No Decorum

There are some beautiful shots in this video. I know they're of 37s (no excuse needed) but my reason for posting the link here is the use of the cab lights. Very instructive for someone convinced that cab lights are extinguished when running! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nxPV8rb_9qc

Sorry, I think that name's been taken. http://uktrainlog.blogspot.co.uk/2015/07/73128-class-73-gbrf-ovs-bulleid-cbe.html (Gone to find a hole to hide in.)

Actually, that looks rather more impressive than the earlier pictures. I observe a fall plate. However, if we drag our eyes away from the daylight under the boiler, do we detect horizontal boiler handrail knobs?

You should also have a red light at the rear. I'd say that white to the front and red to the rear is correct for running light engine on the main line. The model is made that way. The real thing would have had a white and a red at both ends when shunting. This is the first RTR shunter with any running lights, so perhaps we shouldn't expect too much! As to running, it depends on the individual model. Of my three, I had one bad runner. I swapped the wheels with a good runner and the formerly good runner ran badly and the formerly bad runner ran well. The curious thing is that when I swapped the wheels back again, they both ran well. I've no idea why that should be. All I can suggest is to continue running it in. Widespread opinion is that running in is beneficial but my own experience is that if a model does not run well out of the box, running in will not cure it. If you feel confident enough to do it, and the bad running persists, try opening it up and removing any excess grease, then relubricate using a suitable oil. If that doesn't cure it or you don't feel confident enough to do it, then send it back. They're lovely little models. Good luck with yours!

BrushVeteran, thank you for putting me right about the spectacle windows. The trouble you have gone to might well pay off, if others react like me. As I've said, I have now ordered an O2/4. The different tenders are icing on the cake for me; the different boilers look as if they needed some serious tooling to produce. Provided that nothing goes wrong, I should think I'll join the queue for the O2/1 and O2/2. That's in contrast to the O4. Eight parts to model plus an O5. How many Bachmann O4s have I? One, not including the 8K. Your posting mentioned an O1/1 and an O1/2. No doubt a slip of the finger as the O1 didn't have class parts. Not that I'll take that as an excuse. Mistake or not, once the O/2s are done, I'll hold you to producing an O1. The erudite Tony Wright was, of course right about the O2s being a minefield. I've noted that 3962 was built as an O2/1, got a side window cab in 1939, was re-built to O2/4 in 1944, re-numbered in 1946 and reverted to an O2/1 in 1950. Then you have all the livery variations and the re-numbering carried out by that nice Mr. Thompson, with old and new number series overlapping. Anyhow, keep up the good work and don't hang about. I'm waiting for a Gresley K1 and a K2. It might be easier to do the K2 as a reboilered K1. Sorry, getting ahead of things, there.

I wouldn't entirely disagree. I have seen some models which to my eye look very pleasing, yet I realise with surprise that they are quite matt. It must be something to do with the density of the colour and possibly the shade too. On the other hand, I have seen some gloss finishes which are badly done. All the same, the gloss King looks magnificent and so should these items.

I have one of the gloss Kings and it looks magnificent. The number produced was very small, as if the market was being tested. It seems as if Hornby has deciced to give it a bigger trial, having taken note of the rapid selling out, the favourable comments and Ian's prompting. Bearing in mind that there is so much stuff emerging that I have to look for excuses not to buy things, and that I am a child of the time when flangeless wheels were normal, I have avoided Hornby's new generation pacifics. I loath those flangeless trailing wheels with an unreasoning passion. Looking at the pictures, though, I feel myself weakening. I certainly don't want another 2001, perhaps an A4 but the A1 and A3 look mighty desirable. Has anyone else noticed that on Hornby's website the A3 has a round dome but in the Engine Shed pictures it has a banjo dome? As to the A4, whilst in many respects it looks appealing, painting the boiler bands on the streamlined casing was not, IMHO, a good idea. It was done again in BR days and was (IMHO again) unfortunate. The BR bands on the casings of Bulleid pacifics was much more sympathetic to the shape. None of which is Hornby's fault, of course. I did get one new A4. Sawing off some bits from the plastic trailing truck allowed a lot of sideways travel but the flanged wheelset didn't rotate because it didn't touch the railhead. At that stage I gave up in exasperation but I think there is a simple fix. A spacer underneath the keeper plate allows the wheelset to drop enough without falling out altogether. Two more small points. Please, Hornby, paint the wheels; they look awful if you don't and the locos would look better with satin or matt smokeboxes and other black parts. What do others think?

The ever-reliable Invicta phoned me yesterday to tell me that my O2/3 (LNER 3965) had arrived. Needless to say, I spent a rather restless night in view of the reports on here. It arrived this morning by Royal Mail (pretty good from one extreme of the UK to another). After running in forwards, it's now running in backwards. It runs smoothly and quietly in both directions and after its first half-hour was perfectly cool. I was happy enough to phone Invicta and order an O2/4 - I only ordered one O2 initially as I am a quietly unhappy owner of two Beyer-Garratts. That is not to say that I don't have quibbles. The cylinders appear to be metal and some paint has chipped off - possibly because the beautiful sheet of soft plastic which Heljan uses hadn't been wrapped around the model properly. The pick-ups behind the wheels catch the light but some black paint should resolve both problems. Only one brake hanger had come loose. Light shows under what should be solid front frames; I haven't had a chance yet to see if they can be pressed down or glued. I have a feeling that Heljan has been misled by photographs showing the dirt which accumulated on the real thing around the bottom of the front spectacle windows and modelled them rounded instead of squared off. The backhead detail is very neatly printed but there don't seem to be separately attached pieces and the regulator in particular is not well represented. However, the cab is quite well enclosed and two glazing units are provided to fit to the rear side window apertures if desired. These and a crew should conceal most of the backplate. If Heljan decides to produce a version with a GNR cab, and I think that's the intention, shortcomings in that area will be that bit more noticeable. All in all, in my opinion, a decent model, provided you don't get a dud!

Good point, although I have had the original four HIAs on order for quite a while and I seriously doubt that I shall get away with paying £18 or even £21·50. If they're half-decent, I'll get the other two as well, provided that the extra £3·50 isn't for weathering. I think that, by and large, Dapol do a good job on modern wagons and exploit my weakness for them very effectively.

Is anyone else thinking, "Drax, Hornby, biomass wagons, £83; VTG, Revolution Trains, TEAs, £39?" Then, "Drax, Revolution Trains, biomass wagons, £39?" Then, "Blast, Drax unlikely to co-operate?"

In my ignorance, I ask if the axles are correct. Did they not bulge in the middle because of the hydrokinetic brakes?

Thank you for that excellent review. My track is 00 and some years ago I looked at the various track systems, concluding that none was perfect but Peco was as good as any and cheap. I have wondered about Kato for a test track and now, with grandchildren growing up, a temporary layout using Kato is beginning to look like a very good idea.

The original announcement was for two green and two white. According to Hatton's, there are now three green and one white.

Some background on the real thing. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Be7PWgxzZQw

I for one decided against a rake of the Hornby coaches. It wasn't a difficult decision; Hornby made it for me. In a nutshell: the coaches with lighting are badly done, there are livery errors (much easier to fix on a second production run than structural errors) and of course, the solebars. Bachmann ones are in the pipeline somewhere. Until they appear, ancient versions will continue to do their duty. What a gift to hand Bachmann!

If it ran on the Ffestiniog, it shouldn't have had any trouble with 5' 3". If we'd persisted with it, we could have sold it to Spain and Russia as well as the rest of Europe. It would have been a Godsend in Australia. As to the model, it's been videoed on EM. Most remarkable.

That's fair comment but I admit that I have a soft spot for the Adams Radial Tank. Once the fouling of the buffer beam by the NEM pocket has been sorted, it's a very sweet runner which goes a long way in my opinion. Many of the shortcomings of the Adams should not re-appear in a diesel shunter, for example I'd expect the motor to be fully concealed and the wheels to have a consistent appearance.

For people who "don't have as much knowledge about the 4mm market" you seem to have a better grasp of it than some other manufacturers. The pictures of trains and the PDF of train make ups are lethal marketing. With each month which passes, I seem to find myself topping up my piggy bank and expression of interest with another half dozen TEAs. I suspected that these would not sell well because of Bachmann's TEAs but I'm happy to be wrong. My only fear now is that ordering will be cut off before I've finished realising how many I want.

Good timing. This should go well with the Model Rail USA tank in LMR livery. Because both come from Bachmann, I'd expect a good colour match too.

You've been watching out for it too? The same thing happened with the DRS 47s. I kept checking on the website with no luck and eventually asked Jamie when I ordered the 24. In fairness, she e-mailed it to me straight away. However derided other manufacturers may be and however poor their instructions sometimes are, they don't as a rule release locomotives without instructions.

I suppose there's no Trade Descriptions Act in Canada, seeing as they're made of plastic.

A happy new year and a speedy recovery!

Indeed there is - by Paul Chetter for Zimo. Try Digitrains.

It has been a little difficult to keep up with Hornby, especially in the second half of 2015. Having at least half-a-dozen factories might be seen as not having all the eggs in one basket but it has had the effect of new models coming to market at very short intervals. With all these factories at work, this might well continue in 2017 until we all bankrupt ourselves.

Ingenious. I had an electronic track cleaner rigged up years ago. It certainly got a locomotive going again when it encountered dirt but it seemed to create black deposits which ultimately seemed to jam everything up and require a lot of cleaning. In the end, I decided that I was better off without it.