Ollie K

Heartening to see the RoS update lists improvements made to the next batch of models:

“It also features several improvements over earlier releases, introduced in response to feedback about the first batch, including a redesigned steel loco/tender coupling with two positions, metal handrail knobs, blackened wire handrails and more robust valve gear/motion.”

I picked up one of the existing LNER versions but ended up returning it for a refund due to glue marks and broken/missing detail parts. Hoping for better this time.

Just came across this footage of one review sample running.

Two naff photos of the samples at the GETS this weekend. Sorry, glass cases in awkward positions + phone camera indoors doesn’t make for high quality images. 
 

In the metal the valve gear is on the thickset side but not as overly chunky as it looks on the official ‘press’ images, IMHO. Still not a fan of the exposed screwheads though.

New pics of the RoS V2s here in LNER and BR livery. Very hi-res pics too, if you've got a decent screen to study them on.

ETA in November...

https://railsofsheffield.com/blogs/news/exclusive-Bachmann-class-v2-locomotives

47 minutes ago, MikeParkin65 said:

45428 preserved on the North York Moors Railway and bought direct from BR service has a mix of spoked and disk wheels on its tender

 
Coincidentally I photographed (4)5428 last week after riding behind to Whitby, a matter of days after seeing Bahamas at the Nene Valley Railway and spotting it too sports a mixture of tender wheels. 
 

Hopefully this isn't breaking any embargos and I'll remove if it upsets anyone, but no-one said this wasn't shareable and I asked permission to take photographs and handle the model.

I had a chance to get hands-on with the LNER green-liveried W1 last week and observe it running.

A few short observations:

• The loco is light. Feels lighter than it 'looks' given its bulk - the boiler / bodyshell is all plastic and the chassis doesn't feel particularly heavy. No more so than the current A3 / A4 models, and from memory not as heavy as the A2/2 or, say, Hornby's current Princess Royal Pacifics. I was told this example could haul 6 bogie carriages on the level but struggled beyond that. Hopefully this was an early sample without the final amount of weighting added.
   
• Lamps are included. They are shown fitted on the box art. A really nice touch IMHO that makes the loco look much more 'finished'. Hopefully this is the start of a new habit from Hornby including them in the detail pack.

• Detail pack had vacuum hoses, brake rigging, and a pair of axles with unflanged wheels. Can't remember if there was a three-link coupling. The loco was already supplied with unflanged trailing truck wheels, so it seems odd more would be included. A pre-production oversight perhaps.

• Colour looks similar to the A2/3 Edward Thompson seen alongside. I believe some took issue with this being a shade too 'blue' and not a warm enough green. Then again it's a fictional livery only used on promotional cigarette cards. These are only handheld iPhone shots of moving models under artifical light.

• Lining, cab detail and overall shape look fabulous. Very glad Hornby now have a 1928-style corridor tender in the range and wish they would sell it separately to save hacking about with NRM Flying Scotsman eBay finds...

• The W1 ran smoothly and quietly around a simple large radius oval. Even on wide curves the rearmost wheels hang outside of the rail, and because of how the rear truck is cut away, it's noticeable the wheels aren't turning. I daresay with weathering this could be disguised, and the argument of how Hornby could/should have designed the chassis will run and run.

I'm not a professional modeller (or model reviewer). These are just a few amateur observations having had a good look around one particular specimen and being familiar with Hornby's Gresley models. Still looking forward to seeing the finished articles in their various liveries and hearing how you all get on with yours. Apparently the first shipment is already in Margate...

Ollie

5 hours ago, atom3624 said:

That's the one, thank you.

Al.

Hah, I skimread that and presumed the cab drawing was from the Clans. Thanks both.

On 25/06/2021 at 12:47, atom3624 said:

View inside the cab looks absolutely stunning - latest pictures just issued today.

 

Al.

Where can I find the new images please Al?

34 minutes ago, Tony Wright said:

Thanks for mentioning my appearance on Hornby's Youtube channel.

 

Regards,

 

Tony.  

Worth a watch if anyone fancies some enjoyable evening viewing (or has gone off football lately)!

1 hour ago, No Decorum said:

Bachmann has just confirmed to me that the trailing wheels will be flangeless, even though early pictures clearly show flanges. I have provided feedback. 

Did they provide a reason? Seems like an odd decision, given they’d successfully got pivoting axles within a daylight-free trailing truck to work on previous models like the GNR C1 Atlantic.

Interested to see if that bulled-up valve gear is the final version too, I’d presumed the very shiny look was simply a carryover from the museum-spec Locomotion Models variants and would be blackened for the regular versions.

Finally took the plunge on the Rails D9008 yesterday evening, after a long time deliberating on liveries. Spent a while reading back through this thread and really appreciating the depth of information and thorough updates Accurascale has delivered.

This will be the first non-steam loco I've ever owned. Totally out of period for what I like to model, but the quality of the product made me buckle!

2 hours ago, Tony Wright said:

 

It would be nice to think that (one day) the fantastic LNER streamliners might be available RTR. The 'Coronations', the 'West Riding' and the spare set would probably make the most sense, since all four rakes were the same consist (apart from the summer-only Observation Cars in the 'Coronation'). The raised lettering might present a problem for BR days, though the spare set just had roof boards.

Not to mention the mother of all NRM gift shop special editions: 4468 + NER dynamometer car + 6-car Coronation spare-set. Perhaps complete with 1:76 Duddington driver figure with his cap on backwards...

3 hours ago, Butler Henderson said:

The photo appears in The Power of the A1s, A2s and A3s (JS Whiteley & GW Morrison, OPC 1982), and probably elsewhere. It is credited to JP Wilson and dated as 29th May 1946, the loco being en route to Marylebone for its naming two days later, hence the covering on the nameplate.

Thanking you. Another book for the shopping list.

IMHO this is about as handsome as a Thompson Pacific has ever looked in a photograph. Such a well-composed shot.

With the LNER versions 'arriving very soon', does anyone know anything about this picture of 500 'Edward Thompson' presumably on the day of (or very close to) its official naming?

Hornby has used it extensively in its catalogue and publicity for the A2/3 models but I've not come across it elsewhere. Would be very interested to hear a date / location / photographer, and why the dyno drive (for electric lighting?) off the bogie wheels were ditched?

Penny for the thoughts of the three gentlemen looking on from track level..!

Cheers,

Ollie

Am I right in thinking the R2888M Flying Scotsman train pack featuring LNER A4 4483 ‘Kingfisher’ and three super detail teaks with nameboards was an Argos-only limited edition? 
 

5 hours ago, Tony Wright said:

Thanks Ollie,

 

I think it lead to the spectacles being replaced with armoured Triplex glass. 

 

I'm not sure how a flat-fronted cab would have prevented such an accident. I would have thought it would have less deflective tendencies.

 

Anyway, the incident was unique, and the lack of internal reflection was a far safer option.

 

Regards,

 

Tony. 

 

 

Indeed, Tony. And O. S. Nock would’ve agreed...

The story and its aftermath are from his ‘The Gresley Pacifics’, not an Allen memoir as I misremembered earlier.

On 20/03/2021 at 15:36, Tony Wright said:

 

In case of the A2/3s he reverted to a round dome (even though the perforated steam collector was proven to be superior) and a flat cab front (why?). Even though the Peppercorn A1/A2 boiler was virtually the same as the Thompson A2/3 boiler (individual A2/2s, A2/3s, A1s and A2s carried both types), it reverted to the perforated steam collector, placed further back. 

 

...

 

The further forward dome resulted in water surging into it under heavy braking, and the 'V'-fronted cab (at least with regard to the spectacles) was far superior in reducing reflected glare. Yet, in his new construction A2/3s Thompson chose to discard the perforated steam collector and the 'V-fronted' cab, both reinstated by his successor. 

 

Regards,

 

Tony. 

Morning Tony and all,

I've read that a freak accident was the motivation for Thompson to dispense with V-fronted cabs. 

In the late '30s two A4s passed at speed on up / down expresses while one was picking up from a water trough. A sheet of water shattered the front spectacle glass of one of the engines which fatally injured an inspector riding on the A4's footplate, though driver and fireman were uninjured and able to bring the train to a safe stop. 

Thompson firmly believed the overspill would not have smashed the glass if the cab had been a flat-fronted type. Though, whether or not resolving the terms of this uncanny coincidence makes up for severely reduced nighttime visibility is of course up for debate.

I'll have a look for the source quote later after work, may well have been from a Cecil J. Allen book. 

Cheers,

Ollie

5 hours ago, Market65 said:

Good morning, everyone. I’ve been working on my Thane Of Fife, and the following things may be of help, especially with the warped footplates. I’ll illustrate with a few photo’s what I’ve been doing.

 

Firstly the thing that has fixed the warped footplates on both sides regardless of the sandbox ‘behinds’. As you can see in the photo’, there is a black rectangular projection going up, from footplate level, into a recess into the bottom of the boiler. Mine were not glued, and I’m as sure as I can be they should be glued. On gluing them into that recess the footplate became both level and very firm. It now looks and feels like it should have done from taking the model out of the box.

 

Best regards,

 

 Rob.

 

Thanks for this Rob. Just made a palpable difference to my 60505's running plate with this 5-minute job. 

Ollie

Interesting developments re. replacements being sourced quicker than I expected.

Still in two minds what to do with mine. The loose pieces have been fixed, my 60505’s cab lean isn’t too bad and I’d vouch it’s the smoothest-running Pacific I own. 
 

But, the wavy running plate is impossible to ‘unsee’, I can’t close the unsightly gap under the front frames and I was interested to see the replacement sent to Sam’s Trains even had neater boiler banding. 
 

Question is, will a retailer replacement be from the new improved batch, or will it be a lottery of missing lamp irons and distorted plastic? Better the devil you know...

3 hours ago, Bernard Lamb said:

To add insult to injury on packing away the box I notice that the instruction leaflet actually depicts the trailing wheels as having flanges. A very poor leaflet I might add with no class history.

In fairness to Hornby there's a decent historical overview of the class on the back of the box.

10 hours ago, robmcg said:

On the subject of minor or major detail assembly issues, I have yet to see aa A2/2 model by Hornby with the handrail above the front footrests not squashed.  It was not always (or ever?) vertical on the prototype, being angled outwards a bit , so I might be simply nit-picking, shows what an idle sod I am!

Funnily enough a similar observation had me looking through my Coster 'Book of the A1 and A2 Pacifics'; in every A2/2 image the small front frame handrails are angled outwards away from the vertical. On the model it's obviously a very delicate part that's easily squashed, but at least the lean is prototypical. 

2 hours ago, Legend said:

Maybe  they don’t test at all  , let consumers do the QC  and accept there will be a certain rate of returns . Given modellers approach of muddling through and sorting issues themselves  might not be bad approach as some defective items won’t get sent back .   Of course you get a reputation for poor quality  but if people keep on buying anyway at £189 ................

I’ve just become part of the problem then. Was about to box my A2 back up for return and spotted the missing lubricator detail jammed in one of the screw access holes on the underside of the front bogie.

After removing the body and unscrewing the bogie, I retrieved it and using tweezers and swearing, was able to seat it back in its slot on the running board. Spurred on to complete the job, the smokebox door and tender scoop are now correctly positioned and secured with a spot of glue. 
 

While the body was off I attempted to close the gap around the front frames, but it won’t budge.

Ordinarily I’d have asked to unbox the model in the shop before accepting, but under current restrictions I was handed the box outside the shop. The vendor was aware of the QC issues and exchanging it wasn’t going to be a problem. 
 

Very much agree with the post hoping Hornby learns from this before the A2/3, W1 and new P2 production models are signed off.
 

Ollie

25 minutes ago, Toftwood said:

Send it back, as I am doing with mine.

 

Pete

Looking that way, unfortunately. 
 

As I lifted the loco clear of the packing tray, it left its water scoop behind. 
 

Meanwhile, one of the two lubricator assemblies on the LHS running plate is missing.

If it, like the smokebox door and water scoop, had been lurking in the bottom

of the box I’d have just stuck them back on, but now there’s a missing detail it irks me with the money spent. Hoping for more luck with the replacement. 

Collected my Thane of Fife from the always-helpful Trains4U this afternoon. Opened the box very warily in case the smokebox lamp iron had come adrift, as others had found.

Turns out I needn't have worried: it was still affixed to the smokebox door... which had completely detached from the loco.

The running plate looks to have a slight undulation on both sides as it flexes around the sandbox backing plates. I'm not sure I'd have noticed it immediately if others on this thread hadn't pointed it out on their models. Colour looks better in real life than in photos, if not as dark and rich as the box image. 

RHS nameplate isn't quite fixed properly, but I'll have a closer look later when I stick the smokebox door back on. 

Detail bag does indeed contain the AWS backing plate, along with 2x steps, 2 x drain cocks and brake rigging. 

I'll sit down later and really give the loco a close look over. My layout's been dismantled for an upcoming house move so I can't test run it as yet, though I'll try to dig the rolling road out over the weekend. 

Cheers all.