letterspider

Is anyone else having a problem with their motor car derailing over points. The bogies jump when running toe to heel - conseuqntly I can't go more than 50% speed before there is a derailment My trackwork is PECO Code 100 and nothing else has problems running over it

Still not tried the APT on my inclines - it works well at about 50% and any faster than that and it derails over points, as pointed out earlier it is when a wheel drops at the frog.

That sounds similar to the problem I had - see post 955. Are the wheels only moving on one bogie? One of the drive shafts may be disconnected

Okay - Hornby you owe me back an hour of my life, everything seems to be back together again and working properly. The pantograph was okay as the insulators are part of the bogie support and so the pantograph assembly is supposed to be separate from it - I guess the glue was less effective on mine when put together. The pantograph must have been a nightmare to assemble at the factory. So everything is now running smoothly and quietly on flat second radius track with 8 cars - I have to say I am impressed at how the motor car doesn't derail the leading the coaches; I'm not sure about my inclines - will be testing that later. Finally I have to say, if you don't have a magnetic screwdriver - you are going to find reassembly challenging.

Received my 7 car set today - really impressed with first impressions (wasn't thinking about the cost while I unpacked it) I have a DCC circuit so to insert 3 chips was a pain because there is 0.000 space in there once you have to force the wiring loom in. My retailer tested the power car before it was sent out and it ran fine on its own but once the trains were assembled (and those clip couplings are not easy to put together) horrible noises started coming from the motor car. After testing it was found one bogie was not receiving any torque. So then disassembly had to begin and found one of the coupling shafts was disconnected - and I have to say re-insertion was NOT easy. I also found the suppressor was not soldered together -only held together by shrink wrap, okay not a big deal until it comes lose and falls into the movement. I also saw the body clips were broken on on side - I am not that hand fisted so I assume during assembly. Also The pantograph broke all too easily during disassembly at the connection between base and insulators. This would all be unsolvable by a customer who did not know what is going on and how to fix it. I guess I just was unlucky with this purchase - we shall see how it all goes when reassembled and run in I want to go and have a cup of tea now but I better get it assembled before I lose all the screws....

Capacitor moved and passengers added. The tables have holes beneath them so you don't have to cut off the legs of your passengers

This is a good technique - its amazing how super glue seems to crack and flake off However the plastic does become brittle and I have had a Vitrains body shell split right down the middle just from the handling of it while removing it from the freezer!

Take a look at the pantographs on the Accurascale Class 92 or the Bachmann 90 - a good quality and precise pantograph can be done in metal but my guess is it would add £10 - 20 to the motor car. Mind you after upwards of £400 you are not going to quibble over £10-20 provided you smile every time you look at your model?

I have just received an 86/6 in Freightliner green The TDM cables are moulded but to my eye are very fine and precisely painted - only the modeller demanding the highest levels of precision could, or would want to correct them and the same applies to the pantograph. Evidence of a lot of thought of the fine details by the designers to make a really pleasing product, I can understand why they have sold out. This was a big gamble to take against Hornby and hopefully Heljan will think about the 82 , 83 and 84 as well as the Class 86 in Network Rail livery

I would recommend snipping the legs of the capacitor half way and soldering the link wire to the stumps. That way you don't risk too much heat getting onto the lighting board and damaging the fragile tracks and components Just received my APT 7 car today and disappointed that a pantograph is already broken in the box! After a very long wait and price increases - I do not dare find out how much further trouble there will be with this model - at over £500 I hoped for better. I am going to send this back to the retailer because I think Hornby need to get the message via their balance sheet that they need to listen to customer issues, have a deep rethink about the the poor quailty of most of their pantographs; and the cam couplings on their locos and...... It is bizarre they went to the trouble to create a prestige model and then to do something so ham fisted.

Here is how it looks on and off the layout

White 2mm tower LEDs 3V were sourced and painted black all over except the ends. At each corner 4 diagonal holes were drilled with a 2mm bit and after widening the hole slightly I was able to glue the LEDs in place. For this project I decide upon inserting a coin cell battery operated by a simple pin switch in the end of the coach

How does the tool work on flexitrack curves, which are really hard to keep in place without adjustments?

Large laser box has also been 3D printed and painted. Just waiting on the LEDs

Here is my attempt upon the NMT overhead monitoring coach using this donor body The tooling is ex-Lima and is very hard to dismantle as the glazing and roof is one unit and a very tight fit. The method I used was to prise off the end corridor connections, snap off the transparent tab and cut through the end of the body, this gives a bit of lateral flex to allow the glazing to prise free The angled edges of the pantograph well look curved but are actually a straight diagonal cut and can be fit with flat plastikard; a plastikard base was also glued into place. Well made 3D design in Sketchup - about 85% accurate - some details have to be exaggerated as I have an extrusion printer (if these are of use to anyone PM me) These are coarse test prints (0.15mm layer) but far exceed anything I could achieve by scratchbuilding

Link to Facebook page here:

Dapol I think they have backed themselves into a corner with the Class 59 because the Class 68 (which was exceptional) will be compared against it and the 59 may be found wanting. They have to balance reputation, profitability on the 59. Market research may indicate they can sell more and make more money if they go for less detail (better than Hornby but not quite Hattons 66 standard) and lower price. What if the economic conditions may be unfavourable and they can't make a profit at all should they decide to sell the tooling perhaps to recoup development costs? What would you do under the circumstances? After all these years ?

Dapol have already tooled their model and got as far as decorated samples.

Are the two power cars different?

Seriously? I don't have a Maths degree but 2x7 = 14 2x5 = 10 okay disregarding the trailers it is less outlay to buy 2 coaches instead of 6?

I have ordered the 7 car set and expanding towards 14 cars - I have gradients and curves - now what to do with the dummy NDM now that one power car won't cut the beef? I imagine they will be appearing upon online marketplaces, or perhaps Hornby will make spare motors and cardan shafts to motorise the dummy (although I imagine you will find that more expensive than buying a NDM which is not even available) So now my other option is two 5 car sets and sell the driving trailers but I want black surrounds... I guess a good retailer can manage to sell you stuff you didn't want!

Does the power car have traction tyres? it would be surprising Hornby didn't opt for traction tyres like in their VEP, perhaps they did try them out in testing and they wore out too soon

I seem to recall somewhere in this thread that you may have to put the decoder in a different loco to reprogram CV's - otherwise you end up with erratic behaviour due to interference between the DCC chip and the other components; (and this has happened to me too on two different Class 90's) however I found that resetting to factory defaults with chip in the loco does work and will cure the problem but then you are stuck with address 03 Isn't this supposed to be one of the reasons the 2nd batch is coming with a new chip?

I would think the Rapido APT E is better value all around better internal details high detailing on the bodywork through wiring between twin power cars twin sound lighting throughout average £110 per coach however the extra trailers are expensive at £120 each

The 7 car set sold out very quickly on pre-orders _ I couldn't find (m)any when I tried to order in October This may be a case of Hornby extending the production run due to high demand?