Hornby ScotRail Class 153

[adb968008]

49 minutes ago, Pmorgancym said:

It's a shame really, witht he surface details and the range of liveries there's an opportunity for.someone to make a cracking lil model of the 153.

I’d like a Northern livery 155 myself.

[E100]

I really wish I hadn't missed the boat on the rainbow railways repaints but they were around when I hadn't yet restarted in the hobby...

[BritishRail60062]

Thanks for this post. I think I will hold off until a sale if I decide to buy one of these. Shame about the poor livery application. 

[E100]

FYI Model Railways Direct has these down to £106

 

https://modelrailwaysdirect.co.uk/Hornby-r30071-scotrail-class-153-single-car-dmu-153380-57380-scotrail-saltire-west-highland-line-livery-dcc-ready.html

[scottrains29]

That didn't take long before they started to get reduced. They're still the wrong side of £100 so I'll wait off.

[scouse889]

On 21/07/2023 at 10:13, E100 said:

FYI Model Railways Direct has these down to £106

 

https://modelrailwaysdirect.co.uk/Hornby-r30071-scotrail-class-153-single-car-dmu-153380-57380-scotrail-saltire-west-highland-line-livery-dcc-ready.html

They must be selling well then!! 😂

[adb968008]

Making 3 different numbers seems very ambitious. 
ive only ever seen 1 at a time on a train with 156’s.

 

I cant imagine many people needing two or three of these.

 

Similarly as its a transfer jobbie, not painted, its not exactly ideal to respray either.

 

I predict a long hard future on these, if they go cheap enough, I may buy a chassis to upgrade my 155’s.

[scottrains29]

56 minutes ago, adb968008 said:

I predict a long hard future on these, if they go cheap enough, I may buy a chassis to upgrade my 155’s.

I think it'd be far cheaper to get the spares separately. Lendons have the 153 chassis for less than £2 and they were selling the similar Limby 156 drive bogies for less than £6, though currently oos. I bought a few to keep as spares. The 153 bogie frame fits the 156 drive unit.

 

Makes you realise just how poor value the complete Hornby 153 is!!

[HExpressD]

19 hours ago, adb968008 said:

Making 3 different numbers seems very ambitious. 
ive only ever seen 1 at a time on a train with 156’s.

 

I cant imagine many people needing two or three of these.

 

Similarly as its a transfer jobbie, not painted, its not exactly ideal to respray either.

 

I predict a long hard future on these, if they go cheap enough, I may buy a chassis to upgrade my 155’s.

Pretty sure it's a UV print, not a transfer 

[Legend]

Having just come back from a week in the Highlands around Oban - Crianlarich I was seeing these daily , so I quite fancy one . Only trouble is they never run singly but are always coupled to a 156 . The Realtrack 156 is too expensive for something that would only see occasional use so I’d have been happy with a Limby one . However , again, in a lack of joined up thinking , Hornby have missed out by not producing a spotrail 156 ( yes I know the windows are now different - but that doesn’t usually stop Hornby and I’d accept compromise ) 

[charliepetty]

On 24/05/2023 at 21:20, Matt said:

I seem to recall Rainbow Railways printed up some in advance of Hs release - I’ve never seen one in the flesh but based on their other reliveries I would be surprised if not a lot better than the factory attempt!  Haven’t looked if still avail….

Rainbow Railways version was the 'dogs danglies' and looked crisp and superb, I am sure if enough people asked them, the would do another run of 25 or so.

 

Encourage others on here to do that as Colin is quite responsive.

 

He is on with Anglia & Other Liveries on our Realtrack Class 156s currently I believe + a fantastic looking Bachmann Class 90.

 

Charlie

[adb968008]

Agreed Rainbow railways are fantastic resprays.

I have several.

 

i wouldnt mind a respray of the network rail 153 in addition to a scottish one.

 

 

[E100]

On 23/07/2023 at 16:07, charliepetty said:

Rainbow Railways version was the 'dogs danglies' and looked crisp and superb, I am sure if enough people asked them, the would do another run of 25 or so.

 

Encourage others on here to do that as Colin is quite responsive.

 

He is on with Anglia & Other Liveries on our Realtrack Class 156s currently I believe + a fantastic looking Bachmann Class 90.

 

Charlie

 

 

I would be up for that. I've just received one of the Hornby ones and I have to say I'm potentially looking to return it. It really is that poor. Normally I'm happy to overlook things that look fine at a reasonable distance but for me I really have to squint even a couple of feet back to get close to what I was expecting. It's such a shame as on the box art it appears perfectly fine.

Edited July 25, 2023 by E100

[Rhydgaled]

On 21/05/2023 at 10:00, scouse889 said:

I was never entirely sure why Hornby decided to make three versions of this, especially since they don’t have anything in their current portfolio to run it with. You would have to pair it with the Realtrack 156 (if you did not want to apply Rule 1) so the Bachmann 158 is probably a valid comparison in many respects.

I think running a 'Highland Explorer' class 153 by itself, unless as an ECS (Empty Coaching Stock) move, might be stretching even Rule 1 a little. If I'm not mistaken, ScotRail have retained the original (non-wheelchair accessible) toilet and, unlike Transport for Wales' class 153/9 units, have not locked the toilet out of use. ScotRail are therefore legally prohibited from using the class 153s in passenger service (unless coupled to a unit with a wheelchair-accessible toilet) as this would be discrimination against disabled persons (since they would be providing a toilet for able-bodied passengers but not for wheelchair users). Depending on exactly how you apply Rule 1, you might not want to run one of these 153s on its own.

 

Running it with a Bachmann 158 however wouldn't be too big a stretch of the imagination, as I think using 158s on the West Highland and adding a 153 to the 158s on the Far North and/or Kyle Line have both been proposed previously (and one or both of these may yet happen).

 

On 24/05/2023 at 21:52, adb968008 said:

I’m not sure the demand for 3 different numbers though. My guess is most will only buy 1, to go with the Realtrack Scotrail ones, which iirc theres only 2x 250 of them out there. These things dont run alone or in multiple afaik ?

 

Whether somebody would want more than one model of these very much depends on their layout and how they choose to run it. Somebody with a train-set oval probably doesn't want more than one of any DMU. Years back, I'm not sure I even cared very much if more than one coach in a train on my layout had the same running number. I certainly remember considering buying a 3-car Bachmann Regional Railways class 158 and sometimes running it without the middle coach to represent a 2-car unit, even though the running number would not be correct for a 2-car unit, so that I would be able to sometimes run a 3-car set without the cost of buying two seperate models (I didn't end up buying a 3-car one - apparently the motor is under the middle coach).

 

However, if you are after a strictly accurate model of somewhere on the Oban-Glasgow line, set sometime around now, and go and sit yourself down at the real location for a day writing down the numbers of each unit you see, you will probably see multiple 153s over the course of the day. You're highly unlikey to have more than one in view at the same time, unless you choose one of the passing loops, but depending on the exact location you're probably also highly unlikely to see the same one on the next service. It was the same for me trainspotting along the route between Swansea and Pembroke Dock on summer Saturdays before the class 800s came in - once a given 'celebrity' HST power car had headed off to Paddington it was unlikely to be seen again in somewhere like Tenby or Whitland for a very long time.

 

Of course, buying a model of every item of rolling stock in the real-life fleet would be prohibitively expensive, so a compromise is needed. How far you go depends on how you choose to do your railway modelling. For example, in my case, I have decided that I will try to make my HSTs appear different by having 6 or more power cars but only one or two rakes of coaching stock (swapping the locos in the fiddle yard).

 

On 24/05/2023 at 23:21, scouse889 said:

I can't help feeling that Hornby missed a trick here - the idea of releasing even a non-powered Saltire 156 to be pulled around by these 153s seems like it might have legs to me.

Technically, a train pack with a non-powered ScotRail 'Highland Explorer' 153 with a powered Saltire 156 would be more-accurate I think as the 156s can be used on their own - as noted above I believe the Highland 153s are limited to ECS if not coupled to anything else.

 

On 21/05/2023 at 20:10, surfsup said:

Wessex Trains 'Great Scenic Railways of Devon & Cornwall' black 153

I have one of those, and wouldn't mind a Wales & West (not in the later Arriva-branded guise) Heart Of Wales orange one to go with it, but...

 

On 07/06/2023 at 11:37, E100 said:

I really wish I hadn't missed the boat on the rainbow railways repaints but they were around when I hadn't yet restarted in the hobby...

 

On 01/06/2023 at 15:52, E100 said:

Should have got the rainbow version whilst I had the chance!

 

On 23/07/2023 at 16:07, charliepetty said:

Rainbow Railways version was the 'dogs danglies' and looked crisp and superb, I am sure if enough people asked them, the would do another run of 25 or so.

 

... it sounds like Rainbow Railways is likely to do a better job than Hornby.

[scouse889]

There is a good video below of the units "in use" with other 153s, 156s, 158s, 170s and other units. Not sure what all the workings are and suspect at least some of the more unusual ones are ECS, but at least it gives a prototype.

 

 

 

[scouse889]

On the subject of the Wales/West 153, that made me remember that Hornby produced a model of the 153 in Wessex Trains promotional livery a while ago (which rather embarrassingly I own and have clearly forgotten about until now!) which had similar imagery to the Scotrail 153s (albeit on a smaller scale - no pun intended). Nonetheless, I remember the printing on this unit being very good and clear, with no fuzziness, including the images. I wonder if anyone who has both the Wessex 153 and Scotrail 153 might be able to post some comparison shots? Is this another example of "if it was possible XX years ago, why isn't it possible now?"

The model reference number was R2866.

 

[E100]

After sleeping on it, I have decided I will keep it as the chances of Rainbow doing another run are potentially slim now they are stocking these too (I have asked via Facebook as I didn't know their name on here) and will offer mine as a donor if they do another run. I am though complaining to Hornby about it in the vain hope they see sense and make some replacement bodyshells.

[Legend]

2 hours ago, scouse889 said:

There is a good video below of the units "in use" with other 153s, 156s, 158s, 170s and other units. Not sure what all the workings are and suspect at least some of the more unusual ones are ECS, but at least it gives a prototype.

 

 

 

Thanks for posting Scouse . Really interesting  film .  153s are always coupled to 156s for service trains with the 153 at the Oban end of the formation .  The other interesting formations there I’d suggest were ECS moves into  Queen Street . Certainly the 153/156/158 look that way with no doubt the 158 being split on the platform from the others .  Never seen them attached to 170 though , but I suspect again ECS  and the two 153s together look like it was some sort of test. 

Edited July 26, 2023 by Legend
Oban not Obama~ don’t think he’s been on a 153!

[TomMcG]

Thanks for all your comments on this model.

Was tempted to go for one at a hunner, despite old tooling and no pax lights.

The livery is just so poor, money well saved.

Cheers

[scouse889]

On 25/07/2023 at 23:56, Rhydgaled said:

Technically, a train pack with a non-powered ScotRail 'Highland Explorer' 153 with a powered Saltire 156 would be more-accurate I think as the 156s can be used on their own - as noted above I believe the Highland 153s are limited to ECS if not coupled to anything else.

Agree with that, but from the point of view of making the model given the existing tooling, it would be easier to make a non-powered 156 as you just use the under frame for the non-powered car under both 156 cars, and a single motor bogie in the 153 should be able to pull all 3 cars.

In contrast, quite how free wheeling a non-powered 153 would be using the existing motor bogie without any internals remains to be seen, and also whether it would be free wheeling enough for a single motor bogie in the 156 to power the train.

[Rhydgaled]

On 01/08/2023 at 08:13, scouse889 said:

Agree with that, but from the point of view of making the model given the existing tooling, it would be easier to make a non-powered 156 as you just use the under frame for the non-powered car under both 156 cars, and a single motor bogie in the 153 should be able to pull all 3 cars.

In contrast, quite how free wheeling a non-powered 153 would be using the existing motor bogie without any internals remains to be seen, and also whether it would be free wheeling enough for a single motor bogie in the 156 to power the train.

Good point regarding already having a non-powered chassis for the 156, but for the 153 couldn't they just put two unpowered bogies on? I just had a quick look at one of my 153s and the only detail difference I noticed between the two bogies is that the unpowered one has a set of cab steps attached to it - not sure if that's a seperate peice that could be left off at the other end (if used in place of the powered bogie) or not. I've also never had mine apart so perhaps the two bogies mount onto the chassis differently.

[scouse889]

43 minutes ago, Rhydgaled said:

perhaps the two bogies mount onto the chassis differently.

 

They do. End nearest camera is the powered bogie end, furthest is the trailer bogie end. The underframe for the powered car of the 156 is a similar design, whereas the underframe for the non-powered car has two identical mounts for the bogies. Images below from Hornby (153) and Peter's Spares (156) websites.

[Jenny Emily]

I got one of these from TMC as they have them in their Autumn sale. I have to say, I really like the livery application. It seems okay on mine. 
 

 

 

[newbryford]

On 01/08/2023 at 08:13, scouse889 said:

 

In contrast, quite how free wheeling a non-powered 153 would be using the existing motor bogie without any internals remains to be seen, and also whether it would be free wheeling enough for a single motor bogie in the 156 to power the train.

 

I've removed the upper gear train in one of mine and run a pair of 153s with only one power bogie in one car. Not a 156/153 combo, but the degeared 153 power bogie is quite a free runner

With no problems in quite a few shows.

[Legend]

17 hours ago, Jenny Emily said:

I got one of these from TMC as they have them in their Autumn sale. I have to say, I really like the livery application. It seems okay on mine. 
 

 

 

 

 Does look good . Tempted , but the real thing only runs with 156s coupled and we dont have a Spotrail 156 to go with it (unless you fork out for a Realtrack one , assuming still available)