Ollie K

2 hours ago, melmerby said:

I would suggest that's probably a case of removing it first (if possible) to make sure any locating lugs/holes haven't got glue in the wrong places.

Once rectified it should be easy to refit it, properly seated.

Seconded. I bought a second-hand Hornby A4 off eBay a couple of years ago with a similarly mis-fitted chimney. Carefully prised it off with a flathead screwdriver, slimmed down the locating lugs on the underside with a craft knife so they fitted more easily into the holes on the bodyshell itself, then pressed it home. Didn't even need any glue. 

Just noticed while testing my W1 on my new layout’s fiddle yard that the steps are so out of gauge they slightly foul Hornby’s own R8206 power clip track.
 

These are only in temporary use for siding testing until I get round to soldering in dropper wires.

Given obvious compromises have been made to the model to make it trainset track-friendly (the floating flangeless trailing axles, tender coupling and so on) it’s most strange the model doesn’t appear compatible with the manufacturer’s own trainset power supply - until the steps have been bent 1mm or so inwards.

‘Who is this model aimed at?’ is an interesting question…
 

10 hours ago, MikeParkin65 said:

Presumably the raised section and 3 bolts that mar the buffer beam represent the top of the AWS bang plate that is only appropriate for 4771 as preserved and the BR Green version? Strange curates egg of a model this new V2 - expect and usually get better attention to detail from Bachmann. 

 Well spotted, hadn’t seen that before. From what I can see in pre-war V2 photographs the bufferbeam was flat and didn’t feature that raised section as modelled.

I’d be semi-tempted to carve it off with a scalpel and a steady hand but most likely with the three-link front coupling fitting and hanging over the bufferbeam that area would be well obscured and largely unnoticeable when the model is running. 

9 hours ago, The Black Hat said:

Well I have seen some that did look fine but then saw these and was quite taken aback by the photos that were taken there hence asking for more and others opinions to check. Given the ones used by Rails its drawn my attention to it and think that it stands out as being very slender. Comparing the ones highlighted in silver and those in black on the page before again shows that this might be an issue overall... but welcome others inputs - perhaps to allay fears overall. 

Judging by other third-party images on a well-known online auction platform, the smokebox door as modelled by Bachmann is very light- and angle-sensitive.
 

From dead ahead the door straps have the correct ‘face’ and seem convincingly proud of the door itself. From certain side views, the straps are much more subtle and almost invisible when not picked out in silver. 
 

FWIW here’s a couple of phone shots of 4791 I grabbed (through a glass display cabinet) in a model shop a few weeks ago. Looks alright to me. 
 

Always good to check out the ‘pre-loved’ shelves at your local model shop. Never know what you might come across!

I’ve only had a quick flick through so far but it looks like a rich tome in Sir’s inimitable style. Haven’t come across this one at exhibition booksellers before. Is this a rare gem?

Happy to add it to my ‘TW collection’. Really must get these autographed during the next visit of an obnoxious fast car to Little Bytham…

2 hours ago, benbrown said:

Morning all.

Received my rails edition of "Kings own Yorkshire light infantry" . Weekend spent adding all the extra details and etched name plates. I've darked the valve gear down with a humbrol black wash as a starting point. It says the cab doors are for display purposes but fitting them at a 45 degree angle (approx) the loco runs through 4th radius fine and hornbys standard express points. Just need some paint for the front cylinder blast pipes 

Regards Ben

Useful post thanks Ben. And the front pony wheels don’t foul the drain cocks on 4th radius curves either?

Has @micklner stopped cheering yet? LNER W1 with smokebox cowl and post-war garter-blue British Railways versions both added to the catalogue for 2022!

So that's four versions just of the grey 10000: as built, fictional nameplates, double chimney and w/ chimney cowl. Can't be many other single locos besides Flying Scotsman produced in so many small variations. 

Delighted to see Hornby follow up the LMS Coronation Scot with its LNER opposite number. Dared hope it would be on the cards when the observation car was revealed in Margate last year, but figured the usual trainset curve clearances / pack cost obstacles could kibosh it.

Will be very interested to see what sort of coupling/articulation mechanism they’ll go for (similar to APT but without need for tilt?) Hopefully the silver ‘CORONATION’ lettering and numbering will be raised moulded detail rather than the printed numerals used on the previously released ‘Coronation’ A4s which really lets those models down IMHO.

Also Hornby, please factor in easy dismantling of the observation car – if ever there was a model that cried out for a full complement of 1930s-atired passenger figures, this is it. No brittle plastic tabs please…

Dipping my oar in to suggest the GNR C2 / LNER C12 4-4-2T Atlantic tank engine. Ever so elegant, worked everywhere from London to Yorkshire and as many station pilots and branch line shuttles inbetween. And wearing GNR lined green, LNER lined and unlined black and 1948 / early crest BR lined black, plenty of liveries to choose.

If only to prove not all ER modellers only crave grand Pacifics!

1 hour ago, Accurascale Fran said:

Hi there,

 

The factory are working hard to get them on the high seas pre Chinese New Year. Not long left to go now 

 

Cheers!

 

Fran

It’s a miserably drizzly Saturday afternoon where I am, so I’m in the spare room cracking on with new baseboards. Knowing a model like the Deltic is inbound has been a great motivator to get stuck in with a new layout. Well worth all the splinters I’m sure.

4 hours ago, Tony Wright said:

Quite an exciting day!

 

I had a ride over to Ian Wilson's in this..................

 

 

It's a McLaren something or other with 740 HP! 

 

My car is the same colour.

 

 

Getting in and out was fun. 

 

Fortunately, I'd worn by armoured trousers to counter the acceleration. 

 

A mate came over in it, bringing this with him............

 

 

Hornby's latest original W1 (as far as I know, I should have one to review in BRM). 

 

What an astonishing RTR model. 

 

I'd have liked to have given this a full run on LB, but those footsteps are way out of gauge and clouted the platform edges. 

 

However, this ran very well.

 

 

Seen yesterday, but what a difference the correct numberplate makes to the 'face' of this A3. Ian Wilson's numberplates are the perfect type. 

 

Thanks for a fun day, Ollie.

 

 

 My pleasure.

For the curious, my job involves borrowing cars from manufacturers. Sometimes the cars are sensible, sometimes they are interesting, and sometimes they have about seven hundred more horsepower than is strictly deployable in the December Lincolnshire countryside. 

But these cars need to be shared, and props to Tony for being a very good passenger.

The debate over the W1 will surely continue. A hugely imposing model of a fascinating prototype - one which I considered a must-have as a strictly LNER fanatic - but the cop-out trailing truck seems inferior to the kit-built offerings which can apparently negotiate second radius curves, and odd that such out of gauge steps are pre-fitted when many previous Hornby Pacifics included them in the detail bag, only to be fitted on appropriate layouts (like the drain cocks). 
 

Thanks to Tony and Mo (and Ian) for a very enjoyable day. 

3 hours ago, micklner said:

Models as per the Hornby release notes, the wrong uns are:-

Original Hush Hush Body , British Enterprise and the Green version, first one the plates were never fitted , the Green one was on a cigeratte card.

Twin Chimney used for a very short time before rebuilding  , a extra cowling was then also fitted for a even shorter time . That is the version Hornby should have done as it changes the look of the Loco.

 

A4 type body the Grey one never existed ( I have never seen a photo of a Grey one).

 

Hornby havent announced so far :-

Black wartime livery no side covers/valances.

Post war LNER Garter Blue,  no side covers/valances and 10000 in raised Chrome letters and numbers as pre war Coronation A4's layouts.

 

The wrong uns, are simply Hornby maxing out sales of the Loco.

At least on the double chimney version it appears the model no longer has the smokebox door cover which the prototype did away with in the latter part of its life. I suppose that’s an easier tooling change than creating the top chimney cowling.

Interesting point on wartime and postwar liveries. Not often served, as people prefer the ‘glory days’ perhaps? I’ve got one of the early batch Hornby A4s (Sir Charles Newton I think) in wartime black, definitely a candidate for extreme weathering when (if) I ever get a layout up and running in my current house. 

Been to collect mine this afternoon. Luckily opened it up in-store to check all was well inside the box - it wasn't...

That seems like a pretty catastrophic failure in packaging design - ironic given how finely rendered the front deflector plates are, really.

This was the only such affected model in the retailer's batch. Fortunately they weren't quite sold out, so I went home with an intact 10000. Made some interesting noises while being run-in, but seems to have settled down now.

The fine details at the forward end of the running plate are particularly impressive. 

Even Hornby’s social media posts acknowledge the first batch of W1s is selling out faster than loo paper in lockdown. 
 

At last, some pictures of the actual revised tooling A1s and A3s:

https://uk.Hornby.com/community/blog-and-news/engine-shed/diecast-developments-footplates-and-fire

New TES is live now, deadline was missed due to illness. 

Focuses mainly on the revised A1/A3 tooling with diecast running plate and firebox glow.

https://uk.Hornby.com/community/blog-and-news/engine-shed/diecast-developments-footplates-and-fire

50 minutes ago, jonnyuk said:

good little piece, listening to him he mentions a couple of times about using bit for other things, in this instance the casting for the chassis is basically the same as the A4, now what did someone spot in the TV show on monday or last weeks, a EP of an A4. I wonder..............................

Not quite. He's saying the real loco was unsuccessful in its original 'Hush-Hush' form and was rebuilt as a conventional boiler'd loco with A4 streamlining, which it was.

Hornby is therefore producing models of the rebuilt loco (such as R3843, the garter blue W1 EP seen on the TV show) which will use the same chassis as the grey W1, wearing a different body tool, as SK says in the video. 

Doesn't mean Hornby definitely isn't considering updating or retooling its A4, but there haven't been any clues or hints of such a project. 

At a recent exhibition I was chatting with a guy on the Rails stand about the Accurascale Deltics. He mentioned the packaging itself is a marvel. Quote: "They've really gone to town on it" and "It's like they've made the box itself an event, like Apple do." Apparently it's enormous.

I'm not really one for unboxing videos or fetishising luxury boxes, but at the very least it sounds like this exceptional model is going to be very well looked-after in the post.

The named LNER and early BR samples were on display again at the weekend. Impossible to photograph. Hopefully not too far away now. 

Another day, another cabinet of reflections.

1 hour ago, Tim said:

 

 

 

 

As you can see, the smokebox door has been significantly modified, given this is the main failing (IMHO) of the model; getting the "face" right of a loco, after all, is vital.   The door, thankfully, pops off without much ado, making thinning down rather more straightforward.  I use a Stanley knife for this job, since I can have greater control over the blade than I can with a scalpel, especially given I can "roll" the door along the knife blade in order to mark it out.  I think I've taken about 0.6mm of the depth out of it, which I smoothed up with a decent file afterwards.  The plug bit of the door is then too deep for the recess provided, so I took a "detail file" to the back of it until it sat happily in the hole.  The original door dart was a casualty of this process, so that was just replaced with my usual pair of shoulderless handrail knobs soldered to a length of wire, trimming the handles to the desired length and blackening afterwards.

 

 

Really useful post Tim , thanks. And a lovely job on the weathering. 
 

Did you take any pictures midway through the smokebox door trimming? Just interested in your technique to achieve such a flush-fitting result.

Think I’m going to attempt removing the rearmost cabside windows when I get my hands on one, hopefully the adhesive there isn’t overly strong either. 
 

Cheers,

Ollie 

1 hour ago, jwealleans said:

Oliver, I hope you don't mind my reposting some of your pictures as I've been rereading the last few pages with a clearer head and there are some nice details visible. 

Not in the slightest - great to have a behind-the-scenes explainer and details I'd not spotted pointed out.

For the readers' benefit, these photos are just a standard iPhone job shot from behind the spectator barrier, with as little zoom as possible.

Previously I've been guilty of enjoying exhibitions 'through a lens' too much, arriving home with lots of photos and shaky video but not having just enjoyed watching a railway operating. Happily there was time last week to watch the whole Grantham sequence almost twice, once for a few keepsake photos, and again to just enjoy the sights. 

Any videos would've been soundtracked with squeals of delight from younger onlookers spotting the new horse...

Does anyone have any experience of a Bachmann Sound-Fitted model running on analogue / DC control?

Just been reading various reviews of the V2s in the modelling press and several state the sound-fitted model will run on a conventional analogue layout, and play the usual running sounds as well as occasional extras, like a whistle or safety valve lift I suppose.

Still undecided over getting one of these, but I'm interested how that feature works on DC and how consistently it plays the looped audio. 

1 hour ago, davidw said:

I got hold of two. O2/3 and O2/4, both were pretty good.  Personally I find them tough work horses

It’s hasn’t put me off them, I think I just had one that had suffered in the post. If the brake shoes, smokebox door dart and tender handrail had been present it would have been a weekend fix it job, not a refund.

Looking forward to the new batch. The GNR cab is especially elegant to my eyes.