[SkyFire]

I cancelled the P2, thinking it would come out the way this one did and with the way the exchange rates are going, that just leavs the Garret to come and being Heljian, it should be a lot better.

[berth44]

Your's was worse than mine Anthony by the sound of things, I only had one buffer broke off,and I found that!! I'm thinking another 'cost cutter' cheap alloy has been used, brittle as sin!!, if they had been sprung, they may not have broken?? Was your 'broken' tender part, the front bit that keeps the joining bar fixed to the tender??, if it was, same as me, but fortunately it's an easy fix
Here's me praising my Britannia and I'm giving it a quick run,all of a sudden she comes to a hault with the motor spinning at full revs!!. I put it aside to fix later on,and put my re- built 'Patriot' on the same train, guess what, an immediate failure, same thing, I could not believe it!!, two of Hornby's finest failed in quick succession of each other!!
I guess the plastic gears have broken and are spinning free on the axle, correct for the Brit, a bit of 'super glue' and a brass washer, she's fixed and was run with a heavy train for over an hour, while I had the Patriot in bits. Not the same problem here, I had the gears out and they are solid on the axle. This motor has a different means of ensuring that the gears mesh properly, a cast 'shoulder' holds it down, this is lubricated by silicon grease,it just broke in pieces when I removed it!!
So, the only fix here was send off an order to Hornby for a replacement, I simple 'super glued' the motor to the cradle,securing it with the retaining plate at it's rear. I'm thinking of 'supergluing' a couple of pieces of plastic sheet to fit into the space vacated by the cast shoulder part, just to be sure, to be sure!!...
So there you go, anything can happen,even to a 'Super Detailed' one!!, here's hoping I've did the 'fix'........Dave.

P/S, Mine isn't as quiet as my Brit, but I wouldn't go as far to say that it's too noisy....'Hmmmmmmm'...nothing clever about the Duke it seems?

[SkyFire]

Yes it was the part at the front of the tender. Management have basically failed the loco, but it will be permitted on a few short trips, with a backup loco. It didn't even stay coupled up to the six car passenger train on it's first run. The Star class has been diagrammed to run in place of the Duke, with a King class on standby if it needs assitance.

[SkyFire]

Review of the Duke coming up in the February Hornby magazine. It will be interesting to see what they say about the loco and it's faults.

[berth44]

Well,that's another 'fix',my 'Patriot' is up and running, here's hoping the 'superglue' holds out, it does feel pretty solid.........now, I wonder what will be next to fail??.....It'll be ages before I read that review on the Duke,I've just got the November issue from the Newsagents!!!!....Dave

[berth44]

I 'Googled' a review and basically the response is the same, everybody has the same opinion that this cleverness is not very clever at all.....'boo hoo' Hornby, infact, more errors were pointed out, the only good thing said about it, "it does actually look like one..from 2-3 feet away!!!.......Dave

[SkyFire]

LoL 2 - 3 feet is not good enough Hornby.

[berth44]

The continuing story,or is it 'saga' of the poor old 'Duke'..Well, one good point about mine, it is in no way noisy, I stuck it on a rake of 6 and just let it run, quietly it run through out it's trials, a bit rough over some points, but even with 'one piece con rods' it was no worse than other 4-6-2s!
I was also reading that some reckon the smokebox or the footplate are too long as the 'front' is wrong, well, I looked up a few photos and the best was on 'wikypeedoanya' which has a great 'front on' view,and to me,in MY opinion it's all down to the ole photographic thing of 'light and shadow' if the front is wrong, it's by a 'baw hair!!',one thing that is quite noticeable is the two 'grab rails are just two blobs of plastic,and not even painted to at least represent a hand or grab rail!!
Anyhoo,I'm in the process of removing the plastic mouldings that represent the tender handrails on the 'Hornby tender' and using the ones off my DJH kit. As I said I'm not utilising this tender because of the lining differences and paintwork,but after today both might match as far as the 'green' goes as I've decided to give the loco and tender a quick going over with 'Crystal clear' gloss varnish. I've done 'practise runs' on a dull Maroon Western body and the DJH tender with success, I'm pleased about that!
This gave both bodies a 'deeper colour shade' and a nice shine, not a too i'n your face shine', just perfect I thought, like photos I've seen of a nice and shiny Duke, and in only a few minutes, it's perfectly dry, I thought that it might remain 'tacky' in this heat..so that is getting done today at some stage, I just hope I can get the 'Duke's' cab window moulding out without breaking it!!.......Dave

[SkyFire]

Good luck with the cab mods.

[berth44]

I'm quick to admit failures, yesterdays attempts were OK with the varnish, I did further ones today before spraying the tender first, one side fine,the other, 'disaster' it went on like a puddle,so it's ruined,now I have my doubts and fears about doing the loco, and the DJH tender will now be used until I source a new one from Hornby!!...what is it they say, "the best laid plans of blah and blah blah sometimes go wrong??"
Ach well, that's life, I'm away into the garage and 'swap' the bits back onto the DJH tender and maybe swap over chassissssssssssssez........by the by, the windows wont budge from the Duke's cab, so I'l mask em, pray for no more disasters............Dave

[berth44]

Well,with yesterdays disaster behind me I decided that the DJH tender is the one,the varnish job was fine on that so I started to see if I could get it apart and remove the brass sides from the chassis and use the Hornby one in it's place.
The parts are all over the place now and ready to be cleaned up and put back together, i'll require a wee slice off the brass sides, or some filing of the Hornby base,but it's solid metal,but the two will go together without any further mods.
'The Duke', after the 'bad' tender job can I risk waisting him??, no , but I'll give it a shot!!. Removing the body is dead easy, same as a '60s Brit', one screw up front and it simply falls out!!,
and I'll admit Hornby have been 'Very' clever here, it's fitted with a 'speedo',but unlike all before it, this is sensibly fitted to the chassis block, the whole motor block is exceptionally 'tidy',very pleased with that!!
So,the body is off, I masked up the windows and went for the varnishing, very lightly, waiting minutes between 'shots', and it turned out brilliant (what did I do wrong with the tender??).
So all it requires is to be reunited with it's 'rebuilt' and 'backdated' 60s tender and it'll be looking very smart,shame about the tender lining not being as per the loco,but you'll hardly notice it with sunglasses on!!!!


Dave

[SkyFire]

Gremlins must have been active yesterday. Don't feed 'em after midnight, or get them wet.

[berth44]

Perhaps Anthony,they were to blame! Not quite finished the tender mods yet,the DJH requires about 2mm of brass cut off the bottom of each tender side for it to sit flat on the Hornby one and I'm still cutting and filing,not easy working in this heat either...'phew!!!'.......'
That's my Scottish relatives off home,they left yesterday,and the house is dead quiet, I just wish they could have stayed, it's made me even more 'home sick' saying my 'faretheweels' at the airport yesterday was hard,but life has to get back to normal,it'll be back to work on Monday after a 5 week break..'oh yuck!!, that's normal?....''''''but wait!!''''' the next one is just over 2 months away,(holiday) and that my friends, is a 'forever' one.....retirement looms on, or just after 24/03/14!!!....."yip yip yip', next lot of Scottish visitors (confirmed this morning 29th October..strewth,and here was me wanting to go to 'The Warley' in November (Birmingham, England)...bugger!!!!...might get the Scottish exhibition in February (2015)
Anyhoo, I'll see if I can get a bit of work done on the 'Duke' and get it finished..need to see what the wife has planned......Dave

[bluedot0]

Are you rebuilding this "Duke"......Phil

[SkyFire]

I'll have to get saving, once I have the blasted visa card paid off. Been wanting to see one of those english model railway exhibitons for a long time.