Butler Henderson

Rapidos Lion has an Hornby equivalent chain coupling pin so Accurscales chain couplings should work

Looks like the nameplates are separately fitted as well and not the moulded lump that was mooted before.

Maybe the announcement was the sign on the stand - Oxford Rail relaunch.

It would suggest the chimey has been knocked off and reattached. It does have a NEM mount, just the 363 style which is rare on UK models despite a number having a result very protruding 362 mounts fitted. As such 363 style coupling are rare for UK used couplings but a 362 plastic shanked coupling with a bit of care can be trimmed to fit a 363 mount. Use the supplied 363 coupling as a template for cutting/trimming the 362.

New slogan for them needed - Hornby putting the toy back into models

If the interior could be removed it would be a simple task of tapping the track connections of the function decoder to the contact strips buried between the interior and body shell. Another way of doing it would be take connections off the wheel contact strips on the chassis . Thinking however a neater, less potentially clumsy in terms wiring, approach would be to get hold of another light board (when they come available] and using two of its plunger contacts fitted into two more holes in the existing coach light board - the track supply runs down either side of it. Had a spoky Halloween with the Hornby coaches which all lit and refused to stay turned off, so they have been removed of their batteries. The conductive couplings are a pretty short length which seemed to be a major problem until I came across these height adaptors for the Bachmann Prairie - https://mademe.co.uk/product/oo-Bachmann-prairie-nem-converter-4x-pkt/ Used in pairs, one inverted, gives a longer NEM shank around an additional Kadee Knuckle on a Kadee 20 so hoping that only one coupling in an adjoined pair will need doing.

I'm assuming the interiors are glued in place unless I have missed something. Trying to work out how to fit a function decoder in a brake or lavatory area to then switch the lights on adjoining Hornby 4 wheelers via conduction couplings.

Found detached what Bachmanns web site tells me is the brake acutator https://Bachmann-spares.co.uk/product/category/813/class-66-brake-actuator-32-725/e3297-mis-04 but completely foxed as to where it fits Any advice gratefully received

Hope that website image is wrong re the shade of green

Initial batch had crankpins that came loose - fixed on later production and free spares available from Peco

Not keen on removable smoke box doors, often too much delicate detail in danger of being damaged. Also, and could be the case with the arrangement proposed here, have had one where the socket was dead due to at least one wire coming detached at ats apparently fixed end. If the pull out arrangement is being pursued then the wires need to be securely clamped so they are not depending on an often poorly soldered connection to hold them in place.

and minus a pony truck ? Seriously however does that not open issues of pony truck screws not being properly retightened or over tightened. The simplest most obvious place IMO for a decoder on a tender loco is under a removable coal load

And are either of the 1247s accurate for its use on perserved lines post its 1960s railtour use and before its current static display mode?

Not that bothered by the inital releases anyway - hoping for one in plain green, like https://www.flickr.com/photos/justinfoulger/52967264215/

Does say Autumn 2023 on Hornbys web site.

Carefully I found they would lift to around 45 degrees

Surely 68846.

My preserved one arrived today - postie had tried to deliver it yesterday despite me rearranging the delivery to Frdiay, A credit card eased the box apart and the bubblepack was not too difficult to remove. The wrongly placed buffet is not particularly noticeable if you have the other side facing . The coach is roughly one of its balcony ends longer that a Hattons 6 wheeler.

HP laptop has 23H2 now on it. Old acer laptop in use as a keboard and separate monitor in the railway room has not been offered it,

More thinking of using Rapidos Lion as Rocket is the biggest pile of brown stuff I have bought. Had a go at rewiring it to solve the snapping tender connection wires problem and my own wires snapped. The problem is there is virtually no space in the loco for the wires meaning they have to be in tension and one adverse tug on the tender and snap they go. Whole loco needs a complete redesign using internal contact strips to a point where wires can be connected that are not in tension. And separately the driving wheel axle made captive rather than depending on metal lugs on the inside of the body, held down by the thinnest bolt possible, and which no doubt over time will wear leading to the gear wheel on the axle slipping on the worm. Overpriced pile of junk.

Hornbys R3723 6145 looks to be a straighforward one to renumber with a set of plates to 5199. Still to be found if you look beyond the major suppliers

Interesting. Anyone come up with a way of propelling successfully other than on a relatively straight track. Thinking of something like a moulded rigid plastic "chain" with projecting pieces to either end which rub against the coach etc limiting the extent of swing.

Or you just add some insulation tape to the end of the pcb that you do not want the lights showing.

Or simply Hornby and customer service are generally poles apart; any request I have made to them for a spare part recently gets a response of try Peters Spares. If others can nominally at least make every part available why cannot Hornby.

The normal issue of a faulty batch coming off the production line together and going in the same box which is then opened by the shop would explain Antics finding fault with a number.