boxbrownie

It’s a shame the Tillig uses big dead frogs on the points, are there any with live frogs?

Fork’andles ?

There are arching third rail LEDs and for Pantos available, I fitted one to my 87, they arch randomly, but could easily be made to arch at particular places as you say using reed switches and magnets on the track.

Oops…..sorry I had been playing with a few old Airfix kits and it must have leaked out of the grey matter (what’s left of it). 😄

I agree, the smoke that was shown during the Hornby series being developed really looked almost the same, it’s the first time I have been excited about getting a steam Loco for years. Although I am waiting for the production example before committing the funds.

I know what you’re lacking………..imagination 😆 Obviously nothing is going to be a true representation of the prototype, even having a 1/72nd model of a steam Loco purring around using electricity is ultimately unconvincing.

I think you’d need to fill the reservoir with petrol to get that effect……..just the once!

Hot air is diverted from the engine cooling air to the cabin, on a cold day you might as well fill your boots with ice cubes 🤣 In winter, particularly snow weather I wore my skiing salopetts, anorak and skiing gloves for the 30 miles commute to work, but on snow tyres nothing could beat it in deep snow.

That’s good, those hasty cardboard ones are a real pain to assemble and unless glued/sticky taped they also “explode” after a few minutes, the tabs aren’t up to the job of the cardboard springiness. I like the look of these buildings and wagon, good value as well TBH and I don’t say this very often but well done Hornby 👍

It wasn’t our choice 🤣 I think if I recall it had about 80K miles on it when we bought it, went like the clappers and was reliable. Gave it to a mate for his commute to work and he used it for about ten years before buying a very late 2CV, he was our company sustainability manager and his outlook was don’t buy a new car use an old one until it fails.

We were bought a present of a water vapour smelly thingy, load it with maybe 50ml of water and a few drops of smelly oil and it churns out wisps of vapour for hours, in fact there is a 2 and 4 hour timer on it!

I did say RTR, I should have also said U.K. Diesels…..I knew about the Maerklin stuff (I use Trix track and drool over some of the European locos when I browse the catalogues).

We had a Dyane which was a model just a little bit more sophisticated than the 2CV, as much fun but without so much character I believe, ours was a beige/faded baby poop colour. 🤭

Not sure I agree with the “I don’t think it has a long term future” as you say it might be a marmite feature like sound for some but sound isn’t going to fade (pardon the pun) away anytime soon, in fact it’s getting better and better, and if this steam feature gets developed further it’ll be in diesels next (I mean RTR).

Is there a patent? 🤣

I don’t know, as I said just found it very quickly. Annoyingly our DiL was here this week I could have asked her to peruse the document she is a corporate IP lawyer, and she spent most of the week working in my study while we did the baby sitting! 🤣

I just wanted to know if Heljan actually stated they had used that statement? Because it would seem a bit bold considering they had only just shown their intentions and a few CADs? For my own interest I hope TT-120 is a success and more manufacturers down the line join in the fray, Hornby have been bold for an opening launch in a new scale in the U.K., but I can certainly understand the Heljan reluctance and withdrawing models which would be duplicates, PECO announced their TT track quite a while before (I believe) Hornby of course but I have no doubt whatsoever that both companies knew or even collaborated (using the word lightly) before we knew anything about it.

Roger, I got to this thread through a convoluted route of links from another thread here, but it was also about water vapour or similar smoke generators, specifically chatting about Hornby and the mention of patents was quotes, curiously I googled with a click or two and found this https://patents.google.com/patent/DE202005005647U1/en Not sure of the relevance or even if it applies, but posting it for information 👍

I believe although cannot remember the name right now*, there are quite a few videos of the water vapour smoke system on YouTube/online made by individuals in the U.K., but I found this with a couple of clicks…hmm * it was at Bournemouth West layout and the club I believe. https://patents.google.com/patent/DE202005005647U1/en

Are you not sure that being Accurascale they will fit a proximity sensor on each Panto to sense obstructions and either stop the Loco or lower the Panto, this is Accurascale we are talking about….🤣 BTW, once again, relax McC…..I am joking 😉

Did Heljan claim they had significantly increased the probability of TT-120 being a success? I just saw announcements about some Locos and then later after the Hornby announcement Heljan stating they were pulling out of the market, for now.

Mine went back, but it was faulty from the start, although looking at the detail moulded onto the under frame it reminded me of a train set Loco from the 60’s…..very poor looking detail.

Great to hear you can take advantage, and I too consider the Kato mechanisms as a pinnacle, even the Loco/MU I bought twenty or more years ago run better than any current 9mm Loco I have found, the MU even use a small representation of the prototype couplings which actually work! Fitting a DCC decoder was just unclipping a under slung battery box/AC unit on the MU and sliding in a decoder, took less than 20 seconds.

Note the disclaimer 🙄

I was going to mention the wheel flanges on 4472 I thought they were going to be finer, and as for the size of the couplers they look worse the H&L in 00, stick out so much. I would like to see them in the flesh but as it’ll all be mail order that’s not going to happen any day soon.