Judging by the photo and the diameter of the holes it's not.
Looks to be physically impossible without the tender hitting the loco.

 

Wouldn't be the first time that a loco has come with such a drawbar (which is a good device in principle) but a 'wrong one' has been supplied, or 'some other feature' on the tender or loco fouls in some way if the closer position is used. In this case:

Looks to be physically impossible

sums it up.

I am something of a connoiseur of these events, what with wanting all my tender locos to have the loco to tender gap set such that combined wheelbase is per design drawing. (Thus far everything so treated has no trouble with my 36" ruling radius (passenger) 30" ruling radius (goods and mixed traffic).

I'd first root around in my discards heap just in case there's a random perfect fit.

If not then modifying the existing item is possible, just put a shallow U bend in it and dress the wire through , or chop it in half and solder together at optimum length; or take a metal strip and drill two holes at optimum spacing.

A sampling of other such treats be aware of:

Early Bachmann A1, two holes both overlength positions and doesn't engage without lifting rear of loco, bend it to clear the tender slot, a put a hole in the right position
Early Bachmann 9F, two holes, one at Grand Canyon spacing, the other Cheddar Gorge. Drill a third hole in the right place in the drawbar, cut off excess length.
Early Bachmann BR std 4mt 2-6-0, holes correctly placed (!), moulded tender drag box buffers prevent engagement of the scale position hole, file these down.
Subsequent to this Bach put in a single hole drawbar and a screw locked slide for user spacing adjustment, the optimal solution: which they have now abandoned. GRRR.
Hornby B12/3, D16/3, J15, J36. These are lovely models and the close spacing hole is correctly positioned, but the drawbar end will then foul the connecting wires : chop off the fouling end.
Hornby have gone in the other direction, did a perfect job on the Britannia release in 2006, simple drawbar through the dragbox slots, closer position is to scale: and never repeated on any subsequent model. GRRR.
Heljan O2, first releases, throw away supplied drawbar, make your own replacement. Current model better.
Oxford Rail J27, nearly right, very thin metal strip, tiny fiddly screw, drill a small hole, all done,

Any fairly recent model with the currently fashionable camming plug in electrical connector, which is completely useless. Discard, and make your own arrangements with a simple drawbar, based on all the experience accrued from dealing with such examples as above over the past 25 years, and many more.

In mitigation, Bachmann and Hornby have at least got it right in the past, (even if only once as in the case of Hornby) which is more than can be said for most of the last 25 years competitor productions that I have thus far seen. Other inputs relating to their products and those of Accurascale, Dapol, Rapido etc. very welcome

 

I thought these were only suitable when using as a static display model.
If using on own layout fashion a new bar from plasticard after experimenting with appropriate gap.

 

Thanks - looking at it it looks like the second hole should be maximum half way between the original out of the box hole and the current second one. Not sure what they were thinking with this

It'll be easy to make a replacement, I have some thin brass sheet that will do the job if the ABS sheet is not good enough

 

I’m sorry if I am completely wrong about the drawbar, but does the second hole in the bar not locate on the flange, then you can put it back on the way it should be used 🤔 knowing me I am well off the mark with it!

 

I have exactly the same issue with one of my Hornby Britannias. Fortunately the Locomotive runs without an electrical contact between Locomotive and Tender.

It might be worth getting in touch with Hornby regarding this issue.

 

It might be worth getting in touch with Hornby regarding this issue.

On Monday! I had no idea this model was still in warranty until I searched around a little. Demand satisfaction! (Politely. Lay it on thick, tell them that this is your first experience of Hornby since renewing the interest in MR after a<enter time period here> gap, etc..)

 

I made a replacement link from a piece of nickel silver left over from a Comet chassis kit:

 

I'll have a go at laser cutting a 1mm sheet ABS one a bit later today.

The next question I have is with regard to the pony truck wheels. If I wanted to replace the current blind pony truck wheels with the flanged variety (I see that provision is made to do so, although quite where to get them is another issue) would I still be able to use the Radius 2 Hornby curves? They would only likely be used in out of sight turn around loops, and of course the standard Hornby points, the intention being to use the Peco flex track and large points wherever possible. I'm not going to ask for comment on radii vs drawbar as it clearly will depend on the hole spacing

 

If I wanted to replace the current blind pony truck wheels with the flanged variety (I see that provision is made to do so, although quite where to get them is another issue) would I still be able to use the Radius 2 Hornby curves?

Straightforward answer, No.

Hornby have gone flangeless because the correct fixed exterior frame precludes operation with a flanged wheelset for anything smaller than 36" radius. (I have modified mine to have the flanged wheelset - that up to now has been included in the box - and could get it down to 30" if required with a more extensive modification, based on past experience.)

 

There's normally a set in the box, however...

Peter's Spares, might be able to assist, at that price, you get the truck as well. 😊

Hornby X8418 A4 Mallard Pony Truck With Red Wheels

J

 

Peter's Spares, might be able to assist, at that price, you get the truck as well.
Hornby X8418 A4 Mallard Pony Truck With Red Wheels

That's how it used to be done, on all the wide firebox models tooled before Hornby production went to China, and on the Bachmann split chassis A4 and V2. Such pivotting trucks as the X8418 linked to in the quote above; will require some modification of the chassis block casting to fit, up to the owner to decide how practical this is, not attempted this myself.

It's worth noting at this point that both Bachmann and Hornby now have fixed trailing truck frames under most current wide firebox models, list at present: BR std 7mt and 6mt pacifics, LMS Duchess and Princess pacifics, LNER Gresley, Thompson and Peppercorn pacifics, and C1 4-4-2, P2 2-8-2, V2 2-6-2, and the W1 4-6-4, SR Bulleid and Rebuilt MN and BB/WC pacifics. (There's little overlap of subjects between the two ranges.)

Bachmann have flanged wheelsets in their fixed truck pacifics, and by making the fixed frame thin and too far outboard, their A1, A2 and A4 will just manage R2: the C1 goes round R2 out of the box and the current V2is flangeless out of the box, and has a different and yet better arrangement, but I have no idea if it will manage R2 with the supplied flanged wheelset installed, it is certainly unhindered down to 24" radius, rough equivalent to R4.

Hornby relies on unflanged wheelsets throughout for R2 capability, and to date flanged replacement wheelsets have been included in my purchases: (Ivatt, Gresley and Peppercorn LNER types and the Brit) poop sheet states 'for display purposes'. On the BR std 7MT Britannia the wheels wouldn't fit at all when the model was introduced back in 2006, and the Brit and A3, A4, P2 and W1, 'major hacking' was required to get them around 36" radius curves: all the modification fully concealed by the fixed frames, so no damage visible, and the loco rides better, with the back end always better aligned with the tender

Dapol have produced an A4, not seen one, so no knowledge of what they have done.

 

I'm 99% sure it won't do R2

 

They won't do 2nd Radius and you're pushing it at 3rd, I've tried.

 

Forgot a detail, a friend decided that putting a flanged and unflanged wheel on the trailing truck axle of his Hornby A3 was worth a try, running on a circuit where the flanged wheelset was always inside the curve. Predictably it derailed all over the layout, mainly due to fouling on the points, the derailment quite often made apparent some yards after the points...

 

I believe the extra holes are for static display models.

 

Hi Everyone

I quite agree that the spacing between locos and tenders both grom train sets or purchased as individual locomotives is rather oversized.

With locomotives like the Mallard, what I would do is to completely get rid of the fall plate and make a new plate from plasticard ( 40 thou is best ), then you have some options.

1st would be that you could then try using the 2nd screw position to see if it works only after the fall plate is removed.

2nd option is to try to bend the drawbar to a shape similar to the vacuum pipes between coaches to bring the tender closer if the 2nd screw position is not a viable option.

3rd is as previously mentioned and is ( from my perspective ) the best option, is to create a fresh drawbar to the gap you require. I had to do this with a triang 4F 0-6-0 tender locomotive recently as the original drawbar would have resulted in the poor fireman having to pole vault between the loco and tender to get the coal for the fire.

With regards to Bachmann steam locomotives, again I agree that the loco to tender gap is unsightly if you have realistic curved track sections.

I would also recommend checking out Tony Wright's layout Little Bytham on youtube aswell as associated videos where he explains how some of his modifications are made to his fleet of locomotives. 1 of Tony's favourite modifications to both Bachmann and Hornby steam locomotives is to completely get rid of the drawbar and fashion a complete new loco to tender connection by means of a piece of 1mm brass wire shaped like a goal post, drilling through the plate at the rear of the cab where the to 2 ends of the brass wire are to be fitted ( make sure the ends are long enough, explanation to follow ), push the wire through where you have drilled until you have a gap of about 2mm between the crossbar of your goal post and the plate as you need space for the tender connection to be able to move sideways. Bend the excess wire 90° towards the respective outer edges of the cab floor ( left to left & right to right ) and glue in place, if there is and excess wire beyond what you need, this can be trimmed off.

For the tender the modification is much easier, It also uses the same 1mm brass wire.

1 ) Cut a piece of wire about 40 - 50 mm long ( depending on the space available )

2 ) Bend 1 end 90° to look like a hook around 5 - 10 mm long ( this will face downtowards the track )

3 ) Whilst hold the hook facing downwards, bend the other end of the wire into a loop, a jewellers screwdriver is the best tool to bend the wire around as you will get a loop of appropriate size for the type of screw to be used that will secure the wire in place on the tender chassis, the loop needs to sit flat against the chassis

4 ) Drill the chassis at the point which gives you the distance you require between the loco and tender, a drill bit of about 1.5 or 1.6 mm will be sufficient.

And finally ( I've always wanted to say that )

5 ) Fit the wire in place where you drilled the chassis, a screw like the type Bachmann use for securing bogies on their mk1 and mk2 coaches is ideal for this.

Once all that is done, the loco and tender can be joined and any adjustments to the wire can be made in order to make sure that all the wheels are on the rails after which test running can commence.

I tried this process on some of my steam loco fleet a few years ago and I guarantee the time spent on this modification is well worth it.

Hope this helps.