poor customer service etc. etc.

 

Such as wedged in such a way between a plant pot and retaining wall outside my front steps so that it remained virtually hidden .Eventually found 24 hours later. No attempt made to leave  inside porch which was open or to knock or ring bell  . I was in. Then had the gall to send text announcing delivery. Not a usual happening tbh but not unknown. 

[Zunnan]

21 hours ago, peteskitchen said:

 The trick with Hermes is to make sure the parcel has lots and lots packaging inside to protect the product. This is not usually an issue because Hermes dimensions are very generous. Get it stuffed full of news paper etc in a large box. This bit of information seems to have been totally lost on Hornby who thought air would suffice......

 

The trick with Hermes is to not use Hermes.

 

No amount of packaging will protect from the bin man! I have been sat in my front room of a Wednesday morning on a few occasions and heard my bin lids going, expecting it to be the refuse collection, only to look up and see a Hermes 'delivery agent' scarpering off up the road without even bothering to knock the door or leave a card. Either that or launched over the shared gate on terraced houses. Or just dumped in the front garden to be picked up by a passer by. Or delivered to the wrong address (Darlington is NOT in the West Midlands!!!). My general rule of thumb thesedays is that if I see Hermes as a delivery option I'll buy from elsewhere unless there is no alternative.

[cctransuk]

12 minutes ago, Zunnan said:

 

The trick with Hermes is to not use Hermes.

 

No amount of packaging will protect from the bin man! I have been sat in my front room of a Wednesday morning on a few occasions and heard my bin lids going, expecting it to be the refuse collection, only to look up and see a Hermes 'delivery agent' scarpering off up the road without even bothering to knock the door or leave a card. Either that or launched over the shared gate on terraced houses. Or just dumped in the front garden to be picked up by a passer by. Or delivered to the wrong address (Darlington is NOT in the West Midlands!!!). My general rule of thumb thesedays is that if I see Hermes as a delivery option I'll buy from elsewhere unless there is no alternative.

 

As I have posted before, it all depends on the operative. Our Hermes lady is exemplary - heavy on the door knocking and the doorbell!

 

If you have a lazy / incompetent agent from ANY courier - COMPLAIN, and keep complaining until the service improves.

 

Sloppy 'service' only exists because the customer just shrugs their shoulders and moans to anyone who will listen - except the company concerned!

 

CJI.

[Zunnan]

8 minutes ago, cctransuk said:

 

As I have posted before, it all depends on the operative. Our Hermes lady is exemplary - heavy on the door knocking and the doorbell!

 

If you have a lazy / incompetent agent from ANY courier - COMPLAIN, and keep complaining until the service improves.

 

Sloppy 'service' only exists because the customer just shrugs their shoulders and moans to anyone who will listen - except the company concerned!

 

CJI.

 

I do complain. Multiple times involving several different agents. And have provided CCTV footage in every instance where it was available. 

 

My experience has been that communication goes deathly silent when the CCTV footage comes out and the service doesn't change.