Rising Standards

That blue MN is a repaint. The photo is one of Hornby Magazine's from their article on Marlow, Maidenhead and District MRC's rather good 'Southwick', the relevance being that it'll be at GETS at Milton Keynes in a fortnight. I'm not clued up on steam era road vehicles, but the club's website indicates that the layout is set in the 1960s so the loco is the interloper (and that's fine by me; nice as it is when a train matches its surroundings in both region and period, it's ultimately for a club's members to have the say on whether to bend time on their own layouts).

I picked one up from the SVR's shop at Bridgnorth yesterday, and after running it in and fitting a Zimo MX638D last night I put it to work on the club layout this afternoon. Obviously it's a thing of beauty and runs sweetly, but with its wheel arrangement I wasn't expecting it to handle much of a load up the short, sharp gradients that have resulted from boards suffering multiple decades of existence and clubroom moves. I was very impressed to find that it didn't seem at all troubled by 6 Hornby Maunsell coaches and a bogie B luggage van, and subsequently put in a credible performance with only a little slip on 7 Pullmans with the same luggage van. Considering the kind of work I imagine these engines were being assigned by BR days, I don't think I'll be taxing its capabilities like that very much. My only disappointment with it is that the sandpipes are spaced oddly relative to the driving wheels. I can live with the front pair's pipes being almost level with the wheel faces, but the pipes for the second pair looked as if they'd been set at a scale width, protruding past the wheels in a good position for blowing sand at the ends of the sleepers. They're made from a single piece of springy, apparently brittle wire and fitted across the bottom of the keeper plate, and in trying to adjust the angle of one of them, I managed to snap the wire underneath. I've since removed the pipe on the other side too in anticipation of making up a replacement pair to a more satisfactory width. I damaged it so I won't be returning the model, and given time, tweezers and cursing I'll be able to resolve it, but for £160+ I don't expect this kind of silly mistake on what is otherwise a superb loco that I'm really pleased with.

Good to hear Dave. How about the pickups; wipers or via the bearings? The former would be my preference for ease of servicing.

I find the lack of even a moulded in smokebox door numberplate on the BR versions to be disappointing. Yes, it's not difficult to add as RTR improvements go, but shouldn't really be necessary at the price these sell for. Still, I'll have a look at one in the metal (and plastic) some time and see what I think.

I'm not particularly familiar with the class and would probably forgive a lot, but the smokebox looks to be a deal breaker for me as it's throwing the 'face' of the loco off. The door looks undersized and quite prominently domed out from an overly-wide surrounding ring, giving the front end what I can only describe as a scaled up 28XX/Hall look. Photos of real 47XX front ends seem to show a narrower ring and flatter door; more like a Castle or 10XX County.

I'd be interested in seeing such a photo John, as I quite fancy changing my Clan Buchanan to 72013 Wildfire. Surely that would have been one of the best BR Standard names?

On the subject of smokebox doors, excuse the pondering of someone largely inexperienced about the Midland Railway, but is there an engineering-influenced reason why Deeley turned up his nose at Johnson's nice dished smokebox door and cooked up that 'orrible flat thing, or was it purely an aesthetic choice on his part?

I'd certainly prefer a green closer to that found on Hornby's Maunsells to be used on BR green releases of these coaches rather than the odd very dark shade Bachmann adopted a few years ago for southern region mark 1 vehicles, particularly given that I assume sets of both would have regularly appeared with each other.

One thing I would like to see on future Peckett releases is a standard DCC decoder interface. I did send an email to Hornby some time ago suggesting a six pin socket should be provided. The reply came back advising that there was insufficient room for one in the loco. Having taken the huff and tried wiring in a six pin harness myself, I must concede that the reply was correct, at least without risking modifications to the chassis! However, a Next18 socket and decoder probably would fit in front of the motor. I usually begrudge the use of Next18 in steam locos after the Bachmann Coal Tank, purely because the decoders seem quite expensive to use in a loco that only has 4 wires to connect to it, but a Zimo MX618 would be no more expensive than the Lenz Silver Mini I hard wired into my Pecketts, and it'd be a lot quicker to fit!

Apologies for muddying the waters, but I put the pipes on mine yesterday (thank you for the reminder folks!), and in my dry run it did seem that there was a slight difference in the distance between the pegs on the two pipes. The taller pipe going to the front and shorter to the rear fitted into the bufferbeam holes with ease, whereas they'd have had to be persuaded to go the other way around.

I'd love a 15XX, but can't see it happening other than as a retailer or magazine commission. What I can forsee is Hornby producing a reasonably small mixed traffic tender loco. The Manor, 43XX and U classes would surely be popular, two of those having come out very well in the last wishlist poll, and an LBSC K would also be rather lovely. I know Southern prototypes aren't to everyone's taste, but it seems to me that there must be a good track record of them prompting the opening of wallets for manufacturers to want to keep turning out new classes. Let's also not forget the poll-topping BR Standard 2, which would seem like a surefire Bachmann product with the Ivatt parts bin to raid, but if the Ivatt tank re-chassis is anything to go by Hornby could probably get this into the shops before Bachmann could get it out of their drawing office!

Maroon seems like an odd choice of word by Hattons to describe the colour being represented, as in the photos I've seen of the real thing in this livery it's just red. Really red!

You want six beats per revolution, due to each cylinder acting in both directions.

Legomanbiffo does the diesel projects for DC Kits, while Locoman handles steam. I have the Locoman WC/BoB project giving a voice to 34041 Wilton and it's excellent, particularly when paired with a bass enhanced speaker mounted towards the front of the loco (as per the demo model they run at shows). The number of chuffs per revolution is set by two CVs, and takes a while to get right, but the end result is well worth it when you see it chatter away from a station stop. Rebuilt Merchants and light pacifics seem to sound pretty similar, so I'd have no qualms personally about using this project in an original Merchant Navy.

I was thinking this might be the case too. Grey seems more likely and would certainly be something different, but could be a harder sell. On the whole I applaud Hornby's decision to make more in works green, given that it sounds like a lot of W4s would have been delivered wearing it. After all, it's by far the most versatile livery for modellers to put into the employment of a fictional business. From a personal perspective, with a pair of Dodos waiting for me to plan their workplace and choose their new identities, I think I'll see whether the Lilleshall decorated sample impresses me or wait for a red/darker blue one instead of picking these up. I do hope for Hornby's sake that they'll be equally strong sellers though!

Absolutely. It would be needless (and not inconsiderable) expense outlaid on retooling for no real benefit to Peco's setrack product or customers. Besides, at setrack radii the improvement in appearance will be heavily compromised anyway.

My 1444 is running pretty well with a Digitrax DZ126IN set up with back EMF adjusted as per GWR Chris' recent guidance, top speed reduced and acceleration/deceleration inertia increased. As Chris said, I think there's potential for better performance still with more trial and error, particularly at very low speeds, but I think I'll probably just wait and upgrade it from the Digitrax to a Zimo or Lenz decoder next time I want a 6 pin decoder for a loco with a more conventional motor. If anyone wants to see it in action, I hope to have it running in and out of Craven Arms and District Model Railway Circle's 'Ashburton' at Church Stretton School on the 22nd of this month (yes, I did consider getting 1470 instead!). That said, having experienced some difficulties with an Austerity whose bearing pickups have had good and bad days (seemingly more good than bad now; it was fine last time I had it in action), the 14XX hasn't transformed my opinion of this chassis style. At its best it seems there's nothing wrong with its performance, but it doesn't improve on the usual approach employed by other manufacturers of a sizeable 3 or 5 pole motor, wiper pickups and removable keeper plate for dropping the driving axles out either. Wiper pickup adjustment can be a pain, admittedly, but otherwise that style of chassis tends to be reliable, smooth running, quiet and easy to work on. I'd be pleased to see future DJM releases match the aesthetic quality of the locos produced so far to good mechanisms of that type.

I have two examples of Dodo that I'd like to give replacement identities to, and although I don't have a specific year in mind for the firm that'll own them to have ordered them, I'd like to give them two of the unused numbers that I understand Peckett sometimes left out of their works number sequence to give the impression that they built more locos than they actually did. Short of asking the NRM whether I can arrange to go and look at the company's records, which I believe they have, does anybody know where I might be able to come across a complete list of Peckett locos to find a suitable pair of numbers please?

Thanks Chris. I got one of these decoders for my 1400 a few months ahead of the loco's release, and have only got as far as plugging it in, but the combination of loco and decoder seemed very unhappy when I tested it. I haven't got around to fettling the CVs yet, but from previous discussions about suitable decoders in this thread I'd assumed that I was going to be looking at reusing the DZ126 elsewhere and replacing it with a Lenz or Zimo. You've given me hope, so perhaps I'll have a go tomorrow.

I'm a bit late to this, but here are some shots on a friend's layout of one I was working on about a year and a half ago. The genetics are a mix of Caley Pug smokebox, saddle tank and cab front, Nellie cab structure with cut down bunker, and Bachmann 03 chassis and running plate: The idea was that it would be a well established preserved line's society pet (perhaps being one of the first locos to arrive), used on light Winter loadings and out on hire to other local lines in the busier months. It's no closer to completion now; if anything it's taken a few steps back, as I removed the bufferbeam fittings with a view to preparing for painting. That seems like a slightly frightening concept after the time spent on the body, what with it being my first bodging project, which is probably why I've put it off for so long. It's now more likely to gain employment in an industrial setting, so I might take the opportunity to fit a sizeable set of buffers akin to those used on some examples of the relatively similar looking Avonside B3.

I was just coming here to check whether H1413/1444 had arrived yet! That's absolutely stunning; the painted tyres make a huge difference to its looks compared to the pre-production model. I'm really looking forward to getting my hands on one.

That looks absolutely fantastic in motion. I think I might still wait for a blue one though.

Thank you Rembrow. The Dodo has just gone (*whistles innocently*), but they have one H&P left.

Good thing I got given a Dremel yesterday then. Thanks.

How's testing of the Earth Mover speakers coming along Charlie, and do you have a rough timescale for them becoming available? I picked up a Heljan 33 at Warley, and the recent video of an EM-fitted one on Steve Brammer's YouTube channel has got me thinking it's a bit quiet.