Hornby R3482 4WDH Sentinel 0-4-0 Diesel

Discussion in 'Reviews' started by Bernie, Nov 3, 2020.

  1. Bernie

    Bernie Full Member

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    Cute little loco for shunting on my fictional preserved railway. I am not a rivet counter so have not checked it to drawings etc, but this model looks great and is well detailed.

    Sentinel-3quarter.JPG It has separately fitted handrails, interior controls, windscreen wipers, sand pipes and brake roding. Fitted with buffers out of the box and includes an option to replace the buffers with a big bumper. This is a very tiny locomotive, less than 95mm overall length with small wheels and a 25 mm wheel base. At moderate speed it does just negotiate peco set track points (insulated frog) but stalls at slower speeds and over express points with a longer frog (although this is my first layout and track could be better installed). Performance would be improved with a coupled shunting truck to provide extra pickup. Tiny running lights are represented by molded projections painted silver. The user manual has good diagrams and a logical layout, a great improvement on the old style exploded diagram. It includes sections for: lubrication, body removal, decoder installation and motor replacement (non-serviceable can motor).

    On DC it runs nicely and quietly, and after a short run in, out of the box and can easily pull a 6 wagon goods train in both directions.

    Hornby says DCC ready, for a 4 pin hornby decoder. Access to the blanking plug is easy enough but requires careful read of the 'destructions'. Don't remove the obvious screws, these just remove the wheel cover. A lot of components must be removed including the rear coupling NEM socket and the body comes off in 3 sections. The middle handrails are the most tricky to get back in place and easiest to loose. Sentinel-Bits.JPG

    Once it all comes apart the motor wires are draped over the worm gear and covered in oil. Will they wear through and short circuit later? There is a location for the 4 pin socket and a place to put the decoder. However, the Hornby instructions conveniently omit the wires from the diagrams making it much easier to say than do.


    Sentinel-WhereRwires.JPG Sentinel-insides.JPG The body is a tight fit and it is very easy to crush a wire, conveniently the instructions warn against this. Would the design be improved by a fixed position 6 pin socket with no wires? Once installed, rebuilding the locomotive is fiddly: placing the control panel over the wires and socket, while inserting the decoder underneath requires a well trained friendly octopus. The most annoying are the center hand rails.

    Once back together, it does run nicely on DCC, albeit a grumbling noise as it gets started, something to do with the Hornby decoder. I suspect. TIP: as it is a bugger to get apart and back together, have your driver ready to save pulling it apart again. It is a very open glass house style cabin, so lack of a driver is obvious.
     
  2. Keith M

    Keith M Staff Member Moderator

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    Quite a few of the current Hornby small shunter type models use a replaceable motor which I believe is the same as used in the 'Scalextric' slot cars, with a 'life' of around 150 hours. That doesn't sound a lot, but if you take into consideration the amount of use such loco's will get, it isn't too bad I guess. It might be easier to remove the original wiring and 'socket', replacing with a hard wired in 6 pin decoder as overall it'll take up less space and likely be easier to put the loco back together. Good job it's not 'N' gauge!
    Keith.
     
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  3. Bernie

    Bernie Full Member

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    With bright desk lights, reading glasses and a magnifier, OO is tiny enough for me when it comes to opening things and putting them back. While I can see the space saving benefits, N gauge seems unimaginably small when it comes to maintenance. I suppose with more experience, things will become easier, and obviously, other modellers get loads of enjoyment out of N gauge. But I digress, the sentinel is something different for the layout and worth the effort.

    Just wish I remembered the driver before I inserted the chip. Hopefully, I will remember when it comes to replacing the motor or DCC chip. The other day, I went into a room and remembered why. I was in the toilet ;-)
     
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