oh my goodness me

On the air/con fan side it is not.

SC 5813. 

pm me with your Email Address if you want a photo.

I assume the other side is the same? Never assume. 

There's a pic of a model of it in November 2012 REx.

Apologies. My statement on silver grey was just plain wrong. I have been painting tg incorrectly for nearly 30 years. If you put the colours (precision or railmatch) side by side, they are very similar. Silver grey is a tad lighter. In my defence, silver grey doesn't look wrong on a model when comparing with photos of the prototype.

To answer the original question at the beginning of this thread:

No.

Lower bodysides: P180 silver grey (why does rail grey keep getting mentioned?)

Upper body sides p183 flint grey and roofs p147 executive dark grey as stated already.

I've emailed Heljan requesting they supply 26010 with (correct) leaf spring bogies as the hattons photo shows it with coil spring bogies. Also, correctly sized numbers and correctly sized railfreight logos if possible. And could they lighten up the grey which has been too dark until now. Also, the cab ends would look more like the prototype if the rain strip over the cab windows was left yellow and not painted black. Perhaps if others could go the same, it may help? I didn't mention the incorrectly placed roof vents or improving the coil spring bogies mouldings as these would require tooling changes.

To answer the original question, which was "Which of the following Hornby Class 56 models could I use for a donor with no modifications (I may have missed some models)?"

The answer, as has been alluded to, is, the chassis off any model ending in xs. Because of the strange/non standard Hornby chassis on the non-sound models with common negative LED's, there isn't an easy solution

Whilst the 56 chassis comes up regularly on ebay, I've never seen a 21 pin sound one.

are the lights part of the cab unit on the Class 56? I know I tried to swap that on Class 60s but found them glued in pretty tightly that it wasn't moving anywhere. Is there a separate PCB for the lights on the Class 56 that could be unscrewed/swapped easier?

They are on a board which is glued into the cab.

There is an article on page 78 of Model Rail magazine from June 2012 which explains various modifications.

That doesn't make any difference to the lights, the circuit board contains the resistors and diodes that make the lights work directionally when running dc. If you put a sound loco body on a non-sound chassis the supply to the lighting LEDs is the wrong polarity and the wrong voltage and they won't work whether it is on dc or dcc.

 

i only mentioned the 21/8 pin dcc socket issue to highlight the fact that a totally different circuit board is used.

 

It was mentioned previously here:

http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/89691-Hornby-class-56-ex-sound-chassis/

And it will make your LED's go "pop"

You could purchase new cab units of eBay from non sound locos and fit them in to your body shell. These should be a simple swap involving the removal of the cab plastic since the light are built on to the moulding. That at least works for class 60's so hopefully the 56 will be the same idea.

No you can't.  The class 60 cabs are/were available as a spare. 

What type of connectors are on the bottoms of the cabs for the lights?

 

According to Hornby's service sheets any model from R2750 onwards features the new cab contacts so if your body also has the new ones any chassis after R2750 will work. Seeing as your model starts with R3 I would assume it has the new ones.

The connectors have nothing to do with the issue.  The connectors were replaced from R2750 onwards because the ones fitted to early models were unreliable.  The newer style connectors are available currently on ebay and from Peter's spares. An ideal upgrade if you have an early model.

Option 1: Buy an xs model, use the chassis and sell the sound chip and body on.

Option 2: Buy an "8 pin" chassis, remove the circuit boards from the cab ends and solder the LED's the opposite way round. Unless you are an expert solderer it is very difficult to remove these intact, they are 0603 SMD LED's and will need to be replaced. It is important to note that the replacement LED's should be soldered in with the polarity as shown on the circuit boards. In the sound models, Hornby have soldered the LED's into the circuit boards in the xs models the opposite way round (positive to negative, negative to positive) to correct their "issue". make them positive common and enable them to work with the standard 21 pin circuit boards .

Option 3: Buy an 8 pin chassis and modify with a ESU 51968 board (and blanking plate for running on DC).

Perhaps someone has a better suggestion?

Growing up in Morecambe, before Richard opened the train shop on Pedder street, Cliff and his wife had a model shop just past the battery with a continental railway in the back which was accessible from the prom side. He had mainline and all sorts of second hand.

The marvellous trains and transport in Preston already mentioned above relieved me of great sums. There was a small but well stocked shop "junction 35" at the entrance to steam town at Carnforth for a while. Palatine model rail in Blackpool was always worth a visit, I remember picking up a pair of H & M walkabouts there after the lads from barrow let me trial one on their layout bolden junction.

Two steps forward, one step back. The passenger compartment windows are the right shape and the tumblehome looks to be there but what is going on with the "rectangular" Vestibule windows? The corners are too sharp (see the Airfix model.....).  Although they have modelled the shallower version of these windows, the top of the window should be in line with the tops of the other windows.  Looks like they have modelled it with the bottom of the vestibule window in line with the other windows.  Looks very odd.

47715 + blue sleeper. Note the aerial, no orange cantrail and blue data panel.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/63804624@N08/6074921038/sizes/o/in/photostream/

Steven

Thanks for the BG info. That pic of the BG with the ScotRail logo at the far left hand end is on the scot-rail.co.uk website and I modelled it, have been waiting two years to find the right number, will teach me not to ask here.

Scotrail logo with the smaller r. There's a pic of Mk 2e 5852 here http://80srail.zenfo...f13e0#h10cf13e0

plus a pic of a model of 5852 in November 2012 Rail Express Modeller.

One of the Mk3s with a rail blue scotrail stripe is 12019.

Steven

Hi Flood,

Thanks for sharing your RBR info. on here. Very useful. I've been trying to do one of these and make sure I get the window and door layout and roof vents correct.

Here's a pic of 1981 of the kitchen side

http://80srail.zenfolio.com/p189779447/h170f48d7#h170f48d7

1956 has the same door between the kitchen windows, plating on the roof (what's that) and B4 (B5?) bogies

http://80srail.zenfolio.com/p189779447/h14bb63e7#h14bb63e7

Rgds

OMGM