More temptation of a Southern kind.

Discussion in 'Hornby RTR' started by Keith M, Nov 10, 2017.

  1. Keith M

    Keith M Staff Member Moderator

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    Although to be honest, I prefer the 'as built' "West Country/Battle of Britain" and "Merchant Navy" 'Spam Can' loco's, I still like the rebuilds, and have a Hornby "Clan Line" already. I've several times rather fancied Hornby's "Canadian Pacific" in the BR experimental blue, which I gather happened around 1955, was found to fade rather badly (and quickly) so was hastily repainted in the familiar and more usual green about 18 months later. Despite it being a bit early for the era I model (late 50's/early 60's), I gave in to temptation, and bought one which the seller assures me was only test run, then put into a display cabinet to await completion of a layout to run it on, which never got built, not an unfamiliar story as many folk are full of enthusiasm and good intent, but run out of time, money or inclination. I gather that this particular model was a Hornby 'Limited Edition' from around 2000, so not a "DCC Ready" version, and, as I found out on removing the body, not a lot of room 'under the bonnet' either! Anyway, nothing ventured, nothing gained, so removing the securing screw under the front bogie, lift and pull forward slightly, and here it is in all it's glory.

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  2. Keith M

    Keith M Staff Member Moderator

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    Before removing the body, I'd already given it some time running on the rolling road, together with some light lubrication, so now it's "DCC time". I attempted to remove the weight fitted in the loco boiler, but even after removing the securing screw, although the weight rattled about, it refused to come out, so slimming that down to make room for the decoder was out. I realised that there was just about enough room to fit the decoder at the cab end of the motor, at an angle so it slotted between the motor and the rear of the backhead moulding, so set about sorting out Hornby's wiring, both loco wheel pickup wires red, both tender pickup link wires black, good old Hornby, nothing changes! With the capacitor disposed of and wiring sorted, I secured wiring where needed with 'Kapton' tape as it's much thinner than Electricians tape, then also taping the decoder into position. Back onto the rolling road, programmed the decoder (my usual and quite small 'LaisDCC' decoder), and all is ok, and ready to fit the body back on. The decoder is at the right hand (cab) end of the loco, taped to the motor support casting.

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  3. Keith M

    Keith M Staff Member Moderator

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    Now with the body back on (and speedometer link reconnected), a further test then fitted most of the parts in the unopened 'bits bag', with the exception of couplings. I was able to fit a 'Kadee' No. 43 to the tender easily by just temporarily removing the rear chassis screw and cutting away a small area underneath it so the Kadee just slipped into the newly formed slot and was secured with the chassis screw as before. As I don't intend to use the loco 'tender first', I've not bothered fitting a coupling to the front end, but gluing on the loco brake linkages has not been easy. I'm not sure what material Hornby used for these linkages, (a kind of bendy polythene it appears), but Superglue didn't fix it, nor did solvent glue, and I ended up using a cocktail stick point to apply a tiny amount of clear 'UHU' to the fixing points of these linkages, and this now appears to have done the trick. With everything now sorted, I'm really pleased I did eventually fall for one of these undeniably handsome loco's, just a shame that the blue colour scheme was deemed a failure by BR as I understand the plan was to use this colour for all of the express locomotives. My next 'project' may well be a "Spam Can" to join this loco, watch this space!:giggle:

    Keith.

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  4. SMR CHRIS

    SMR CHRIS Staff Member Moderator

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    One of my favourite locos CanPac in the preserved livery of express Blue
    I also think that the Express locos look good in this livery.
    The Duchess and King really looked smart in the lined blue.

    Keith unlike you I fell for several of these when they were first produced they certinaly look smart at the head of a 14 car train thundering around a layout.
    I did have one that was a failure with valve gear that fell apart after only 5 foot of running, I was sent a new set of valve gear as the paticular model had sold out.

    More Express Blue
    A screen shot from one of my videos showing, Express Blue Dutchess of Athol along side Green 3801 both live steam in 1/32 Scale

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  5. SRman

    SRman Full Member

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    Keith, Simon Kohler once told a group of us in the BRMA which particular Loctite glue to use on the brake rigging for these locos, but I cannot for the life of me remember which number he said (could it have been something like 426?).

    Anyway, I gave up completely on using glues and used Peco track pins instead, inserted through holes drilled through the middles of the locating pins, then cut off nearly flush on the outside of the rigging. The holes were drilled to be an interference fit although one could use a spot of glue on the outside if desired.

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    Incidentally, I sincerely hope I'm not raining on your parade, but the blue MN, as done by Hornby, is in modern preserved condition only. During the blue period in the early 1950s, the MNs were still in original, air-smoothed form.

    I have to say, they looked superb in the blue in original form, and the preserved one also looked superb in the blue. I dare say the modern blue would have worn better than the earlier, rather unstable pigments back then.

    p.s. I thought that Canadian Pacific looked so good in the blue I couldn't resist getting one for myself a few years ago (temptations again!).

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  6. Keith M

    Keith M Staff Member Moderator

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    Hi Jeff.
    I quite like the idea of using pins. When I built the GT3 kit using Chris Gibbon's excellent chassis etches, he suggested using "Brass lacemakers pins" to fix the brake rigging, and fortunately a lady in our bowls group has lacemaking for a hobby. She happily donated enough of these pins for my then needs, but since then, I have managed to find a supplier on Ebay, so got hold of a box of 1000 0.5mm x 10mm long, a few of which I've found other uses for, (like rivet heads) and being brass, they solder without problems, so handy to have.
    I can't work out why Hornby (or maybe it was just the Chinese factory) chose to use the material they did for the brake rigging, unless Simon Kohler had shares in Loctite! I don't believe there is such a thing as a 'Universal' glue that sticks everything, certainly not 'Superglue', useful as it is, and 'UHU' is not to everyones liking as it can be very 'stringy' if you're not careful, but in my case, it seems to have worked ok. Regarding the 'Express Blue' colour on the "MN's", when I get around to building the 'Golden Arrow' Spamcan kit (not ordered it yet!), I may well be tempted to paint it blue instead of the usual green, and why not!
    Keith.
     
  7. Keith M

    Keith M Staff Member Moderator

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    SMR CHRIS wrote:
     
  8. SRman

    SRman Full Member

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    A bit of a Frankenstein's monster this one, but it illustrates my representation of a slightly weathered and worn BR blue on a Merchant Navy. The body is two Airfix Battle of Britains joined together. It suffers from a narrow cab (inaccurate!). The smoke deflectors were built up from the Airfix ones using plasticard and filler..The chassis is a Wrenn West Country minus the external valve gear (wrong wheelbases at the rear end), while the tender has some scratchbuilt brass overlays on the Wrenn tender body.

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