peteskitchen

£75 for a second hand power bogie? The robbing swines!

Couple of months to release now according to Hattons. The pictures look like a really beautiful model but......how much is that wealth of fine detail made from brittle injection moulded plastic? Its almost impossible to pick up a class 05 without damaging some part or another. The door handles, so delicate don't even look at them LOL! I love mine but I daren't touch it. Doesn't change my mind that Heljan's market goal is the collector, not a modeller

I wouldn't say mine was a problem as it runs fine on straight track. It's only on unprototypically sharp curves that it starts to misbehave. I would say its more a disconcerting thing that when you hold the model upside down and see that the axles are very sloppy. However mine hasn't seen a great deal of use.

Absolutely no idea. I've been toying with the idea of buying a later one second hand and doing a chassis swap, but to then sell it on would be very naughty!

Cheese by London with a rough driver?

Yes I've been stung by Heljan before. I bought a Hattons Garret when I didn't have a railway to run it on, so by the time I did it was a few years old and way out of warranty. It only completed about 2 hours of running before it started dropping apart, and since day one its had issues with the compensation in one of its "bogies" Not had any motor problems fortunately though.

D6107 and 8 were painted blue with full yellows wen they were refurbished IIRC. All the rest were two tone green. I'm not sure if any of the t.t. green ones were released with full yellows though.

As my knowledge of PO wagons is limited, I have to go by if it looks right, then its OK for me. But what really grates with Oxford Rail wagons is how far the couplings stick out. Bachmann seem to have there's set much closer yet they can happily manage to negotiate 2nd rad curves. Hell even Mainline wagons from the days of old were much closer coupling!

That looks terrible around the buffer beam and its valance. I do hope that's addressed before release otherwise its not good enough.

Very rare I buy a new released loco nowadays, but this one I think is a must. Such a magnificent and quite unique machine.

Looking for parts for my early release LNER black O2 (Broke the NEM pocket on the tender) Howes had an LNER pre-owned one for sale for £65. I couldn't see a reason for why it was so cheap and took a punt on it. Not only is it absolutely mint but it runs better than mine too.......BUT......it has a broken tender NEM pocket too! I never did get a replacement for mine either LOL

The part that I find the worst on this model is the rotary valve gear and associated rodding. It looks awful in bendy moulded black plastic. It that was addressed somehow it would improve the look no end to me, oh and also fit a better motor, The one that's in can sound dreadful if you get a noisy one.

A class 21/29

Didn't Bachmann say years ago that they wouldn't update their model or even do a new chassis for it because the model was always a poor seller? It seems to be the only model that was new in the 90s that they have not updated at all (yes I know the J39 hasn't, but it is in the (very long!) pipeline) If thats the case, it will be interesting to see how well the Hornby model sells.

Does anybody know if the chassis has been altered at all with the 2017 production run? I have an R3128 from the first run and is now very poorly with very sloppy axles due to the bad chassis design.

Really? It's not my idea of professionalism, but if you're okay with that, then that's cool.

I got an odd email from Oxford this morning, saying you get the rail mounted gun, and an ROD liveried Dean Goods for £49.95 , plus other combinations and various new wagons. When you click on the link to their website it says no products to show. Somebody seems to have made a screwup.

IIRC it was the penultimate conversion and was delivered as a 29 in Blue. However it seems to have been sidelined within 9 months and was withdrawn 2 years before any other class 29. I wonder what happened to it that was so catastrophic? From what I've heard the rebuild 29s were fairly good work horses with acceptable reliability, and the extra 100 horsepower was an advantage over the 25s and 27s.

To save me reading through 94 pages, has anybody had an issue with the suspension (compensation?) on one of the "power bogies" The smoke box end one of mine is holding the inner driving wheel up in the air, if you pick the loco up the compensation allows it to move even further up. I've tried to dismantle the loco but its so delicate I gave up. I'd hate for it to become a static exhibit. Thanks

Do you remember the Dawlish donkey from the 1998? I was totally stunned how quick 1450 was with 4 Mk1s on, I thought it was going to be a joke. In fact that engine made me appreciate GWR locos a whole lot more. Happy days!

If you're going to do away with the traction tyres and fit plain wheels there a few simple mods you need to do to improve traction to an acceptable level. If you have the older Hornby or Dapol chassis, you need to get at the spring underneath the trailing wheelset, and cut it in half and then stretch it just a little. This will still keep the axle on the track and keep the loco stable, but it means that most of the loco's weight will be on the drivers. My 2004 vintage Hornby one will easily cope with three Mk1s or a mixed bag of 10 four wheeled wagons. Its a bit more tricky with the new square axled version. You can carefully slot our the trailing axle slot, but if you go too far the loco will rock on its center axle. Even if you do get it right, changes in gradient will cause problems unless they are very gentle. Bit like the first issue of the Oxford Adams radial tanks.

What livery are the show special ones in?

Did it make much noticeable difference? I only have one super detail 8F but it is one of my smoothest running locos, possibly due to its low gearing.

I wonder if they had some of the old chassis blocks left over from a previous run (IIRC the titfield thunderbolt pack was its last outing) and used them up. As for the pickups they all face down now, I suspect it has been changed to make assembly easier as the old keeper plate was a right fiddle to get in without one or more of the pickups fouling a spoke and bending over during assembly. With them facing down you just push the keeper plate on, and bob's your uncle