Hornby 2021 - HST & Mk3 range

[LMSfan72]

2 hours ago, TomScrut said:

TBH I am surprised nobody has done the Motorail wagons, they go in test trains, lasted a fairly long time in Motorail format too so I expect there'd be a market.

Yes, I agree. I have done those too. A number of people on here have had a few. Similar to DBSO. I’m sure the RTR guys will get to it once they can get ahead of capacity again…

 

 

[surfsup]

On 25/12/2022 at 17:42, TomScrut said:

 

I had a pair a while back when Heljan first released them, they weren't that hard to find then but probably are now!

 

 

Those are different wagons aren't they? Do the Railadventure cars pull them?

 

Edit, it's these isn't it?

 

 

TBH I am surprised nobody has done the Motorail wagons, they go in test trains, lasted a fairly long time in Motorail format too so I expect there'd be a market.

 

Dafter stuff has been made.

 

The Barrier Vans in this picture are the recently refurbished, former NVA Motorail vans, now Universal Barrier Vehicles  owned and operated by Meridian Generic Rail. They probably will find some use working with Rail Adventure as they've been designed to operate both in the UK and in Europe. 

 

https://www.meridian-generic-rail.co.uk/universal-barrier-vehicles/

 

It would rather be nice to see the NVAs modelled too - they've carried at least 4 different liveries so far (FGW Green Gold, Colas Ex FGW / TNT branding, Network Rail and Meridian Generic) and have certainly spread their wings around the country since their Paddington Penzance days. 

[newbryford]

5 minutes ago, surfsup said:

The Barrier Vans in this picture are the recently refurbished, former NVA Motorail vans, now Universal Barrier Vehicles  owned and operated by Meridian Generic Rail. They probably will find some use working with Rail Adventure as they've been designed to operate both in the UK and in Europe. 

 

https://www.meridian-generic-rail.co.uk/universal-barrier-vehicles/

 

It would rather be nice to see the NVAs modelled too - they've carried at least 4 different liveries so far (FGW Green Gold, Colas Ex FGW / TNT branding, Network Rail and Meridian Generic) and have certainly spread their wings around the country since their Paddington Penzance days. 

 

Nope - not worth doing RTR.

If only because I have a couple in mid-build.....

 

 

[Melton Works]

On 24/12/2022 at 18:23, 43179 said:

Not only does the gold look different but the green-white fade-out looks completely different on the two models. It’s less convincing on the Power cars. If they’d finished these correctly I’d have bought a full set but not looking like that .
As Vic Reeves used to say , “Very poor indeed”

Jon

This is totally unacceptable! I've made the mistake of purchasing the whole set. The coaches I got away with by using microsol/set to get the decal to sink into the door recess, then a few coats of klear to seal. But when the powecars turned up, I lost the will to live. Something needs to be done about this as quite frankly Hornby dont give a s**t the fact we spend out hard earnings, in this current climate on their sub standard models at rip off prices. Accurascale all the way!

[newbryford]

12 hours ago, Melton Works said:

This is totally unacceptable! I've made the mistake of purchasing the whole set. The coaches I got away with by using microsol/set to get the decal to sink into the door recess, then a few coats of klear to seal. But when the powecars turned up, I lost the will to live. Something needs to be done about this as quite frankly Hornby dont give a s**t the fact we spend out hard earnings, in this current climate on their sub standard models at rip off prices. Accurascale all the way!

 

Have you emailed Hornby directly with your comments?

[adb968008]

On 30/12/2022 at 01:25, Melton Works said:

I lost the will to live.

Dont lose that, your going to need it later.

 

🥺

Edited January 2, 2023 by adb968008

[Rhydgaled]

On 21/12/2022 at 13:29, Rhydgaled said:

For those such as @ianmacc and (possibly) @Pedro32 who have the latest Railroad (INTERCITY livery) power car pack (R30177) have you tried running them with Lima coaches? If so, could you let met know whether Hornby's livery application matches that on the Lima coaches or are the shades of grey different, depth of each colour wrong etc.? I'd really like to obtain a pack but if the livery doesn't match the coaches I would run with it (Lima ones, I already have a TGS and a TS) anyway then I might as well spend a few quid more on the GWR train set version and get an oval of track and a Hornby mark 3 TS thrown in.

The Railroad pack seems to be starting to sell out so a quick response would be much appreciated.

 

So, I decided to take the risk and order a pack... Here is Railroad 43165 with a 1990s mark 4...

 

... and with a Lima mark 3 (goodness knows how old)...

 

Even on this gloomy layout, I can see that the light greys don't quite match (I think the various different colour bands are different widths too and don't quite line up) but given how dusty the mark 3s are I decided it wasn't quite worth the hastle of returning it. I may have to swap the motorised loco onto a dummy chassis (to keep the dust out of the motor) and leave the two dummies on the layout for a bit to gather dust and thus give a slightly 'weathered' look to better fit with the coaches.

 

While I am stuck with tension locks anyway (due to the Lima coaches having them moulded as part of the bogie), I do wonder why Hornby bothered retooling the Lima power car bogie to include a 'NEM Pocket' on the Railroad power cars. There are two cylindrical tanks where the NEM pocket should be, so it doesn't appear possible to mount the couplings at the correct height and there don't appear to be any alternative couplings that compensate for this. While Bachamann do produce 'cranked' versions of some couplings as spares, these are cranked down while the power cars need one that is cranked up (and, it would appear, to a greater extent than the Bachmann ones are cranked down). The last picture shows the Railroad power car with a straight Bachmann DMU coupler and a Bachmann class 158 vehicle with it's original straight coupler replaced by a cranked one for the purpose of this demonstration. As you will hopefully be able to see, the straight one is still below the downward cranked one. I think there would also a risk of the straight coupling set at such a low height hitting the sleepers of code 100 track on layouts with changes of gradient (I expect it would be particularly bad with code 75 track but I don't have any gradients or code 75 to test with).

 

Effectively therefore, owners of model HST power cars are stuck with the tension lock supplied with the model, regardless of whether it is the newer 'Limby' power car (with 'NEM Pocket') or original Lima one (with mouled couplings). At least you get hooks on the new Limby couplings I suppose so can run them as back-to-back power cars without coaches (the Lima ones have no hook so you need at least one coach between them).

Edited January 10, 2023 by Rhydgaled

[scouse889]

12 minutes ago, Rhydgaled said:

Effectively therefore, owners of model HST power cars are stuck with the tension lock supplied with the model, regardless of whether it is the newer 'Limby' power car (with 'NEM Pocket') or original Lima one (with mouled couplings). At least you get hooks on the new Limby couplings I suppose so can run them as back-to-back power cars without coaches (the Lima ones have no hook so you need at least one coach between them).

 

Hunt Couplings make magnetic versions for the Hornby SD power cars (original tooling) which also work on the ex-Lima (Hornby Railroad) chassis, as the Hornby SD and Railroad HSTs are actually fitted with the same couplings).

https://www.westhillwagonworks.co.uk/hunt-couplings-c-2/hunt-couplings-elite-oo-gauge-c-21/

You obviously have to have appropriate coupling mountings on the coaches which allow the couplings on them to be replaced with one of the matching magnetic couplings though. I have remotored a number of Lima HSTs with the upgraded Hornby Railroad HST chassis and replaced the underframes (and hence bogies) of some Lima Mk3 coaches with underframes from Hornby TGS, SLE and TRFB coaches (which are the former Lima tooling). This gives close coupling and improved performance on the old Lima HST for not much outlay (especially if you can sell on the bits you don't want to recoup some of the cost). The venerable old Lima model is available in liveries that Hornby either hasn't done yet or hasn't done entirely successfully - Merlin GWT, fag packet FGW, original GNER (gold and grey/white versions), even executive.....

 

[60800]

Picked up the LSL Midland pair from my local yesterday. Very nice models, but the tooling is definitely showing it's age now. Livery application is not perfect, but it's much better than the LNER farewell set. Looking forward to the coaches arriving for this.  

 

 

Cheers,

  60800

[60800]

Does anyone have the new East Midland Mk.3's and the old (2008?) East Midlands power cars? I'm curious as to if they match in colour. 

 

Cheers,

  60800

[newbryford]

8 hours ago, 60800 said:

Does anyone have the new East Midland Mk.3's and the old (2008?) East Midlands power cars? I'm curious as to if they match in colour. 

 

Cheers,

  60800

 

Yes - here:

 

[60800]

14 hours ago, newbryford said:

 

Yes - here:

 

 

Close enough for me, thankyou :) 

 

Cheers,

. 60800

[georgeds]

Looks like the Pullman Mk3s are coming into stock

[jamie92208]

Can anyone help mevplease.  My brother has just bought a pack of Hornby Midlan Pullman power cars and can't find outbif the coaches have beennreleased in the Midland Pullman livery yet.  Any info would be gratefully  received.

 

Jamie

[97403_Ixion]

2 minutes ago, jamie92208 said:

Can anyone help mevplease.  My brother has just bought a pack of Hornby Midlan Pullman power cars and can't find outbif the coaches have beennreleased in the Midland Pullman livery yet.  Any info would be gratefully  received.

 

Jamie

Hi Jamie,

 

Yes they have...

 

You could try Kernow Model Railway Centre or Cheltenham Model Centre - most are in stock.

TMC also have some in stock too and I am sure many other retailers.

 

Hope that helps!

Ixion.

[60800]

Just picked up my Midland Pullman Mk.3's.... flawless, absolutely flawless. I haven't said that about a Hornby product for three or four years. I've only gone for five coaches due to space restrictions, but will post some photos later. 

 

Cheers, 60800

[60800]

Very happy with these;

 

 

 

 

I need to take the dummy couplings out as they look silly when the fixed bars are used, but it's a vast improvement over the tension locks.

 

Cheers,

  60800

[60800]

Had a shuffle around to make room to hook the whole set up. I've had some questions on Facebook about the running qualities of these coaches after some disappointment others have had with the East Coast ones. 

 

The coaches do not run overly noisily and have no issue going though peco code 75 turnouts from what I can tell. 

 

 

I have some corrected horn grilles on the way for the power cars which I'm looking forward to fitting. I'll likely fit the nameplates at the same time. 

 

Cheers,

  60800 

[JackB95]

Chandler at Track3D has produced a couple of pieces that may be of interest to those in here (I'm simply sharing this as a satisfied customer - there are no ties with the business).

 

Firstly, for those with the Midland Pullman set, he's created these pre-painted horn grills to correct the ones that Hornby put on the production model. Available in painted (well colour-matched) or unpainted here

 

 

And for the MML/EMT modellers who've been forgotten about with the oOo oOo style headlights, your dreams are now answered with this 3D printed LED kit. Can be simply swapped in and wired up. Optional night headlights and crisper horn grills also available here

 

[jamie92208]

Just to say thanks to the various people who helped me out about the Midland Pullman HST coaches.  I passed thecinfo onto my brother . He's sourced them and has now ordered a set.

 

Jamie

[60800]

19 hours ago, JackB95 said:

And for the MML/EMT modellers who've been forgotten about with the oOo oOo style headlights, your dreams are now answered with this 3D printed LED kit. Can be simply swapped in and wired up. Optional night headlights and crisper horn grills also available here

 

 

These were commissioned by me for a purple 43274 and LSL 43049 and fortunately Chandler decided to make them into a kit for his website. The above power cars are not mine, but as well as being made for retrofitting older power cars, these have also being done in anticipation of Hornby not retooling the lights for the new East Midlands power cars and as such the light clusters fitted to my pair are wired up for 21 pin using an aftermarket harness - the harness would not be necessary for the new release power cars. 

 

Cheers,

  60800

Edited February 9, 2023 by 60800

[Darius43]

Just arrived 😀

 

 

 

 

 

Cheers

 

Darius

[G-BOAF]

On 15/01/2023 at 09:27, 60800 said:

Picked up the LSL Midland pair from my local yesterday. Very nice models, but the tooling is definitely showing it's age now. Livery application is not perfect, but it's much better than the LNER farewell set. Looking forward to the coaches arriving for this.  

 

 

Cheers,

  60800

Arent't these the brand bew power car tooling with close coupling? So the age would be less than a year and less than 20k mouldings?

[Hilux5972]

5 hours ago, G-BOAF said:

Arent't these the brand bew power car tooling with close coupling? So the age would be less than a year and less than 20k mouldings?

It’s not completely brand new. The coupling system yes, and they tweaked the body, but not totally Did it

[WCML100]

The latest MK3 tooling is a full new re-tool as far as I am aware