aaron3820

You’d think that with the instructions being made up using a computer program Dapol would have a digital copy they could freely distribute to people?

Hi all, A few years ago I acquired a project loco off of someone which needed some work and has been in storage ever since. I have recently brought it back into the open to have a look at it and scope out the work needed. Amongst things such as needing new axles, a few wheels, new paint etc I’ve found that the retainers for the rods are of a differing type to those normally sold by Romford. The crankpins themselves are the normal type sold by Romford, but the retainer for the rods is one I’ve not seen elsewhere before. It is a shouldered piece in which the main raised section goes through the rods and rests against the wheel centre. The hole in the centre is smooth and not threaded. Hopefully the pictures attached show what I mean a bit more clearly. I need 10 of these shouldered pieces in order to get this loco back in service. Also, would anyone know where one could source 17mm 16 spoke Romford driving wheels from? Thanks!

As an Aussie modeller it’s good to see ARM has commissioned a run of the ex Lima 72ft cars through Hornby.

My 6201 is a first release of the new tooling Princess, no issues at all with it

A lot shorter in length

Had a Princess show up today as part of an old Rovex set c.1951. The comparison between old and new is one I’ve wanted to make since the new Princess was announced.

I don’t see an issue with the wiring, move the red wire to the right and the wiring loom should move out of the way clear of the blanking plug

A lot of snarky comments of late, I think people need to play trains and calm down

As promised, I had a go at butchering the foam for a Rocket set. The coaches are now a bit looser in the packaging although they are still very secure and won’t be damaged in transit. A simple modellers knife with a sharp blade is all I used to cut the foam.

How's the green on these locos compared to other GWR locos Hornby has produced? The green they've used on the Kings for example is terrible

One thing I intend to do with one of the boxes is cut away some of the foam where the coaches fit to make them a slightly looser fit within the packaging. I've found on both sets that the very fragile steps and etched roof detail is easily deformed and damaged when removing and replacing the coaches into the foam. The loco seems ok although I may decide to cut away some foam from where the tender is housed as well. I'll report back later with my results if anyone is interested?

The securing mounts for the motor are a bit rubbish as well. If you successfully get the body off I recommend a small drop of superglue under the motor to help hold it firmly in place. On my model that I had to pull apart the motor was free to move just enough to pull itself out of mesh.

A lot of the issues people have with locos not being able to haul large loads (in my mind at least) actually stems from the fact that their rolling stock isn’t maintained properly or is simply too heavy. Bachmann mk1s for example nearly weigh a ton each (slight exaggeration) and aren’t the most free wheeling models out there, so when you times that by a factor of 10+ the amount of effort a loco needs to put out just to move a train on the flat is immense.

For pickups on the tender I believe

I’ve already had one of my Rocket’s apart to repair and rewire it. Not the most difficult model to work on but one must be very mindful of the small plastic detail parts.

I used a small pair of smooth needle nose pliers to loosen off the nut then threaded it off by hand when it was loose enough. You don’t need to remove the driving wheels but I found it easier to work with them out of the way. The body retaining bolt was actually just floating around freely, the threaded section in the body had actually cracked and broken apart. The body on mine came off fairly easily it must be said, I used the funnel very carefully to help rock the body front and back a bit to get some leverage. It helps if you remove the trailing axle.

And another photo showing the basic chassis of the loco.

So someone asked why I wanted to know how to take apart a Rocket. Well...... Rest assured the loco went back together fine (after a few mods to the wiring) and runs as good as anything. I could’ve sent it back as a warranty job (the gears weren’t meshing correctly) but I decided the 2 month (minimum) wait for the loco to be sent back to England and a new one sent out, combined with the extreme cost of postage to England from Australia AND the uncertainty of even being able to get another set coupled with the fact I like fixing stuff meant, I fixed it!

They put a BR smokebox door on the O gauge 1432 in G W R green so I wouldn’t doubt they’ll do it on a OO loco!

For one, I believe in being able to repair and maintain all my models, two, if a rocket could be successfully opened I could replace the stiff factory wiring with more flexible decoder wire from ESU.

Has anyone been able to successfully remove the body off the loco at all yet?

I’ve ordered 7 for myself and a few mates purely to save on postage ex UK. In reality it’s 2 each for three of us plus a third for myself. It’s looking very unlikely that any Australian suppliers will have a chance to hold stock of these coaches so ya gotta do what ya gotta do I suppose. Ordering direct from Hornby they wanted £45 postage so off to Hattons I went.

The long coupling chains are for the coaches, the short one goes from the tender to the first coach.

7 ordered through Hattons for eventual delivery down under. I did have 4 RoS ones ordered but that’s obviously out of the question now. excellent values the Hornby model it, works out at $25AUD after VAT is taken away.

7 ordered through Hattons for eventual delivery down under. I did have 4 RoS ones ordered but that’s obviously out of the question now. excellent values the Hornby model it, works out at $25AUD after VAT is taken away.