New models in OO announced from Q4 2019

It has just dawned on me that for the first time since my 'restart' in railway modelling in 1999, (purchased 2 x Bachmann WD 2-8-0, and a selection of their 16T minerals for evaluation, decision to go with late BR steam on the ECML made) 2020 looks to be the first year that not one all newly tooled RTR introduction of that year will be purchased. My last such was Dapol's quite excellent NBL DE type 2 (TOPS 21) that first appeared about this time of year in 2019. (I waited for a good price on Hornby's 2019 introduction of the J36, bought that earlier this year, and very fine it is too; my sole 'newish introduction fix'.)

There's plenty of announced that I would like, since they are 'perfect fits' for my modelling interests: Bachmann V2, Heljan O2/1 and O2/2, Hornby A2/3 and W1, Oxford J26/27 and GER van, Rails/Bachmann Caley 812, all in BR condition, heading the list. But none of it on the retailer's shelves, and come to that, the fourth version of Oxford's natty little N7 hasn't yet appeared either.

Bachmann SDJR 0-4-4t is a collectors club model and the Midland version has sound at £250 which is more than I am willing to part with.

The Heljan 2-4-2tank for the L&B is £203 plus pennies when it turns up and I hope it is better than the nicely presented 2-6-2t Manning Wardles that have issues.

So I contemplate for the first time in 20 years nothing new for Christmas! although Hattons owe me £50 but do not seem to want to sell me a replacement Garrett 2-6-6-2 (with £50 off) so I don't know what is going on with the manufacturers, perhaps one day one of their marketing people will suggest that you need product to sell or you go out of business

Although I feel fed up with Heljan I might after all give an O2/2 a try when ever they appear, perhaps....maybe....urm.....

Then as above A2/3, W1, J26/7, well cannot buy what I cannot see!

Perhaps this Christmas will see me finish the OO9 model layout, repairing the various black 5's and sundry other locos, the P2 I fixed and set that back to work and I have a bit of maintenance to do although I repaired one of the gradients that was causing trouble and have done some track cleaning of late.

QUOTE (kristopher1805 @ 15 Dec 2020, 13:44) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>...I contemplate for the first time in 20 years nothing new for Christmas! ... as above A2/3, W1, J26/7, well cannot buy what I cannot see!...
But of course we know this is a 'first world problem', and with our extensive collections already running on our layouts there isn't that much to complain about! Having had so much difficulty making a reliable running job of the old Stephen Poole whitemetal kit J15 - only really succeeding on the third mechanism attempt, now long worn out - I do so enjoy the Hornby J15, quiet, powerful, highly competent. I might yet see if it is possible to fit the Hornby mech into the old w/m body, as this is a portrait of Hitchin's 65479, which on one occasion at least made it up the ECML to 'Top Shed' where it stood dwarfed by all the mighty pacificness. (A1 to the left, A3 60075 to the right!)

QUOTE (kristopher1805 @ 15 Dec 2020, 13:44) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>...The Heljan 2-4-2tank for the L&B is £203 plus pennies when it turns up and I hope it is better than the nicely presented 2-6-2t Manning Wardles that have issues....
That's brave. With the experience you have had I would 'wait and see'. There's OO9 coming from the Peco/Kato collaboration. Kato mechs are something else...

Fair point Hatfield man, I will at some stage buy a Quarry Hunslet I like the look of the Baldwin as a sort of ugly but interesting loco.

Mind having typed my note I then decided to *odd it and bought a new Heljan Garrett as I had been waiting for one to come along, on this Hattons service has been a bit of a let down and in this regard they have work to do, I just hope this one is better than the older one which was a dog, I will keep it to Christmas day to unwrap so photo to follow after this date.

In the meantime I would still like
1. SDJR 0-4-4tank
2 Late BR N7 (I have a builders plate for one built at Gorton)
3. O2/2 yes another O2 from Heljan they dislike curves and are fussy but they do work and pull quite well
4 .A P2 Bugatti style streamlined (one day?)
5 .W1 similarly styled
6. an A2/2 or 3
7. A J27
8 The new V2 if it ever materialises
9. a new J39 (one day Rover.... one day)

and some others, guess we have a few options and it would be better if Hornby service could be as good as Bachmann's service

I missed the Peco/Kato collaboration - tell me more!

QUOTE (34C @ 28 Dec 2020, 22:38) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>How does yours run? A fairly consistent report is emerging that the gear ratio used is inappropriate, basically too small a reduction ratio: so that the model has way overscale maximum speed, and is unable to move smoothly at dead slow speeds, and jerks into and out of motion. Potentially an easy problem for Dapol to fix, if they are so minded...

I have the same problem of jerky starts and jerky low speed with the Dapol class 22 Diesel Hydraulic. Strange thing is that it does this both on vanilla DC (with blanking plate and no decoder) and DCC (ESU Loksound 5) and it is worse in one direction than the other. Clearly a mechanical issue, not electronic. Have even replaced the motor with a new one and it made no difference. I suspect that the problem is a combination of the gear ratio being too high and the motor not being physically capable of running slow enough without jerking.

Kinda puts me off buying any other Dapol 00 locos as this isn't the first loco of theirs I have had with the same problem.

QUOTE (Graham Plowman @ 30 Dec 2020, 02:16) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>I have the same problem of jerky starts and jerky low speed with the Dapol class 22 Diesel Hydraulic. Strange thing is that it does this both on vanilla DC (with blanking plate and no decoder) and DCC (ESU Loksound 5) and it is worse in one direction than the other. Clearly a mechanical issue, not electronic. Have even replaced the motor with a new one and it made no difference. I suspect that the problem is a combination of the gear ratio being too high and the motor not being physically capable of running slow enough without jerking.

Kinda puts me off buying any other Dapol 00 locos as this isn't the first loco of theirs I have had with the same problem.
I was concerned about Dapol's inconsistency in 'centre motor both bogies driven' mechanism performance, ahead of my class 21 purchase. The only previous example of their work that I get to see regularly is an LMS 10000 owned by a friend; that performs admirably in all respects, silent, smooth from a dead slow creep, ample traction, and the on line reports were consistently favourable. Against that, reports of the 22 and 52 were 'mixed'. From what I have read reported a major problem is the pick up off the split axles, and modification to wiper pick up has made good out of poor runners; there may be further problems but not enough evidence to identify other 'definites'.

The running of my one example of their 21 is all it should be: immediately mechanically 'perfect' on a resistance controller, very refined indeed on DCC, and the general reception this model has received so far indicates it is pretty much trouble free. (The only significant criticism I have in respect of the class 21/29 mechanism is 'where's the assembly and parts diagram?'.) I'll be watching for any drop off in performance and should it happen this model will receive a wiper pick up mod.

Dapol's B4 0-4-0T is well regarded for mechanism performance, and I have seen one on an exhibition layout performing admirably, so the poor (too small) gear ratio choice on the 43xx is a surprise. The reports of the 43xx from those that operate their models are sufficiently unanimous that I regard this as fact, even though no one yet appears to have reported what the gear ratio is, nor the gear train layout! (If I had one and it exhibited the scale 5mph minimum crawl speed and way excessive maximum speed , it would be in pieces to see if the gear train has been misassembled. This is always possible if there is one or more intermediate stage between the pinion and the axle gear. Unfortunately GWR enthusiasts appear to be consistently devoid of any mechanical insight...)

Following up on post 104 I got the Garrett out and the front of the footplate fell off, OK no big deal, I fitted a decoder as usual with 8 pin jobs my goto DCC Concepts nano, the slot for this is in the firebox and is easy but despite this there is not a great deal of space in there, you can see the blank in place here, as opposed to the black spagetti in the older loco this one has red wires as well but the wiring still looks a bit Heath Robinson.


Once this was done I tried to prog the loco, I had added the program on the ESU tester but it would not respond, if you look at the photos below you can see some wheels are dirty and others just cleaned by me, just cleaning up 6 wheels used up 10 double ended cotton buds and they were still not great, they were so dirty that the loco would not respond at all, so after a mammoth cleaning session I got the loco to run, sorry I need more pics as the others are poor, I eventually got the thing to run but it objected to the GC line track somewhat but I got some circuits out of it. I am left with the view that this is not a new loco but a reworked one





So £221 new price but I was granted £50 for the trade in for the Beyer Dog, someone is having a laugh here at my expense! I could have bought a new middle section and with some work I could have had a decent report, as the wheels were so dirty it is clear that no one tested this loco after assembly? repair? rework? pre dirty newness?

Not the fiorst timer I have had a dirty dog from this source by the way so I am a little disolutioned.

QUOTE (Andrew Rolland @ 5 Jan 2021, 17:18) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>...What's with the Beatles stuff? Have I missed something?
I expect that's just a significant commercial exploitation of something or other. What those Scousers had to do with railways escapes me to. Next thing you know it will be a Spice Girls Special train, Game of Thrones Express, or invent your own similar nonsense. (Just so long as Hornby make a thumping great profit on it, that's fine as it will sustain the business for the future.)

QUOTE (PeterPug @ 5 Jan 2021, 17:34) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>... I may be tempted by a Clan - lovely looking based on the photos I've seen, but I never actually saw a real one; it's sad that they've all gone really, but I gather they weren't such a great success.
When handled appropriately this class is known to have performed well. There may have been detail design aspects that required attention (similar to the poor draughting of the Riddles 8P) but there is unlikely to have been anything fundamentally wrong with the design.