thx712517

Ah, didn't know about EFE. Cheers!

Any chance if adapting this into an Austerity later on? I'm in need/desire of a quality Austerity that runs well at creeping speed.

Now that we're a few years down the line from introduction, how are they holding up? Still smooth reliable running? I've thinking of ordering one so I'm curious to know if people still think of them as a smooth running reliable little shunter or if they've been surpassed since the 2015 introduction.

I'm interested in buying a Hornby J94, preferably Lord Phil since I fancy the green paint. Can't find many details about it though! 3-pole or 5-pole motor? How much does it weigh? Does it have a flywheel or no? Good at low speed shunting on DC power, or a rocket? Is it a noisy runner or quiet? The only mentions I can find here are a few threads dealing with it once accidentally being advertised as DCC ready when it wasn't. That leads me to believe for all its new paint, this might be something old and crude underneath.

The screw on the side of the cast tower allows the weight block to slide off, revealing a plastic clip that holds the worm gear down. The worm gear has a friction-fit cap on one end, made of plastic, that has the clip that connects it to the flywheel. So I pulled it all off, cleaned and oiled the worm gear, then slowly rotated the driving wheels so I could pull bits of grease off the plastic gear. All clean, oiled lightly, and put it all back together. No change in noise from the unit. To be fair, the grease remaining on the gear was very soft so I think the earlier oil treatment did what it needed to do. The gears rotated smoothly while everything was apart. So I think I've hit the limit on what can be done with this unit, and accept that it's just going to be, at least to me, a noisy runner.

I don't have much in the way of a work bench, so I set up a loop of track, took off the shell, and removed the keeper plate from the bottom of the mechanism. Then I squirted in a liberal amount of light gear oil and ran it forward and back for some time. Used some canned air and shot it into the gear tower area as well. There was a bit of gel-like clear grease that I was able to remove with a bit of q-tip. Is there a way to get into the gear tower? It seems to be a cast metal block, with two screws on the top that hold the little circuit board that the DC/DCC chip sits in. There's a screw in the side of the gear tower block, but I'm not sure if that's holding a gear in place or not so I didn't try removing it.

I've got a Hornby R3484 Class 08. Locomotive runs well, has an hour and a half of run-in time all told, in half hour increments going forward or reverse throughout the throttle range. Running in was spread out over a few days to avoid overheating anything and causing issues. However, it's still a noisy thing. Gear groan I would say, if that makes sense. Are they known to be noisy, are my ears too sensitive, or should I be looking for an issue? How long does it take for it to be considered run in, compared to the estimated 100 hour lifespan of the motor?

I've got myself a newer Hornby Class 08 that pulls decently well and creeps at low speed. However the thing is quite noisy to me compared to other locomotives I've owned after four hours total of running in, usually in 25-30 minute segments in alternating directions without load on a large loop track. I came across High Level Kits a while back but I'm not quite sure how difficult or easy an installation is and if it would require a scratch chassis or if it can swap out the existing gear drive. It looks like I would want a LoadHauler Compact+ gearbox going by the following blurb on the site. "Meanwhile the LoadHauler Compact+ gives you a lot of gear reduction in the smallest possible space, with the narrower, straight option being an ideal size and shape to fit under the bonnet of an BR Class 08 diesel shunter." Ideally paired with a Mashima 1430 and either an 80:1 or 108:1 gearing. Alternately, is there some trick to running in that will quiet down the loco, are my expectations of silent operation unrealistic, or do they make alternate gearing for the Hornby mechanism to slow it further?

Thanks for the photo. Bought the book and I've been enjoying all the weird and wild locomotives BR experimented with.

I know it's been a while, but would you say it's worth $75? Are you able to share a picture of the contents page?

Places selling it list 80 pages, but I've not been able to find a table of contents. How many pages are spent on the 08?

I saw that in my initial searching, but from what I could see of the inside of the book it's photographs of particular engines. I'm looking for something more meat and potatoes, getting into the design process, why they made the decisions they did, how they performed in traffic, the introduction of the 09 variant, things like that.

I'm looking for a book or books that go into depth on the BR Class 08 diesel shunter. Something like GWR Pannier Tanks by Robin Jones that discusses design, construction, operation, modifications over time, and operation in preservation. I'm in the US so nothing on the shelves her I can flip through to judge before buying.

I've gone ahead and ordered the Class 08 in question as of this afternoon. I can't wait to get it and I'm praying it works as well as others have said. I was thoroughly humiliated at work today in a meeting in front of the entire building by some nasty coworkers and I need a win.

It's looking like my Class 03 may have some sort of construction issue. Lumpy/surging low speed, and after thorough cleaning and lubing little improvement. Also a bit of a burnt electrical smell after running in for a while. I've emailed Olivia's Trains about doing a partial exchange, waiting to hear back from them on it. I've had good luck with Hornby steam engines but I've never run a Hornby diesel before. I've also got a Bachmann GWR 64xx that took a good bit of fiddling to get running smoothly, so I'm a bit Bachmann-shy at the moment.