Chipping away at the decoder backlog again today, with four more Hornby Class 86s receiving Lenz LE1025A decoders. Unfortunately I've now exhausted my stocks of decoders, so I'll have to wait for a fresh delivery before I can press on. Some of the new LE1035Es should be here soon, thankfully.
When test running these locos today, I noticed something I hadn't really clocked before. The Class 90s are lighter than the Class 86s (276g against 336g typically) with a correspondingly poorer haulage capability. The bottom line is the 86s will move my intermodal test train (7 pairs of Bachmann intermodals) around the layout while the 90s will slip to a stand on the gradient. Some extra weight is called for, methinks....