Jump to content
 

Hornby Class 67


TomE

Recommended Posts

Has anyone experience damage on any other Hornby models apart from the Class 67? Now I personally don't think that when Hornby ship out products, they only send one particular item - obviously there are other products in the range also being shipped out alongside. So if Hornby claim that the Class 67's were damaged in transit then why weren't other models damaged? Surely models of the DCC Sound steam models were out at the same time around.

Link to post
Share on other sites

  • RMweb Premium

I agree totally that Hornby needs to up its game when it comes to QC, be it in the factory in China and/or in Margate - remember also the nonsence of all those Tintagel Castles with BR period smokebox numberplates that any QC in China clearly missed. And yes, we would like to know what's going on, but as someone reminded us in one of the Hornby profits or delayed models threads, they are a public company and what they can say to the public is constrained by the potential effect on share price. As long as Hornby (via the retailers) replace what we consider as unacceptably damaged models, in terms of our relationship with them we can't really expect them to do anything more.

 

As to the extent of the problem, it seems unlikely to me that Hornby opens more than a few of the larger cardboard boxes containing a number of individual models. I don't know how many each contains, but the larger retailers such as Hattons and Rail Exclusive will presumably receive a significant number. If all or most of the damaged locos were produced and packed together, it stands to reason that when Hornby distributes them they will be concentrated with a few retailers rather than shared out across the board. From the posts so far, other than with Rail Exclusive it is impossible to identify whether such a pattern exists.

 

For those of us who live abroad and can't check a model in a shop before buying, it is annoying because of the hassle arranging a replacement and in my case has made me very wary of pre-ordering anything from Hornby at the moment. And if Hornby is cancelling models due to a lack of pre-orders from retailers (no doubt due in part to fewer pre-orders from the likes of us) there is a real risk the knock on effect will be fewer new models reaching the marketplace.

Link to post
Share on other sites

  • RMweb Premium

And another thing! - the exhaust silencer is the wrong shape. These are the best photos I have but they (almost) clearly show the 'threepenny' bit shape of the silencer. Does anyone have better photos from above? To me it looks like the silencer on the new model has come straight off the Lima/Limby model. Can anyone who has both old and new models confirm this? - and confirm that the provenance of the windscreen wipers and windscreen is also Lima?

 

I notice Hornby's website is showing the EWS 67 as 'currently out of stock pending knuckle-rapping, soul-searching and removal of egg from face'. Nah, not really, just says they're out of stock!

post-708-0-80200900-1349952954_thumb.jpg

post-708-0-34854300-1349953161_thumb.jpg

Link to post
Share on other sites

  • RMweb Gold

Has anyone experience damage on any other Hornby models apart from the Class 67? Now I personally don't think that when Hornby ship out products, they only send one particular item - obviously there are other products in the range also being shipped out alongside. So if Hornby claim that the Class 67's were damaged in transit then why weren't other models damaged? Surely models of the DCC Sound steam models were out at the same time around.

Basically a difficult one to answer unless there is any evidence - Hornby are now using at least two different factories in China for model railway product, the packages are quite likely going into groupage and thus stuff not only has potential more opportunities to suffer damage in transit but that could easily be confined to stuff from one factory or some of the stuff from one factory. This is a simple, but hopefully avoidable consequence of having manufacture at multiple sites and having to use groupage for at least some product and it is a production and transport system which needs careful management and checking on unpacking in the UK - but then why unpack models which have been packed, probably, at the factory and add cost?

Link to post
Share on other sites

 

For those of us who live abroad and can't check a model in a shop before buying, it is annoying because of the hassle arranging a replacement and in my case has made me very wary of pre-ordering anything from Hornby at the moment. And if Hornby is cancelling models due to a lack of pre-orders from retailers (no doubt due in part to fewer pre-orders from the likes of us) there is a real risk the knock on effect will be fewer new models reaching the marketplace.

I can't agree with you!!! This is exactly why I did'nt order mine as yet. And I live in India and our postal system is very careless....!!!! Nothing is treated with safe hands

Link to post
Share on other sites

Going off topic a little, but it appears other people are now having problems with Rail Exclusives complete lack of after sale service. I had alot of problems after my Bachmann 37/7s arrived with broken buffers, it took my 6 months and a failed credit card appeal to attempt to get my models refunded. In the end i had to accept that I was never going to get my money back.

 

Once they have you money, they dont care. If it all goes well then good, but any problems dont bother trying to communicate with them, its like banging your head againest a wall of nails.

 

Great Western.

Link to post
Share on other sites

O/T

Not ideal Great Western but broken buffers are fixable with avaiable Bachmann spare buffers. Worst case the locos could have been sent to Bachmann. Sure its also a matter of principle but not the end of the world regarding the models.

Link to post
Share on other sites

  • RMweb Premium

You're right G-BOAF, but GW is making a bigger point about RE's lack of communication. I very much recognise the 'banging your head against a wall of nails' image.

'Trust 'em for reviews only' is now my policy with RE.

But we're off topic.

Link to post
Share on other sites

  • RMweb Premium

Going back to page 5 of this thread, where Lima and new Hornby models are pictured side by side, it appears that the exhaust silencer and at least windscreen wipers (though perhaps not windscreen) are as I suspected carried over from the old model. I remember Hornby stressing in the past (with the 50 or the 60 or both?) that the model was a complete retool. Have they ever said that about the 67? If so, the exhaust and wipers give the lie to that claim ...

Model Rail actually singled the exhaust silencer out for praise!

Link to post
Share on other sites

  • RMweb Gold

it appears that the exhaust silencer and at least windscreen wipers (though perhaps not windscreen) are as I suspected carried over from the old model.

 

the silencer is not a carry over from the lima model, save people looking back over the thread here are the 2 side by side

 

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y163/s-type-driver/2012%20album/24BAC274-952A-408C-886C-B1D3FD4D965A-2931-000002C1B3EDA223.jpg

 

sadly the ex lima one looks to more correct than the Hornby one as it correctly sits within the confines of the roof rather than proud of it

Link to post
Share on other sites

Guest dubdee1000

Thanks Jim. Your photo also appears to show the exhaust on the Lima model proud of the body and recessed on the Hornby. Now camera angles may have something to do with this, but Grunfos and Daddymans photos *suggest* that the Lima model *may* be more accurate

Link to post
Share on other sites

  • RMweb Gold

the "silencer" end of the lima one is definatly sat a lot lower (and correcter) than the Hornby one in those pictures, the exhaust bit looks ok but the silencer is too tall, more obvious in this picture how the curved Hornby one sits proud

 

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y163/s-type-driver/2012%20album/24FEE4D2-9106-4F8C-9CB8-2A367BF7B793-570-0000007D67492046.jpg

 

whereas it should be llike this

 

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y163/s-type-driver/2012%20album/fcce480a.jpg

Link to post
Share on other sites

  • RMweb Premium

Excellent work all round! Thanks to all!

Found this photo on flickr. I hope that crediting it to 'AlanP' and posting the link here respects his copyright

http://www.flickr.co...ley/3868136592/

 

 

There's also a side-on photo here, which shows heights of exhaust parts relative to each other and relative to roof, better than my pics of 67009 at FW do:

http://rmweb.co.uk/f....php?f=8&t=7283

 

Photos removed due to copyright. Link is ok copying them over isn't. http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/60294-use-of-images-from-rmweb/

Link to post
Share on other sites

  • RMweb Premium

Modelmaster make some EWS transfers but have recently been reducing the range, their Class 66 numbers and emblems are the right size for Class 67 application. All other suppliers seem to have now ceased all trading of EWS transfers and DB Schenker ones are equally all but unobtainable now due mostly to costly licencing issues.

Link to post
Share on other sites

  • RMweb Premium

I thought I'd provide some kind of account of my attempts this weekend to improve the Hornby 67, in case they can be of use to civilisation.

 

I started with the exhaust. This was a very easy mod. Once the exhaust is removed (more on this below) the silencer part can simply be cut from the 'tail' part without damage to either one. Several light strokes with a new craft knife blade works best and means there is no gouging or 'lost' plastic that would result from using a saw. The silencer part can then have a little (1mm? 2mm?) taken off its base, a little removed from underneath the brackets at the side, and it will then sit at the correct height relative to the roof. The 'tail' part I think needs packing with 40 thou or so, but I haven't tried this yet as I had no plasticard in the house. The photos above suggest that this part of the exhaust is definitely higher in reality than Hornby have modelled it.

 

So far so good. Then I moved on to my other target areas, the roof grille and the windscreens. These were less easy and my efforts less successful. Part of the problem is that the body is made out of very thin plastic - I've never seen a model so thin. With the exhaust the plan was to file off the glue on the underside then pop the retaining pegs out with the point of a small file - my standard method for e.g. windscreen wipers. However, when I started nudging them with a file stress marks began to appear in the plastic. These were not in 'public' places so no problem, but I ended up drilling the pegs out instead, just to be safe. But all the time as I was gripping the body it was flexing all over the place. This thinness might explain the bowing in the body that RE reported.

 

Then I turned to the roof grille to see if I could get it to sit better. Again, I filed inside the body where the pegs are glued and then tried to nudge the pegs out. This was very hard - I really had to swear a lot. They came out in the end, but stress marks again on the inside of the body suggested that I'd been pushing my luck, and it could have easily gone wrong, with the file or tweazers easily going right through the plastic. Anyway, upshot is, the plastic moulding underneath won't let the grille go down flush. Still, I wanted to spray the moulding underneath the grille a lighter grey as this area on the real thing is very light coloured (Hornby have painted the moulding a darkish grey), so not a compete waste of time. But close.

 

Next the windscreen. As Big Jim noted, it is glued in very well on the lower edge. I 'encouraged' it and it ended up breaking. Not a problem as I wanted to replace it anyway, but again stress marks appeared on the inside of the nose front, so for the other end I won't risk the body trying to save the glazing I'll simply drill and file the whole windscreen out so as not to put the body under this kind of stress again. The modified end looks a lot better with new glazing in, and I'll experiment with a marker pen on the rear at some stage in the near future, and turn to the airbrush if unsuccessful.

 

So the moral of the story is be careful out there. With this thin plastic body things can easily go horribly wrong!

 

On a positive note, I did find that the TDM cables are removable. They are pushed back into the body at the top and down into the receptacles at the bottom. Once removed they can be bent to a more 'in service' shape and refitted.

Link to post
Share on other sites

  • RMweb Gold

I took the roof grille off my shenker loco, i think part of the problem is the curves in the grille that follow the roof line, as they are just that, curves, they really need bending "angular" with a steel rule or the like along the length of the grille, i think that and a combination of shortening the mounting lugs slightly may well make it sit better

 

Windscreens, im happy with those in so much as i dont want to damage the body getting them out, i will in due course "sharpie" in the lower curve

 

As usual, modelling has come to a stop mid job!!

Link to post
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.


×
×
  • Create New...