MikeParkin65

Press the EXP button on the bottom row of the PowerCab with the loco selected to see functions selected.

Dare I say Sam is getting a little older and a little wiser? He's a top rate presenter and enthusiastic about the manufacture of model locomotives. Not at the moment a classic modeller but nothing wrong with that and he makes a useful contribution with his reviews.

Leading with the LMS version might be a factor - I suspect the BR late crest versions will be more popular on pre order.

I engaged with support and after various trials including sending a video to prove it was playing up (agreed probable motor failure) and finding a box big and stout enough to return it in (thanks Wold Top Brewery!) my D6700 arrived back at Accurascale 'Darlington works' last Monday according to Royal Mail. I didnt get any indication of how long it would be away for but in the proof of delivery photo it was one of at least half a dozen. I'm reckoning on waiting 4 weeks or so before asking on progress. It's not the only loco on the layout so its 'duties' are being admirably covered :)

None of the above are reasons for steam models to join in with a race to the bottom :)

But surely a fair review will include facts as discussed here - the lamps are over scale, the loco tender gap is large and fixed, the tail lamp is fixed and is unprototypical for the majority of modelled scenarios. The lamps are said by the manufacturer to be removeable - are they? . And then alert the reader to the fact that light bleed will be visible. None of this is nit picking. I very much want a Black Five to the standard of the Accurascale Manor and I was hoping we had one coming from Hornby. Sadly the model has been compromised to the extent that it no longer meets my expectations.

Although all 4 of the main magazines were negative (to varying degrees) about the new Heljan Brush Type 4/Class 47 despite 2 of them having limited editions for sale from the tooling

Reviewed in this months Hornby Mag. None of the concerns we have voiced mentioned at all. Only hint of a criticism is haulage where it would only haul 6 Bachmann Mk1 'due to their rolling resistance', it did however haul 12 Hornby Mk1s and 12 Accurascale Mk2's for comparison.

Affected electrical continuity rather than traction - the factory had used a non conductive grease and Bachmann had changed from their usual (and reliable) wiper pick up arrangement to a set up using contacts to the bearing which was in turn picking up from the axle. The home fix involved a clean out with IPA and soldering in proper wiper pickups (and a hard wire to the circuit board for good measure.

I've no idea how many of my locos have 'satans cable' arrangements but its well into double figures. I've only had one failure of it and that was a Hornby Brit 'dead on arrival'. And an easy fix with a soldering iron. Hornby have refined the fitting of the tender connection in recent years by having a screw fixing in the tender rather than glued in - this makes any required repair even easier.

Accurascale Manor accomplishes scale coupling, the advantages of the cam on curves, no slop and electrical connection with aplomb. The latest Bachmann 9f has the adjustable bar coupling and a separate plug for the electrical connection which works equally as well (although I have made my own closer coupling bar using a yoghurt pot lid and a Lidl hole punch!) as the Bachmann bar leaves a huge gap even on the closest setting.

Agree more robust (and commensurately chunky) but still unfortunately leaved too large a gap between loco and tender and it is a fixed distance. My layout is no 'Little Bytham' but I take care to keep curves as gentle as possible. With a minimum 36 inch (curve of a Peco medium radius point) I find I can couple most tenders much closer than the supplied 'standard' coupling - especially if things like inner tender buffers are removed (for the Hornby Brit for example this means they will operate reliably on the 'display' setting ). Accurascale and Dapol have both shown how to properly take advantage of cam coupling for the tender so Hornby really have no excuse for what they are doing with the A£, A4 and now the Black Five. Better proven solutions already on the market and deployed by their competitors. Removing the cam from the Bachmann V2 is on my current 'to do' list - I waited for prices to drop before buying that model, will be the same with the Black Five

Bachmann also have relatively recent research for their 2 mm model as well of course. And the 8F …….

Agree entirely. The only thing that could be improved is perhaps the plug and socket they used. Appreciate these will be the cheapest solution but something like the plugs DCC Concepts sell would is more robust and easier to use in my experience. That said i dont pack my models away on a regular basis so several are now hard wired together anyway.

According to the blurb for the just announced Rails Ltd edition of 5428 as preserved the model has a flywheel. Anybody taken the loco body off yet and able to confirm? https://railsofsheffield.com/search?q=R30387 black 5&_kx=nTbDlYO2tIJF0g9_RHJfhaYIH4IEvjBwUEE9OGmQgKbqnSFePN1n7xZw98DdvMB7.RXkVMS&utm_campaign=Exclusive Railway Icons Hornby Black 5 Announcement&utm_id=01HWCTPR051J0D68J9Z228C817&utm_medium=campaign&utm_source=Klaviyo

You surely haven't let that beauty got for scrap have you? 🤯

Dare I say that whilst the bogie wheels have the correct Stanier bevel that same bevel is noticeably missing from the drivers? Strangely Hornby did the same with the recent 2MT

I'd go for Locoman - best sounds I have heard. My Black 5 from him is old though - back in the days when he was offerring Zimo. Currently has an offer on D&H decoders @£92 . I've got his projects on D&H for the 2MT and A2/2 - running quality is good though for absolute smoothness I think Zimo remains the benchmark. Yoochoose and Digitrains very good too although I will say Digitrains sound (depending on the project of course) can be a little treble biased in my experience ('heavy LMS' in a Duchess, BR Standard 7 in a Clan, BR 2MT in and Ivatt 2mt).

I've got to say when I was running DC all of the sweetest runners were Hornby (Black 5's, Princess, Duchess - you can see where my heart is!), all with motors in the body and none of them had flywheels. That was running with a basic trainset controller. Hornby mechanisms are one of their strong points in my experience. I am DCC now but with live frogs for the points, reasonable (but not Brunel standard) tracklaying and with the minimum of track cleaning I find everything runs reliably without the need for stay alive. If I were buying the new Black 5 apart from the lamps going the other 'straight in the bin' item would be the loco tender coupling. I assume the DCC socket is in the tender so would need to add a new connector wired connection for that but thats easy enough.

I dont like to labour a point but the front 'removeable' lamps are obviously not easy to remove - see Youtube - whilst the tender light is fixed and no spare iron is supplied to fill the gap after it is 'Xuroned'. On DC you'll need to address 'light bleed' with the lamps removed, on DCC hopefully you can just turn the LED's off. The tender-loco gap is fixed and unnecessarily wide - the cam should allow for close coupling but clearly that potential has not been taken advantage of. Worse, the electrical connection appears fragile, again see YouTube. The frustration is that when Hornby get it right it can be so good - 2Mt is lovely, so lovely I bought a second.

Perfectly capable of doing it myself but as I think you said earlier - reluctant to - and why should I on what is marketed as a scale model and costs north of £200? True it shouldnt be any different to ' choosing whether or not to add a snowplough or coupling shank' but clearly it is! This has been demonstrated on various YouTube reviews.

'Moan' is used to often these days as a pejorative. It isnt unreasonable for us, as modellers and prospective purchasers of this new version of the Black 5 to express our disappointment at how it has been spoilt by a couple of very minor changes that have no place on a well researched scale model (remember it says in the small print 'this is not a toy'!). I've voted with my wallet on this one and cancelled my pre order (which I deliberately made with a large box shifter so as not to leave a smaller dealer stuck with stock as I could see the way the model was evolving) . As @cctransuk said earlier the working lamps would be welcome if they were properly developed and didnt compromise the core product. As they are at the moment they would be much better deployed on a Railroad Model - Tornado perhaps?

Yep - good spot. Will edit now so this post will make no sense at all lol

Too late - Heljan D5243 will be joined by SLW D5234 whenever that arrives. And I have to say that the Heljan model is very good indeed, beautifully finished, silky smooth runner and despite its lightness has no apparent haulage problems. I did notice that with the Rails and Kernow discounts it is the GSYP's that sold out first.

Maybe as a club model or a commission?