Hornby W1 Hush Hush

[Coldgunner]

I used the A4 TTS one, mainly cos I'm a tightwad at was not much more expensive than a standard one.

[DonnyRailMan]

Late to the party but just took delivery of these two . Nothing broken or falling off luckily. 

 

[DonnyRailMan]

The different front ends of the Gresley  W1s

R 3842 Green & R 3979

[Mark Laidlay]

Has anyone done anything about the steps over the valve gear?  The must be way over-scale as they hit platforms that everything else clears.

 

Maybe there is an etched brass replacement available,

 

Mark in Melbourne

Edited December 20, 2022 by Mark Laidlay

[Edge]

On 29/10/2022 at 10:27, DonnyRailMan said:

Late to the party but just took delivery of these two . Nothing broken or falling off luckily. 

 

when first announced I really didn’t like the look of the LNER green, but its growing on me :)

[melmerby]

25 minutes ago, Mark Laidlay said:

Has anyone done anything about the steps over the valve gear?

Left them off the grey one by the looks of it.🙄

[micklner]

Contact Hornby direct, they may have spares. The Grey ones have them fitted, as sold.

[rogerzilla]

On 21/10/2022 at 20:19, gary_lner said:

Locoman sounds has done a sound chip for the w1 Hornby magazine did a video on it so it's probably on the YouTube page.

How does anyone know what it sounded like?  Is there any film of it with sound?

[AdamOrmorod]

8 hours ago, micklner said:

Contact Hornby direct, they may have spares. The Grey ones have them fitted, as sold.

I think the double chimney version has the steps in the detail bag instead.

Edit: just checked the Sam's trains video to confirm (they have their uses!)

 

Funnily enough yesterday I was eyeing my original version up to see how much I'd dare file the steps down to refit them closer in…  

Edited December 19, 2022 by AdamOrmorod

[Mark Laidlay]

4 hours ago, AdamOrmorod said:

I think the double chimney version has the steps in the detail bag instead.

Edit: just checked the Sam's trains video to confirm (they have their uses!)

 

Funnily enough yesterday I was eyeing my original version up to see how much I'd dare file the steps down to refit them closer in… 

Maybe that's answer, try to file them down.

Please let us know how it goes.

 

Mark in Melbourne

[melmerby]

10 hours ago, AdamOrmorod said:

I think the double chimney version has the steps in the detail bag instead.

How are they fitted?

The originally supplied ones are glued on (just about) and both mine came off.

It seems ridiculous that they can't be fitted closer as the original loco was within the  9' 0" structure gauge but Hornby's is way wider.

[teaky]

Steps - see earlier post by Woodcock in this topic: https://www.rmweb.co.uk/topic/150513-Hornby-w1-hush-hush/?do=findComment&comment=4694288

[DonnyRailMan]

Both of my Green W1s one of the set of steps came off left hand side ones as well.

 

Edited February 7, 2023 by DonnyRailMan

[WestRail642fan]

Finally got my hands on W1 in BR late crest

[Human8984]

is there any way to cure the rear trailing wheels not touching the rails when placed upon the track

[melmerby]

7 hours ago, Human8984 said:

is there any way to cure the rear trailing wheels not touching the rails when placed upon the track

Not without some work.

They are held in place by a keeper plate which clamps them in place (they wont turn without modification)

So:

a) they need to be free to turn.

b) they need to be allowed to drop on the track, although they risk falling off on bends, unless your curves are a very large radius.

 

The problem is Hornby have represented the frame under the cab at close to scale width, this is far to narrow to allow enough swing on typical 00 track curvature.

Edited April 24, 2023 by melmerby

[No Decorum]

8 hours ago, melmerby said:

Not without some work.

They are held in place by a keeper plate which clamps them in place (they wont turn without modification)

So:

a) they need to be free to turn.

b) they need to be allowed to drop on the track, although they risk falling off on bends, unless your curves are a very large radius.

 

The problem is Hornby have represented the frame under the cab at close to scale width, this is far to narrow to allow enough swing on typical 00 track curvature.

Even without the keeper plate, the wheel flanges are pushed up against the chassis and won’t turn. A little bit of attention to detail would have seen arches cast into the bottom of the chassis to accommodate the flanges. It’s a pity because, as already pointed out, the rear trailing wheels are much more exposed than the trailing wheels of Pacifics.

[Human8984]

9 hours ago, melmerby said:

) they need to be allowed to drop on the track, although they risk falling off on bends, unless your curves are a very large radius.

Would Modifying the keeper plate to drop them down a tad work? As a major express engine i wouldnt run it on small radius anyway but I would like to know what work entails to actually get them to turn

[melmerby]

It's not really worth it as the design doesnt allow any reality without considerable modification to the chassis.

This was discussed at length earlier in the thread.

[34theletterbetweenB&D]

On 25/04/2023 at 09:18, Human8984 said:

Would Modifying the keeper plate to drop them down a tad work? As a major express engine i wouldnt run it on small radius anyway but I would like to know what work entails to actually get them to turn

Not sure about the original design which introduces further constraint's, but on the conventional boiler rebuild it is  basically a question of how much butchery are you prepared to do?

 

I hacked away inside the rear truck frames to remove all the cast impediments, and to cut clearance for the wheelsets, and used a B1plastic bogie frame (from the old Replica model) to carry the flanged wheelsets. Looks so much better, as do all such corrections of Hornby's dreadful flangeless rear truck bodge, and the 'scene of the crime' is fully concealed inside the cast frame representations. The downside for many, the 36" minimum radius requirement as a consequence.

 

(Until we get the sophisticated approach to this problem which the better HO brands employ, that's it. There would be no problem having the truck frames hinged at the front end with a soft return spring, such that an internal frame carrying the truck wheel(s) has a projection each side to push the inside frame outward as required for clearance on curves.)

Edited July 8, 2023 by 34theletterbetweenB&D
Forgot a proviso, only proven on the rebuilt W1

[peteskitchen]

I completely removed the underside of the trailing bogie area, and fitted a front bogie originally from a Margate black 5 with the flanged wheels fitted as supplied with the W1. It just happens to be exactly the correct axles spacing. I was suprised how hard the mazak was to cut etc. 

[palmsticks]

4 hours ago, peteskitchen said:

I completely removed the underside of the trailing bogie area, and fitted a front bogie originally from a Margate black 5 with the flanged wheels fitted as supplied with the W1. It just happens to be exactly the correct axles spacing. I was suprised how hard the mazak was to cut etc. 

Nice one.  Did you spread the plastic frame plates around the trailing axle or are they moulded that way?  What radius do you think she'll go around?

[peteskitchen]

They are cast from mazak, part of the locos chassis. I had to be careful where they join the main chassis because I've cut so much away. You can't see any changes at all when it's on the track. The loco will comfortably take peco code 100 streamline small radius points which are about 24 inch radius. 

[No Decorum]

1 hour ago, peteskitchen said:

They are cast from mazak, part of the locos chassis. I had to be careful where they join the main chassis because I've cut so much away. You can't see any changes at all when it's on the track. The loco will comfortably take peco code 100 streamline small radius points which are about 24 inch radius. 

An excellent job. Why couldn’t Hornby have done something similar in the first place?

[cctransuk]

1 hour ago, No Decorum said:

An excellent job. Why couldn’t Hornby have done something similar in the first place?

 

I've said it many times before - but will repeat it once again in the hope that SOMEONE at Hornby is listening : -

 

Every Hornby fixed trailing truck Pacific that I have has been converted to swinging truck - via a lot of needless, fiddly hacking, etc.

 

IF ONLY Hornby would mount the flangeless trailing wheels in a swinging inside-framed truck, locked with an additional screw.

 

For those of us without trains-set radii, all we would have to do is fit the flanged wheels and remove the locking screw - job done!

 

PLEASE, if anyone here has the ear of Hornby, could they point out this blindingly-obvious solution to a problem that didn't need to exist in the first place?!?

 

John Isherwood.