Clive Mark

1 minute ago, Islesy said:

The central bracket you can see, that connects to the mid-body brake rods, 'should' unclip with care. The rodding will then rotate up to clear the axles @Clive Mark. I thought I had posted a 'how-to' earlier in the thread, but a lot of water has passed under the bridge since then!

 

Best wishes,

Paul.

Thankyou Paul,

I shall go and have a look!

Clive

I don't know if anyone has raised the issue of removing the wheels yet from this outstanding product but I have just been advised by Accurascale that the brake gear will come apart though it needs great care. The rodding for the clasp brakes cuts across underneath the axles so has to be moved to enable wheel change for EM etc.

Richard has left us all a great legacy. Condolences to his family

On 15/02/2019 at 20:31, Godfrey Glyn said:

That is good news indeed, the original had a major error which unless you realised and did a modification would produce a non-parallel set of wheels. It was well documented on one of the Wild Swan books, sorry away from home and can't remember either the title or author. I suspect that PECO know that and may therefore have two reasons for a re-tooling of the kit. Thank goodness it's PECO that have taken over the range and not someone who might not want to spend money on re-tooling the model.

 

all the best

 

Godfrey 

I agree Godfrey and the book you are thinking of is Wild Swann's THE 4mm WAGON, Part One, Opens, Minerals and Hoppers. The author is the excellent Mr Geoff Kent .....Turn to page no 78.....Bulk Grain Hoppers.

On 12/03/2019 at 21:16, Pint of Adnams said:

Just a brief note here to advise those interested that Richard Hollingworth, lately one half of Parkside and designer/toolmaker of so many of the kits sold under that brand, passed away on Wednesday 7th March 2019 in Fife. I understand that his intended retirement was cut short by lung cancer, undiagnosed for some time. A gentleman of the old school, who always had time to discuss models and future possibilities at shows and was ever polite in written and spoken communications.

This is terrible news. Richard was always very helpful and friendly. What rotten luck.

This is always such a good show to go to and worth travelling a long distance not only because of the trains but the quality of catering and QWEGS venue make it a comfortable day out.

Both of mine arrived well packed by DPD courier, Excellent customer service by Hornby. Yes I bought two engines as the rebuilt BB/west country is a favourite.

Colour match is spot on.

Thankyou for doing this Hornby.

The Steaming Sixties 4 - "The Withered Arm in Cornwall" shows a bauxite coloured toad ...pages 35 and 39. The van has the later ducket.

Page 12 shows one coupled to a Southern Queen Mary !

The Black Five is early short firebox with combined dome and topfeed - Ayrshire Yeomanry. It is the finescale model (Not Railroad). The Stanier coaches are finescale not Railroad. The set would be a good buy therefore.

Just spoken to Technical Services at Hornby. No sign of the replacement ROC tender bodies yet so be patient everyone !

This is good news. It has restored my faith in Hornby.

I have just spoken to technical services at Hornby. They will be reworking unsold stock they hold when the new bodies arrive. They will not be recalling unsold stock from retailers. As stated in previous posts, they will issue the new bodies to previous purchasers of Royal Observer Corps on proof of purchase.

Well done to the people who got onto Hornby about this and thankyou to Hornby for the positive response.

The less good news is that they will not be producing extra numbers of the 5500 gallon bodies for people to buy as spares.

Their email is : technicalservices.uk@Hornby.com

Drove around north Northumberland a few days ago.

The old station houses between Alnwick and Coldstream have survived very well as private residences.

However I was so pleased to discover the old goods shed in Wooler (now Millers Antiques). Remarkable state of preservation outside and inside. The dealer is friendly and I had a walk around his stock admiring the building from inside. You can walk right around the outside of the building.

Just outside Wooler on the Coldstream A697 road is a very small place signposted Akeld Steads. (you can see it easily from the main road). The  signal box there is preserved in excellent condition. An absolute gem.

This railway ran through some of the best countryside and it is still so unspoilt. What a pity the line closed. It would have been a perfect time warp.

Just a thought.

 

If switching the tender body from older models is a non-starter, how about switching the loco body from ROC onto an earlier one (I have a "spare" Yes Tor that I was planning to rename).

 

John

"Yes Taw" and most of the early rebuilt bullieds Hornby did are virtually collectors items.

I considered myself lucky to get one mint second hand a few years ago and paid £125 for it!

If you switch ROC's body you could still have a mis-match on the Brunswick shades. Could disguise though using various techniques or some weathering.

The 5500 gallon tender is shown on both Hornby's website and the box cover. No evidence at all that Rebuilt Royal Observer Corps ever had a 4500 gallon tender.

Not only a spectacular cock up but thoroughly dishonest and contemptuous of loyal customers.

Recently experienced excellent service in this shop.

Excellent show and Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School (known as "QWEGS" in Wakefield) a very good venue. This has been the third year in a row for me and the three and half hour drive worth it. Well done to the organisers.

I saw and inspected a Green one at York show on the Rails stand.

 

The rivets were not as prominent as they appear in the photos, but the footplate in front of the smokebox pointed upwards - and this was the 'hand picked' display model.

 

Overall I thought it a bit 'plasticey' and despite looking carefuly (the lighting was very poor) I could not make my mind up it the green GWR body colour was paint or pre-coloured plastic. I suspect the latter, can anyone confirm this please?

 

Overall as it is a 'nice to have' as opposed to an essential part of most peoples GWR/BR(W) layout I suspect quite a few modellers will be put off by the combination of quality of assembly/finish and the price.

 

Tony 

I have seen the black one and that has a suspiciously smooth 'plasticey' look to it.

Could someone put a list of areas that need addressing so us lesser mortals can make a decision about wether to buy one or not? Such a shame that this long awaited model isn't to same standard as most other manufacturers.

 

Terry

I'll leave the list to a 47xx expert but I have seen the Heljan model and although it has the look and character of the beast, I have noticed the points/issues raised by previous posters.

Does anyone agree that the driving wheel spokes seem very flat as they approach the boss/hub ? Recent releases from Hornby have had excellent spoke profiles e.g. the B12

For me, if I wanted a really good 47 I would invest the necessary time and money in the Brassmasters ex Finney kit.

Hornby website now showing Sir William Stanier as expected October 2018.....so more time for people's finances to catch up ? and more time for the market to digest the current situation of speculators selling on ebay and customers failing to buy originally for whatever reason to have a think and perhaps buy one at the second chance without ebay inflated gazumping.

I can fully assemble a new Hornby MK1 coach, from all bits, including separating the bogie, wheels, NEM pocket, Coupling and hook and then box it for shipping in under 90 seconds without tools and I wasnt rushing to do it either... I reckon if pushed i could assemble it in 1 minute.

 

https://www.youtube.com/edit?o=U&video_id=8ZTmbk-GmgY

The old MK1 requires a screwdriver, 2 screws, it is made from 2 separate side pieces, roof, frame etc and on the older ones needs a rivet and can take upto 5 minutes.

 

The new tooling is design clever.. and i'd imagine much more cost efficient than the older tooling and the Bachmann one.

The only thing I didn't do in the video was glue windows.

 

Whilst Bachmann and Hornby's may have similar retail prices, I suspect Hornby has a better margin and greater potential to sell to the family market.

Interesting !

I've just remembered the Bachmann coach has separate side panels leaving a visible join at the ends if looked at closely. It shows more on the blue/grey coaches as the ends are coloured blue and not black.

Did "Design Clever" (Dumbing Down?) ever completely disappear ?

Hornby's BR Mk1 coaches introduced only a few years ago have moulded pipework on the roof and moulded grabrails at the ends while Bachmann's (tooled up many years ago) have fitted wired detail.

The prices of the latest releases of Hornby's Mk1 coaches have almost caught up with Bachmann's price, which has also just gone up.

Although the Hornby coaches can have the moulded detail removed and improved to match Bachmann coaches without disturbing the nice paint and lining of the sides.....why do all that work on a whole rake if Bachmann give you that detail ready made.

I never understood Hornby's approach with the Mk1 coach and now it is hardly cheaper. They may feel they can depend on brand loyalty to sell these.

The full range of Parkside kits in both 4 and 7 mm scales are stocked by Alton Models in Alton, Hampshire. Stocks are constantly refreshed from Peco with some of the new blue labelling starting to appear.

AC Models in Eastleigh may have some blue sound 40's left.

I know Alton Models sold out. They only have blue centre head code 40 left.

N gauge devised model of the year in my opinion.

Top notch, and captures the original pretty much perfectly.

 

Can’t wait for my sound ones

I now have both green versions and the blue one. They are slow runners so far so it seems a general problem. They do seem to get faster with a bit of warming up.

Appearance of this model is excellent. One of the best diesels in N gauge ....perhaps the best considering the fitting of a speaker as standard ?

I would agree that there is now no point in Salcombe.

 

(They don't let people like me in there, anyway).

75% second homes.

I never met anyone in that area who liked model railways.

Perhaps they build their layouts at their main homes in London, Bristol etc.

Perhaps they work such long hours at their Banking, Property development etc that they havn't the time.

Well its their loss.