AdamOrmorod

Just looked through some pictures of the real 2001 on the internet, and I think that the sloped handrail may be correct, though I cannot be certain. Edit: I think this picture shows what I mean http://newbuildsteam.files.wordpress.com/2013/09/2001-courtesy-the-gresley-society-trust.jpg

It's them pianist fingers.

Just checked it myself, it's the handrail that slopes UP toward the front (too checked with ruler), and when I covered up the handrail all seemed fine.

Sorry to point it out, but those nameplates don't look quite straight, sloping down towards the front, though I must say they do look very nice. Edit: It could just be the angle of the photo that makes the plates look off, though I'm still not sure.

Thanks for that-really looking forward to it now. Been worried she won't manage my setrack curves- though they're in the process or replacement anyway. Good to hear she's well put together too.

Has anybody checked if the coupling rods are rigid or jointed? Just something I've been worried about since DOG came out, seeing as both it and the P2 were designed in a similar mindset, and I'd imagine that stiffness due to one-piece rods would be even more apparent on a mikado.

I think it did have the cab doors, if you look at the video on YouTube you can just about see them (though they appear very dark-possibly black) at around 3:15.

The 2012 railroad Flying Scotsman had its cab ventilators moulded open, one slightly more so than the other, so I imagine that they will have done the same here with the P2.

Pictures have shown up on ehattons for the railroad version, surely it can't be long now for the main range one.

I just wanted to know if I had made some mistake about something, as I couldn't see anything in my post to disagree about. Had I said something like "the green is too dark" (I don't think that) and somebody had disagreed with that, that'd be fair enough. And as for your sentence, the knuckle coupling on the back of a corridor tender looks particularly painful. (Just kidding)

Which part of my post do you disagree with adb968008? I said a few different things and I will amend my post if I have made an error.

I must say, the moulded handrails in the TTS video are by far the best I've seen on any of the recent locomotives, I imagine that if I hadn't have been told, I wouldn't have noticed them in that video. It also seems to lack any size and/or proportion issues, unlike Duke of Gloucester's smokebox overang. I too hope it does Hornby some good, the hobby really does need them, and their closing down would send out a message that model railways are a thing of the past, seriously limiting the number of newcomers. Also, would we have had the Great Gathering if it weren't for their sponsorship? I know I certainly wouldn't have dusted off my slightly battered and worn Hornby Mallard and got myself back into the hobby, and the NRM wouldn't have got a boost that it's been needing for a while. I'd love to know the source of the rumor though, I do hope that the P2s have been manufactured and are in fact on there way here, they'll have to turn up the ship to warp 10 if they want the railroad version to be here before the end of July (I live in hope!).

I'm after the main range one, and that's what I planned to do if it didn't come with some. Have previous models such as the special edition Tornado and Duke of Gloucester come with them? I imagine the P2 will be the same as those.

What I'm confused about is the TTS model Hornby's video showcases, how and why would they have made one of these if the rest weren't either being made or finished? They surely must be in production, the TTS model seems far more the final product than the "first one off the production line" we saw all those months ago. So annoying as the P2 was supposed to be the first model I got when I got back into trains, so it's delayed my modelling plans almost completely, especially as I want to see how it handles with a flanged cartazzi wheelset (and the resulting rigid wheelbase) before I lay any track. On that note, does anybody know if the P2 will come with a flanged wheelset?

Yeah I think so, though I'm now trying to get my head around that locomotive's cylinder arrangement. Got my head round it now, thanks TTAMTWASOOC and bigherb.

Chi-cke-ty- three syllables, each representing one beat, with each "chickety" being a group of three, and two "chickety"s being a full revolution, which pretty much explains what I was trying to get across before. However, I'm confused about the 4 cylinder description. I thought a 4 cylinder loco had 2 pairs of cylinders working exactly opposite each other (so when one was all the way forward, the other was all the way back) so the chuffs would be at the same time, still resulting in 4 chuffs per revolution? I've spent a fair bit of time trying to fathom how LMS and GWR four cylinder locos worked, and looking (and listening) to many youtube, along with many undescriptive explanations on the internet, resulted in my conclusion, so I'd be happy to be proven wrong with a good explanation.

I suppose that would be a more accurate description on paper, but if you listen to an A4 for example, it feels more "1,2,3;1,2,3" to most people, as opposed to "1,2,3,4,5,6". However, a 2 cylinder loco does have a beat of "1,2,3,4;1,2,3,4". It all depends on how the beats are accented, so as there are usually 2 accented beats out of 6 on a 3 cylinder loco (especially if it is equipped with conjugated valve gear), meaning two separate groups of three beats, with the accented beats being the first of each group. The lack of accenting on a two cylinder loco means that the slightly different sounds of the cylinders is what splits it into groups of four, the first beat sounding like the fifth and so on.

It'd be nice if they could put one on Bittern, to get the full pre-war A4 effect. If you go onto the Hornby site and hover over "locomotives", there is a link labelled "TTS Digital Sound Locomotives" in the dropdown list. Click on it, and you will see that there are 8 forthcoming locomotives that will be fitted with "twin track sound". As none of these locomotives have been released, none of us know what this sound will be like, but it's priced far lower than previous DCC sound locomotives, but you can get an idea with this video of the TTS P2 http://www.Hornby.com/news/the-lner-cock-o-the-north-p2-class-approaches If you listen carefully to the "chuffs", you can feel a beat going "1,2,3,4,1,2,3,4". However, for a P2 (and in fact all of the announced TTS steam locomotives) its three cylinder arrangement means that this should be more "1,2,3,1,2,3". Edited as Hilux5972 just beat me to it. Edited again to fix link.

Correct, the original Crosby chime whistles fitted to the A4s and P2's produced a chord of F minor, whereas the post war ones are F# minor (both second inversion), a semitone higher (one key to the right on a piano) than the former. The group building No. 2007 state in their May 2014 "Mikado Messenger" that they hope to get a whistle of the correct lower pitches for their engine, as opposed to the higher pitched ones on the A4s (save 4489) and Tornado. Having checked it with several instruments and youtube clips, I came to the same conclusion about the whistle being the later F# minor, post war type. It does feel like a 2 cylinder loco too, a definite "1,2,3,4,1,2,3,4," as opposed to the 3 cylinder "1,2,3,1,2,3,1,2,3,1,2,3,", though I cannot work out why, as all 4 other TTS sound steam locos (Gresley A1, Gresley A4, Peppercorn A1 and BR Standard class 8 )are also 3 cylindered locos, so I'm not sure what Hornby have done to one of these files, most likely the A4, to create the P2's arrangement. As Hornby have stated that they will use recorded sounds of the prototype where possible (and they couldn't have recorded a locomotive type which doesn't currently exist, so they must have used one of their other files), I'm going to hold out for the inevitable TTS "Prince of Wales" once the new build is finished, provided Hornby don't just recycle the sounds from the R3246TTS. Edited to remove accidental 8) due to an 8 being next to a ).

Main range version was due on or after today on the hattons site this morning, now dropped back to August but with no date given. Had my fingers crossed that it'd be this month, but as noted above, it seems we'll be well into August before they get here. Shame, Simon Kohler seemed so promising in his interview on youtube, when he said that the P2s would be manufactured in June, to arrive in July.

Sorry for the long jump back, but I was just reading through your thread, and remembered Hornby don't do an unmodified version of the A1/A3 corridor tender. I imagine many would find it far easier to drop a 3D printed one onto a set of Hornby frames, as opposed to hacking away at Hornby's streamlined version, so I imagine there'd be plenty of people after one. Anyway, just my ideas, but I think your CAD skills would really do it justice. Ade.

Silver Fox looks great, but should't she tow a 1935 style streamlined corridor tender? Silver Fox spent almost all of her life with streamlined corridor tender no.5592, with a brief spell with streamlined non-corridor tender no.5642 (towed by Mallard on her record run) in 1939. I got all this info from http://www.sirnigelgresley.org.uk/tenders/tenders.html , which outlines the history of all tenders attached to the A4s, and is a great resource for finding out what tender which A4 towed at any time. I just thought you'd better know this now rather than later, before you apply her number, so it requires as little effort as possible to change her identity, or you could do as I would, and change her tender and leave her as Silver Fox. Despite her incorrectness, she is still probably the best coloured 00 A4 I've seen, certainly puts Hornby's garter blue to shame.

Received an e-mail from ehattons this morning, the TTS Sound P2 now not due until Friday 8th August.

So how did the syncopation occur on Gresley's locos? Wasn't the inside cylinder beat slightly late, caused by its inclination and offset crank? My understanding of Gresley's 3-cylinder layout is shaken.

I wish Hornby would hurry up and make a B17/6 with a group standard tender in apple green, seeing as the football association gave the class its nickname, and the B17/6 was the most common sub-class, which should (in theory) generate more sales than Hornby's apple green B17/1. I'm sure many would want a model of their chosen club, but wouldn't be able justify getting one in BR green because of their chosen time period.