Hi all,
I just got back from skiing in New Mexico. I had a great time.
Waiting for me were the two new sets of HO scale Rivarossi Orient express sets from Hornby.
If you do not know, these cars are the solid blue ones. I hope they come out with the brown and cream ones also.
The first set consists of a baggage car, supposed to be two salon cars, but instead one salon and one sleeper, and in the other set, one baggage and two sleeping cars.
I contacted Eurolockshop about the missing salon car. They said that the manufacturer had supplied all the information and the pictures for their website.
I looked over Eurolockshop’s website and I think that Hornby had supplied pictures of the old Orient Express cars, because they have the white roofs, no destination boards and I am pretty sure the old style of couplers without coupler pockets.
I have not received the dining car yet.
Over all, I think Horby did a good job.
The cars come equipped with close coupling mechanisms, NEM coupler sockets, sprung buffers, full (open) diaphragms, destination boards and sequentail car numbers 1 through 4 besides the builders 4 digit identification numbers.
The close coupling mechanisms, even have a coupler socket within a socket (so to speak) so you may get the cars closer together in turns. I am running 24" radius minimum, and the change to closer, works fine. I kept the loop couplers instead of changing to Roco’s close couplers.
All the cars have interiors with some painted except for the baggage car.
Unfortunately, the cars do not have lights, nor do they have current contacts in the trucks for lighting. Also, the roofs are a light tan color. I do not think this is correct. I can not find any evidence of this color on the prototypes. Are they not supposed to be white?
The salon cars table lamps are white instead of ruby red. Again I can not find evidence of any other color besides ruby red in the protot