Stevelewis

Worth remembering that Hattons main stock is in their despatch warehouse in Widnes, so although I presume that they keep spome of everything in the warehouse, if there is any specific item you are intending to be tempted with, it can be reserved online for collection. I live around 45mins ( theorectical )drive from there, but these days I get everything sent by nest day delivery, its actually cheaper than the fuel cost!

Can any one that has purchased a 205 with sound comment on the sound, I beleive there were some earlier negative comments, but now perhaps as there are more users of sound fitted units the overall picture may be different?

I suppose its lucky then that not many of us have the space to run 60 wagon trains

Just a little more info re the 01's haulage power: It is worth checking the tender pickups, I do favour as many pickups as possible on locos but sometimes non powered wheels with pickups can act as brakes! (Older N gauge users may remember some of the tender pickup fitted Graham Farish locos) Anyway we tested 2 01 locos yesterday the owner of one reckoned his lacked haulage power and it did only 15 wagons up the gradient mentioned in an earler post that my 01 hauled 25 wagons up.. We fitted my o1's tender to his loco and it immediately improved haulage capacity increasing by around 50%. We found the tender pickups on his loco to be exerting more presure on the wheel backs, than those on my loco , so after slightly reducing the 'bend' of the pickups and re attaching it to his loco the loco 's pulling power increased. in line with my loco Obviously tinkering with the tender pickups has to be done carefully to get a balance between them actually picking up power and not actng as brakes.

I am not so sure that the 01 lacks weight, I ran mine on a friends largish layout and we found it would easily haul 25 4 wheel wagons up a 1 in 48 incline on a 48" radius curve, as a comparison a Hornby 8f latest (weathered) release stalled with 17 on. My concern with removing the flywheel and adding extra weight is how much nett gain in weight is achieved when the weight of the flywheel is considered?

I am not sure if the flywheel in this instance makes a lot of difference, it does obviously have a minor effect, but I was always taught that for a flywheel to have the most effect its diameter needs to exceed that of the motor's armature, The 01's flywheel has quite a small diameter Many locos with flywheels to have large diameter flywheels and their effect can be quite notable by the, 'run on' of a loco when it is running at a reasonably high speed and the power is suddenly cut,

Yes I totally agree with you initial testing of this loco confirmed that it was an excellent performer, I would go so far as to say that in many years of buying RTR locos from the Tri-ang days it is amongst the best, it is such a pity that due to some disappointing Hornby locos their products have been 'avoided' by myself and a few freinds recently. Perhaps this performance experience bodes well for the forthcoming P2 and 71000, both of which 'may' be purchased although they would have absolutely no place on the current 00 layout in progress which is Southern EMU based, but then neither does the 01 have a place on it, but it looks great. Well Done Hornby!!

I think it may depend on which decoder is fitted, some factory fitted Hornby decoders do work well in my experience whilst some don't!

Recvd Hornby 01 from Arcadia today Must say i am very impressed (for once) I have not bought any Hornby locos for a while now due to disatisfaction with previous purchases, but this one is good. I have fitted a decoder (Lenz) and after adjusting some CVs the loco will crawl almost imperceptably ( 6' travelled in 3 minutes) The Max volts CV5 is now set to 95 which gives the loco an approx scale speed of just 45MPH. I am almost tempted to buy another!!

Should any one be looking for the BR Weathered version on the Hornby 01 (DCC ready) Tim at Arcadiarail (01706 882900) has stock @ £109.00+postage

Many thanks for your quick response

Can any one advise please does the Hornby 01 have tender pickups? Thanks in anticipation Steve

Well I think my £199.00 saved up for the BG will have to go on another Mallet for the 0n30, thats a heavy hauler but not 00

Yes seems to be running a little late! However I suppose I can spend the saved up cash on sonething else and save up again!!!

Many sound fitted locos etc do sound a whistle are let off steam or ring a bell when power is first applied to them. All my Bachmann Tsunami fitted 0n30 loco do! It indicates that the sound unit is working! Have you any comments on the sound in the 205, there were some earlier comments that it was not really that good, so any thoughts are welcomed

Re My post #1283, I am disappointed to note that although a Dapol employee has been online no response has been forthcoming.

I have just received a Green Western , unfortunately the loco apears to have some missing parts on one bogie and also a twisted buffer and one cab window pushed inward. I am correct in assuming that both cabs should have 2 windscreen wipers? This one only has one at one end! The loco was very well packed by the supplying retailer and I feel sure the problems occured when the loco was factory packed. It will be returning to the retailer. I have some photos which I would be pleased to forward to Dapol should they be interested. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I thought Dapol might have been interested but obviously not, I shall vote with my feet in future, the loco has now returned to the selling retailer.

If you power up the 4 car unit with lights on but stationery (assuming you are using digital) then raise up from the track so no wheels make contact one of the trailer cars you will see that the lights go out thus indicating the wheels are not isolated and do in fact perform the function I described previously. The lighting functions of the unit did prove rather perplexing in the initial few weeks of the CEPs release, but we finally manged to understand how it is set up If you disassemble the cars make sure that when you re- assemble, that there is a good contactt between the brass strips ( bend them to increase pressure if nescessary)

For info only the power car actually COLLECTS power the wheels on the 3 unpowered cars simple return the power to the circuit to enable internal and end car indicator light work. If you set the 4 car unit on the track apply power then lift the powered car up so no wheels are in contact you will note that the motor does not work! Also the lights in the other 3 cars go out! This was discussed at length when the 4 CEP was first launched as it did cause some queries as severall sources did state ' picks up power on ALL wheels' The wheels of the 3 unpowered cars provide a return route for the power, this enabled the unit to be designed with power connections between cars ( the coupling bars) only requiring 2 'wires', so a simpler perhaps more durable connection, than Hornby's system of 4 wiresin the couplings of the 5 BEL & 4 VEP both of which do not have return via wheels in the trailers.

Thanks for the memories, I used to live in Levenshulme (about 3 miles away) as a child and we often used to cycle across to Reddish to do a bit of train spotting, and also to watch the Midland Pullman arrive back in the evening after it's run up from London. My wife lived approx. 1 mile from the site! She lived in the housing estate visible in one of the photos!!

Bradford Model Centre Yes Manchester opposite my department store!!! I used to visit frequently around 77 to 84. It was a nice shop with very nice staff, now sadly gone I think?

We Have 7 Westerns available at the last count all Heljan (sorry just been told its EIGHT 8) we have no intention of replacing any of them for Dapol versions. All our Westerns perform brilliantly and it would not seem cost effective to replace them.

Absolutely spot on!! If you are playin' trains, you arent out doing other things!!

Hi Keith Thanks for the info you have posted, this has proved very beneficial, decision wise! Regards Steve

I would say that the 2 BIL does fall short of the 2 EPB in terms of quality and value for money, I feel the lack of lighting doesnt help, when the BILs are alongside the CEPs & EPBs the lack of lightng is very apparent, however it should be noted that if Hornby had added lighting the BIL would probable have cost quite a bit more and Bachmann have established a certain expertise with coach lighting with their EMUs & DMUs. As far as I am aware the only coaches with Lighting that Hornby have produced are the PUllmans & 5 BEL but that system is entirely different no ceiling lights, just table lamps which are a fibre optic system. I know some modellers have revised their BIL plans, one guy had 5 on order but only recieved 2. He has cancelled his other 3 and I noticed that he now has a second Bue Pullman on his layout!! It will be interesting to see if any other manufacturer comes up with an new EMU when they make their announcements. Would point out re SAC Martin's post above the Bachmann EMUs only have 1 powered bogie, but in their case it is a different set up, the motor is fixrd in the car , is flywheel fitted and drives the 'powered' bogie via a cardan shaft. ( Very Smoothly)