I have a couple of more DCC installations to do. Watch this space for a couple of reviews of Hornby locos and few others from Lima and Jouef.
Both front and rear axles of the Q1 have side play. I think Hornby pushed the chassis width to the limit on this model so it will just manage the specified 2nd radius minimum; this to enable the best possible rendition of the end on appearance from the front. That's a consequence of the infamous OO compromise!(Rail-Rider @ 30 May 2006, 16:18) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>It's good that Doug noted the loco's difficulty with tighter radius curves, more worryingly a difficulty in negotiating turnouts, and in then identifying the need for just a little more lateral play in the centre axle. I don't know if there is any play in this one's front and rear axles, but the usual continental practice is to spread the lateral play over all axles, so that no single one has to handle it all by itself. This, of course, results in the same amount of slack needing to be provided for the connecting rods, which then detracts a little from the charateristic 'tight' visual appearance of their bearings. The poor old manufacturer just can't win if the user demands that all his locos must negotiate minimum radius curves!
Note that Doug also spotted the relatively poor load hauling capacity, well below the size of real train these machines could haul around. I wanted the space in the loco for more ballast to improve haulage, so put the decoder in the tender. This requires a four wire connection, so I eliminated the very obtrusive Hornby loco to tender coupler, and put in a simple drawbar, through the modelled drawbar slots in the dragbox faces under the cab and the tender front. Hornby have represented the 'airy' open structure under the cab very well indeed, and this modification shows it off to great advantage.Apart from what one might think of the prototype's looks, again I am favourably impressed by Hornby's success in reproducing it, so effectively and at a very reasonable price. Very impressed by electrical pickup from all six tender wheels in addition to all six loco wheels - THAT's the way to do it! This model should run as well as any diesel or electric loco and that's fairly unusual for a British steam loco ..