apollanaut

It's true that the impressive blue livery in the photos is what persuaded me to buy Princess Marie Louise. It will be my first BR blue loco, so hopefully Hornby will have improved the shade and depth of this tricky colour.

It’s a bit like waiting for a bus. Ages pass then two turn up at once (as in I not only want Princess Elizabeth in my all-time favourite LMS red livery, but also Princess Marie Louise in that irresistible early BR blue......) I’ve just given my other half (aka “Chancellor of the Family Exchequer”) the bad news. No response as yet, but it’s only a matter of time before the pills are needed.....

I later realised that my brother and I first saw Duchess of Hamilton many years before. Back in the early 1970s, we spent a fortnight at Butlins in Minehead for an old fashioned family holiday by the seaside. At that time, the Duchess was still on display at the camp in non-streamlined form. I encountered her once more after her escape from the holiday camp, since she was one of the participants in the 1980 cavalcade to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the Rainhill trials, which I attended at age 17.

On a side-note, I finally got to see the restreamlined Duchess of Hamilton at the NRM in 2014. I still have family and friends in the UK so try to visit every couple of years or so (finances permitting). And I usually manage to fit in a few railway-related trips during my stay. On this occasion, My partner arranged for us to take my brother and wife on a wonderful tour of Yorkshire and the North of England. We took a first class Grand Central Meridian DMU from Kings Cross to York and stayed there for a few days before hiring a car to visit other attractions in the North. Seeing the Duchess in all her Art Deco glory was one of the highlights of the trip; she really does look magnificent in this form!

Agreed! My brother arrived in NZ from the UK in December for an extended holiday; just in time for my birthday on 21 December. I suspected that he’d bring the recent reissue of SWS for my birthday present (he shares my love of model railways and is a generous soul). What I didn’t know is that he’d arranged (at considerable expense) for Digitrains to fit the model with a Zimo sound decoder and high quality speaker! I am absolutely delighted with this wonderful gift. Not only is the model an absolute stunner (one of Hornby’s best IMHO) but the sounds uploaded by Digitrains are the best I’ve heard in an 00 gauge steam loco! I’ll take some photos next time I visit my seaside property, where my layout is based, to share here.

I’ve held off from buying the latest version of the streamlined Coronations based on the the comments here, even though it is one of my all time favourite locomotives. I already own a lovely model of Duchess of Hamilton in red/gold from Hornby’s previous v2, but still need a blue/silver version for my collection. I note that Hornby will be releasing another blue streamliner later this year so I’ll probably hold out for that instead. I still think that the v2 streamlined Duchess is a superb model, especially when fitted with the alternate bogie supplied (with larger wheels) and the brake gear. Here are some photos of my model for comparison with the latest version:

Agreed - I'm usually happy with Hornby's older upgraded models (such as the Black Five and the Fowler 2P 4-4-0, but I simply haven't been able to go ahead and buy their Stanier 8F model. It just looks too "plasticky" and toy-like to my eyes. I invested instead in Bachmanns WD model to fill the big 2-8-0 freight loco slot in my collection. This is also an older model, but IMHO it still looks fantastic and manages to capture the essence of the hard-working prototypes. On top of that, it's performance on my layout has been exemplary; quiet, smooth, reliable and capable of easily hauling a realistic load at scale freight train speeds (very slow for UK steam-era goods trains!). The valve gear is particularly well-done, and is a joy to watch when the loco is in motion.

Ouch! You have my sympathy - I am notoriously clumsy and found to my dismay that my reactions had slowed once I entered my fifties. Which meant I suffered a series of nasty falls, as I was no longer fast enough to catch myself after doing something recklessly stupid involving "hard objects" and "not paying attention to my surroundings". I finally learned to slow down a little after a damaged knee, two broken arms (one each side to match) and a fractured skull........

Great photos! I’ve already dropped some heavy hints to Santa, so maybe I’ll get lucky when he swings past NZ......

Thanks for the info regarding named locos of this class.

As for the motor, it had no problem pulling eight Hornby Stanier coaches when I tested it on my layout.

I recently bought this set from the excellent Hobbyco store in Sydney, Australia. They were selling it for approximately the same price as Hattons, so excellent value. I took some photos of the loco, which is the fully detailed version. Although the wartime livery is simple, I feel Hornby have done a good job with the red/gold LMS lettering and numbers on the cab side and tender. Also I believe this was the only named Black Five until the preservation era.

Well Hattons came through and returned a brand new model (as far as I can tell) of R3509TTS in little over a week since I returned it to them. All fiddly detail parts present and correct, so I’m understandably pleased. Just need to test it on my layout, which I’ll have a chance to do this weekend. Incidentally, the Hornby website is now saying “ Preorder - expected July 2018”, so it seems they’re about to release another production run of this loco.

Good question, I will look into this and get back to you.

The poster is a delightful example of advertising spin in the pre-digital age! The nubile maiden, sandy beach, overly blue sky and sea and the emphasis on the word “Southsea” are clearly meant to conjure up images of some tropical Polynesian paradise rather than the gritty reality of Portsmouth’s windswept stoney beaches, methinks......

I’ve also recently subscribed to the digital edition of BRM after sampling the free issue and so far have been very impressed with the whole reading experience and visual quality of the digital images. The additional photos and embedded videos are an added bonus. I usually use a Samsung Galaxy tablet for reading purposes (as I find the colour quality and screen resolution superior to iPads) but have been pleased to find the image quality to be good enough to read on my iPhone when I’m out and about. In light of this, I’ve also purchased the full back catalogue of digital editions as this represented excellent value for money and now have access to an extensive database of past modelling articles that don’t require yet another set of shelves to store!

For me, Portsmouth and Southsea is best remembered as the last stop before Portsmouth Harbour Station, which meant I’d soon be happily on board the ferry to the blessed Isle of Wight for another magical holiday adventure......

I’ve finally had to concede defeat and return my City of Birmingham model to Hattons to see if they can determine what’s wrong with the decoder/speaker assembly that’s causing a short circuit on my layout. At least I know the model itself is OK; if Hattons are unable to repair the decoder I’ll be happy with a partial refund and a return of the loco so I can later install my own sound decoder. Like robmcg, I have little choice but to order from the big box-shifters in the UK, so minor QC issues are more of a hassle when you live on the other side of the planet. To be fair, this is the first model I’ve had to return since I started collecting again around 10 years ago. I should also be grateful that the newer models don’t seem to mind running upside-down here in New Zealand, even though Hornby’s Magnadhesion feature was discontinued in the 1970’s (showing my age here, sorry!)

Fantastic photos robmcg! I’ve been an admirer of your artistic efforts ever since I first joined Rmweb. And it’s fair to say that your work is what first inspired me to start taking photos of my own models. I soon caught the bug and have been practicing hard for over a year now in order to develop my skills. I’ve also become interested in taking landscape and other photos of NZ life and folk.

And a few of the grand dame who first enchanted me in the eternal sunshine of that glorious Norfolk garden:

At least I’ve got some nice photos of the stately Princess Coronation locos to enjoy while I’m away from my layout:

Oh the joys of modern image manipulation software! When reality falls short of our expectations and hopes, a few deft touches can airbrush away any annoying imperfections and settle the souls of idealistic hearts....

I spent the weekend at our seaside property on the scenic Whangarei Heads peninsula, so had a chance to see if I could fix the short circuit issue with my City of Birmingham model. After carefully opening up the loco and tender bodies, I was able to isolate the problem to the tender, which immediately engaged the short circuit cutout on my ESU 50200 controller as soon as I placed it on the track without the loco attached. So I unplugged the TTS decoder and tested it with a basic 8 pin Hattons decoder. No short triggered so I reconnected the loco to test the motor and all worked fine. No time to do much more than search the forums for advice and read about some recent issues others had encountered with later batches of TTS sound decoders not working properly with some DCC controllers (ESU and others). But this had supposedly been rectified by the manufacturers last year so future releases would work as well as the earlier TTS releases. I have three of these, all of which work perfectly with my controller and have proven to be extremely reliable and robust runners. There are no quality issues with the model itself, so it’s either a miscommunication issue between controller and decoder or a faulty TTS decoder which should be covered by the warranty. Before I go to the trouble of returning the decoder to the UK for replacement, I still would like to confirm that this is the source of the problem, otherwise it’s likely to reoccur with any replacement decoders conflicting with the complex command protocols of high end modern DCC controllers. For what it’s worth, I was very impressed with the quality and range of sounds Hornby had programmed onto the new Princess Coronation decoder. This even included the unusual sound of the tender mounted coal pusher that was such a feature of these locos. Luckily, I took some videos of it in action (complete with some of the sound functions) before it stopped working.

I still love Hornby too, despite the recent PR disasters, which the company seems to have made a sincere effort to address. I wasn’t too fazed by “Design Clever” as it was openly advertised for what it was and allowed me to collect some decent Mark 1 coaches and the unique Duke of Gloucester loco at very reasonable prices. Not as finely detailed as top of the range models but more robust and can be safely handled without dislodging tiny plastic bits, so consequently have seen frequent use on my layout. I hope Hornby weather their financial woes and return to their previous form.

Yes, just before I had to leave to return to Auckland, my new City of Birmingham model suddenly started tripping the short circuit cutout on my ESU controller. I tried to find out what the problem was, but ran out of time. Frustrating, but didn’t seem to be anything major (no burning smell from a fried decoder!)