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Hornby Star Class


gwrrob
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Well blow me down with a feather......A Star has arrived from the East.

A ltd edition from Steam.

I won't ever be able to sell it as "mint boxed" (not that I ever intend to part with it but thar not the point) though as it was double wrapped in bubble wrap and then wrapped in brown paper.

This is clearly not sufficient as the box is squished and crumpled and a hole/tear in one corner.

Having worked in a busy mail order model store in years gone by I find it incredulous that its not been sent in a sturdy cardboard outer box.

I shall regrettably have to have a moan to Steam.

Grrrrrrr

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Had a chance to get the model out for 1st inspection.

Problem A. Left hand side cylinder rear cover and slide bars hanging out....no glue on it by the look of it.

Problem B. Right hand side ejector support bracket behind the cab steps snapped.

Hornby need a kick up the A**e !

As others have stated we've had to wait a heck of a long time for some pretty poor build quality.

It just ain't cricket chaps !

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Having ordered mine from Steam last June, and working in Poland, I wasn't too worried about a fast delivery. However, as I'm spending a couple of weeks in blighty, I thought I'd better rattle a cage at Steam and find out what the position was. It seems mine was posted to Norfolk last December, but didn't arrive. Apparently a couple were returned by Royal Mail, when the address labels fell off! Geoff at Steam was a real help, yesterday on the phone, and a replacement is on the way (signed for). Full marks to him.

I just hope Lode is all in one piece and it works!

 

 

 

 

 

Edit for punctuation.

Edited by DavidR
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Not sure if this has happened to anyone else, but she's immediately shorted and subsequently cooked the Hornby decoder.... runs perfectly on analogue but the decoder is kaput

Mine hasn't cooked any decoders but I found it din't run nicely with a Hornby decoder.  Now using a Lenz silver which is fine until it gets a Zimo.

 

But even with the Lenz I wasn't happy with slow running in reverse - a little jerky.  Yesterday I replaced the motor with a Mashima 1624 and now it is very smooth in both directions.

 

Mike

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Mine runs beautifully - forwards and backwards - very smooth, very quiet. Lenz silver decoder, tried with both my Hornby Select controller and my new Hornby eLink. 

 

Edit: Mine is "Knight of the Garter"

Edited by TheCuckoo
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I look at how detailed most of the Star is and then look at those molded handrails and all I can say is ,WHY ?? Whoever thought that was a great idea should now be sat at home crying into their P45.

I think the reason behind it is very simple - they ran out of development money.  Or to be more exact the tooling designers/production designers were given a budget and that was it - or to be more precise in the case of those handrails that wasn't it.  Technically of course there is no problem at all in moulding the vertical handrail at the back end of the cab sidesheet with fresh air between it and the sidesheet but it does increase the tooling cost while having a separate horizontal handrail on the sidesheet either complicates the tooling or adds a few pence to the assembly cost.  

 

It's spoiling the ship for a ha-porth of tar (again) in my view but that's what we've been given and at least there is  'Star' with a very good body shape out of the work they did do - fortunately the accountants and money men didn't muck up that aspect of the model.

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I look at how detailed most of the Star is and then look at those molded handrails and all I can say is ,WHY ?? Whoever thought that was a great idea should now be sat at home crying into their P45.

I think that when I look at my Bachmann C class.

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I think that when I look at my Bachmann C class.

This has me slightly puzzled.

 

The Bachmann C Class has a separate smoke-box door handles moulding.

The cab-side vertical handrail is moulded but has daylight between it and the cab side sheet. I cannot see how a RTR company can fit a metal one in this position.

The Tender vertical handrail is moulded too but does not have daylight between it and the tender side sheet. Is this the thing you are critical of?

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I would really like one of these in early GW but Lode star is just too expensive. 

dont get me wrong i am more than happy to pay for an excellent model but many of these replys just put me off.

 

Maybe if 'Steam' do their own QC on them so i am more likely to get a good un.

 

Shame i have supported the NRM's Bachmann specials

 

cheerho

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The Star is a very good model. I think all manufacturers have stopped supplying etched name plates now, like wise the 12 spokes can be replaced by 10 spokes (although I am not how you contact Hornby about it).

 

You then have moulded vertical cab rails, not a worry as you won,t really notice them and Bachmann did the same on a recent loco as well. In fact my T9 has moulded vertical cab hand rails with day light that broke too easily, so the star is wise here.

 

The only slight downer are the small horizontal cab handrails that look more like little cab wings. That is it really, not enough to put me off the fine model.

BTW, these are very easy to remove, replace with wire ones and touch up the paint. They are so thin, you could flick them off with your finger.

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The Star is a very good model. I think all manufacturers have stopped supplying etched name plates now,

 

The nameplates are etched. the whole splasher/nameplate is a separate painted etched brass section that has been slotted in. Turn the model upside down and you can see the locking tab sticking through the running plate. You can push it out to reveal a plain splasher

 

Mike Wiltshire

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