Gresley-4498

4 hours ago, meatloaf said:

My easterner set arrived today.

 

The locos is a bit grindy at low speed but only going forwards. Its fine at higher speeds. Also it seems to rock a few millimeters on the centre axle, almost to a point where the front drivers arent fully touching the track. I'll give it a good run tomorrow but is there anything obvious to check for before i drop Hornby an email?

 

Hopefully if i do have to send it in for service / exchange they wont expect the whole set back?

There is a thread covering some of the manufaturing issues with the A3s and A4s and how to solve them -
https://community.hornbyhobbies.com/forums/topic/33745-the-main-a1a3a4-chassis-bogie-problems-fixes/#comment-383257

Just the loco if it has to go back IIRC.

12 hours ago, Steamport Southport said:

 

That's a bit rude of them!

 

😉

 

 

Jason

heh! - that's what I get for typing late at night. 🙂

16 hours ago, meatloaf said:

Cheers, ordered the sound fitted Easterner from Hornby and the HST set and a couple of coaches from Rails. 

I had to order bits from all over to get what I needed - Cheltenham, 

Hornby (as nobody else had double length straights or the point clips )  Gaugemaster (the only one to have Track pack 2, insulting joiners and actually they were one of the first to offer a discount on tt) along with various others stores.

On 14/05/2024 at 15:58, Robin Brasher said:

The Cheltenham Model Centre was selling Hornby TT-120 models at the Swanage Railway diesel gala last weekend. It was the first time I had seen a model railway shop selling them. The owners said that the TT-120 models were selling very well. My main interest is the Swanage Railway. So far Hornby have hardly made any models relevant to the Swanage Railway but this has not stopped me buying TT-120 models so they have been attractive to me.

I bought a Scotsman (Sound) set from them at the Glasgow show with some extra wagons and track. It was their last sound set, they only had a small selection of TT left at that point.

5 hours ago, froobyone said:

Hornby provide clips to convert their points to DCC.

Yep, I've highlighted them on the points below in case it helps anyone.

11 hours ago, Legend said:

Hi . What size board is that? Your loop curves R2 and R3? 

Hi yes, Currently baseboard as pictured is 1600x 1220.  Ovals are R2 and R3. The basis is the starter box and track pack system.

16 hours ago, Jeff Smith said:

This seems to be a slippery slope to full automation.....where's the fun in that?

 

Seriously - I'm happy controlling one DC loco at a time - I must be old fashioned....😀

Well some of the fun is in dodging all those other moving trains with the one that you are driving.  🙂 

I don't think it's one or the other, probably about 1/3rd of my locos are chipped.  (across 00/HO/G/N/TT)

17 hours ago, Jeff Smith said:

Yes, but DCC is added expense for layouts that don't really need it. eg, simple double track oval layouts for watching the trains go by, or branch line terminii which were generally one engine in steam......

 

DCC is great for complex layouts with multiple locos, MPDs, double heading etc but every loco costs more plus a DCC controller if required.....

With the Digital option of the starter set, the transformer plugs directly into the track, and the control signals come from your phone, so you don't need to buy a controller. The locomotives need a chip each, but that gives them sound (£60 for bluetooth and sound is a very good price) and abc shuttle support, so the double oval you describe could have trains that stop at a station, wait a while then continue. while there are a few other locomotives milling about in sidings.

I have included a picture of the simple layout that I am building at the moment, which still has some track to arrive.

The blue sections denote abc sections that can stop a locomotive, which can then resume in an appropriate direction after an appropriate delay through configuration that is on the locomotive.  ABC modules from tramfabriek are around £5 each 

I'm thinking at the moment that the 2 ovals would make the trains stop and then continue, whilst the line beside the engine shed would move from a coaling stage to a water tower. With the 3 at the bottom, one could shunt a wagon into a goods shed while the other options are still tbd.

2 hours ago, Jeff Smith said:

I have not tried the controller that came with my DC Easterner mainly because it is for 240v.  Instead I used a Gaugemaster.  It ran well but I have heard the set controllers are not very good......  If so this is not good for new set owners!

The modern option is the DCC Sound version that controls the trains with an phone app through bluetooth. this does work really well, so I'm using this for the tt layout.  Trainset controllers tend to be cheap and cheerful for the most part.  I think there is a very limited market for a premium DC controller these days.

It sounds like you have a good space there and trains could run round the room (I had one of these as a kid and they are fantastic.)

I would say for the first stage you are looking at is mostly joinery and collecting track.  (though if you prefer, you can get some units to a height that is comfortable for you (get a comfortable chair to test) and lay the boards across the top), however a flat / level complete base that fits your space is something to think about.  You can include some lowered sections in you want to include some bridges if you like.

With a base board in place, that can become the starting point of working out where you would like your track to go.

If you are going with the Hornby bluetooth decoders (I am with tt) then you can have digital and sound in the larger locos (and probably in the smaller ones eventually). The decoders support abc shuttles (braking modules TramFabriek's is around £4 each) which you can use to make you trains stop at stations, wait a while then head off, or configure a shunter and a wagon to go backwards and forth in a goods yard or a light loco between a coaling stage and a water tower.

The Settle and Carslile buildings would probably work with your ex-LMS theme as well, but there may be more to come from peco - the ready to plant buildings are good if you haven't done a lot of modelling in past and don't want assembling building kits to be your hobby.  

I would echo that it's easy to get too ambitious at the beginning.

On 27/04/2024 at 11:44, Porfuera said:

 

I've been thinking about this because I recently purchased a European loco and a wagon to compare to UK outline (a Piko BR 223 Eurorunner loco and a Tillig double-container flat Sggmrs wagon) and I didn't find the difference in loading gauge to be too severe.

 

Maybe the examples I bought aren't typical but also I guess that as the scale gets smaller then the differences get less (so the difference in a scale like HO would look 'worse'). Obviously if you had a layout with structures (especially platforms) then even this small difference might cause problems.

 

Anyway, here are a couple of photos from above comparing the loading gauges. The first is an HST on the left and the Eurorunner on the right while the second is an Arnold container flat on the left (grey) and the German one on the right (blue). I think the container flat is possibly a bit deceptive because it has the tie-down hooks mounted on outriggers rather than it being a full-width wagon whereas the Arnold container flat has the hooks mounted on the body.

 

 

 

Loco comparison is interesting, I think it's the wrong wagon to compare as the dimensions will be largely dictated by the size of the shipping containers.  (but as you note, it's the one you have)

On 06/04/2024 at 23:37, Les1952 said:

If only Hornby would look more closely at the work of the designers in the other arms of their own group they would make some very serious improvements to the breed.  Both these locos glide effortlessly round the radius 2 curves my A4 and A3 won't even attempt.

 

 

Hornby have acknowledged a number of manufacturing issues with the A3/A4 and have provided some advice on resolving them, including adjustments to make them work better with Peco track, for example.

There is a thread here outlining the common fixes:

https://community.hornbyhobbies.com/topic/33745-the-main-a1a3a4-chassis-bogie-problems-fixes/#comment-373922

Yo can also get Hornby to make adjustments for you iirc,

9 hours ago, toby_tl10 said:

J36 in 2017 and J15 in 2014 (as dated on the back of the box), so not that much of a difference

I'd forgotten that they'd done a J15 at all actually - in that case it's probably even odds.

1 hour ago, M4tt80 said:

Seeing as the current trajectory is heavily ER based… Dare I dream for a J15 with bated breath…

I think the J36 is more likely as they would have recent-ish (2018?) cad and analysis for it, but you can dream... 

On 04/04/2024 at 15:47, e30ftw said:

 

67 seems an odd choice unless they want to sell it with the royal train connection to the Europeans. 73 too, would a 33 not make a bit more sense? could you share a chassis for 26/27 then?

Agreed 37 and 47 much wider range and livery's compared to the 50

73s have a lot of livery options and synergies with what has been produced so far including Pullman livery, Caledonian Sleeper (with mk3s), gatwick express (mk2s) Network south east along with all the others.

Similar story for 67s as these can also be produced in Pulman, Caledonian sleeper, Royal train (mk3s), Belmond Royal Scotsman, Silver & Diamond Jubilees, EWS. DBS Colas, Arriva etc.