New Hornby Rocket

[jcredfer]

2 hours ago, Butler Henderson said:

Have they made any improvement to the loco tender electrical connection or are they really in the majority only fit for display?

 

Wasn't it your good self that recommended placing a small piece of, appropriately sized, wire insulation on the hook, for the tender, to reduce the risk of unintended detachment?  It certainly helps, although, for how long, given the sheer fragility.....

 

[Butler Henderson]

2 hours ago, jcredfer said:

 

Wasn't it your good self that recommended placing a small piece of, appropriately sized, wire insulation on the hook, for the tender, to reduce the risk of unintended detachment?  It certainly helps, although, for how long, given the sheer fragility.....

 

Think I picked that up from someone else but it did not last long. Ended up rewiring it with my own stronger wire and as soon as fitted the loco back together one snapped; their is minimal clearance in the body chassis arrangement for any wire meaning they have to be close to if not actually in tension.Quite how they could come up with such an awful design beggers belief when Bachmann achieved a perfectly good arrangement on the equivalently small Wickham Trolley. Must sort it out sometime.

 

Edited June 1, 2022 by Butler Henderson

[jcredfer]

I have to wonder why they didn't adapt to the same Wire Loop principle, as works for any moving motor / generator to take the strain away from the soldered joints.  There is plenty of room under the tender for a loop in the wire, to remove the potential tensions.  Such a shame for an otherwise delightful loco.

 

 

[Butler Henderson]

The more I look at it the more I am convinced it's a lashed up prototype arrangement that subsequently got overlooked. Noticeable that it is completely absent on what jokingly passes as a service sheet these days from the red box lot. The lack of space within the loco means unless the wires are  cut perfectly at their requisite differing lengths there will be either too much slack visible or as many found they are slightly too short leading to them snapping off the silly soldered connections.

[Compound2632]

On 22/04/2022 at 10:44, andyman7 said:

Although I have no doubt there will be at least 1 RMWebber who will challenge the paint shade on an 1840 wagon based on available etchings 😀

 

Lithographs, not etchings.

 

A. Pedant

[jivebunny]

Has anyone received their order direct from Hornby yet? I'm among those who missed out the first time and had their retailer preorder cancelled the second time, so ended up having to reluctantly place an order on the Hornby website. I received a e-mail on June 1st informing me that my order had been "released", but it's now the 9th and it's still "processing". It's a good job our go-to internet retailers don't take that long dispatching orders or they probably wouldn't be around...

 

Alan

[Butler Henderson]

Maybe they are checking they actually work although once repackaged that may be no longer the case. Obviously the long bank holiday will have had an impact.

[PeterStiles]

Mine turned up happily, and after running in was able to cut a fine dash around my table (cough).

 

I have been pleasantly surprised to notice that packages from Hornby have turned up much better packed recently, probably since the (seemingly huge) number of W1 issues; nothing arrives Rattling Around In A Big Box like it seemed to be last year, but extra packaging is being added around the Main Item.

[jivebunny]

Well, less than 24 hours after my previous post it looks like my Rocket has now shipped. Remains to be seen how good Hermes are at shipping parcels internationally, but if their domestic deliveries are anything to go by then I expect to have issues. Why any organisation concerned with its image still uses Hermes is beyond me 😑

 

 

[HExpressD]

4 hours ago, jivebunny said:

Well, less than 24 hours after my previous post it looks like my Rocket has now shipped. Remains to be seen how good Hermes are at shipping parcels internationally, but if their domestic deliveries are anything to go by then I expect to have issues. Why any organisation concerned with its image still uses Hermes is beyond me 😑

 

 

I find Hermes, or Evri as they seem to call themselves now, to be a rather 'third division' courier at least in terms of quality. As Peter has pointed out above though Hornby seems to have upped their game with regards to packing so hopefully even the heavy handed lot at Hermes don't or can't ruin it.

 

Incidentally, while I'm on one, I find it odd that Hermes chose to rebrand and didn't change anything else. Such rebrandings tend to only work hand in hand with a shift in policies and not continuing to frisbee parcels out of vans etc.

[boxbrownie]

38 minutes ago, HExpressD said:

I find Hermes, or Evri as they seem to call themselves now, to be a rather 'third division' courier at least in terms of quality. As Peter has pointed out above though Hornby seems to have upped their game with regards to packing so hopefully even the heavy handed lot at Hermes don't or can't ruin it.

 

Incidentally, while I'm on one, I find it odd that Hermes chose to rebrand and didn't change anything else. Such rebrandings tend to only work hand in hand with a shift in policies and not continuing to frisbee parcels out of vans etc.

Hermes are the ones that manage to throw the parcels further over the fence than any other courier down here!

[drt7uk]

I held out for ages but temptation got the better of me!

 

It's great but it doesn't like gradients of any kind does it?? Has anyone got around this? For context my layout is meant to be flat, there's just a couple of places where despite our best efforts it's not level.

 

Perhaps some bullfrog snot on the main driving wheels but then you'd lose two contacts... 🤔

[PeterStiles]

10 minutes ago, drt7uk said:

doesn't like gradients of any kind does it?

 

Mine needed a decent hour's running in before it would even pull the three wagons around a circle I set up specifically to test it with. And it clearly showed me that my dining room table wasn't as level as I'd previously thought.
Does mean I'm not likely to buy any more wagons for it.

 

But it is gorgeous.

[Watto1990]

Mine could barely haul itself around my layout. Investigation revealed the trailing wheelset was stiff and kept sticking. But a few hours running in light engine seems to have loosened the moving parts up nicely, and it’s now performing fantastically. I’ve yet to try it with more than the three included wagons though.

[jivebunny]

Hi everyone,

 

Mine had its first run a few days ago on the club layout. I had to put an end to it fairly quickly as the tender coupling kept detaching from the tender side, leaving only the flimsy wires to pull its weight and that of the three coaches behind it... Having looked underneath, it would seem the mounting under the engine isn't flush with the underside of the chassis and drops down, which in turn causes the bar coupling to droop so low that it's barely catching the peg on the tender.

 

Has anyone had this issue and found a way to fix it without causing damage to the engine ? There's so little space that I'm worried about putting pressure on it and damaging the nearby wires / solderings, let alone getting glue anywhere near those wheels 😑

 

Alan

[Roddy Angus]

As already mentioned a couple of times, slip a bit of wire insulation, of a suitable size, over the end of the peg.  Alternatively, if you want a more permanent solution, melt the end of the peg with a hot screwdriver to form a flat end.

 

Regards Roddy

[jivebunny]

Hi Roddy (ex-just-outside-Leither here too)

 

The insulation trick sounds like a good option, less permanent and less terrifying than taking a flaming hot screwdriver to a tiny plastic model 😁

 

I'll give it a go, thanks for the quick reply!

 

Cheers,

 

Alan

[jcredfer]

Apologies, repeat comment, now deleted.

 

Edited July 21, 2022 by jcredfer

[samfieldhouse]

Finally got around to running mine yesterday - gosh it really is very lovely. Almost hypnotic to watch. 

After about an hour of running in, it was able to pull its own coaches around the top loop of my layout.

Running mine on a Loksound decoded and its ever so smooth.

[leeadavo]

After being sat in its box in a cabinet for a few months finally had a run out today, what a lovely locomotive and set of carriages.

[drt7uk]

In case useful, on the traction issue I've experimented with using bullfrog snog (rubber traction tyre substitute) to help improve its pulling power.

 

(I tried running it in before I went down this route but sadly it still couldn't cope with my mild gradients)

 

Doing both wheels was unsuccessful, the remaining wheels weren't picking up enough current, especially over points. 

 

So I tried peeling the bullfrog snot off one of the driving wheels, and surprisingly it seems to have done the job. A tiny bit jerky in places but this was largely resolved by just cleaning the track where this occurred. In case relevant, it's the right hand wheel with the rubber on it.

 

It's now pottering around my layout with 4 coaches at a nice and slow prototypical speed...

 

Edited December 30, 2022 by drt7uk

[RyanN91]

It appears that the 2020 Rocket train pack is being reissued? I have only just seen this have I missed it being annouced? I had a quick glance, but I don't remember seeing this in the 2023 Hornby catalogue nor the 2023 range launch.

 

R30090 L&MR, Stephenson's Rocket Train Pack - Era 1

[adb968008]

4 hours ago, RyanN91 said:

It appears that the 2020 Rocket train pack is being reissued? I have only just seen this have I missed it being annouced? I had a quick glance, but I don't remember seeing this in the 2023 Hornby catalogue nor the 2023 range launch.

 

R30090 L&MR, Stephenson's Rocket Train Pack - Era 1

wow, but makes sense.

 

This should be a stock item really.

I think theres loads of potential beyond regular modellers. Ive previously suggested Airport or inflight Duty free for tourists could have potential, or perhaps line it up with a designer watch company ?

 

Rocket is one of those household names alongside Scotsman and Mallard.

[5Dublo2]

6 hours ago, RyanN91 said:

It appears that the 2020 Rocket train pack is being reissued? I have only just seen this have I missed it being annouced? I had a quick glance, but I don't remember seeing this in the 2023 Hornby catalogue nor the 2023 range launch.

 

R30090 L&MR, Stephenson's Rocket Train Pack - Era 1

 

R30090 is in the 2023 Catalog - on Page 49... BUT it had Rocket with 2x 1st class and 1x 2nd class carriages, so looks like the pack content has either changed or someone has used the wrong images on the website

 

Edited May 16, 2023 by 5Dublo2

[RyanN91]

On 16/05/2023 at 20:32, 5Dublo2 said:

 

R30090 is in the 2023 Catalog - on Page 49... BUT it had Rocket with 2x 1st class and 1x 2nd class carriages, so looks like the pack content has either changed or someone has used the wrong images on the website

 

Yes you were correct they've just used the incorrect product images. It now displays an image notification of image "coming soon".

 

Regarding R3810 it is a bit of a shame it isn't returning after all at this date. 

 

I'd love to see R3810 return.

I also wouldn't be at all surprised if another three coach pack of the final three remaining coaches pictured here (2nd Class coach, Queen Adelaide's Coach and the Royal Mail coach with crew pack) was issued.

Attached images.

 

© Hornby Hobbies 2023.

Queen Adelaide's saloon built 1842 by the London and Birmingham Railway Science Museum Group Collection © The Board of Trustees of the Science Museum All rights reserved.