Hornby Model Railway Locomotive Reviews -  Class 60

Hornby Class 60 EWS (R2488) Rating 10/10 Great Model.... But you pay for it.

Visual Detail: The Hornby Class 60 pushed ready to run OO gauge locomotives to a new level. The attention to detail is fantastic. The locomotives engine is visible when you look through the grill including fine pipe work. The bogies as well as being fully functional with all wheel drive are fully detailed and include sand pipes.

Inside the cab you can see the locomotives dials and controls, which are all fully painted. The only down side to the cab is that it does not have a crew although in some cases this may be preferred. The windows have flush glazing and has window wipers on the front. All four of the cab doors are operational and spring loaded. I believe this is so you can place a man in the door without him falling off.

If you are planning to display this model Hornby have included some pipes and replacement snowplough, which replace the NEM couplings. They have also included some working chain couplings, which may be able to pull wagons.

The models directional lights are very impressive. The lights come on at the slightest current, which means you can stop the model and still have the lights on at full power. The front lights are bright enough to actually light the path of the model and looks great when driven into or out of a dark tunnel. The ability to change from night lighting to day lighting is a nice touch but for most modellers will be a feature they rarely use.

Performance: With pick up on all wheels and all wheel drive this locomotive out performs all the models I have previously encountered by a long way. Stalling is a thing of the past with this model. It can pull away smoothly at very slow realistic speeds without stalling and due to its all wheel drive and its considerable weight it can pull long trains with ease even though it has no traction tyres. The top speed of this model may not be as fast as others but is I believe still faster than the real life scale speed.

I love the sound this model makes. When it starts off it’s very quite but when it gets going you get this powerful rumbling noise, which is strangely satisfying.

Overall: This is a 'must have' model for any diesel model fans. I believe it will be very hard to surpass this model in detail and performance, for the same money.

Hornby Class 60 Features:

DCC Ready

NEM Coupling

Display Parts

Spring Buffers

Working directional lighting with the option to switch from day to night running

Painted and detailed cab interior

All wheel drive courtesy of a centrally mounted motor with duel axels sending power to both bogies.

Fitting A DCC Decoder Chip to the Hornby Class 60:

To remove the body you have to pull apart the bottom of the body of the loco. There are 8 clips which need to be dis-engaged for the body to lift off. Due to the weight of the chassis it is best to do this with the model on a firm flat surface (method suggested by Hornby). I found it best to rotate between the front and back clips of the model so as to slowly ease the body off. This took a bit of time and I think its best not to rush it.

Before     ----       After  

Once the body is off it is a simple procedure to remove the dummy plug (can be seen at the bottom of the picture below) and insert the dcc decoder. Make sure the orange wire representing pin 1 goes into the socket marked 1 on the locomotive plug. This was very easy to locate. Once the decoder is installed slip the decoding chip and some of the trailing wire into the insulating sleeve which comes with the locomotive. This will stop it shorting and stop the decoder from getting caught in the axel from the motor to the bogie.

Last step is to program and test the model with your dcc controller. Only then would I put the body back on. Now your model is ready to be run on your dcc layout.

Available Liveries:

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