Hornby Star Class

[Coach bogie]

Yes the Modelmaster ones are over £9 a pair.If I keep 4003 as Lode I'll still need some.Thank goodness neither of my daughters names are also on the list of Stars.

 

25% off sale at Modelmaster this weekend. Enter code 'Manger2013' at checkout

 

Mike Wiltshire

[melmerby]

The January issue of BRM has a very detailed review by John Emerson of the Star and includes the message that Hornby have offered replacement bogie wheels for those who want to change them.

January RM quotes Hornby as saying all future releases of Stars will have 10 spoke bogie wheels!

 

Keith

[robmcg]

Does that mean my 12-spoke version will become a rare collector's item, please?

[Ian Hargrave]

January RM quotes Hornby as saying all future releases of Stars will have 10 spoke bogie wheels!

 

Keith

Future? A'present' version would be acceptable.No 'Stars' over the manger for me this Nativity....other than those I sing of.'Every star shall sing a carol,every creature high or low'

One concert down,two to go....

[Oldddudders]

Does that mean my 12-spoke version will become a rare collector's item, please?

In NZ, probably.

[Coach bogie]

I shouldn't happen but it has.

 

I have no intention of wasting a perfectly good Christmas holiday's worth of train set time due to a few minor niggles. Picked my second one up from Peter's Spares yesterday. Also bought a replacement Castle bogie with 10 spoke wheels for a wheel change. Tender swop again as other friends now want a Tintagel castle with small tender. Altered one of the cabside handrails, new 'vauxhaul' front end, lamp bracket to smokebox door, lamps crew (have them both sitting on the nicely produced cab seats for a change). A quick blow over with thinned green paint this evening and I will have one of Westbury's not ex works, but lovingly cared for, trusty Stars.

 

This one had a slight upwards bow in the front end. It is caused by the chassis not fitting flush with the buffer beam. Removal of excess flashing on the inside bufferbeam from the dummy coupling hook cured that.

 

My nativity will have 4038 Queen Berengaria on Weymouth- Paddington trains.

 

Mike Wiltshire

Edited December 14, 2013 by Coach bogie

[John M Upton]

Looking for a replacement set of bogie wheels for this to get a ten spoker, I have found two different potential Castle Class bogies for this, one is X8080, the other is X6157.  Which one should I be going for to do the despoking on my BR Star whichever century it gets here?

[Coach bogie]

Looking for a replacement set of bogie wheels for this to get a ten spoker, I have found two different potential Castle Class bogies for this, one is X8080, the other is X6157.  Which one should I be going for to do the despoking on my BR Star whichever century it gets here?

 

X6157 are the ones I have used though I bought Peter's Spares last two sets

 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/331079422221?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649

 

This chap has 12 bogies available

 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/310763752568?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649

 

Mike Wiltshire

[gwrrob]

Where did you get that 'vauxhall 'front casting from Mike ?

[melmerby]

X6157 are the ones I have used though I bought Peter's Spares last two sets

 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/331079422221?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649

 

 

Mike Wiltshire

Wouldn't it be more economical to get Alan Gibson replacement wheels?

2 axles = £5.70 plus £2 p&p

(If they need to be posted)

 

Keith

Edited December 14, 2013 by melmerby

[Coach bogie]

Where did you get that 'vauxhall 'front casting from Mike ?

It is a Mitchell one from David Geen. He sells them as spares. It was an exact fit, no filing required. I had originally intended to buy the BR one and remove the smokebox plate but another contributor discovered the inside cylinder chest just pops out with little resistence, so change of plan.

 

Also discovered that the centre splasher/nameplate is etched brass. Queen Berengaria has a shorter backing plate than the Knights and it would not cut with a raft knife. On removing it, I found it was brass. Comments regarding etched nameplates no longer valid.

 

Mike Wiltshire

[Coach bogie]

Wouldn't it be more economical to get Alan Gibson replacement wheels?

2 axles = £5.70 plus £2 p&p

(If they need to be posted)

 

Keith

 

Yes it would but I picked my Star up from Peter's Spares, he had the bogies in stock, and as I have a free couple of days, with my good wife on a girlies shopping weekend, I did not have time to wait for the post. Lode Star will be getting Gibsons as there will be a bulk order going in for our local group of local Star owners.

 

Mike Wiltshire

[Legend]

The January issue of BRM has a very detailed review by John Emerson of the Star and includes the message that Hornby have offered replacement bogie wheels for those who want to change them.

So where is official confirmation from Hornby? On their website? Or as usual do you need to be in the "know" to get your replacement bogie wheels? No admission of mistake as usual it has all the signs of Hornby hoping to get away with it and provide only the minimum number of wheelsets by not making a huge fuss.

Edited December 14, 2013 by Legend

[robmcg]

Perhaps, and this is no excuse for them, they would have in the past just quietly 'fixed' the production problem and given appropriate wheels to dealers who ordered the un-fixed early production models? 

 

Today there is a thread about the early Triang roller Princesses and how unreliable the communtators were, let alone rollers, and in those days buyers HAD RESPECT lad, and things were fixed, eventually...

[gwrrob]

So where is official confirmation from Hornby? On their website? Or as usual do you need to be in the "know" to get your replacement bogie wheels? No admission of mistake as usual it has all the signs of Hornby hoping to get away with it and provide only the minimum number of wheelsets by not making a huge fuss.

 

Don't shoot the messenger ! Just giving a heads up from what I read in the review.I've also read today that future batches will be correct at assembly point.

[mow]

Does that mean my 12-spoke version will become a rare collector's item, please?

You could always watch the bids come in on Ebay for it.

[Legend]

Don't shoot the messenger ! Just giving a heads up from what I read in the review.I've also read today that future batches will be correct at assembly point.

Not shooting messenger Rob. Hope it didn't come across that wy. Thanks for the info as its not forthcoming from Hornby!

[robmcg]

Not shooting messenger Rob. Hope it didn't come across that wy. Thanks for the info as its not forthcoming from Hornby!

 

Oh sorry, I didn't mean that the information wasn't welcome. I just wondered out loud about the way manufacturers might have dealt with such things years ago.

 

Remember the weak motors in early Bachmann Peppercorn A1s., or the revised smokeboxes on Hornby Merchant Navy models? I don't know what the mechanism was whereby such errors or faults were made known to the manufacturers. Returns? Retailers?  Magazines?  It wouldn't have been Internet forums necessarily in 2001, (although I was then an active moderator in a large AOL 'Automobile' forum.)

 

As it stands there is no obvious public announcement about 'wrong wheels' on the Star and its so far as I can tell only anecdotal that they will be fixed in future batches.  Also many some a proportion of buyers will neither know nor care.

[robmcg]

The January issue of BRM has a very detailed review by John Emerson of the Star and includes the message that Hornby have offered replacement bogie wheels for those who want to change them.

 

Oops that's better than anecdotal, although I read the mag as a E-version and missed the reference in the review.

[Ozexpatriate]

Perhaps they would have in the past just quietly 'fixed' the production problem and given appropriate wheels to dealers who ordered the un-fixed early production models?

In the case of the B-set coaches, buyers were automatically shipped replacement bogies without having to request them. That problem was more visually obvious.

 

It took a little while, but the statement of intent to replace the bogies was immediate and public.

Edited December 15, 2013 by Ozexpatriate

[robmcg]

No complaint from me, except the fact that I think I was one of the first to notice the 12-spokes back in this thread, quite some time ago, and did find it disappointing. It surprised me at the time because the wrong wheels were shown on all the pre-production pictures, which had been around for over a year.

[Ozexpatriate]

... the time because the wrong wheels were shown on all the pre-production pictures, which had been around for over a year.

Yes, we all missed it until larger photographs of the final product were available. Had, high-resolution, pre-production photographs been provided, I think there's a good chance someone here would have caught it.

 

It's possible that the image on Hornby's website was also a real photograph but the trouble is, we've seen so many photo-shopped mock-ups there that our trust factor in those images is low - though I will say that the water scoop was noted.

Edited December 15, 2013 by Ozexpatriate

[6959]

 

I shouldn't happen but it has.

 

I have no intention of wasting a perfectly good Christmas holiday's worth of train set time due to a few minor niggles. Picked my second one up from Peter's Spares yesterday. Also bought a replacement Castle bogie with 10 spoke wheels for a wheel change. Tender swop again as other friends now want a Tintagel castle with small tender. Altered one of the cabside handrails, new 'vauxhaul' front end, lamp bracket to smokebox door, lamps crew (have them both sitting on the nicely produced cab seats for a change). A quick blow over with thinned green paint this evening and I will have one of Westbury's not ex works, but lovingly cared for, trusty Stars.

 

This one had a slight upwards bow in the front end. It is caused by the chassis not fitting flush with the buffer beam. Removal of excess flashing on the inside bufferbeam from the dummy coupling hook cured that.

4038a.JPG 4038b.JPG

 

My nativity will have 4038 Queen Berengaria on Weymouth- Paddington trains.

 

Mike Wiltshire

 

 

Which model did the 4000 gallon tender with roundel come from?

[checkrail]

My KGC arrived Friday - just running in.  Lovely model, and well worth the wait but think the moulded horizontal cabside handrail spoils the ship for a ha'porth of tar (the vertical one is somehow less noticeable).  I say a ha'porth but would have paid another 20 quid to avoid the task of replacement - in itself a simple job, but fraught with the potential to compromise the superb paint and print finish.

 

Hornby still seem to have some QC problems, in that both the bogie and tender wheel b-to-b's needed adjusting outward slightly.  They'd run fine through my 00-sf points from C & L parts, but stumbled and derailed on Peco code 75 pointwork in the fiddle yard. 

 

But the thing looks gorgeous.

[checkrail]

Quick work Mike!  Looks really good.  A Weymouth-based loco doesn't suit my supposed location, but I did always fancy the idea (for any 12th century buffs amongst you) of King Richard I and Queen Berengaria passing each other on the main line.

 

Intrigued by the idea of misting dilute green paint over loco.  One to try.