Jump to content

New Hornby autocoach


grockle
 Share

Recommended Posts

Just bought the new Hornby autocoach. Nice looking but its actually an old Airfix mould that must have been purchased by Hornby sometime ago. Nothing has changed much and they are still marketing and selling it with PLASTIC yes PLASTIC wheels. Not exactly happy with this considering that its not even in the Railroad range, which is where I would exspect to see plastic wheels still in use. Have already emailed Hornby about this but as yet no responce, and probably won't get one wither. Its a simple case of we have got your money, live with it.

Well mine now has nice new Bachmann wheels fitted and it runs better that it did straight from the box new.

Hornby get your act together, we ain't kids anymore and exspect better from you, infact we should demand better.

Ian

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Ian, I totally agree with you. For too long the UK railway modeller has either had to put up with toys at high prices, or detailed models at exorbitant prices.

I posted somewhere on here about some of my US outline models and the quality contained within them. Even Athearn Blue Box (the US equivalent of Railroad) has better detail, better construction, more weight and better running quality than most UK models. Bachmann's cheap range of US outline leaves their cheap UK range standing. Next time you are in a model shop just ask to see a Bachmann US outline model, then look at the price. You will get a pleasant surprise, believe me.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Don't I know it. A friend of mine has bought the odd Yank steam loco and for what he paid for it the differences are vast. It comes DCC ready with a dual chip so can run on either DC or DCC straight from the box with sound. Detail is vastly superior. I can go on and on, but the best bit was the price, lesss than £100 for a new loco, now compare that to some of the offerings from the major UK manufactors and they can't even start to get near, let alone run with the opposition.

Ian

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well, It is nice to be able to flesh out a layout with cheap stuff; not locos but cars. On my N scale layout I replaced all my wheels with low profile wheels and was running on c55 rail. All my cars had micro trains couplers so I could run really long trains and not worry about disconnects. Even cheap cars became expensive cars after upgrades, in the long run it might not have been worth the hassle.

What you are describing about Us locos came about because hobbyists started to demand more from manufacturers. Kato came out with really nice drives in both HO and N scale. (Even in N scale a kato drive is the smoothest thing you can imagine.) Then everyone started copying them. Then Bachmann started to release toy locos with decoders in them for kids starter sets.

Us modellers who do the 50's-60's need a lot of diesels, so it's always been an issue; how do you come up with 6 diesels of good quality that can pull a train together. Life like's proto series are a good example of moderate priced diesels with lots of detail and good drives.

I think starting in the 2000's Bachmann really improved their product. Before then we used to refer to them as Blotchmann, or crapmann. It was very surprising to me when I discovered the beautiful looking Bachmann UK stuff.

Since I'm in retro mode and for the most part purchase 70's toy trains, I'm used to cheap stuff. But my limas always have steel wheels. I have to agree, plastic wheels just don't cut it for Ho trains.

Cost is the trade off when it comes to trains. You can have a lot of cheap stuff, or just a few really fine models. I do wonder about the markup on train products, but the development costs must be fairly high on the truly scale stuff.

And Ian, yes we will be needing a shot of this auto coach. For my part I have no idea what an auto coach is. :lol::lol::lol:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Have spent the last hour trawling through all my model railway pictures and low and behold there is not a decent picture of the Airfix autocoach that I already have. The only difference between the new Hornby one and the old Airfix one is the manufactors name, as its the old Airfix tooling that has been used. I do believe that the Airfix tooling was purchased by Hornby some time ago along with a lot of other toolings that seem to be re-appearing under the Hornby guise now.

Link to the new Hornby autocoach

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Hornby-R4187B-BR-Autocoach-/230853953821?pt=UK_Trains_Railway_Models&hash=item35bff7c91d

Link to the Airfix autocoach

http://www.airfixrailways.co.uk/CoachBAuto.htm

and I have one of each exactly as the above two links show

Ian

Link to comment
Share on other sites

No is actually used like this

between 06:18 and 08:50 is a 57XX with an auto coach each end. The driver works the train from the leading auto coach and the fireman remains in the steam locomotive. If a single auto coach is used then a 14xx steam loco is normally used

info for 57xx http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GWR_5700_Class

info for 14xx http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GWR_1400_Class

happy reading

Ian

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I had seen this in videos before, didn't know what it was called. Why have two auto coaches on both ends and not one on the far and with the loco on the other? Maybe they did that too.

I think I will keep my eye out for an auto coach as well. I must say, those little tank engines you guys had really are something to watch. I have always had a real soft spot for tank engines and diesel shunters; I am actually more drawn to that than the giant steam engines, it may be the cute factor at work.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

george356 said:

Was this peculiar to the Great Western region, Ian, or was it used elsewhere?

I cannot recall seeing anything like it from my youth spent trainspotting (1950's)

Not sure about that at all.

I think by then the dreaded DMU/EMU were taking over.

Ian

Link to comment
Share on other sites

George - other regions developed other forms of "push-pull" working like this. The very fine "green railway" had push-pull sets (I think they were Maunsell stock) with traction provided by M7 or Adams 02 tank locos. I'm not sure about the railways north of the Watford Gap, but I would be very surprised if they didnt have "push-pull" sets.

I have seen photos of GWR autotrains running with Autocoaches either side of the tank engine and also with other tail traffic - a good example of this were trains operating the Chippenham to Calne branch (and local services to Westbury), which conveyed lots of tail traffic, from the Harris bacon factory in Calne. These were powered by either the 0-4-2 auto tanks or 0-6-0 pannier tanks.

There were also the GWR steam railmotors - one of which is / has been rebuilt by the GWS at Didcot.

http://railmotor93.org/homepage/homepage.html

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

Shall I wade in here? Auto coaches were not just confined to the former Great Western. The LMS had them as did the Southern. With the Western the original Auto Coaches were actually Steam Rail Motors, like a bubble car but with the boiler in the coach compartment. The Great Western actually ( I like that word) looked upon the auto coach train as a backward step. The locos that could operate auto trains on the western were 14xx 0-4-2 tanks, 54xx and 64xx 0-6-0 pannier tanks and 4575xx 2-6-2 side tank locos for something more powerful in the Welsh Valleys. 57xx panniers could work with auto trailers but not in auto train mode as they were not equipped with the necessary linkages to enable the driver to drive from the auto coach. So they had to run round to reverse direction.

A Hawksworth auto coach is only available from Comet Models as a brass kit.

One former LMS line from Melton Mowbray to Peterborough used a two coach push - pull usually worked by an Ivatt 2-6-2 tank, in it's last years No. 41228. It was the last push - pull train in the British Isles.

On the Southern Wainwright and Maunsell M7 0-4-4 tanks worked push - pull trains.

On the LNER I don't know of push - pull trains but they did use Sentinel Steam Motor coaches in the Selby area.

But for the Hornby model it's just the old Airfix model in a new paint scheme. I'm waiting for the two coach "B" set to reappear which could be hauled by a 57xx or a 45xx or 4575xx.

I hope that makes it clear, but honestly if you don't care for prototypical trains then an A3 or A4 could haul an auto coach.

Roy.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
 Share

×
×
  • Create New...