Hornby HST MK3 coach in Merlin livery

[truckman060473]

Bought 4 of these at a train fair today. have looked on the internet / ebay for other coaches and Class 43's in this livery but found none. I'm wondering how rare these coaches are. they are not "shortie" coaches - proper HST length ones and they close couple quite good. I have got a 1st / 1st+buffet / and two standard class. They look really nice but unless I can source two power cars as a minimum I may not end up keeping them.

 

[CallySleeperKid]

They do pop up from time to time, but im sure the ones I have seen were Lima, although I may be wrong. Try searching for for just 'Great Western' rather than Merlin livery.

A quick search now has bought up.......

Hornby Train Pack http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Hornby-R2115-Great-Western-Trains-HST-train-Pack-/250709943634?pt=UK_Trains_Railway_Models&hash=item3a5f7a2552

Lima Train Pack http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/L81-Lima-HST-4-car-set-Great-Western-NMIB-/140443515504?pt=UK_Trains_Railway_Models&hash=item20b315fa70

 

[truckman060473]

oh yeah they're the ones. defo Hornby mine are. says underneath. It was well frustrating today coz I really wanted to buy and ended up taking the risk not knowing if Hornby have made this livery in the more expensive highly detailed power car train pack which is what i had in mind getting, despite the fact I have recently bought the Intercity Swallow livery class 43 pack and have no coaches for this yet as they are £23 each!!! I paid £55 for the 4 Merlin MK3's

 

[hairyhandedfool]

There is no reason you can't use the Intercity livery power cars with the Merlin livery coaches as these coaches are in the first privatisation livery for the Great Western Mainline HSTs. There are a few liveries for which we may have to wait a while on the new Hornby power cars, original MML, later MML, FGW 'fag packet' and the Merlin livery.

 

[truckman060473]

They do pop up from time to time, but im sure the ones I have seen were Lima, although I may be wrong. Try searching for for just 'Great Western' rather than Merlin livery.

A quick search now has bought up.......

Hornby Train Pack http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Hornby-R2115-Great-Western-Trains-HST-train-Pack-/250709943634?pt=UK_Trains_Railway_Models&hash=item3a5f7a2552

Lima Train Pack http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/L81-Lima-HST-4-car-set-Great-Western-NMIB-/140443515504?pt=UK_Trains_Railway_Models&hash=item20b315fa70

Thanks for finding me that link, CallySleeperKid. I won the Hornby listing for £50. So for £105 I got a 6 coach HST with proper length coaches and the correct power cars, albeit they will be rubber traction tyre types. Now that can't be bad, can it!!!!

 

[CallySleeperKid]

Thanks for finding me that link, CallySleeperKid. I won the Hornby listing for £50. So for £105 I got a 6 coach HST with proper length coaches and the correct power cars, albeit they will be rubber traction tyre types. Now that can't be bad, can it!!!!

I managed to pick up a bargain on 5 Hornby Midland Mainline HST coaches for a little over 30 quid off E Bay, no picture which put a few people off, but added to the Hornby Midland Mainline train pack made up a lovely 7 coach rake, with different coach letters. The bargains are out there eventually, but you have to be patient, looks like you got yours here! Well done.

 

[truckman060473]

well, I do have 2 X coach C, but buying four from one seller and two from another, a clash was almost bound to happen. Before you know it then, what you were in the middle of doing gets put aside for a bit while you go looking for the correct letter coaches on Ebay! But before I do, I'm going to find out how many coaches the powered class 43 is going to be comfortable with. The other HST I have (IC executive) has got 8 "shortie" coaches but there is no dummy power car. both cl43 are motorised and all the rubber tyred driving wheels have been changed to metal.

 

[CallySleeperKid]

well, I do have 2 X coach C, but buying four from one seller and two from another, a clash was almost bound to happen. Before you know it then, what you were in the middle of doing gets put aside for a bit while you go looking for the correct letter coaches on Ebay! But before I do, I'm going to find out how many coaches the powered class 43 is going to be comfortable with. The other HST I have (IC executive) has got 8 "shortie" coaches but there is no dummy power car. both cl43 are motorised and all the rubber tyred driving wheels have been changed to metal.

Yeah, I'm on the lookout for a cheap HST powercar, I have fitted a DCC decoder and added a bundle of 2 pence pieces to add weight, when new it ran great, now its a little bit of a struggle on the curves so I think the best bet is to run a DCC chipped powercar on each end.

 

[hairyhandedfool]

A single motored (older) power car will get to about 5 coaches and a dummy power car before it starts to struggle in my experience.

 

[sprinterguy]

A single motored (older) power car will get to about 5 coaches and a dummy power car before it starts to struggle in my experience.

Agreed, my old design Hornby Virgin Trains power car always managed five or six scale length mark 3s and a dummy power car without any issues on my layout. I’ve always found the Hornby scale length mark 3s to be very free running, so they’re very easy to haul about in fairly lengthy formations with no problems for the loco (Going off topic, Hornby Pullman carriages are a different matter altogether when it comes to getting them moving...)