No. 174 Is it a Toy or is it a Model Engine
The train arriving is Hornby’s Caprotti Black Five.
Hornby R30227 aka 44755, very well packaged
It has been advertised for a long time. I placed an order and then I cancelled the order. I didn’t like the look of the fitted lights. However it has now been pointed out that the lights are removable – so I placed a second order and the engine has been delivered.
Straight out of the box it ran very well. Very well packaged, no broken or missing parts, thank you Mr Hornby.
I had two issues. I thought the lights far too prominent and since the engine only weighed 235gm it could not haul a decent train up my hills. My old split chassis Bachmann Jubilees weigh 315gm and I have ballasted my older Hornby Black Fives up to 294gm - a difference of nearly 65gm with the new model. I suspect part of the problem is that a factory fitted smoke generator Capriotti is promised and the chassis has been engineered with a big space for the missing equipment. (Perhaps Hornby should have supplied a dummy generator to make up the weight of the missing parts?)
What about the lamps? The parts bag with the engine has spare lamps and lamp irons sufficient to provide five lamps or five lamp irons. I would remove the two factory fitted lamps and replace with spare lamp irons.
Hornby Instructions – quite fiddly and good degree of modelling ability required.
The Hornby instructions warn that the lamps are a tight fit and that removing and replacing is ’quite fiddly’. The lights can be gently prised out. Hornby say a tight fit – I would say very tight – so very slow and lots of patience. When I eventually released the lights the openings were left with a coating of ‘black-tac’. I removed the surplus on the outside with a little white spirit. If you thought that removing the old lamps was difficult, fitting the lamp irons seems to me to require even more patience and dexterity. Those with ‘old eyes’ might struggle to fit the replacement lamp iron in the tiny holes left after removing the lights. This is particularly true of the centre lamp iron which seemed to me to be too big for the opening. In the event I cleaned the opening up with a craft knife until the replacement lamp iron would sit in the hole and then I used a dab of Butanone (MEK) to soften the plastic enabling it to be firmly pushed into position. The top centre lamp iron has the reverse problem – the hole in the smoke box door is too big for the lamp iron which is a sloppy fit. The smoke box door is easily removable, being held in place with two magnets. I am guessing that this is in preparation for operating the smoke generator. Removing the door and unscrewing the PCB with the LED gives access to the rear of the lamp iron. I used a dab of Butantone to hold the replacement lamp iron in position.
Smoke box door removed showing PCB for LED.
Job done, I am much happier now with the appearance of the model.
Hornby Caprotti in service
Out and about
What about the lamps?
Caprotti top smokebox door lamp to the right, Springside Models lamp to the left. Hornby buffer beam lamps centre. Note the rectangular light guides used to locate the lamps.
Sitting the Hornby lamps next to the Springside lamp makes them all look reasonably sized. The Hornby lamps have a large lens and I think more chunky. The smoke box door lamp seems an odd shape and I don’t understand why the light bar could not have been lined up better with the lens.
What about the light weight? As said there is the space inside the engine reserved for the smoke generator. I set myself the aim of adding 65gm of lead to match my existing Black Fives. I wanted an arrangement that was easy and quick. I toyed with the idea of making a cardboard tube for the inside of the smoke box and filling it with lead shot. However I love investigating screws and discovering how models have been assembled and I soon realised that the front end of the engine could be removed.
With the front frame out of the way it is straightforward to fit some rolled up lead into the smoke box. I used some surplus lead flashing. It must be a standard thickness around 1/8th of an inch. I used a strip just under 100mm long and 20mm wide. It weighed around 50gm.
Roll of lead in place, the upstand inside the bottom of the smokebox is part of the front frames, hence the benefit in disassembling the frames.
I was still ‘short’ of 15gm of weight.
Inside the main body of the engine there is large trough housing a PCB held vertically with double sided tape. I did think of creating a stack of lead with the PCB laid horizontally on the top. However it is a chunky PCB with electrical connectors which stick out on the side. I was not convinced that the opening in the body shell was wide enough to slide over the horizontal PCB. Since I only needed space for 15gm of lead I put a strip in the base of the trough and some narrower strips at the side to hold the PCB better in place than Hornby’s double sided tape. Filling the trough with lead rather than the smokebox would produce a better balanced engine – something for when I have more time?
The Hornby model seems very well made and nothing came detached or broke as a result of my handling. You do need to watch the sand pipes. They are made of flexible plastic but they still need to be watched to ensure that they do not get bent out of shape whilst refitting the bodyshell.
All in all very good engine, is it a toy or is it a model?
I prefer the engine with just the lamp irons. I think the lamps are far too obvious and suggest to me a toy train rather than a model. It would be a nice idea to have different head codes during a running session. However as currently engineered the positions of the lamps (and lamps irons) are effectively fixed to your individual requirements. I don’t think they will stand too many changes and how many hours have you available?
Must go and play. There is another video here of the engine in use
Postscript
I have been playing with 44755 and have made a few more changes. Firstly I had some time available and have made I think a better arrangement of my lead ballast.
Better Arrangement for the ballast
Secondly I have had what I will call a layout specific problem. At various locations 44755 would pause - why? I think the clearance between the front bogie wheel and the chassis is very tight. The start of my gradients must be rather abrupt and I think that causes the pony truck wheel to rub against the chassis, momentarily slowing the engine down. I have had a file to the chassis. I have now given it a coat of black paint and no-one need ever know!
Very tight clearance between wheel and chassis
I took a file to the chassis, looks much better with a coat of black paint
You might also be interested in some pictures of 44755 fitted with some Kenline ex LMS black lamps. I should add that these are not permanently attached with glue but are fixed with double sided tape.
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