scouse889

I thought that was what Hornby were doing - i.e., the new slam-door Mark 3 range announced earlier this year is an all new tooling and not based on any existing Hornby/Lima/Oxford toolings? I'm sure this was discussed at some point in the 2022 Hornby coaching stock range thread...?

Does anyone who has these wagons happen to know if the NEM pocket is removable from the wagon without completely disintegrating it? For whatever reason it is a "bespoke" design and when I try to fit replacement Hunt Couplings they are loose in the pocket. I was hoping I could maybe replace them with the stadard Hornby/Bachmann pockets as the recesses on the boiges looks the same shape. I've had a go at trying to ease the pockets out of the recesses with a small screwdriver but the normal amount of pressure required on a Hornby or other Bachmann wagon or coach doesn't budge them, and I don't really want to knacker the bogies on a £40 wagon! Any advice greatly appreciated.

There's a worrying window of opportunity for "Liverpool Street-Newcastle" to appear from that!

You forgot to mention a Beatles one!

Never had one pop out of my HSTs but a few of my 60s have suffered this problem - so if the method for fixing is anything like the arrangement on the Hornby Class 60, there is a very small C-ring in clear plastic (I think, it's that damn small you practically need a microscope to see it) around the rear of the buffer which keeps it in the socket - and if you are unlucky enough to pull a buffer out the socket the little C-ring pings off across the room somewhere, never to be seen again....... I don't think you can get them as spares, never seen them unfortunately.

Only 15....? Now that's what I call optimism! Seriously though, it's really quite inexcusable that this latest batch has issues that the original batches of both IC Swallow and NR DVTs don't have. Failing of QC, pure and simple. I remain hopeful for the Mark IVs....

Sorry to hear you are having issues. I have this train pack and haven't experienced any issues. Are all of your coaches derailing or just one or two of them, and do the derailments happen in the same place on the track? Do you have other Mark 1 coaches from Hornby that you can use to check it isn't an issue with the track? Have you checked that all of the wheels are sitting properly in the bogies, on both sides? Sometimes they come out of place in transit which might lead to the derailments and the coaches no sitting properly.....

I have the original version and have never noticed light bleed. I’ll try to post a photo (if I remember - sorry won’t have chance tonight). As far as I am aware the light bleed issue only affects the two newest releases (R4996 Intercity Swallow and R4990 Network Rail) - earlier IC Swallow and Kernow’s Special Edition NR yellow DVT, plus all the other previous DVTs are fine. Certainly don’t notice anything obvious on any that I own and have avoided the two newest for this reason. That’s progress for you….!

Fabulous news, another great addition to the range. Well done Accurascale.

I never knew that Hornby put the livery on the real one!

The Bachmann DMUs have metal contacts which the metal axles sit directly into, and I think this is what causes the squeak (metal on metal). I have this issue with some of my 150s and haven’t found a solution to it.

All the Lima Mk3 coach releases (incorrectly) had buffers - a common moulding was used for the TS, TF and TGS vehicles, and a slightly different one for the buffet car. The first releases of the TGS by Hornby were not modified and so they all have buffers too, it was only around the release of the second GWR green set (ca 2018?) that this feature was finally corrected.... so after about 35 years....!!

Thanks for the photo - very interesting. I meant to compare it with the R3944 buffer-fitted power cars released a couple of years ago but haven't had chance to do this. As I mentioned, it seems very close to the colours used on the original 91s that Hornby made and from the look of it the upper grey seems more grey and less green (and this also looks to be the case in your pictures). Didn't think about the lower bodyside colour though.... I actually think it looks pretty close to how I remember this livery..... wonder what the forthcoming 91s and Mk4s will be like?

Received mine today. No high-pitched sound when operating (DC) in either direction, but headlights do flash - albeit only on the mid-range of the voltage (I'm using a D Series Gaugemaster controller, they are fine between ~0-40, flash between ~40-50, and are fine again ~50-max)!! Go figure....!!!??? The paint colours on the HST DVT match really quite closely with those used on my venerable old model of 91010 (one of the original Class 91 Swallow releases from the late 80s/early 90s that I have a fondness for, as it was an Xmas present when I was about 10), and these two coupled either end of the rake of five R4282/R4282A blue/grey sleeper coaches that I bought because I took a fancy to them when they were released (and which have basically sat in their boxes ever since!) look a really good representation of the early test trains that were run when the 91s were first delivered. A nice length train to run on a modest-sized layout too, and something very different, so I'm very pleased with it overall!

Isn't Railadventure's plan to use the power cars in pairs, coupled back-to-back, to haul trains (sure I read this somewhere)? If so, this might present a problem with using the Hornby model, as the present version does not have couplings fitted to the front - so unless part of the recently announced upgrade involves fitting a coupling socket to the front of these buffer-fitted power cars (and there has been nothing to suggest this is the case on the basis of the information released so far) it would be impossible to use them to haul a train back-to-back without some sort of modification or bodge. I got my copy of the Hornby catalogue the other week and noticed the description of the R30219 East Midlands Trains HST pack. The same description is on the Hornby website: The HST fleet is now into its fifth decade of travelling British railways, and replacements for it are currently being introduced East Midlands Trains among others are marking the train as it enters its last years of service.East Midlands Trains celebrated the last of the HSTs to travel in the East Midlands with their 'End of the line - A HST story' documentary and a special locomotive 43274 is the first (and only) unique purple HST to enter service on the Midland Main Line. The CGI mock-up image of the power cars shows them as East Midlands Trains, and it seems odd to me that East Midlands Railway 43274 is mentioned in the description rather than either of the two power cars in the pack, plus a description of the end of service of these trains - so I wonder if this is another case of the TPE 802 that was mentioned in the catalogue a couple of years back only for it to appear this year, and so indeed Hornby are planning a future pack containing 43274.... I will keep my fingers crossed... with 43102, please!

Received my pair of FGW power cars and some of the coaches last week, and had chance to compare them to the ca 2016 R3478 power cars and coaches over the weekend. The newer R3958 versions are definitely a different shade of blue as compared to the R3478 version - to my eyes the blue on the newer models is a deeper shade (less purple?) with a glossier finish. Whether these two are related I have no idea, but the power cars and coaches look much more like I remember the real thing, and how the prototypes appear in reference photographs. It is nice to have the buffet with roof ribs and the TSD represented in the set as well, so all in all a good job by Hornby and overall I am very happy with the models. Having said about the blue being different, it isn't so different that it jars against the R3478 power cars and coaches (as can be seen in the photos posted above - but clearly 43087 is a tad darker and glossier than 43036), and so it should be perfectly possible to use the new coaches with the older power cars, which will enable me to get rid of the skinhead R4371A buffet for one of the newer R40035 ones. I think I will get another TSD to use in my original rake as well (or I might just replace the whole rake). One minor annoyance is that the TS vehicles are fitted with the incorrect 2+1 first class seating modules (so you can't see any seat backs in the windows - which you should be able to), whilst the buffet is fitted with the interior for a TGS vehicle with 2+2 seating, so you can see the seat backs between the windows (and you shouldn't be able to)! This also means there are also seats inside the buffet area instead of a representation of the kitchen and serving area (although the tinted glazing and lack of large windows does of course go a long way to hiding this). The use of 2+1 seating moulding in the TS vehicles just seems to be what Hornby does these days (the last time I recall the 2+2 TS moulding being used was for the first batch of LNER coaches in 2019) but the TGS moulding in the buffet is a new one on me. I think both are illustrative of Hornby's well-documented lacklustre approach to QC - a case of just stick any old seats inside it, that will do. At least I can open the coaches easily enough and exchange the seating units. My TGS has not arrived yet - wonder if it will have a buffet interior??!

Q.E.D. - appears not!

And it always had a central can motor as released by Lima - this was one of Lima’s last throw of the dice, supposedly a model which pushed back the boundaries. For info, Lima made eight versions of the loco, all in EWS livery: 001-005, 013, 025 and 030. When Hornby rereleased it, they upgraded to a different can motor with improved performance, and improved lighting arrangement.

Totally agreed, in fact quite a bit of the coach releases this year seem to be "one offs" - a single vehicle type in a particular livery, for example an executive and a blue/grey RBR - what Hornby stock are you supposed to run with them (surely Hornby aren't making them so we can add a catering vehicle to a Bachmann Mk2 rake, plus both versions of the previous releases of these liveries still available - why no executive Mk2s or blue/grey Mk2s to go with them??), the five DRS TSO Mark 2s - sure previous releases all sold out, but why isn't there a BSO to go with them (all of these from the original releases all sold out too), even the Caledonian RLOs are a singleton, being released to complement the SLE Mk3s and BSO Mk2 announced as part of last year's range - so why was this not joined up as a release in the 2021 range?? I've not been interested in the Caledonian sleepers and day coaches thus far as there weren't representations of both of the day coaches announced, so it was not possible to assemble a representation of the train, and exactly the same thing happened with the previous release of the SLEs in "First" livery. Don't get me wrong, glad the RLO has been announced but the thinking doesn't seem very joined up - it's very odd to me, I guess there must be some reason somewhere... at least, I hope there is and it isn't all random!

I have two white roof Mk1 BCKS either end of a Bachmann Mk1 pullman rake hauled by Bachmann 47834 as a charter. The colours of the Bachmann 47 and Hornby BCK match really well - so although unlikely this is prototypical it looks great to me!

Run it with the three versions of the RBR in executive livery that have now been announced??! With the first two versions still being available I’m not sure why Hornby thought another was needed this year. More surprising to me because - and please correct me if I am wrong here - I don’t think there are very many Hornby coaches suitable to pair with it (I have one - and only one - which I use with Bachmann blue/grey Mark 2s). It’s this mysterious and seemingly unnecessary repetition of models that confuses me. Same with the LNER mark 3s, which as others have commented have been done as a new rake every year since 2019, and some of the 2019 vintage is still available!

Plus, there was one set of power cars produced along with 18 coaches in the Cross Country livery. This amounted to two full sets, plus two extra TSDs and two extra TSs. Obviously I have no idea of volumes produced, but why there were so many versions of the coaches produced is beyond me - but the fact they are all now in the bargain bin suggests far too many coaches were produced. Beats me why another set of power cars has never appeared…

Thanks for all the info @Phil Mc, the pictures definitely help. Unfortunately, however, it means that both the model PCs and coaches are incorrect!

OK, so some digging, there is definitely some grey on at least the back of the power cars, you can see it very clearly against the black corridor ends, and that it matches with the grey roofs of the coaches, in this still for example: The front of the roofs does look black to me though. I wonder if there is a grey band at the back of the power cars, either side, over the former guards window, with the rest of the roof being black (either with paint or dirt)? Anyone know?

I can't work out what is going on with the paint on the roofs of the real thing - there certainly isn't an abrupt change in shade between power cars and coaches, but the coach roofs look a bit lighter to me compared to the front of the power cars, which do look black. Probably just due to the varying amount of dirt up there! Do you have a photo of the power cars with the coaches? I can imagine the difference looks a bit jarring on the model train when assembled, which puts me off...