The Doc

I'm not quite sure why people expect Hornby to "give away owt for nowt". They are a business, trying to compete in very difficult economic circumstances, and they are trying to expand their potential market. So if you want the chance to win a freebie, then the "downside" (if you see it that way) is that you go on social media and indirectly help them promote their products, possibly to a predominantly younger demographic who aren't currently buying their products. I'm not a great user of social media myself but it seems a valid approach and I'm not going to criticise them for trying to widen their market. The better they do financially, the more all of us on this forum will benefit.

Last time I was in France I discovered a toy shop in Marne La Vallee, a big retail park (a bit like Lakeside Thurrock). They had a Marklin train set in it for 1,990 euros (yes, you read it correctly, nearly two thousand). No wonder there aren't many model railway shops in France if those are the sort of prices they have to pay.

@V200, I can assure you that you are not the only one who was underwhelmed by the announcement. If they had been announcing their TT range at Warley, now that would have been a special announcement, but a previous model in a different livery really isn't such a big deal. I did wonder if one of the preserved Duchesses was going to be repainted in this livery to commemorate the coronation of King Charles, and Hornby had planned a tie in there, a bit like their purple loco for the platinum jubilee of the late queen?

Accurascale have just announced that they are making a class 50. I'm quite surprised by this, since the Hornby model was considered excellent when it appeared, albeit several years ago now. The Lima class 50 was, in my opinion, also pretty good in its day. It strikes me that manufacturers are going to extreme lengths to try to produce what they consider a perfect example of a model (e.g. the Accurascale Deltic or Hattons class 66), only for it to be let down by impractical fine details such as chains linking bogies to bodies, or rotating axle boxes. Another example could be the Dapol (Black Label?) A4 in 00 gauge which, by the sound of it, was far from perfect despite it colossal price tag at the time. I can understand those that want improvements over the old Lima models (though they will do me just fine - I've just bought a couple of secondhand Westerns for £35 each and both run well) but it seems to me the first improvements on these models were just fine. I own a secondhand Bachmann Deltic and, like my Lima and Hornby Deltics, it never derails, whereas the Accurascale model with "kinematic" couplings appears to have lots of problems. Have we reached a point where newer ultra detailed models are actually worse than what they replaced?

@Tony, "Why do newer members keep restarting old threads instead of starting a new one as this one was started in 2012?" Because when they start new threads, the new member gets moaned at and told "this question has been asked loads of times before" and "Why not just search the forum instead" so it seems they can't win. It's not exactly very welcoming to new members, is it? Willie asked a very valid question and others have responded positively with their experiences.

As far as I know there aren't any ready to run Great Central coaches available. The nearest might be LNER teak Gresley coaches. The superdetailed versions are beautiful but expensive - with secondhand prices very high on ebay.

Stuttering is as likely to be poor electrical continuity as lack of lubrication. You say that "some parts of the track have a little rust here and there". Even where there isn't rust, there is likely to be quite a bit dirt on the rails, assuming they also date from the early 80s. It would be worth giving the track a really good clean. There are several ways to do this - a track rubber, a cloth with isopropyl alcohol (or meths - not as good but still pretty effective) or chrome cleaner if its steel track, which it sounds like. To eliminate track as the issue, you could try applying the wires from the controller direct to the wheels of the loco Another problem is dirty wheels (or slightly oxidised wheels). Most locos of that era only picked up from a few wheels. They might still look quite shiny to the naked eye but there could easily be a thin layer of non-conductive dirt on them.

@Threelink Does the Bachmann 3F have a Deeley tender? It certainly isn't a Fowler one. Whether you could get one as a spare is another matter.

@Topcat I think I was typing my response while you were posting yours, hence the duplicated comment about maybe needing a more powerful controller.

If you run two of the older power cars (made in UK) you may find they need more current than a basic controller can provide. Even if it doesn't cut out, the overall current it can produce is limited so that each motor may be running slower than one on its own. However, if you are using a heavy duty controller (e.g. an H&M duette) it should be fine. The later Chinese made models draw less current and a pair can run faster. One thing to look out for is that if the trailing power car is faster, and is pushing the coaches more than the leading one is pulling them, you may get more derailments. Any coaches pushed around trainset curves at the speed of an HST are prone to derail unless your track is perfectly flat.

I think it goes on the other side of the chassis from what you have photographed. The two arms with holes in them go over little stub axles that keep two gear wheels in place, and the middle piece clips into part of the metal moulding of the motor housing.

I built my son a baseboard that was about 5'6" x 3'6", which allowed two ovals (one was 1st radius, but that was fine because loads of 0-4-0s, small diesels and older Hornby locos ran fine on it). I then added a 2' high leg on each corner, and used a jigsaw to cut an oval in the middle so he could operate it from the inside. This made it easier for him to reach every part of the layout.

The LNER Coronation Train - A4 Pacifics in LNER Garter Blue such as Mallard. GNR 4 wheel coaches - as far as I am aware there aren't any ready to run GNR passenger tank engines (The Hornby J52 was more of a shunter/station pilot - but looks lovely pulling 4 wheel stock). Similarly, by LNER days 6 wheel passenger stock would probably only have been on very lowly passenger services pulled by the smaller pre-grouping tank and tender engines (of which there are few). They would look good behind an LNER J15 or Oxford Rail N7, but I couldn't say whether this ever happened in real life.

Maybe a K's or Nu-cast motor bogie?

If I understand your question correctly, then the answer is yes. I've just set my Hornby J15 to 70% on the "regulator", and started and stopped it using only the brake control. Once stopped I then reversed the direction switch, then released the brake so that it accelerated back to 70% again in the opposite direction.

By the way, can a moderator edit the title of this thread to 2-4-0 rather than 2-6-0?

I would definitely be up for one of these, and, as you say, many of the parts are common to the J15. Did they ever run in GER blue? That would be an attractive extra livery. I have a white metal kit which I bought secondhand, but the chassis is a bit dodgy and the gears aren't meshing correctly so it will need a total rebuild.

You don't have to have two of the same locos - just two that are roughly matched in speed. In real life situations a smaller express loco (e.g. a 4-4-0 or 4-6-0) might couple on in front of another as a "double header". To answer your original question, the most powerful steam loco I own is my Railroad P2 Cock o' the North. By today's standards a very good value loco, and if it can't pull your track cleaner, there must be something wrong with the track cleaner!

I recently saw a rather beautiful Class 47 on the website of a large online retailer for £200. Looked very nice but way out of my price bracket. The same went for a gorgeous maroon class 52 - £180. So, having just celebrated 25 years at work, I decided to treat myself, but I went on ebay instead, and got a Heljan class 47 in two-tone green for £60, plus two Lima Westerns (both less than £35). All three are in fabulous condition and run very well, with one of the Lima diesels having that characteristic ringfield growl that I really like.

The Scalescenes downloadable range are also excellent, but need a printer and a supply of 1mm and 2mm thick card (and Pritt stick) in addition to glue, sharp knife with spare baldes and a steel rule. The models are very well designed so that any bare corners are covered by printed paper which covers those grey carboard edges. They can be downloaded in a number of different finishes (red brick, brown brick, stone etc.). The fiddlest part is the windows, but you can splash out on etched brass replacements if you are feeling rich. The best parts, in my opinion, are the roofs, which are much more realistic than Metcalfe. Each row of slates overlaps the previous row, giving nice texture. The roofs are also nicely weathered with moss/rain streaks etc.

One advantage of Metcalfe is that the kits are similar in colour - so you can build quite a big factory and have several buildings that look like they were all part of the same industrial site. Similarly, the brick station/goods shed/engine shed all match nicely. I haven't used the Hornby Skaledale range myself, but quite a few seem to be released in small batches. If you don't buy them all in one go - and they are quite expensive - will you be able to get matching buildings at a later stage?

If it's an older secondhand version (plenty of those sets on ebay) then possibly it is tender driven, and a tender wheel has shed a traction tyre.

This is a clickable link to the eBay page for the brass bearings (PS157) : Peters Spares PS157 Shouldered Brass Bearings Pk40 | eBay

My approach to this is to get some "top hat" or "shouldered" brass bearings that fit into the hole in the bogies left by the Triang metal axle, and then use Hornby metal coach wheels. Peter's Spares on ebay has some bearings for sale at the moment.

For any older locos I would recommend OOBill on youtube.