Br60066

Good grief you will be giving DBS a run for their money! Hope your loco fleet have had their Weetabix 😛

Interesting you should say that. I had trouble with Bachmann class 66's derailing since the bogies weren't sitting right on the chassis. Found it could be fixed by unscrewing the bogie mounting screw and adding a thin washer between the chassis and the bogie mounting stud. Just gave a little more clearance between the bogie and chassis, made the loco sit far better and gave it a mm or so more height making it look more on par with the Hattons class 66 stance. Still not found a good way to stop the NEM pocket smacking the front valance without just grinding it down though.....

Oh no don’t worry I made that comment with my tongue fully in my cheek!

Ah excuses. If its metal then you already have one side of the circuit sorted. Just need one return wire and you're golden 😉

Class 58 could be an interesting choice. Current Heljan offering isnt the best and it would play nice with the new HAA's

https://rainbowrailways.co.uk/product/Bachmann-class-90-db-cargo-90039-backbone-livery/ Rainbow Railways to the rescue! Saw one in their shop the other day and was very tempted.

Makes a lot of sense doesn’t it. Class 56’s are older and have been outside longer than class 60’s so I would be surprised if it was corrosion/ frame issues. Think the main issue may have been availability of class 60’s. The decent DCR purchase has been the first time DBS has let class 60’s go that weren’t being upgraded to super 60’s by them (excluding preservation and scrap). This new DCR order might open the door though. Why spend all that time and money refurbing the engines in their new (errr to them) fleet when you could drop a new lump in as part of the refurb and save doing it later. Unless there are a good few more years in the existing engines but surely if this was the case they would be on the rails now.

No but I'm sure the DCC sound versions will have it mapped to F14 😛

OK so before I saw this video I didn't really believe the assembly issue reasoning. Seeing how little actually needs to be shaved off here though has convinced me. You can see there is a decent sized gap on the detail side (red arrow). This should be the same size of gap as the green arrow side. If this gap was closed up (red arrow) then no detail would need to be removed. This is 100% an assembly issue and a very minor one at that. I will say that the tolerance designed into this model is clearly very tight. Obviously this is what we expect from AC and is the reason we get great models from them. This may however be a lesson learned for AC that some areas maybe need a little more tolerance than others. If this detail was say 10% to 25% smaller then it wouldn't clash even with an assembly issue and would be imperceptible to all but the most detail oriented modeller. Im sure AC will have come to this realisation on their own and won't make this mistake again in future releases. This also tells me that an AC return and repair as they have offered is absolutely possible and will give you a perfect model by simply removing this part and re gluing it on flush. Once again we have to commend AC for putting their hands up to the issue, offering a DIY fix for those who are willing and also offering a viable return and fix solution for those that don't want to risk damaging their model. Now back to watching these go round for a few hours 😀

Shhhhh don’t tell anyone. eBay prices go silly enough as it is 😛

Same issue here. Interestingly it only hits the bogie in one direction. Assuming you have a circular layout you could arrange the wagons in a way that the bogie only moves to the clear side of the wagon. You can tell by making sure the handbrake wheel is at the front of the wagon in the direction of travel. This will let you make left turns. Have the handbrakes to the rear of the wagon if you turn right. I've been brave (or foolish depending on you're stance) enough to trim this down with a craft knife. If done carefully you can't see any difference on the track and it fixes the issue. You don't need to remove the full moulding. Just the section closest to the centre of the wagon. You then want to put a gradient on the remaining plastic. This needs to be done carefully though as the plastic part you are working on may break the glue bonds if you press too hard and require reattachment. Again as you have said this is a DIY solution and is completely on the modeller's shoulders if they want to attempt this and take on the warranty concerns as well as the chance of fouling it up. I am not endorsing this method.

Must admit I did forget about the new models getting the 21 pin upgrade. Wasn't aware this came with lighting updates? Do we have any confirmed details on exactly what lighting updates we are getting? Cab lights would really be a big step forward. Agreed there isn't a lot to improve but still think there is some scope for improvement. My main concern with the current class 60 offering is that the moulds looks to be getting tired. That or the model is really suffering from Hornby quality issues. Lots of parts on newer models have excessive flash on them that wasn't present on the original run. Newer models exhaust and cooling group painting have also taken a serous downgrade and looks very unrealistic. Couple this with some recent models having details flooded out by excessively thick paint and you lose some of the quality the class 60 was known for when it first came out. As for new features I would love to see brass bearings in the bogies, removal of the opening doors and better lighting control with cab lights (pending the 2022 releases at least). Could even push the boat out and add a cooling group light. The coupling on the class 60 has always been its achilles heal so would also want to see this re engineered. Under-frame and bogie detail while there is hard to see and all black. A touch of paint down here would look wonders. Just look at recently painted class 60's and you can see the pipework on their bogies shine. Also as you mentioned, a batter air damn arrangement would be a god send. I appreciate these are all minor things and most can be solved by a liberal application of modelling. Hornby could even fix all this by doing a v1.5 tooling. Would be less of a job than the partial retooling they have recently done for the A1/A3 die cast update. Agreed the class 50 is definitely the low hanging fruit of the Hornby range. Surely Hornby realise this too as with the HST and are currently working on a new tooling. If not its a very attractive one for another manufacturer.

The class 60 is definitely a great model but could be improved when you see what other companies are bringing out. Just look at the class 31 and class 56. Both Hornby diesel super detail spec and are still good models but now being re-tooled by other companies. Hornby allegedly almost lost the HST too before they very publicly announced a re tool. Maybe time to badger a certain Irish manufacturer for a re tool of a class 60 especially if there are livery gaps.............

Of topic but I wouldn't mind the matching class 60 by Accurascale.......

Just when I thought my wallet was safe :p

This is eBay. Theres still time

And already going bid silly

Enough about your Saturday nights in the 80's

Class 58 surely is an option as well for retooling. This always was a Hornby mainstay before the Heljan model came out. Lets be honest the Heljan model is nice but could be improved. If Hornby don't announce a retooling soon then it feels like a model Accurascale will be all over as soon as the deltic lands. Would go great with their HAA offering now that class 56 is taken by Cavalax. Feels like a case of announce it or lose it for Hornby.

That makes a lot of sense! If Hornby moved to any other DCC standard, they would also have to factor in the cost of designing a new decoder with that pin out or risk leaving a lot of money on the table. If they back 21 pin now then they are only going to get a few years out of their investment until 21 pin is well and truly old news. If they wait a bit longer until Plux22 is more wide spread, then their investment could last as long as their current 8 pin offering has. The 8 pin was first listed in amazon in 2007 so they've got 14 years out of one chip (obvious minor revisions asside). Talk about return on initial investment! That being said you can run 2 functions out of an 8 pin socket without having to use the loose purple wire so no reason why we can't have cab lights and directional lights on current models. Might need a few switches for DC users though so more complication and cost...... starting to see why this has been left well alone

Out of curiosity is your manual correct? Last few class 60's have had class 60 instructions on one side then class 31 instructions on the other. For some reason I have also noticed the quality of class 60 releases get worse over the years. The inner engine/cooler group detailing used to be grey so would show through the grils. Now its all black making a great feature of this model hard to see. Exhausts used to be painted in a rusty brown or a convincing metalic shade but now the metalic only finish used just isnt as good. We also used to have more details picked out in paint like the bogie steps but this has since stoped. My GBRF didnt have painted hand rails. Just bare plastic. The black headlight bar also had yellow overspray on it. These issues dont look to be a one off as every sample I have seen has the same issue. Nothing that a bit of black tamiya cant solve carefully with a brush but shouldnt have to do this on a brand new model that was getting this right 15 years ago. You can also see the moulds starting to get a bit tired on some of the plastic parts. Given the class was first released in 2006 thats to be expected but its starting to make the coupling system not fit together correctly. I know im nit picking and am so glad to have GBRF and Cappahg options but just needed a really good rant on this. The class 60 used to be a shining example of what could be done in 00 gauge when it came out. Obvously times change and even the best get blown asside with new inovations but weve somehow managed to get a slowely worse model over the years from the same tooling. Dont get me wrong its still a great model but we have seen it can be better. Saying that one thing that has improved is the internal light connections. No more temprimental pads but now hard wired. Spare capacity on the connectors for a pair of wires to work cab lights. Wonder if its time for a tooling facelift? Would love to see cab lights in a v1.5 tooling with 21 pin DCC for some more light control (we can dream). Right rant over. Feel better after getting that out

00 gauge class 58's could do with some love.......Hint Hint

Just got an email from Hattons that the pre order price has gone up. On the bright side delivery looks hopeful for August - September!

Lets hope so. Would be a fantastic rake. Good value for money to if you got a Horny class 91 in the same livery as a class 89. Just change the loco and all of a sudden you have 2 sets!

Same issue here but bought from a local model shop. Not just Hatton’s delivery with cut out only ploughs then. I also had the same problem with class 31 diagrams on the instructions.