R2484 70036 Boadicea query.

[Simmo009]

Just picked up one of these at a very reasonable price (sub £50). Now, the correct service sheet appears to be 253C. The insert picture has the blue DCC Ready symbol, but the sheet does not show anything relating to DCC. The maintenance instructions included in the box don't make mention either. The only indication is the card insert, which seems to be the original item. Was there an earlier version that was analogue only?

The motor is a bit rubbish, so I am going to convert it to a CD drive and DCC it anyway, just curious. As an extra anomaly, the Ringfield motor is a 3 pole, not a 5 pole, and it has a late Crest body, so it seems like a bit of a Cut'n'shut anyway. Caveat emptor dear friends.

[ModelerXYZ]

Hi Simmo,

A Blue DCC ready box means that it is an ANOLOUGE loco with a decoder socket so that you can easily fit a decoder into. A red box saying DCC Fitted means it has a digital chip in it already. I believe the socket might be in the tender. Hope this helps,

XYZ

[96RAF]

Not sure if I have ever seen a DCC-Ready loco with a Ring-field motor.

Service sheet 253 covers this R-number and it definitely does not have a socket, so I guess the inner card is wrong.

Service sheet 289 covers the loco driven model which does have an 8-pin socket.

[Going Spare]

If the tender chassis is not as it should be, is the loco chassis correct with driving wheel wiper pick-ups or is that an earlier version, too?

[ColinB]

This is really weird, there is one on EBay and yes it says it is DCC Ready. Looking at it especially the valve gear it looks like it is tender driven but as 96RAF says I too have never seen a DCC ready ringfield drive. Unfortunately the photo on EBay doesn't show the underside but the later loco driven variants have "cut outs" in the body for the valve gear, the tender driven ones don't. There is also the description listed on Hattons website but that specifically say that it is not DCC ready, but the photo of the box is missing the important front card showing a picture of the loco with or without the DCC ready symbol.

[Bulleidboy]

Hi

R2484 Boadicea was introduced by Hornby in 2005. Fitted with a 5-Pole Ringfield Motor - Tender Drive and DCC Ready.

[Going Spare]

But as 96RAF and ColinB have pointed out, there were no tender-driven loco's factory-fitted with a DCC socket, despite what the box insert says.

[Bulleidboy]

That's what it says in the 2005 Hornby Catalogue!!

R2457 Anzac is described as having the same drive system. Both loco's were "new" in 2005.

[Going Spare]

I have found a 2022 thread "Hornby R2457 Anzac", which has photographic evidence that this loco was equipped with a DCC socket atop the front tender weight. As this loco had the high-sided tender, the intention would no doubt have been to locate the decoder above the rear weight.

However, R2484 had the smaller tender under which I doubt there would have been space to accommodate a decoder, which Hornby may have discovered too late to correct the box insert artwork.

Nonetheless, there does appear to have been the one tender-driven loco with a socket even with the jaws/pin drawbar arrangement.

[ColinB]

I know when I was messing around converting my tender driven locos to DCC ready I did find room above the weight to install the socket sometimes cutting the weight in half. Hornby could have done the same. Trouble is the stall current of a Ringfield is higher than the maximum current of the Hornby decoder (I managed to blow up quite a few proving it). If you are interested and can get a later chassis the body from this will fit although it is better if you use the tender driven valve gear with a slight mod as the body won't have the cutouts for the new valve gear.

[Simmo009]

XYZ - nothing in the tender except the motor. It does have Hornby pick ups there, as indicated on the Service Sheet.

Bulleidboy - I have ANZAC, I will dig it out and have a look. From memory, this had a socket in the tender, but I didn't think it had a Ringfield.

Just noticed that the drawbar is incorrect, it doesn't have the metal pieces on the top surface, just the jaws underneath.

Proper mystery.

[Simmo009]

Maybe I could give it a new name and number?

70055 Frankenstein?

[Going Spare]

So the only true part of Boadicea is the loco body?

[Bulleidboy]

While I don't doubt your comment about the stall current Colin, when these two loco's were introduced in 2005, Hornby did not have a DCC control system - The Elite/Select and the R8215 decoder were not introduced until 2006 - so I would assume, at the time, you were expected to fit a non-Hornby decoder - it was still very early DCC days. When the Merchant Navy Class Elders Fyffes was introduced in 2003, there was no mention whatsoever of it being DCC Ready, yet it had a decoder socket in the loco. All a little hit and miss, at the time?

[Simmo009]

R2457 Anzac has a 5 pole Ringfield motor and the DCC socket is located on top of the front buffer weight. It is a high profile tender body, different to the one on Boadicea, although the height at the front seems very similar, most of the differences are at the back end.

The drawbar is more like that shown on Service Sheet 224.

On the plus side, whilst hunting for ANZAC, I found another Britannia (Owen Glendower) that I had not added to my inventory spreadsheet. So that's 12 I have. Have I got a problem?

[Bulleidboy]

Not a problemjoy I have thirty four rebuilt Merchant Navy Class loco'sopen_mouth