GWR-fan

I am a sucker for the recent Hornby nostalgia trainsets, so when Hattons had listed a pre-owned R1285M Crash Train set for less than half their discounted retail price, I felt compelled to buy it even though described as a non-runner. A study of the supplied images showed what was possibly a customer return with which a coupling rod screw had departed causing the forward right split coupling rod to bend and jam the mechanism. Loose coupling rod screws are still a common issue on Hornby locomotives. Each new and pre-owned purchase I check tighten the screws before running the model. The trainset arrived this morning. The store not only protected the original Hornby brown outer packaging by double boxing the set for shipping but also supplied the missing coupling rod screw. Upon removing the chassis I had expected to find the coupling rod bent but it was not to be. The rod was perfect, so it was a simple matter of inserting the "missing" screw and test running the model. Of the five installed coupling rod screws still insitu, three were loose. Performance was more than acceptable considering the generic 0-6-0 chassis that Hornby put under a lot of their Rairoad range models. The loco showed minimal usage so the rod screw may have separated shortly after purchase, rendering it unusable. The rest of the contents of the trainset showed no usage at all.

Received this morning four train packs from the current Hattons warehouse sale. The "Caledonian" pack was perfect. The loco "King George VI" ran perfectly. The Hornby "Cambrian coast" with Castle class "Nunney Castle" was also in good shape. The Hornby "Bristolian" with King class "King Charles II" was described as minor cosmetic damage (easily fixed) and inconsistent runner. As received the loco was dead when placed on the rails. A little prodding and suddenly the loco sprang into life and ran smoothly. Three wins. Even the ex-Dapol ringfield drive in "Nunney Castle" ran well. Alas, the fourth trainpack "The Red Dragon" did not fare so well. Described as ran fine when last run, the loco was a basket case of previous hamfisted work being carried out to get it to run. I purchased "The Red Dragon" pack as I specificially wanted the five-pole can motor chassis to fit into the "Nunney Castle" loco from the "Cambrian Coast" pack as I have a distinct distaste for the ex-Dapol ringfield drives. Alas, when placed the loco on the track the motor would spin with no drive to the wheels. Immediate thought was split axle gear. I removed the body to find a butcher had stripped the forward body mount screw hole and had inserted a brass wood screw. Immediately obvious was that the worm gear retention saddle was loose allowing the worm to lift away from the intermediate gear, so I thought a bullet had been dodged. I then reassembled and tested only to find not only the final drive gear split but Billy the butcher had mangled the power pickups to each wheel and in the process had stripped all six coupling rod mount screw holes. Basically, what I have now is a pile of spare parts (of which some are usable) and not the "ran fine when last run" loco that I thought I was receiving. I had some wins and unfortunately some losses. Now awaiting a further three packs from the sale so fingers crossed.

No sign of any corrosion or "crud" on the axles or bearing recesses in the chassis block. The loco appeared as new with no sign of use.

Seems like the old "kill the messenger" syndrone. Keith does not like his feathers being ruffled. If you are not with him you are against him mentality. Many of us saw through him right from the original GT3 release, while others gave him the benefit of the doubt only to have it thrown back at them. For Keith, any critisism is a hostile act, not seen as a critique or trying to be helpful to get the best product possible for all.

I recently purchased two "pre-owned" Hornby "Night Mail" trainsets. While the packaging was well shelf worn on both sets, the contents look to have never been used. One Jinty ran very well, however the other was a non-runner, although not described as such. Immediately obvious was the model did not sit squarely on a flat surface, plus it seemed that the drive was locked solid. Upon disassembly all six brass bearings were seized on the axles, plus the axles were locked solid in the diecast chassis. Considerable force was needed to release the axles from the chassis block and then the brass bearings needed to be freed from the axles. I have never seen this condition previously. After cleaning up whatever had caused the bearings to seize on the axles, the bearings were lubricated with oil and the bearing recesses in the chassis block cleaned out. After reassembly the chassis sat squarely and the model now was a runner.

Update on my express railcar. In this morning's delivery was a preowned blood and custard railcar along with two pairs of Peters Spares non-powered replacement wheelsets from Hattons. I am not paying GBP39.99 to ship wheels weighing barely a few grams from Peters Spares, so the replacement geared wheelsets will need to wait. I fitted the new wheels to the non-powered end of this railcar plus the parcels railcar puurchased previously. immediately obvious was the better running but alas constant derailment on points when entering or leaving the divergent track. A check of the back to back showed the wheelsets very much under gauge. I adjusted them out to 0.575" using my vernier and the models both ran well. I am actually surprised at how well they run and how reasonably quiet they are.

In my case it was Australia/UK power adaptors. Basically told by both parties, not interested as not covered by buyer protection. PayPal stated as the item was purchased through eBay then I must deal with eBay, who refused to act.

There are some classes of items not protected by either eBay, for a dispute resolution, or covered under the PayPal protection scheme as I recently found out. Basically, for these items both eBay and PayPal state that the buyer must sort out a dispute with the seller himself. If eBay refuses to intervene then PayPal are not interested in following up the matter.

There is usually a distinction between truth and fiction, but alas it seemingly does not apply for this manufacturer, regardless of their grasp of the English language..

Sorely tempted as it could be sometime before another release in a prototypical livery (if ever). However, not convinced in the long term reliability. For 200 qud there is a large market of proven performers with better reliability, engineering and detail. After feeling let down by the purchase of a Rails Heljan 18000 gas turbine (boring model), I am not sure I want to tread another gas turbine path.

Models these days are reaching a point whereby simply picking up a steam loco or even a diesel is likely to result in something being broken or compressed. Tolerances on steam loco valve linkages are so tight that even ever so slight pressure in picking up the model could cause either damage to the linkage or remove any operating tolerance designed into it. If KR Models is unable to manufacture a working valve arrangement and just a representation then like others have said the impact on sales while not minimal will most likely not hinder the sale of the model. It is a quirky model that many would find irresistable, even with a compromised valve mechanism. While the "attraction" of the model is the Stephenson-Gooch valve mechanism, to me the ommission of the exact representation of the gear linkage would not stop me purchasing the loco. What irks me is the "refusal" to come clean with what is to be ultimatly received by the customer. We all recall the secrecy and potential deceit in hiding the fact that the Fell was wrongly tooled. Even while the Fell was waiting on the docks to be shipped, customers still believed that the tooling had or was being corrected. If KR Models is to be a respected manufacturer then there needs to be a major shift in management attitude to its customers. Personally, I doubt that this will happen as a leopard never changes its spots and in future releases we will be fed optimistic expectations of what will be made and alas comments by others at the failure to achieve those expectations. Being upfront with the customer builds confidence in both the customer and the future viability of the company.

I finally accomplished fitting metal wheels to the tender on two LOI locomotives from the Hornby Victorian trainsets. I have been wanting to do this since receiving the sets several months ago. A simple clip in modification. The tender wheels from old Mainline/Bachmann 43XX and most likely other similar locomotives will fit straight in with no alteration required. It does smarten up the look of the loco and while maybe not the exact diameter or number of spokes it is a worthwhile mod. I look for inexpensive Mainline/Bachmann runners/non-runners to salvage the metal wheelsets and one could then onsell the model to recoup the cost. The last two Mainline 43XX received to remove the metal tender wheels ran so well I was reluctant to disassemble them. They still run well with the Hornby split plastic wheels fitted though. I drill out slightly oversize the axle cutouts in the Mainline/Bachmann tender sideframes and fit the removed Hornby split wheels and axles from the LOI loco. The result is still a free rolling Mainline tender which tracks the same as when the metal wheels were fitted.

Yes, but is it false advertising promising one thing and possibly not meeting the buyers' expectations based on that advertising. If the company has fallen short on their promises then, unlike another product they manufactured, tell the bl##dy truth!!!!!!

In the same package was a train pack with a Britannia class loco, "Black Prince". Described as having an issue with a minor linkage adjacent the left handrail on the boiler to be refitted and the rear wall of the tender bunker adrift (simple fix). Alas, while it runs well, steps were missing from both the loco and tender, parts of the valve linkage were adrift on both sides and both buffers on the pilot beam were damaged. Not quite fitting the description.

I cannot understand why so many own goals. Is it the factory or the manufacturer or the attitude? It seems that everything falls on deaf ears.

You can lead a horse to water.........................................................

A pre-owned Hornby SR olive green 2-BIL emu arrived this morning supposedly with underframe damage to the power car. What arrived is like new and I cannot find any evidence of damage to the model. The store's item descriptions do have me scratching my head at times.

Pictured is an image of a loco I am anticipating arriving tomorrow showing the area in question. As stated a botched repair carried out. Edit: I also have a repair job to carry out.

There are the occasional bargains on the store pre-owned listing site. This morning (5am local time) listed under "Steam Train Packs" under the "OO scale" heading was Hornby R2306 "Caledonian" train pack for GBP75.00 (GBP62.50 after VAT removal). The pack surprisingly was not part of the current Warehouse Sale nor part of the overnight dump of pre-owned items. I do not recall it being listed last night (late afternoon British time). I say a bargain as the pack contains a five-pole loco drive super detail Coronation class locomotive, "King George VI" and three Mk1 coaches. Described as recently tested and running fine. Old three-pole ringfield train packs like the Schools class pack and the Kentish Belle normally list around GPB 100.00, so why the "Caledonian" pack was listed at GBP75.00 is one of the mysteries that is the lucky dip barrel of Hattons pricing policy. Normally, a Coronation class loco of similar vintage would list pre-owned around GBP75.00 and Mk1 coaches from a train pack around GBP18.00 - 20.00. I am a fan of big express locomotives so this train pack fell into my lap with minimal expense as I will add it to my trunk and the weight will barely impact on the shipping cost. To ship the pack on its own would cost GBP18.00 by Royal Mail or GBP28.00 by DHL Express. As I already have a few items in the trunk the train pack will only cost me around GBP4.50 extra to ship.

Surprisingly these two models are included in the Hattons current wharehouse sale.

Hattons currently have the GWR "shirtbutton" AEC railcar for GBP129.00. I thought, well, that is the cheapest I have seen these so perhaps a better alternative to the streamlined Dapol model that would need a lot of work to fit the chassis and even then would not be acceptable. I looked at the forum thread for the Heljan railcar and alas, Heljan still seems to have their fragility issues with broken bogie pivot pins. I did not mind the class 128 shedding parts intransit as these are easily repairable but when the main components of the drive system are faulty then I feel another Heljan model to avoid. A pity!!!!. I decided on a cheap blood and custard BR Lima railcar model as part of the current Hattons sale. Hattons also had two pairs of the Peters Spares non-geared replacement wheelsets for Lima models so I will fit them and hopefully improve the pickup on the two Lima railcars I will now have. Perhaps when Peters Spares drops their GBP39.99 shipping charge on all international orders I will pick up the replacement geared wheelsets and then fit the "Susu" CD replacement motors to finish the job.

Many thanks for that Information. To answer my own question I found that the item is Bachmann 37-376D released a year or two ago. Olivia's Trains wants GBP26.00 each wagon!!!!!

Listed as part of the current Hattons sale was two packs listed as Hornby R6473 Railroad range 16 ton mineral wagons. I liked the look of the wagons in each pack and picked up both packs for GBP22.00 each after VAT removal. I was intrigued as to the detail on the waggons and why a Railroad range model would have NEM pockets. It was only after Googling the model number that I realised that these waggons are not the Railroad range models but obviously another product that has been placed inside the original Hornby packaging. Please identify what I have purchased. Thankyou. Link to models in question. https://www.hattons.co.uk/stocklistdatabase/stockdetail?sid=1279827

For years I had an outdoor "G" scale railway using 45mm stainless steel track and 10' diameter curves. While not a large layout I did complicate the track plan with 43 electrically operated points, which incidentally saw minimal usage but were interesting when I did find a use for them. I would use a mix of DC analogue or DCC depending on my mood. The layout was in the backyard of a small villa. My old You-tube channel is Gscalenut. This is one of the many large locomotives that I built showing some of the trackplan. At one end was a long branchline down the side of the house and another set of trackwork across the back of the house incorporating a reverse loop.

When these were recently released (rereleased?) I decided to purchase three of the low loader with the drag shovel plus three of the release with the Coles crane. My intent was either a wagon load or just clutter around a goods yard or perhaps a construction site. I believe that the models represent excellent value as a similar Corgi drag shovel can sometimes cost over GBP25.00- 30.00 and when I have seen a pre-owned Coles crane it will sell for close to GBP20.00 on its own. Oddly, the model is not listed as 1/76 scale on the packaging but it does state "to compliment "OO" scale model railway layouts". I recently purchased several of the Corgi Thornycroft GWR articulated trailer trucks and considered them to be undersized even though listed as "OO" scale. The drag shovel is listed as fully poseable, however, unless the bucket is placed level with the base of the drag shovel then the cables will need to be altered. To arrange the shovel on the supplied flatbed truck would make the cables very unrealistically slack. These are definitely nice models and worth the asking price as basically the flatbed truck is free when one considers the price for the load.