The New Hornby 47 Class with TTS Sound

Hornby 47 401. <-Click this link to view video. I recently received the new 47 class loco with TTS sound (47 401) (R3287TTS) direct from Hornby.

First Impressions.

My first impression was one of amazement. When the postman handed me the package it was too light. I thought, that can’t be a locomotive. It’s too light. Well, I proceeded to unwrap it. Sure enough it was a loco.

The first thing I did was to put it on the programming track and had a bit of a play. Everything was well with the loco, so I programmed a new access number into it. All the sounds were there but way too loud in your face. The next step was to set the master sound to 1 instead of 4.

Down to testing on the layout. It was soon obvious that my early assessment of it being too light was correct. It wouldn’t pull the skin off a wet custard. About three modern coaches was all it could manage. Next I hooked it on to a rake of 12 four wheelers that I usually use a class 08 shunt loco on. It just sat there and spun its wheels. I wonder why.

Using the directions supplied with the model, I removed the body. Two screws hold down the speaker and another two hold down the plate it sits on. After removing the speaker and it’s mounting plate you gain access to the fuel tank area. It is probably meant to be a sound box for the speaker but an awesome sounding loco that can’t fulfill it’s primary function is useless.

After gaining access to the fuel tank I cut three pieces of steel plate from some scrap. They measure 24mm x 40mm x 4mm. After placing these in the fuel tank, I used a couple of very small pieces of blue tack to stop the metal from moving around. After putting the loco back together, it was possible to pull decent train. To my ear no discernible difference was made to the sound.