What About The Bee

Do these locomotives run, or are they static display models? I do admire your commitment to the entire system. It looks marvelous Bee

Hi Topcat The track system is a Walthers product. It is the 'power lock' system, developed by Life Like. When Life Like went out of business, Walthers absorbed that product line. Although Sam had trouble with the system, quite a few note the high reliability and better than rail joiner conductivity of power lock, on a long term basis. No personal experience with it, but thought to clarify. Bee

I have received an incredibly prompt response from Hornby Customer Care. I requested clarification on Friday, it is now Monday. Bing! Anyway, here is the answer ~~~ Hi there, Thank you for your email, I have spoke to my colleagues in the development team, and they have confirmed the following - QUESTION (1) : Is the Booth Carriage now formally deleted? It was last seen at Model Rail Scotland, in the Hornby area. Our model is based on the information we had at the time. The model will not be deleted. QUESTION (2) : Which 1st Yellow/Glass carriages are included in R30090 The Traveller & Huskinsson carriages are included in this set ~~~~~~ @LT&SR_NSE, You were exactly correct. I read the line "model based on information we had at the time" to mean a major update is coming to the Booth model, just as you suspected. I will never argue against fidelity. @96RAF, If you deem it worthy, please do pass on to Hornby the strangeness of the method of announcing better artwork for a model. Changing the images in R30090 to images of other models just resulted in customer confusion (me). Perhaps a better method may be in order! Now that this tempest in a teapot is over, thank you lads, for talking me off the ledge! Bee

This rod does appear bent inwards and is not a photo artifact

Thank you for the confirmation Anglia! My assessment was tentative. Bee

Hi DRC I do not own a 9F, nor will I ever. Swapping parts around may teach you something but is unlikely to solve the problem without understanding root cause. Instead of looking at the connecting rod shoulder bolts on one side, comparing between two axles, document all 8(?) connecting rod shoulder bolts on all 4 axles. That longish shoulder bolt on interior axles may be deliberate, and will be obvious when all the shoulder bolts are examined. Perhaps to allow radius 2 turns. The offending shoulder bolt may have a burr on the inside, that catches the rod. The offending shoulder bolt could be odd man out. The connecting rod may have a burr there. The problem may lay anywhere in that system. Resist the urge to just change something. I hope this helps. Bee

Hello The Old Road 👋 I did a bit of poking around to see if I could find your answer. The closest I could come was this: HobbyKing had a 'discontinued' listing for R3736 [ https://hobbyking.com/en_us/hornby-railroad-oo-gauge-lner-a1-class-4-6-2-4472-flying-scotsman-with-tts-sound-era-3-dcc-fitted.html ] Within that listing, under "Product Description" the listing states "5 pole skew wound LOCO drive motor. Hope this helps! And welcome aboard the forum Bee

Thank you 96RAF. Appreciated! Bee

Hi LT&SR_NSE I am hopeful that you are correct. That this is some web page shuffle while Hornby corrects a detail. Fingers crossed. The Booth 1st Curtain Carriage was my entire reason for that train pack. The Huskisson 1st Yellow carriage was a nice bonus. The other two components (Rocket & Traveller) were mostly irrelevant and were likely destined for modification. I really wanted that Booth Carriage! The email to Customer Care is away. Nothing like a curmudgeon with a keyboard 😉. If I do not hear back within a few weeks, I will bother Simon. I think it best to follow correct procedure here. Customer Care first. As to artwork? Not only do I record prices, changes, schedule updates, etc; I also capture any artwork. Top, the Booth Carriage from the web page before change. Bottom, the Booth Carriage at Model Rail Scotland. Bee

I check the status of my pre-orders periodically, so as to keep informed and be aware. Today, I checked and note that R30090 has been updated. This was the set to include the 1st Class Curtain Carriage illustrated in Henry Booth's 1830 book. The update is to delete the Booth Curtain Carriage, and replace it with a 1st Glass/Yellow Carriage. Not only that, but the named carriages Traveller and Huskisson are also deleted. I had previously confirmed with Hornby Customer Care that those two particular carriages would be present. I have carefully reviewed each image presented in the revised listing. You either get the carriages included in R3809 (Times, Experience and Despatch) or R3810 (Globe, Renown and Wellington). That is, Hornby have clearly used old stock images and what will be provided is completely uncertain. Hornby simply presents both sets of images without further specification as to content of R30090. I had previously canceled R40371, Huskisson and two blue 3rd carriages, upon Hornby written confirmation that Huskisson would be in R30090. Do I re-issue that pre-order? I will certainly be writing to Hornby Customer Care. Probably will also be canceling my pre-order for R30090. You may recall discussions re customer reliance on images and how the only way to be sure was to get confirmation via Customer Care. Roger that. So I did. Worthless. If I wasn't paying attention, I may not have noticed this gross substitution, well after written confirmation of contents. I will update this post when I receive update from Hornby Bee

Very nice indeed! Bee

Touch the cradle.... Touch the locomotive... Contaminant transfer complete. Yes, I worry too much. Bee

The eBay post did state that the directions were the photos in the image. Looked straightforward in any event. The advert was specific that you only get one size jaw or the other, but not both. That's fairly nice of the seller to give you both. If it were me, I'd give those parts a good clean before they come close to my locos. No telling if there is something from process that could transfer, smudging paintwork. Probably not necessary.... Bee

Hi ThreeLink Taking a break from the gear train, I thought to review the period images of Planet and the planet-class locomotives I know of. The first appears in Walker An Accurate Description of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway... 1831. This is drawn by Issac Shaw, a known good first hand observer. He shows us 5 links and a hook on center. It is unclear if this is Planet or merely a planet-class. The only other image that shows the front chain is Armengaud. This is definitively a 3 link chain. The locomotive illustrated is La Jackson, a planet-class locomotive. So there we have it. One type each. A 3 link and 5 link. No other image, that I know of, bothers to include the chain. Austen would have us believe there wasn't even a buffer beam, let alone a front chain! Bee

Hi Al I had a look at the assembly. One thought I had was to set the articulated cradle to hold your nominal foam cradle. Full support at the length of the foam, the locomotive presented at the angle of articulation. I look forward to your review Bee

I should hasten to add: Pressure angle. The pressure angle if the teeth must also match. There would be little reason to change the pressure angle from the nominal 20°, so I am working under the assumption that both gears are at 20°. It is quite possible that one company or the other may have used a different angle. Common cutters for involute teeth include 14½° pressure angle. I do apologize for not including this earlier, yet it is a refinement to the basic module size. Bee

Hello John Both gears appear to have involute teeth. The issue then, is one of the mesh. Ignoring the old money terminology of 'diametrical pitch', we have something called 'module'. A module of 1 is one tooth plus one space, along arc at the radius of contact, equal to 3.141593mm. That is pi to 6 places. A module of 1 is equal to pi. Now small gears will have a corresponding small module. Common sizes are 0.3, 0.4, 0.5 etc. Technically, you can have any module you like, but then you need the cutter, either hob or single tooth type. So given that Hornby isn't investing in custom tooling to protect a spares market they do not maintain, we can assume a common size. Herein lies the rub. Suppose Hornby have specified module 0.3. That's one tooth plus one space, along the contact line, equal to 0.942478 mm. Now suppose Ultrascale have specified module 0.4 or 1.256673mm. Thats a delta of 0.314159 mm. In old money, that 0.012". Pretty hard to see that in a photograph, given that one is at an oblique angle. Module 0.4 gear teeth WILL NOT mesh with module 0.3 gear teeth. That is a simple fact of life. There is a relationship between module and gear diameter (radius) but I do not see this specification of either gear. I do suppose you could measure your damaged gear's overall diameter, but be very aware that this is not the diameter at contact. We can infer the gear module from your measurement. Likewise, you can request the diameter from Ultrascale, again, being very careful to ask for "overall diameter". You could ask Ultrascale for the module directly. Unless someone has directly tried precisely what you suggest, there can be no answer without further information. If you find some more information, I will be very happy to help you. Alas, I cannot, given the information. Bee

Hi XYZ Well said. Polite and respectful. Full stop. I've listened to Hornby, themselves, as they explained the problem vis Android versus IOS. IOS is a much tinier environment, Android is complicated by the many flavors. Harder, therefore, to have an app functional across Android than IOS. Whilst I commiserate with some early adopters who found their devices incompatible, this is the issue with early adoption. Surprises. As some youTube reviewers have pointed out, there are some apparent size / fitment issues, as well. In my view, perhaps it is better to wait and see before jumping in. I would like to use the system. Before I spend the cash, however, I want to be sure it is not wasted. My locomotives are all tiny, will the decoders fit? Can I use my devices, which are all Android? Right now, that doesn't appear to be possible. I can wait whilst the bugs are worked out. Bee

That satin finish truly complements the green. It virtually glows as it goes around the layout. It will be quite the puller too, with all that weight. You should see how many carriages you can pull. I enjoyed the review. Your enthusiasm can be heard in your comments, smiling from ear to ear. Beautiful loco JJ! Bee

Hi DRC 👋 I will go way out on a limb at this time. Hornby would prefer to quietly handle these start up glitches without great fanfare and public notice. Can't say as I blame them. Social media, these pages excepted, has been unfairly unkind to Hornby. Hornby does not need bad publicity regarding their new rewards program. I like the program. Sure, there are some glitches. Perhaps some questions how it works. But overall, I think it a winner. Bee

Hi ThreeLink Not drawn is the, ahem, three link chain and hook on the front buffer. I want that to be a real chain, therefore no need for 3D printing or presence in the model. This has been an amazing journey so far. The chance to stand on Robert Stephenson's shoulders, to see the man at work, has been a major treat. The discovery of his thought processes is beyond exciting. Details of the LMR that would otherwise remain out of sight, hidden in plain view. On the shoulders of giants. I will soldier on. Thank you for the encouragement! Bee

Hello Rana FreeCAD is very powerful. A real engineering tool, which is what attracted me to it. At first, I duplicated some starter tutorials. I fiddled around with them for a bit but then, I decided to try a (very) simple project on my own. It was the front buffer adaptor for Tiger, to try the banking test. Of course, I complicated that by drawing in all the threads on the rods and nuts, but I do like an intellectual challenge. The buffer adaptor worked a treat and I felt confident moving on. I now keep two active projects going. One is Planet, the real object of my efforts. The other is Sandbox, wherein I try out new tools and methods in safety. When I need some new technique, I play in safety in Sandbox, until I am confident in attempting it in the design of Planet. I continue to just scratch the surface of the power. Next for me is the OO mechanism to drive Planet. Imagine my astonishment in finding that not only will FreeCAD structure involute gear trains properly, there is the capability to animate those gears! Wow!! Bee

Tic in the box With the exception of sprinkled rivet heads, this full scale chassis drawing is complete. Onwards to phase 2 Bee

+1 on the blue/black tack JJ. If you ever want to change them, you will regret using super glue. On the other had, if you are certain the boards you select are the ones to use, then superglue will certainly work. Bee

That is exactly the right answer ThreeLink. If we wanted an investment vehicle, perhaps a wiser choice would be bonds, annuities or precious metals. There was a fellow I formerly subscribed to on YouTube, who had loads of beautiful locomotives. They nestled in their coffins, er boxes, eternally. Never played with, never enjoyed. The man simply purchased them to rest on a shelf. His heirs will simply dump them. Bee