Coronation Scot Carriage lights

[Red Sea Eagle]

Hi All,

I bought a full rake of CS coaches when Hornby first launched.

I am using them for the first time and have found that the lights draw a lot of power (in addition to being a heavy load).

is there anyway to turn the lights off without damaging the lights or coach?

[81F]

Do you know what the R numbers are as my Coronation Scott Coaches (original type) do not have any lights.

[What About The Bee]

Hello 81F

I do think Red Sea Eagle is referring to the current Coronation Scott carriages R4005x, where x=1,2,3,4 etc. In the catalog now.

Online reviews of these carriages show them lighted. A beautiful bit of kit, if you ask me.

But one reviewer said "constant on" and another demonstrated the lights coming on when track power was applied under DCC and then, switching over, on DC.

No reviewer spoke of any type of control. The lights came on and stayed on.

Bee

[atom3624]

Hi RS Eagle.

2 things with these coaches - I have a full rake as well.

Contact / drag is made by the 'fingers' touching the wheels.

Certain carriages I found were worse than others - the kitchen cars were the worst, but this turns out to be poor moulding alignment - brake shoes can catch the wheels.

Simplest way would be to simply bend the fingers away from the wheels:

• Removes contact thus no lights
• Reduces drag
• Is reversible.

As mentioned, with some, the brake shoes may need some 'subtle adjustment'. How you do this is up to you:

• Carefully bend away - might work, might return - no guarantee.
• Cut / break off and re-glue at a more-correct position - should work, but care required - it is modelling after all!!

Your call and good luck!

Al.

[gilbo2]

What power supply are you using?

As a side point, I don't understand why Hornby fail to promote model features like these, i.e., their website listings for the coaches make no mention of lighting. Surely it's something they should be promoting, especially at that price.

The Turbomotive is another example where the website listing doesn't mention lights or firebox glow. They need symbols like they used in the 70's wink.

[What About The Bee]

Atom

Do you have the restaurant car with the lighted tables? That looked particularly fetching in video reviews.

Also, to confirm for Red Sea Eagle, no switching, just on.

Bee

[atom3624]

Hi Bee, I have 'the full set', if that Restaurant car is the longer one, then that's quite free running - all seats have the lamps lit - not overhead if I remember.

It's been a while since I had them out of their boxes.

Long-term the plan is to ensure as light a permanent contact, best / smoothest alignment possible which permits lighting, and to sort out those pesky Kitchen coaches.

I've not enough patience at the moment - too much office / lab work to de-stress enough in the evenings!

Perhaps over Christmas I'll have another look - I've a week off.

Al.

[DarkRedCape]

I agree with gilbo2, Hornby and accurate descriptions are a nightmare. When I pre-ordered this coach set, it made no mention of lights, so I emailed Hornby to ask if they were lit or unlit, and their reply was, they were unlit. Then I got a railway magazine, may have even been the Collectors Club magazine that had a page about them in, and stated they were lit. When they arrived, of course, they were lit.

As for symbols that indicate whether products are lit or unlit, if you buy the Hornby Catalogue, which are always an excellent source of information, they state which are lit and unlit. It would benefit both Hornby and us customers if they had this information on the products webpage.

The newly released Gresley teak coaches were even more expensive per coach than the Coronation Scots, and they were unlit. One of the reasons I bought them was I thought considering the price, they must be lit. I didn't bother to query with Hornby about it as they don't seem to know anyways.

The Coronation Scot coaches are superb, there is no denying that. They look stunning, the light is the right kind of warm glow, the detailing is beautiful. I'd say they were actually worth their price tag, but the drag on them is unreal. How they were released with such heavy drag is really disappointing.

[atom3624]

As I mentioned, for most of the carriages you can 'fine tune' the shape, and better-align these fingers, both giving a more consistent contact with the wheels, and also ensure the drag is as little as possible.

The moulding of the bogies themselves is inconsistent - I already mentioned the misaligned brake shoes on some - these I believe are 'add on', extra parts.

Where the moulding is inconsistent is the gapping for the pinpoint axles - some are tighter than others, so this is another area where attention can be made to free them up a little.

Al.