Going Spare

From photographs, I would say the body of X4026 is longer than X6331 - but why change from a 5-pole to a 3-pole? Also, the chassis mountings are different.

The website quotes the Railroad model as having a 3-pole motor (+ flywheel).

As I see it, there are two areas of concern: the working of the site and the information available to the user. Having no computing knowledge, my comments relate to the latter. Examples of many inaccuracies: there are just 3 Railroad locomotives offered (against 39 in the catalogue) and even one of those is a main-range item; there is no mention of Railroad Plus at all; there are many detailed errors such as 12 rather than 2 'Lionel' points offered at the 2-pack price, and bufferstops having 5-pole motors. Also, the choice of locomotive types/liveries to illustrate eras 3 through to 10 seem to me to be misleading. Presumably all this information was provided by Hornby for the website designers so the blame lies at their door.

Also, the earlier model used the sprung drawbar between loco and tender whereas R3099 has the plug and socket arrangement, giving provision for sound in the tender, the earlier loco having the decoder socket on the loco chassis. Service sheets 284B and 388B refer.

The tender body secures to the chassis frame by means of two lugs on each side of the chassis frame locating in slots on the bottom inside of the body sides. The lugs are one- and two-thirds along each side. The body can sometimes be released by squeezing the front and rear causing the sides to bow outwards slightly. If not, carefully introduce a small blade at a corner between the body and the chassis frame and work it along the side, gently prising the body outwards.

I wouldn't hold your breath - there is so, so much wrong throughout the site I find it difficult to understand why it was allowed to be launched in such a raw, incomplete state,

The vehicle being discussed was the Stanier brake/3rd that Hornby produced in Royal Mail livery rather than the Travelling Post Office van for which you are probably seeking the instruction sheet. As well as the TPO van itself, if I remember correctly, it came with a collecting post and bin both on a base that clips to the track, 6 mail bags and two sprung track activation ramps.

As andyman7 says, these are not suitable for Hornby's scale length Mk3 coaches. I believe replacement bogies for the later coaches were last available from Hornby a good number of years ago so you may be in some difficulty locating any.

Do you know the part number of the bogies supplied by Peters Spares?

Kernow are advertising X8314 brush packs

ekmexhibitions.co.uk are showing a class 37 bogie frame carrying reference 32-775/10 which would appear to relate to the 4-wheel drive version. Apologies, somehow missed the post above! Senior moment!

The ex-Dapol motors were notorious for being over-lubricated in the factory, resulting in oil softening the brushes which then disintegrate after very little running and often overheating causing the brush springs to weaken. If there is no other damage, new brushes & springs and a clean of the commutator will probably cure the problem

If you need a fall-back for the boiler steam pipe, check out part L7358 from the UK-made A1/A3 at Peters Spares.

The medium-width clip-in couplings with tapering sides are still offered by Dapol and both those and the wide-bar couplings with parallel sides are available in Hornby packs X8052 and X9660, respectively. Regarding NEM couplings, the fish tails can be tapered vertically (all may be, I am not sure) so if any seem tighter than you would expect, try turning them over.

Hornby pack R8099?

Place the spring around the central pin, pass the pin through the slot in the bogie bracket and secure it as an interference fit in to a short length of plastic tube above the bracket.

Lendons of Cardiff are showing X6226.

Listed as in stock (36-062) by Lendons of Cardiff.

And, by entering a locomotive type or an R number, a few more sheets can be accessed even though they have not been added to the main list - class 87, for example, produces sheet 436.